The murder of Frauke Liebs (February 21, 1985 – after June 27, 2006) is an unsolved criminal case in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Disappearance

On June 20, 2006, the 21-year-old

student nurse A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementary ...

Frauke Liebs disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The last known sighting of her was at a pub in Paderborn's city center, where she and a friend watched the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

match between England and Sweden. While Liebs was still at the pub, she borrowed a friend's mobile phone battery, as the battery on her own phone had been drained. She later returned her friend's battery before leaving the pub at around 11 p.m. Since she probably had no more than five

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

with her, she is believed to have been heading home on foot. The pub was about 1.5

kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s away from her home. At 12:49 a.m., her housemate received a

text message Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

from Liebs'

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

, saying that she would be home later. However, she did not return home that night, and when she also failed to appear at work the day after, her mother reported her missing. The police discovered that the text message had been sent from

Nieheim Nieheim () is a town in Höxter (district), Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Historical names of Nieheim are: Nihem, Nyem, and Nym. The town covers an area of about 80 km2 and has about 6,250 inhabitants. Geography Nieh ...

, a small city about 35 km north-east of Paderborn. In the following days, Liebs called her housemate five times via her mobile phone. Police were able to locate the calls, which all came from different industrial areas in Paderborn. During these calls, Liebs continued to say that she would return home soon, but did not communicate any information about her situation. She provided only vague or evasive answers to questions. Liebs' last phone call was on June 27 in the presence of her sister, who also talked to her. During this conversation, she is said to have answered the question of whether she was being held captive with a faint "yes", immediately followed by a loud "no". Contact broke off after this phone call.Case of Frauke Liebs
caseremains.com Retrieved 29 March 2021

Discovery and investigation

On October 4, 2006, Liebs' skeletonized body was found by a hunter in a forested area next to a

Landesstraße ''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...

("state road") near Lichtenau. The body was found with the clothes she was wearing on the day of her disappearance. Her mobile phone, handbag, wallet and wrist watch were not found. Due to the condition of the body, the time and cause of Liebs' death could not be determined. A case analysis by the police came to the conclusion that Liebs was probably held captive in the area around Nieheim and that the phone calls from Paderborn may have been diversionary maneuvers. No motive for the crime has been determined. Over 900 people who were connected to the victim were questioned by the police, and the initial investigation produced a list of five initial suspects. All five were eventually cleared after producing alibis. The case aroused nationwide interest and was among others presented on the popular television show ''

Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst ''Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst'' ("Case number XY... unsolved") is a German interactive television programme first broadcast on 20 October 1967 on ZDF. Created by Eduard Zimmermann, it aims to combat and solve crimes. The programme is currently p ...

'' ("Case number XY … Unsolved").

References

External links

Video clip from "Aktenzeichen XY ... ungelöst"
(German)
Video clip from TV show "Zeugen gesucht"
(German)
"True Crime Detective - Case: 1493/cs-w The kidnapping and murdering of 21-year old Frauke Liebs"
(English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Liebs, Frauke 2000s in North Rhine-Westphalia 2000s missing person cases 2006 murders in Germany Female murder victims Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Germany Murder in North Rhine-Westphalia Unsolved murders in Germany Violence against women in Germany

Disappearance

Discovery and investigation

See also

References

External links