Michèle Kiesewetter (10 October 1984 – 25 April 2007) was a German police officer who was killed by

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. Born in

Oberweißbach Oberweißbach (or Oberweissbach, ) is a town and a former municipality in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the town Schwarzatal.Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

, when at approximately 2:00 p.m. they stopped in a corner of a large parking lot in Heilbronn to have a lunch break. Shortly after, both officers were ambushed and shot in the head by two gunmen, approaching from behind the vehicle. Kiesewetter, sitting in the driver's seat, was fatally injured. Her partner, sitting in the passenger's seat, was badly injured, but survived the attack. When the police and the ambulance arrived on the scene, both officers were lying on the ground, next to their car, and their handguns and handcuffs were stolen. The gunmen have also been implicated in the murders of nine other people, most with Turkish roots, between 2000 and 2006, the so-called NSU murders.

Aftermath

Following Kiesewetter's death, the investigation focused on the so-called Phantom of Heilbronn. The investigations were concentrated in a special task force "parking lot" at the Heilbronn police department. In January 2009, the reward for clues regarding the whereabouts of the person was increased to €300,000. Kiesewetter's service pistol, a

Heckler & Koch P2000 The Heckler & Koch P2000 is a German semi-automatic pistol introduced late in 2001 and intended primarily for law enforcement, paramilitary, and commercial markets. It is based on the USP Compact pistol. The P2000 was designed specifically with ...

, was later retrieved, along with that of her colleague, when Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, two German neo-Nazis, committed suicide in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...

, Germany, on 4 November 2011, Forensic experts also found traces of DNA on evidence recovered from among the remains of the neo-Nazi trio's flat at

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

that further strengthen the link.DNA Tests Solidify Suspicions in Police Killing Case
''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

''. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

References

1984 births 2000s in Baden-Württemberg 2007 murders in Germany 2007 deaths 2007 in Germany April 2007 in Germany Crimes against police officers in Germany Deaths by firearm in Germany Deaths by person in Germany Female murder victims German police officers killed in the line of duty German terrorism victims Heilbronn Murder in Baden-Württemberg Neo-Nazi attacks in Germany People from Saalfeld-Rudolstadt People murdered in Germany Terrorism deaths in Germany Victims of serial killers {{Terrorism-stub

Aftermath

See also

References