Sophia Lösche, a 28-year-old female student and pro-migration activist who went missing while travelling from Leipzig to her hometown Amberg in the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

(German: ''Oberpfalz'') where she never arrived. Moroccan truck driver Boujemaa Lamrabat was sentenced to life in prison for her murder in September 2019.

Timeline

On 14 June 2018, Lösche started her journey by train and wanted to travel the last few kilometres by

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Signaling ...

. On the way she entered a lorry in

Schkeuditz Schkeuditz (; ) is a ''Große Kreisstadt'' in the district of Nordsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the White Elster river, 12km northwest of Leipzig. Leipzig/Halle Airport is located in Schkeuditz. The letter processing center for ...

near the A9 Autobahn and she was murdered at a highway stop in

Upper Franconia Upper Franconia (, ) is a (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia, wh ...

according to the police investigation and her body was carried 1600 km in the lorry through Europe to northern Spain. Five days later on 19 June 2018, a Moroccan lorry driver was arrested south of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. On 22 June 2018, Spanish Prime Minister

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

offered condolences to the Lösche family and to

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April ...

, head of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD) at that time. On 29 June 2018, the German

public prosecutor's office Public prosecutor's offices are criminal justice bodies attached to the judiciary. They are separate from the courts in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and are called the Staatsanwaltschaft (). This kind of offi ...

and police in Bayreuth announced that her remains had been found in Asparrena (

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

) in northern Spain and identified using DNA tracing. During a church remembrance ceremony for Lösche in August 2018 organized by friends and family, the chairman of the council of the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheranism, Lutheran, Continental Reformed Protestantism, Reformed, and united and uniting churches, United Protestantism in Ger ...

, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, denounced hateful comments in the Internet and their effects on her family. Bedford-Strohm, bishop of the evangelical church in Bavaria, knew Lösche as a student from his tenure as a professor at

University of Bamberg The University of Bamberg () in Bamberg, Germany, specializes in the humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, economics, and applied computer science. Campus The university is partly housed in historical buildings in Bamberg's Old Town. ...

. In August 2018, ''

Kriminalpolizei ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

'' officials brought the suspect from Spain to

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in Germany. In late August 2018, during the Chemnitz protests following the murder of a football supporter, the far-right group calling themselves Pro-Chemnitz organized by Pegida and

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

carried banners with pictures of murder victims, among which was the photo of Lösche which led to her family initiating legal action against those who used her picture to further an anti-immigration agenda.

Victim

Lösche was a student at the

in Bavaria. She was politically active and was the president of the University SPD student club. The political aim of the club according to German media was that Bamberg become more diverse. From 2016 Lösche travelled regularly to the Greek island

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

as a volunteer for the No Borders NGO to cook for migrants arriving from Turkey. According to her brother, Lösche was involved in several initiatives "against racism, freedom of movement and opening of borders". The

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

found no indications that Lösche had been subjected to sexual violence.

Suspect and trial

The main suspect was Boujemaa Lamrabat, a male Moroccan national born in 1977, who picked up Sophia Lösche in his truck on his way to Morocco via France and Spain. On 14 June 2019, the ' announced that the trial for murder would commence on 23 July. While the prosecution had at first suspected a sexual motivation for the crime, the coroner found no evidence to support this and the prosecution therefore accused Lamrabat of murder and grievous bodily harm. In September 2019, Lamrabat was sentenced to life in prison for murder. The court found that the suspect had at first seriously wounded Lösche with a wheel brace, then killed her later to hide the crime.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lösche, Sophia 2010s missing person cases 2018 murders in Germany Female murder victims Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Germany Murdered students Violence against women in Germany

Timeline

Victim

Suspect and trial

See also

References