Girl drifts in river Mysterious cold case solved after 25 years
A corpse in the River Main in Frankfurt has puzzled investigators for almost 25 years. Now new clues in the "cold case" have led to an arrest: the teenager's own father is said to have killed her.
18.05.2026, 11:11
18.05.2026, 12:11
dpa
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- After almost 25 years, the police have established the identity of a dead woman found in the River Main in 2001.
- The father of the then 16-year-old girl is suspected of the crime.
- New clues came from the international "Identify Me" search campaign.
Around 25 years after a woman's body was discovered in the River Main in Frankfurt, the identity of the deceased has been established and her father arrested. The 67-year-old is strongly suspected of killing his then 16-year-old daughter almost 25 years ago and throwing her body into the River Main, the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt am Main and the Hessian State Office of Criminal Investigation jointly announced.
The German national, who was born in Pakistan, was brought before a magistrate immediately after his arrest last week and is now in custody.
Search campaign led to successful investigation
The body of the 16-year-old was discovered floating in the river by passers-by on the afternoon of July 31, 2001. Her identity had remained unknown for decades - until now. "The decisive clues came from the international "Identify Me" campaign, which in October 2024 called for information on the identity of the "Girl from the Main" and the identification of the perpetrator," it said.
According to the investigation, the 67-year-old is said to have killed his daughter between July 28 and 31, 2001 in the family home in Offenbach with a number of brutal blows. He then allegedly wrapped the 16-year-old's body in a bed sheet, tied it up and attached it to a parasol stand - and then threw it into the River Main in Frankfurt.
