Thousands join global outcry over violence against women
how Saudi Arabia’s stance on violence against women has changed
investigates the disappearance of a German woman
She went missing from her house in Breitungen on August 14
who hustled to find the mystery behind her disappearance
The police failed to find any concrete evidence and thus closed the case
But Wolfgang conducted a personal investigation after his retirement
Let’s follow through and unravel the mystery further
41-year old Birgit Meier suddenly disappeared from her house in Breitungen-Moorburg
visited the house but found no traces of her mother
Wolfgang was the head of state criminal police in Hamburg
Birgit’s case took place in the Lüneburg area
and requested that he treat Birgit’s house as a crime scene
The police searched Birgirt’s house and the area around it
married young because Birgit got pregnant with Yasmine
The two failed to sustain their married life and decided to separate
she became an alcoholic and started living alone in a house she bought in Breitungen
The police found out that Harald had visited Birgit on the evening of August 14 to talk about their divorce agreement
and Yasmin was the last one to speak to her mother on a phone call
The police were looking for a motive and believed that Harald would have lost millions if the couple had gotten a divorce
They theorized that he killed his wife to save money
It was an entirely baseless theory cooked up by the police to close the case
a friend of Birgit’s informed Harald that she had a conversation with Birgit on August 14
whom she first met at a birthday party at her neighbor’s house
and thus the police quickly brought him to the station for interrogation
Harald Meier and Kurt-Werner Wichmann became the main suspects in Birgit Meier’s case
the police brought Kurt-Werner Wichmann to the station
was wearing gloves during the interrogation
and the air around him suggested that he was hiding something
But police were hard-bent on framing the husband and treated the matter as a missing person case
They neglected the possibility of any violent crime and Wichmann’s involvement
When the police couldn’t find any substantial evidence against Harald
And they finally issued a search warrant against him in 1993
four years after Birgit’s disappearance
the police knocked on Wichmann’s door
The police found a secret room in the attic during the search
where they found some serious evidence that connected Wichmann to Birgit’s case
The police found handcuffs stained with blood
police found evidence that supported the fact that Wichmann often traveled and slept in the car
They even recovered a buried car from Wichmann’s property and found some bloodstains in the back seat
It became one of the most shocking discoveries in the history of crime
Wichmann was arrested in an accident on a country road near Bad Wimpfen
The police found machine gun parts and ammunition in his car
He was handed over to the authorities and was later sent to the correctional facility in Heimsheim
committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell in Heimsheim Prison
the police only dealt with dead ends and closed Birgit’s case
All the evidence pointed at Wichmann and persuaded the police to dig deeper into his connection with Birgit’s disappearance
But the investigators didn’t bat an eye
Birgit’s brother didn’t give up
Wolfgang Sielaff conducted his own personal investigation to find out his sister’s perpetrator
Sir Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes influenced Wolfgang Sielaff to become a detective
He was fascinated with psychological criminal cases and
used his expertise to unravel the mystery of his sister’s disappearance
Wolfgang wasn’t happy with the investigation of the previous investigators and believed that there were lots of unanswered questions
he assembled a team of professional investigators
including criminal psychologist Reinhard Chedor
Kurt-Werner Wichmann was the prime suspect
and they thoroughly scrutinized his background
He was raised in a refugee center and grew up in a problematic family with an abusive father and a negligent mother
Wichmann craved love and attention but didn’t get any
He started spending time in the woods and showed signs of psychosomatic disorders
His family couldn’t afford to raise him
One of his childhood friends said that even as a child
Wichmann used to bury things and was extremely cruel to animals
Wichmann was accused of attempted murder and grand theft
His crimes were neglected until on November 21
a 21-year-old Wichmann tried to kill a 17-year-old hitchhiker whom he gave a lift to on a lonely evening
He was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison
but he didn’t serve the whole sentence
According to other evidence collected throughout the investigation
Claudia Brockmann created Wichmann’s psychological profile
He owned a lot of cars that acted as status symbols for him
and his leather jacket made him look like some sort of James Dean
But he wasn’t interested in the so-called limelight
and he showed signs of a split personality disorder
While he told the police that he was happily married to Alice
Wichmann also had a secret life that no one was aware of
His marriage life was a mask that he wore to protect himself from cases like Birgit Meier
Because he told the police that he was a happily married man
no one suspected that he could have anything to do with another woman’s murder
Wolfgang Sielaff found out that Wichmann owned six cars and traveled around 30 thousand kilometers on the road
He probably hunted for new women in new cities and spent days in his car
found anonymous private ads in adult magazines given by Wichmann in which he often used the words “forest” and “woods.”
Wolfgang knew that Wichmann killed his sister
but struggled to find concrete evidence to prove his theory
and brother to hold onto the ownership of the house and never sell it to anyone
The Wichmann’s house at 15 Streitmoor remained under Alice’s custody until she died in 2006
cooperated with Wolfgang and let him investigate Wichmann’s secret room
but the two cassettes especially caught their attention
These two tapes belonged to crime shows that broadcast Birdet’s case and a double murder called the Göhrde Murders
Since the retired detectives had collected a lot of evidence
the police reopened Birgit Meier’s case and deployed Richard Kaufmann to investigate further
he looked into the evidence collected from Wichmann’s secret room
The handcuffs with bloodstains recovered in 1993 caught his attention
and Richard discovered that they were sent to the medical school in Hannover for forensic examination
Rothämel re-examined the blood stains on the handcuffs
which matched with Birgit Meier’s DNA (99.99 percent)
the police concluded that Kurt-Werner Wichmann killed Birgit Meier
The investigators searched every corner of the 1300 acres of land owned by Kurt-Werner Wichmann
But they didn’t find any human remains
The police were exhausted by the search and closed the case again
Wolfgang Sielaff and his gang secretly investigated the house and discovered an 80-centimeter deep car pit inside Wichmann’s garage
Wolfgang believed that someone had dumped another layer on it to bury something beneath it
Forensic expert Eilin Jopp-Van Well scrutinized the pit and found a metatarsal bone in an unusual spot
The crew dug deeper and found a whole skeleton buried inside the pit
Eilin concluded that it belonged to a woman
He gifted those earrings to Birgit and thus identified that the skeleton belonged to Birgit Meier
Birgit Meier’s body was found in 2017 with the help of an investigation carried out by her brother
Wolfgang and his team believed that on the night of Birgit’s disappearance
Wichmann broke into Birgit’s bedroom
This guess was based on the fact that when the police investigated the house
and two different cigarettes brands in the ashtray
They believed that someone else was in the room other than Birgit
which was never sent for forensic examination
but based on anesthesia found in Wichmann’s secret room
Wolfgang believed that he had drugged Birgit
The neighbor told the police that she heard a car engine running at 1:30 am during the night of Birgit’s disappearance
while Wichmann attacked Birgit in the bedroom
Wichmann’s younger brother was sitting in the car to distract the neighbors
Wichmann died in 1993 and hence couldn’t be interrogated for his acts
she was kidnapped and held prisoner in Wichmann’s secret room in the attic
Wichmann shot her in the head and wrapped a plastic bag around her head to avoid a blood spill
After Birgit’s body was recovered from Wichmann’s garage
the police finally came to their senses and conducted a full-fledged search of the estate
They didn’t find any other human remains but unearthed around 400 exhibits
and handbags belonged to different men and women who were either attacked or killed by Kurt-Werner Wichmann
He cherished them as trophies from his victims and probably buried them on his property
The videotapes of Birdet’s case and the Göhrde Murders were also collected as trophies
Wichmann probably looked at them and laughed at the police because he had tricked them and fled from under their noses
Wichmann believed that his days were numbered and that the police would finally find evidence against him
Little did he know that he was dealing with some really incompetent law enforcers
the cold cases department actively investigated Wichmann’s involvement in different other cases in the area
It led them to a double murder conspiracy in the Göhrde National Forest in 1989
four dead bodies (two couples) were recovered near Lüneburg
The second couple’s car wasn’t found near the crime scene but was recovered two kilometers away
the police found DNA that was later matched with Wichmann’s DNA in 2017
Police had taken Wichmann’s blood sample during his arrest in 1993 and had stored his DNA
It was suspected that Wichmann placed a personal ad in the magazine and lured these two couples to the Göhrde forest
The police even theorized the involvement of a second person
who was probably Wichmann’s younger brother
but they couldn’t arrest him due to a lack of evidence
These cases could have been solved in 1989 when the police first brought Wichmann in for investigation
So many lives could have been saved if police had tried to dig deeper
Birgit Meier’s family wouldn’t have to wait 27 years to finally get closure if the police had diligently done their job
Though people have a right to an effective police investigation
the attitude of the police tells a different story
Dig Deeper: The Disappearance of Birgit Meier is a 2021 German Crime Documentary film written and directed by Nicolas Steiner
It follows the investigation of the alleged serial killer