Police in Germany have solved the case of the ‘German Madeleine McCann’ who went missing 15 years ago – after the DNA of a neo-Nazi killer was found on her body, according to reports.
Peggy Knobloch was just nine years old when she went missing on May 7 2001. Failing to make it home from her German primary school, her disappearance sparked an international missing person’s search, but despite spanning several neighbouring countries including Turkey and the Czech Republic, she was never found.
However, earlier this year, mushroom pickers found her body just nine miles from her home. And now German police have announced that DNA matching that of Uwe Boehnhardt, a member of a neo-Nazi cell, has been found on a piece of cloth recovered from her grave, The Sun reports.
Boehnhardt, who was part of the so-called National Socialist Underground (NSU) cell that killed nine foreigners and a policewoman, committed suicide in 2011 alongside fellow member Uwe Mundlos after police discovered their three-member cell, that they shared with Beate Zschaepe, by chance.
And while Boehnhardt DNA has been linked to Knobloch, police are still determining whether this trace comes from contamination, German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost reports. But Uli Grötsch, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, has said: “16 of 16 characteristics could be assigned to Böhnhardt.”
Zschaepe, the lone surviving member of the cell, is currently on trial for her alleged role in the killings of eight Greeks, one Turk and a German policewoman.
She broke her silence earlier this year, telling the court that she disavowed the ideology behind the killings and condemned them. She also told judges she wants to testify about the death of a girl.
Our thoughts go out to Knobloch’s family.
