00:00:05 You are listening to The Evidence Locker. 00:00:09 Thank you for choosing our podcast. 00:00:11 Our sponsors make it possible for us to keep bringing you new episodes. 00:00:15 Please support them as they have some great deals just for you, our listeners. 00:00:18 If you prefer to listen to ad free content, simply find us on Patreon or plan start from as little as $2.00 a month. 00:00:25 25% of these proceeds are donated to. 00:00:28 The Dome network. 00:00:29 Working to bring closure to international cold cases. 00:00:32 For more information follow. 00:00:34 The link in the show notes. 00:00:36 Today's episode is brought to you by the number one mental. 00:00:38 Wellness app com. 00:00:40 If you go to calm.com/evidence you'll receive a special offer of 40% off a com premium subscription or cases deal with true crimes and real people. 00:00:51 Some parts of graphic in nature and listener discretion is advised. 00:00:55 Each episode is produced with the utmost respect to the victims, their families and loved ones. 00:01:03 Dalid It was an early spring night on the 1st of May 1971 and a young man named Roland Stengel had recently moved to Bremen. 00:01:11 He was making his way home on the 4498 train when he saw a horrific scene. 00:01:15 From the window. 00:01:17 Close to the train tracks. 00:01:19 Right on the embankment was a young. 00:01:21 Woman and a large man towering over her. 00:01:24 The witness instinctively flinched when the man struck the woman down, then rushed to open the window and yelled out for the man. 00:01:31 To stop. 00:01:33 This caused the stir in the otherwise quiet train, and many people saw what the commotion was about. 00:01:39 Police were alerted and arrived within minutes. 00:01:42 But they couldn't find. 00:01:43 A young woman or her attacker anywhere. 00:01:47 For days it was left at that. 00:01:49 A bizarre incident with no conclusion. 00:01:53 That is, until the body of 17 year old. 00:01:55 Carmen Kampa turned. 00:01:56 Up a couple of meters from where? 00:01:58 The witness saw her being murdered. 00:02:01 This cold case brought many twists and turns. 00:02:04 But forty years after the fact, thanks to the dogged determination of a public prosecutor and two detectives. 00:02:10 Carmen's murder was eventually solved. 00:02:46 The campus was a family of five Gerhard and Lydia, with their three children. 00:02:52 Vegesack in the northwest of Bremen, Germany, and by all accounts had. 00:02:56 A happy home. 00:02:57 Not much has been published about the camp of family's private life over. 00:03:00 The years other. 00:03:01 Than the fact that a tragedy broke their hearts. 00:03:05 Carmen was born on the 4th of January 1954, and in 1971 her older sister was 19 and her younger brother was only 11. 00:03:14 17 year old Carmen was about 160 centimetres tall, with dark hair and brown eyes. Personality wise, she was a little on the shy side, but still kept a fun loving attitude. 00:03:27 She loved fashion and found a job in a shoe store. 00:03:29 After leaving high school. 00:03:31 She lived with her parents, who knew they could always count on her. 00:03:34 Come and enjoyed socialising and catching up with friends, but always came home when she said she would. 00:03:39 She was always punctual and never missed her midnight curfew. 00:03:44 Her parents trusted her and knew that Carmen would stay out of trouble and be home when she said she would. 00:03:50 On Saturday night, the 1st of May 1971. 00:03:53 Carmen went to the Micramichi disco at 69 Heerenstrasse, Oslebshausen. 00:03:59 At the time this was located in between an industrial area and the high. 00:04:04 Carmen was a regular at Miramichi and was looking forward to a night of dancing with friends. 00:04:09 She set out early at 6:30 PM. 00:04:12 One account mentioned that she had broken up with her boyfriend not long before and spent most of. 00:04:16 The night with her friends. 00:04:18 Apart from that, the night was like any other Saturday night, and nothing remarkable occurred. 00:04:23 People drank, smoked, danced, and socialised. 00:04:26 There were no fights or scuffles. 00:04:27 It was a good night out on the town. 00:04:30 At 11:10, she decided to make her way home and walk to Osler's house and train station alone. 00:04:37 Hoping to catch the 1127 train and that five stops later, she'd be home in Vegesack. 00:04:43 But Carmen never made it onto that train. 00:04:47 At 11:25 the Schusters. 00:04:49 A husband and wife. 00:04:50 Living near the station heard a woman screams. 00:04:52 And calls for help. 00:04:54 They could not quite figure out where they were coming from and alerted police immediately. 00:04:59 Meanwhile, Rowland Stengel, who had recently moved to Bremen where he worked as a printer, was making his way home on the 4498 train. 00:05:07 Going from Bremen, Hoffmann half to Bremen, Vegesack. 00:05:11 He was new to the area and was still observant and paid attention to the surroundings because he did not want to get lost. 00:05:18 The train pulled into Oslob Hausen station at 11:26 and waited for the customary one minute for passengers to gOslebshausenet on and off. 00:05:28 We only noticed something on the railway embankment. 00:05:29 From his window. 00:05:31 A young woman being approached by a tall man. 00:05:34 It did not look like they. 00:05:35 Knew each other, but rather that they had. 00:05:37 Happened upon one another. 00:05:39 The next moment one saw the. 00:05:41 Man striking the woman. 00:05:42 Then forced both of his hands onto his shoulders so that she couldn't. 00:05:45 Get back up. 00:05:47 Running immediately opened the train window and heard the young woman screaming. 00:05:51 Please don't. Please don't. 00:05:54 Roman shouted for the attacker to stop his screaming, alarmed other passengers and made them look out of their windows too. 00:06:01 But by that time, the train was already moving. 00:06:03 And they were helpless. 00:06:04 As they saw the scene disappear in the distance. 00:06:08 Roman Stengel, along with the other passengers, called the conductor and told them what. 00:06:11 They had seen. 00:06:13 It was too late to stop the train and he advised him to get off at the next stop, which was only moments away. 00:06:19 With the help of the conductor, the witnesses informed police as soon as they reached the next station. 00:06:24 But by this time. 00:06:26 The police already. 00:06:26 Knew about a commotion after receiving phone calls from ill witnesses living near the station. 00:06:33 Video control and form the patrol vehicle of the attackers description provided by the eyewitnesses from the train. 00:06:39 Everyone described him as being between 25. 00:06:41 And 30 years. 00:06:42 Old, tall, approximately 175 to 180 centimetres of muscular. 00:06:48 Build with dark hair combed back. 00:06:51 He was wearing a dark overcoat with black. 00:06:52 Jeans and a white turtleneck. 00:06:55 They said that when the witness shouted from the train, the man threw his victim down the embankment and covered his face in an attempt to conceal his identity, knowing that he had been spotted. 00:07:05 The patrol car arrived. 00:07:06 At Osler's housing station at 11:45. 00:07:10 Eyewitnesses had made their way back there and were waiting. 00:07:12 We need to show the officers where they had. 00:07:14 Seen the attack taking place? 00:07:16 The two policemen searched the immediate surroundings with a flashlight but could not find anyone in. 00:07:20 Trouble or any sign of a crime. 00:07:22 They circled the block but again found nothing out of the ordinary. 00:07:27 Police proceeded to knock on doors and talk to witnesses, and by 10 past midnight, when they. 00:07:31 Had not found. 00:07:31 Anything they left? 00:07:34 Meanwhile, Carmen's parents were concerned when she did not arrive home by midnight. 00:07:39 They waited for a while, but instinctively knew that something was not right. 00:07:44 After a sleepless night and no son of their daughter, her father went to the last place Carmen said she would be mere machine disco. 00:07:51 He could not get much information there other than the fact that Carmen left the disco by herself because her friends were not ready to call it a night. 00:08:00 This of course. 00:08:01 Was not out of character for Carmen. 00:08:03 And she never missed her curfew. 00:08:05 With no other clue as to where his daughter could be, Gerhard reported her. 00:08:09 Missing to police. 00:08:11 Around midday on Tuesday, the 4th of May, police officers were walking through an empty field not far from the train station where Carmen was last seen. 00:08:19 However, they were not looking for her as they were on another job chasing a couple of inmates who had escaped from the juvenile detention centre nearby. 00:08:27 When they came across a. 00:08:28 Gruesome scene. 00:08:29 It was the brutalised body of Carmen Kampa. 00:08:33 She was lying on her back and her chest was bare and her hot pants had been torn off. 00:08:39 Gerhard Campo was driving his car when he heard the news of the discovery of the body of a young woman on the radio and rushed to the scene. 00:08:47 And he saw his daughter. 00:08:49 His entire world collapsed. 00:08:51 Realising the importance of not wasting any more time in the investigation, he was able to provide a positive identification of the victim to police on the spot. 00:09:00 Carmen had been raped. 00:09:01 And then strangled and either after her death or close to the time of her death, her killer had inflicted 4 stab wounds to her chest, one wound penetrating her heart. 00:09:13 It was overkill. 00:09:14 And clearly the assailant wanted to make sure his. 00:09:16 Victim was dead. 00:09:19 Officer scouted the embankment and found a handkerchief that looked as if it had dropped recently as the elements had not. 00:09:25 Dirtied it. 00:09:26 A mark that looked like blood was visible. 00:09:29 Not far from where the handkerchief was was a return train ticket from Vegesack. 00:09:33 It had only been validated for the trip to Oslebshausen. 00:09:37 Police concluded that the. 00:09:38 Ticket was in all likelihood Carmen's. 00:09:44 We'll take a quick break. 00:09:44 For a word from our sponsors. 00:09:47 Do you have anxious thoughts? 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You can find the link in today's show notes or on our website. 00:11:47 Now let's resume today's episode. 00:11:52 Carmen's murder caused an uproar in the otherwise safe city of Bremen, and police set out to catch the killer before he struck again. 00:12:00 A file was created for every single. 00:12:02 Lead and eventually there were more than 1000 files as well as countless witness testimonies. 00:12:08 There was a sense that all of Bremen wanted the case solved. 00:12:10 As a matter of urgency. 00:12:13 It was incredibly frustrating as many witnesses saw and heard a murder being committed. 00:12:17 If they had no suspects. 00:12:20 To try to retrace Carmen's last known movements and learned that she left the machine disco around 10:00 PM and went to a bar called Park Gäststätte with two men where they had a Bratwurst and some Brandy and cola. 00:12:32 They skipped without. 00:12:33 Paying their bill and returned to the Mirror machine disco. 00:12:37 Police located the men who had returned to his hometown of Berlin by the time they caught up with him, but both denied that Carmen was with them that night. 00:12:44 Also, her stomach contents did not back up the story and it was concluded to be a dead end. 00:12:50 A case of mistaken identity. 00:12:53 Another man spotted talking to Carmen at the main machine was a well known petty criminal 37 year old helmet, heroin neck. 00:13:00 Hair neck was supposed to work as. 00:13:01 A waiter at the mirror machine on a. 00:13:03 Saturday night of the murder. 00:13:05 But when he showed up, someone else had taken the shift. 00:13:08 He was allocated more shifts in the days that followed, but he never showed up. 00:13:13 Three days later, in fact, the same day Carmen's body was discovered, he took a suit to be dry cleaned and marked the order urgent. 00:13:21 When police learned that he had. 00:13:22 No alibi for the time. 00:13:23 Of the murder they took him in for questioning. 00:13:26 HarHaryneknick denied any involvement in the murder. 00:13:29 There was no concrete evidence linking him to the crime and police had to. 00:13:32 Let him go. 00:13:34 Investigators contacted the Juvenile Detention Center and asked if any inmates were released or perhaps escaped on the day. 00:13:39 Of Carmen's murder. 00:13:41 But all detainees were accounted for on that night. 00:13:44 Then two night Watchmen employed by the North German guarding Institute came forward. 00:13:50 They looked after. 00:13:50 A couple of buildings in the business park. 00:13:52 The system worked as follows. 00:13:54 A guard carried. 00:13:55 A clock with them at each checkpoint was a numbered key chained in place, which was then inserted into the clock, turned, and then printed the disk with said key number and stamped on a roll of paper. 00:14:06 Throughout the night, they would go from building to building and set their guard clocks at each checkpoint to prove that they had been there. 00:14:14 The two security guards told police that at the time of the murder, their colleagues should have checked. 00:14:18 In at a building close by. 00:14:20 Perhaps he heard or saw something. 00:14:22 Police were immediately concerned. 00:14:25 A security guard who was in close proximity to the crime scene at the time of the murder should have been one of the. 00:14:30 First witnesses to approach police. 00:14:32 If this man never did. 00:14:35 His colleagues stated, however, that he was not. 00:14:37 The most reliable. 00:14:37 Worker he was often late, but they couldn't find him and they had seen. 00:14:41 Him manipulate the clocks before. 00:14:43 They suspected that he had fallen asleep somewhere, then manipulated the clock with duplicate keys to make it. 00:14:48 Appear that he was on duty all night. 00:14:51 Police looked into the man's background and quickly learned that he was a petty criminal who was known to steal from the very businesses he was supposed to protect. 00:14:57 As a security guard. 00:14:59 When investigators questioned him admitted that he had gone to one of the buildings on his route, located 1 kilometre from the crime scene to sleep that night and also that he had manipulated the clock and that he did not know anything regarding Carmen's rape and murder. 00:15:13 Still, police placed him in a lineup for the witnesses from the train, and they were not quite sure if he was Carmen's attacker or not. 00:15:20 The main witness, Ronan Stengel, the woman shouted from the window, said that the attacker was a larger man. 00:15:26 And because the guard appeared to be telling the truth when he confessed about falling asleep, and because he came clean about manipulating the clock, police did not feel that there was enough reason. 00:15:34 To suspect him with the murder. 00:15:36 And again, it was another dead end. 00:15:39 Four months after the murder. 00:15:41 Police appealed to the public for. 00:15:42 Help asking for anyone who saw their suspect on May. 00:15:44 First, a man with dark hair and a white turtleneck. 00:15:48 In the vicinity of. 00:15:49 Osler's housing station to come forward. 00:15:52 For two years, no arrests were made. 00:15:56 Then please identify the suspect 37 year old Otto Becker, a local construction worker and non alcoholic. 00:16:04 He was seen in the bar Zum Bahnhoff near the crime scene on the night of the murder and spoke openly about himself that night, providing details that would eventually lead police to him. 00:16:15 The waitress recalled that Becker had given her his car keys. 00:16:17 Saying that he was too drunk to drive. 00:16:20 Three months later, the keys were still at the bar. 00:16:24 With piqued police interest was that he had been in prison a couple. 00:16:27 Of times for car theft. 00:16:29 Also, Becker owned a folding knife. 00:16:31 Could that have been the murder weapon? 00:16:34 Otto Becker denied any involvement in Carmen's murder and said that he could not remember whether he was in a bar near Oslo's housing station that night or not. 00:16:42 He recalled being very drunk and that he had visited many bars in the course of the evening. 00:16:48 He also said he never went back for his keys because he wasn't sure if he even paid his tab and thought it best to stay away. 00:16:54 However, he was sure about one thing that he did not harm anyone. 00:16:59 In fact, he was so convinced of his own innocence that he agreed to his photo being released to the media, hoping it would exonerate him. 00:17:07 But with the 10,000 Deutsche mark were worn out, tons of witnesses came forward stating that the man police had in custody was the one seen with Carmen on that fateful night. 00:17:18 Becker could not believe his predicament and desperate for. 00:17:20 Help, he wrote a letter stating his case to 1. 00:17:23 Of the best known lawyers in Bremen, Heinrich Hanover. 00:17:27 Hannover agreed to take the case and would eventually say that Beckers was the most important trial of his entire career. 00:17:33 The sharp eyed lawyer looked at the case with a fresh perspective. 00:17:36 Firstly, Becker was openly gay and he wondered why he would. 00:17:40 Have raped and strangled a young woman. 00:17:42 Please sterilise the comment of the boyish and Decker mistook her for a young. 00:17:46 Man and when he realised she. 00:17:48 Was a female. 00:17:48 He lashed out and killed her. 00:17:51 Peters asked Becker if he heard Carmen screams that night, seeing as though, according to his statement, he was in close proximity to where witnesses saw the crime occur. 00:18:00 Becker said he could not recall hearing screams. 00:18:02 The police jumped on this and concluded that if he had been in the bar, as he had said, he would have heard something. 00:18:09 But saying that he didn't indicate it to them. 00:18:11 That he was. 00:18:12 Lying, and therefore he implicated himself in the murder. 00:18:16 Despite Hanover's protests about the feeble evidence, police believe they had enough evidence to charge Otto Becker with the murder of Carmen Kampa. 00:18:24 Otto Becker's trial kicked off on November 12th, 1974, before the Bremen Regional Court, and he was found guilty. 00:18:31 In January 1975, he was sentenced to 12 years and three months in prison. 00:18:37 Defence Attorney Heinrich Hanover refused to give up on his client. 00:18:41 He believed the beggar's innocence and vowed to leave no stone unturned. 00:18:45 Shortly after the conviction, information was leaked by a young clerk and the prosecutor's office, and it came to hand over his attention. 00:18:52 The information revealed that there was another suspect whose 197 page case file became well known in the subsequent years forensic file #59 the file on Helmut Harynek who was. 00:19:05 Under investigation from the very start. 00:19:09 What had happened was while investigators were looking into Harynek as a possible suspect, the main inspector was transferred and a new inspector took over. 00:19:18 During the handover of information here, Annex file was presented and deemed insignificant. 00:19:23 Seeing as all leads have been exhausted. 00:19:25 And so his. 00:19:26 File went to the bottom of the pile. 00:19:28 However, when Hanover went through the file, he was confused as to why police had charged Becker and not Harynek. 00:19:35 Both men had been in trouble with the law before Becker for theft and hair and neck for aggravated robbery, but more significantly, hair and neck had also been accused of sexual assault in the past. 00:19:46 On Saturday, the 1st of May, both men were out bar hopping in Oslebshausen and neither had an alibi. 00:19:51 At the time of the murder, Hanover observed that the man from forensic file 50. 00:19:56 Nine was at least as suspicious. 00:19:59 As Becker, if not more so. 00:20:02 Based on this, he appealed Becker's conviction, requesting a leak. 00:20:06 The court refused. 00:20:07 Then they can only grant it if Hanover could prove that there was a procedural error during the first trial. 00:20:13 Not deterred. 00:20:14 Hanover scoured all documents relating to the first trial and found exactly what he needed. 00:20:19 There was a discrepancy in the jury. 00:20:22 A female jury member had sent her husband to attend. 00:20:24 The trial in her. 00:20:25 Place and his name was never listed on the paperwork. 00:20:29 It was an oversight, but important enough to count as a procedural error. 00:20:34 The Federal Court of Justice had no choice but. 00:20:35 To grant the retrial. 00:20:37 Becker was given another chance to plead his case in front of the Brennan Regional Court. 00:20:42 During this trial, Hanover had invited Harynek as a witness. 00:20:47 The court was presented with a theory that Harynek someone who lived outside of the law and who was known for his roving eye had means and opportunity to have committed this crime. 00:20:57 He had also been charged with sexual assault before, but was found to be innocent. 00:21:01 Witness statements regarding his alleged confessions were also presented. 00:21:06 During night out with friends, he allegedly said that the murderer could be sitting at their table. 00:21:11 Other here, necks guilt was not conclusively proven. 00:21:14 What Hanover achieved was to inject reasonable doubt into the case. 00:21:19 So on November 28th, 1976, Otto Becker was acquitted of all charges relating to the murder of Carmen Kampo. 00:21:27 This was a landmark case that made Hanover's career. 00:21:31 He was already well known before it, but the way in which he managed to free his client became a blueprint of defence law in. 00:21:37 German law schools. 00:21:39 As in any miscarriage of justice case, Becker's release was bittersweet. 00:21:44 Of course, no one wanted an innocent man to pay for a crime he didn't commit. 00:21:48 But if he didn't kill Carmen, then who did? 00:21:52 Was there enough evidence against Harynek to charge him with the murder? 00:21:56 Investigators had to watch their step and if they wanted to arrest Harynek, they needed a watertight case. 00:22:02 They simply could not send another innocent man to prison. 00:22:05 And that is what Harynek claimed to be innocent. 00:22:09 In the end, the investigation in the Helmut Harynek lacked solid evidence. 00:22:13 In the case run cold. 00:22:15 For 40 years, Carmen Kampa's unsolved murder became the scar on Bremen's law enforcement that no one could ever forget about. 00:22:23 In 1990, the then prosecutor ordered the destruction of evidence, a reckless decision made for practical reasons. Thus, to clear up storage space. 00:22:33 Then, ten years later, Detective Axel Peterman was having another look at Common's case and wondered if perhaps anything had been saved. 00:22:42 He followed up with forensic labs and found. 00:22:44 A clue in the chain? 00:22:45 Of custody that a hare not belonging to Carmen was found on her coat. 00:22:51 This hair was not stored with the evidence that had been destroyed. 00:22:55 Back in 1971, it was sent to the Federal Police office in Weisbaden because at the time they had the most advanced forensic lab. 00:23:04 Fortunately, they neglected to return it to Brennan police, and so the sample was preserved. 00:23:10 They compared it to samples of all suspects in the. 00:23:12 Case but could not find a match. 00:23:14 30 years after the murder, they still did not know who killed Carmen Kampa. 00:23:20 Then, in April 2011, with the aid of new Investigative technology, prosecutor Uwe Picard, together with Brennan, police briefed new Air into the case. 00:23:32 But Carr was more or less the same age as Carmen and lived in Bremen at the. 00:23:35 Same time of the murder. 00:23:38 And following Becker's trial closely was what made him want to study law, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that this case would one day land on his desk. 00:23:47 He pinned comments photo on a notice board in his office and vowed to do everything in his power to finally solve it. 00:23:54 One of their first steps. 00:23:55 Was to Reinterview Helmut Harynek, who at this time was living in Hamburg. 00:23:59 After the interview, they were convinced that Harynek was not the man who had killed Carmen. 00:24:04 He was boastful about his younger days, as in his opinion, a ladies man, but there was simply no evidence linking him to the murder. 00:24:12 Picard and the cold case Detective decided to start the investigation from scratch by going back to the original crime scene and physically reenacting Carmen's last known movements on the night of her murder. 00:24:24 The reenactment was done at the end of April, with similar conditions. Carmen would have experienced on the night of the 1st of May 1971. 00:24:33 They turned back time, so to speak, even adjusting. 00:24:35 The lighting it. 00:24:36 Was up 1000 train station to be. 00:24:38 Exactly as it was all those years ago. 00:24:41 They considered the possibility that Carmen had made it to the platform and was waiting for her train when the confrontation with the killer commenced, he either followed her there or came upon her and used the opportunity to strike. 00:24:54 Police were not quite sure how she. 00:24:55 Ended up on the embankment, however. 00:24:57 Perhaps she was running. 00:24:58 Away from her assailant. 00:25:00 Or maybe he forced her to go there. 00:25:02 For authenticity, police officers visited countless thrift stores in Bremen, sourcing shoes from the 70s similar to those worn by Carmen. 00:25:11 This was significant because on the night of her murder, some tracks were closed to train traffic and one theory was that Carmen crossed that way. 00:25:19 Walking on gravel, the heels on her shoes would have shown some scratch marks. 00:25:23 However, common shoes were not damaged at all. 00:25:27 In the reenactment, the young woman, similar in height and weight to Carmen, crossed the tracks, stepping on the gravel and as suspected, both heels were riddled with scratches from the gravel. 00:25:39 So she probably did not jump onto the tracks from the platform or run across the gravel. 00:25:44 This opened up the theory that she could have been carried, or even perhaps she walked slowly, carefully so as to not damage her shoes. 00:25:53 Which hints at the possibility that she was not trying to get away from someone at that point. 00:25:58 The working theory was. 00:25:59 That she had walked across the railway lines because she needed to urinate. 00:26:03 Only when she was on the other side did she meet her killer. 00:26:07 If you recall the eyewitness account, he said it looked like Carmen and her attacker were two strangers who had just bumped into each other. 00:26:14 One cannot exclude the likelihood that she had gone. 00:26:17 Down the embankment by herself to relieve. 00:26:18 Herself, not wanting to. 00:26:20 Go too far. 00:26:21 If the train was due to arrive within minutes. 00:26:24 Determined to solve the case, the public prosecutor over Picard rented a train from Deutsche Bahn to pass in Bremen N Direction. 00:26:31 At the time, the witness claimed to have seen the attack on Carmen. 00:26:35 The prosecutor also ordered Carmen's well preserved clothing to be retested, hoping to find DNA evidence, which of course with limitations in forensic testing in the early 70s, had not been done. 00:26:47 The Forensic Medicine Institute of the University of Mines hit pay dirt. It was the hair found on Carmen's clothing and they were able to extract the DNA profile. 00:26:58 A-Team of two cold case detectives were also tasked with going through the thousands of files containing witness statements, interview transcripts and possible clues. 00:27:06 After months of fine combing the files, there was one that stood out. 00:27:09 From the rest. 00:27:10 Forensic file #135 was created in the initial investigation, a day after Carmen was killed. 00:27:18 The person was the security guard who claimed he had. 00:27:20 Fallen asleep that night. 00:27:22 But there was no more to the story. 00:27:24 A handkerchief found near the murder scene was also identified by his wife as belonging to him. 00:27:30 The handkerchief had blood on. 00:27:31 It type A the same blood type as the security guard. 00:27:36 A sperm sample from the victim indicated that Carmen was raped by a person with the. 00:27:40 Same blood type. 00:27:41 Also, even if he fell asleep and manipulated the clock. 00:27:45 He never turned. 00:27:45 The key at his last control point for the night, a point located inside of a building along the railway embankment. 00:27:52 The missing piece was Carmen's body was found about 150 meters from where eyewitnesses saw the confrontation. So then why did the first responding patrol officers not see Carmen's body? 00:28:04 They went past the area, which was a flat piece of land with short grass and sparse vegetation. 00:28:08 If a body was there, they would have seen it for sure. 00:28:12 Forensic investigators determined that the location where her body was found was not where she was murdered. 00:28:18 She had one arm next to her body with a hand more or less next to her abdomen and the other one was in the opposite direction next to her head. 00:28:26 After testing the theory by using a person who is the same size as Carmen, police concluded that this is how she would have fallen if she was carried over someone's shoulder and then dropped. 00:28:36 This means the killer attacked her on the embankment, kicked her down after hearing the witness shouting from the train, then continued his attack and killed her on the spot. 00:28:46 Then he must have hidden her somewhere in close proximity while patrol officers searched the area before dumping her body. 00:28:53 Only after they left. 00:28:55 During the initial investigation, a forensic examination found carpet fibres on Carmen's socks, which they concluded came from a doormat. 00:29:03 Sadly, because the evidence had been destroyed, it could not be retested. 00:29:09 But what it does allude to is that the security guard took Carmen's body to a nearby building. One of those he patrolled and hit her until the police had gone and the coast was clear. 00:29:20 Then he carried her and dumped her on the. 00:29:21 Spot where she was found. 00:29:24 In one of the many case files was an eyewitness account of someone running a moped in the vicinity where Carmen's body was later discovered at 12:30 on the night of her murder. 00:29:34 Investigators established that before working as a security guard, he worked at a butcher and part of his job was to carry whole pig carcasses to the production room. 00:29:43 This means he would have. 00:29:44 Been physically able to carry Carmen's lifeless body. 00:29:47 The cold case team decided to debunk the security guard's version of events that night and looked at the route he would have taken had he been on duty that night, doing what he was supposed to have done. 00:29:57 If you recall, at the time he said that he had gone to sleep in a building 1 kilometre away and that he manipulated the clocks after the fact. 00:30:05 But the cold case detectives decided to look at the. 00:30:07 Evidence as if. 00:30:08 He had actually clocked in for arguments sake. 00:30:11 He would have patrolled. 00:30:12 Many buildings in the business park adjacent to the train station. 00:30:15 His clock key stamps were recorded at exact times. One would have expected to find 11031105111611181120. 00:30:26 And then it stopped. 00:30:27 Within moments of Carmen arriving at the station. 00:30:31 Going from the 1120 control point to his next stop, the guard had to travel along the railway embankment on his moped and clocked in at his next point, the Bachman building at 11:48, which he didn't do. 00:30:44 His last check in was 11/20. 00:30:47 11/26 a man fitting his description was seen attacking Carmen. 00:30:53 So the guard did say he. 00:30:54 Had manipulated the clocks. 00:30:57 But why then did he not enter his last checkpoint at the Backmann building? 00:31:01 What if he never abandoned his shift? 00:31:02 To go to sleep. 00:31:04 What if he had been on duty all along, and after killing Carmen, he did not? 00:31:08 Finish his rounds. 00:31:10 In 2011, prosecutor Picard and the cold case detectives considered the statement given by the Security Guard's wife. Shortly after the murder and decided to question her again. 00:31:20 By this time, they had divorced and she had changed her story. 00:31:24 She admitted that she painted a different picture of him. 00:31:26 Before because she was. 00:31:27 Afraid for her own life. 00:31:30 She claimed her ex-husband was not a reliable hard working man, but. 00:31:33 Rather a violent one. 00:31:34 A heavy drinker obsessed with sex who raped her several times a week throughout their marriage. 00:31:40 The act itself never took long, but it was violent. 00:31:44 This was very significant because Carmen's attack took place in a 20 to 30 minute window, which means he could have raped and murdered her in the short time frame. 00:31:54 This was the break investigators so desperately needed, but there was another set back the security guard had passed away in 2003. 00:32:02 The security guard's wife told police that after they split up, he lived alone and did not have many friends. He never remarried and lived an alcoholic hermit's life. 00:32:12 Refusing to give. 00:32:13 Up, the investigators approached one of his sisters, who volunteered A saliva swab for DNA testing. 00:32:19 And finally. 00:32:21 All their hard work paid off. 00:32:23 Mitochondrial DNA characteristics of the hair found on Carmen campus coat matched the sample taken from the security guard sister. 00:32:31 They finally had a DNA match. 00:32:34 On the 19th of August 2011, the Public prosecutor's office, together with Bremen police, held a press conference during which they finally named Carmen's killer, Herman R. 00:32:44 The motive was sexual and Carmen was in the wrong place at the wrong time, never once thinking she would cross paths with a lecherous killer. 00:32:52 Either Picard said that the security guard was never. 00:32:55 Excluded as a suspect. 00:32:57 But the evidence was simply not strong enough to arrest him back in the day. 00:33:00 The dedication of law enforcement to solve this case finally brought a resolution. Although Herman R will never be brought to justice, they were able to finally tell Carmen's family. 00:33:10 Who it was. 00:33:11 Who had taken her away from them. 00:33:14 User Picard personally visited Carmen's family to tell him the news before the press conference. 00:33:19 By this time, her mother Lydia was 80 and her younger brother 51. 00:33:23 They all sat together for two hours and discussed the case and that moment of closure. 00:33:28 It was still. 00:33:29 The grief that overwhelmed them. 00:33:32 To them, Carmen will always be 17. 00:33:35 And learning who killed her did. 00:33:36 Not change the fact that they will ever be able to bring her back. 00:33:40 To any visitor to Bremen, the narrow lane between the railway embankment and the business park in Oslebshausen might look nondescript. 00:33:49 But locals will never forget. 00:33:52 It's called Carmen camp away. 00:33:55 No victim will be forgotten. 00:34:02 We'd like to thank our sponsors. 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