“We've been given a name,” Fabian Puchelt of the Bavarian State Criminal Police says happily. Puchelt's task in the manhunt show “XY-unsolved” is to summarize the information received on the cases shown on the show by phone for the viewers right before the end of the show. “The name has already been revised,” explains Puchelt. How the police proceed with such an investigation is a “trade secret”. It only turns out that the police are checking whether the person in question is in the file. However, this case in question is so unusual that notes in a police file are hardly conceivable. “To this day, the police do not know whether it was one or two criminals,” explains host Rudi Cerne. “This is a mysterious crime.” On November 4, 2021, a woman heard a strange noise in her kitchen from her 77-year-old neighbor's apartment on Johannisstrasse in Flensburg-Jürgensby and called the police. What happened?
An unknown man beat a 77-year-old woman in her apartment
Around 9:45 p.m., a 77-year-old woman was talking on the phone in her living room until she heard a knock on the apartment door. He opened the door, and a young, slim, dark-type man immediately slammed it shut several times. He wanted her to shut up, she remembers. And also that it seemed to him as if a 20-25-year-old man was talking to another person, an accomplice. The man then fled, but returned to the apartment soon after, causing the elderly woman to lock herself in her toilet. A few minutes later, when it was quiet, he climbed out of the toilet window, ran around the house, returned to his apartment through the now open patio door and called 911. Mobile phone, money – nothing was stolen. “We also have no concrete evidence of a criminal who could have been angry with the woman,” explains Anja Rattay from the Flensburg police and is now hoping for a tip. (Fee for information: 5000 euros, Kripo Flensburg: 0461-4845566)
Lots of insider knowledge about the bank robbery
At the end of the show, the police had also received a specific name in the case of the brutal attack on the Sparkasse branch in Neuss. “It's always good to know a name,” says police officer Fabian Puchelt. “Sometimes little mistakes happen. Something always happens at some point.” The minor flaw in this case was that one of the perpetrators briefly pulled the scarf off his face in the heat of the attack. The mug shot is pretty accurate. The younger of the two perpetrators is between 18 and 30 years old and about 1.85 meters tall. His job was to keep 15 people away from the branch with his pistol . “It's pure insanity, there's no other way to describe the incident,” says moderator Cerne. “The man is armed and very nervous.” In fact, the duo had a lot of inside information on November 9, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. But the police investigation has so far yielded nothing. “We did not find any trace of a possible insider,” explains Patrick Waclawowicz from the Neuss Police Department.
Secret room or getaway car?
The two criminals stayed at the Uedesheimerstrasse bank in Neuss-Norf for a full 3:15 minutes and were very familiar with the situation. The manager grabbed a special vault key fob from the counter and specially opened the corresponding doors with the corresponding keys. He also knew that the safe was in the basement. The criminals were also informed that when the alarm is triggered by the employees, the security center will call back and the phone ring will be different from the normal signal. It is also conceivable for the police that the getaway car was driven by a third criminal. “But it can also happen,” says policeman Waclawowisz, “that the criminals hid in a room after committing the crime.” The question is, “Who was renting the space in the area immediately before the crime?” there is one hint A reward of 10,000 euros is offered. (Neuss Police Station, 02131-30019191)
The police are looking for the pusher “Hans”
There is a heavy iron bar in the broadcast studio. “It's the original pole,” explains host Cerne. A man named “Hansi” is said to have used this rod to brutally crush his companion's skull. To this day, the then 29-year-old, known to everyone as “Heidi,” suffers from the effects. The incident takes place in the homosexual milieu of Cologne. Heidi was in Attendorn Prison for several offenses and was on holiday at the time of the incident. On the night of June 13, he stayed at a night club called Hotel TimP with an as-yet-unknown companion and left around 3:40 a.m. on Saturday morning. Apparently, he set out with the pusher “Hans”. The cold case dates back to 1986 and ends with “Heidi” being seriously injured in the shell of a building on Ehrenstrasse in Cologne.
Wait for the experts to be silent
To this day, “Heidi” remembers only fragments of the attack. Construction workers found him in the morning and called the police. After the attack, the victim was missing his wallet, watch and ring. The gold ring is engraved “7.8.77, Manfred”. Markus Weber of the Cologne Police Department considers the crime an “attempted robbery”. He really wants to find “Hans” – as a witness and a potential criminal – even after 38 years. The 1.75 meter tall man is probably in his early 60s today. At that time, she moved around the Düsseldorf area and performed prostitution in train stations all over the country. Officer Weber does not lose hope. Because he knows: “There are people who stay silent for years and then have several reasons why they don't stay silent anymore.” (Notes to Cologne Police: 0221-2290)