CrimeTime – Ein Mädchen verschwindet | “Die Entführung” Folge 1/3 | (S27/E01)

Hier gehts zur Folge 2: https://1.ard.de/Crime_Time_S27_E02?yt=d
Und hier zur Folge 3: https://1.ard.de/Crime_Time_S27_E03?yt=d

Am ersten Schultag nach den Sommerferien 1981 wird die 10jährige Ursula Herrmann auf dem Heimweg am Ammersee vom Rad gerissen und in eine im Waldboden vergrabene Holzkiste gesperrt. Für die Freilassung des kleine Mädchens werden zwei Millionen Mark Lösegeld von den Eltern gefordert. Doch zu einer Geldübergabe kommt es nicht.

Es ist eines der mysteriösesten Verbrechen der deutschen Kriminalgeschichte, das die Menschen bis heute erschüttert: 1981 wird die 10jährige Ursula Herrmann entführt. Sie erstickt in einer Kiste, vergraben im Waldboden. Erst 29 Jahre später wird Werner Mazurek als Täter verurteilt, der vehement seine Unschuld beteuert. Bis heute sorgt dieser Kriminalfall für Rätselraten, gerade weil neue Indizien und Spuren in eine überraschende Richtung weisen.

📺Alle Staffeln ARD CrimeTime gibt es hier:
https://1.ard.de/crimetime?yt=ctf

Der Podcast „Die Spur der Täter“ zur Staffel auf YouTube von ​⁠​⁠ @mdr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQn-FL801EM
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Hier gibts alle Folgen “Verurteilt!” in der ARD Mediathek:
📺https://1.ard.de/Verurteilt!_-_Der_Gerichtspodcast_Mediathek?yt=ctf
und hier in der ARD Audiothek:
https://1.ard.de/Verurteilt_Audiothek?yt=ctf
und hier auf YouTube zum kommentieren:
📺https://1.ard.de/Verurteilt!_-_Der_Gerichtspodcast?yt=ctf
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Hier gibt es den TrueCrime Podcast “im Visier” vom ​⁠​⁠ @rbb
📺https://1.ard.de/im_Visier?yt=ctf
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Krimis gibt es hier beim Tatort:
📺https://1.ard.de/tatort?yt=ctf
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Die Nachtstreife von ​⁠​⁠ @SWRDoku gibt es hier:
📺https://1.ard.de/nachtstreife_S02?yt=hr
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Noch mehr TrueCrime auf YouTube gibt es hier:
https://1.ard.de/Lokalzeit_MordOrte_Abolink?yt=hr

#crimetime #crime #truecrime

. This is one of the great German criminal cases. He is cruel, monstrous. It was an act that shocked many in Germany almost 30 years ago. (Reporter:) On September 15, 1981 around 7:30 p.m., ten-year-old Ursula Herrmann was on her way home on her bicycle. She never gets there. The demand was made to pay two million marks. And this box was found quite by chance. The Augsburg regional court has now sentenced a 59-year-old neighbor of the family to life imprisonment. I don’t know whether I would still condemn him today. In my opinion, things have not been investigated enough. Was Mazurek it or not, that’s really the question. And if it wasn’t Mazurek, then who was it? ♪ Strange are the echos … ♪ of this night. ♪ A hollow dream. ♪ In this hollow room. ♪ Strange is the absence … ♪ of the light. My name is Walter Rubach. I am a lawyer and have essentially been a criminal defense attorney for 30 years. I took on the Mazurek case in 2008 and have been involved in and working on this case ever since. A hearing will take place today at the Lübeck Regional Court.

Werner Mazurek, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Ursula Herrmann case, has been in prison for 15 years. I expect that a decision will be made today that the remaining sentence will be suspended. This would be possible after 15 years in prison. But one thing speaks against it.

Werner Mazurek continues to protest his innocence to this day. And not showing remorse can be interpreted negatively for him. (Rubach:) If the Penal Enforcement Chamber comes to the conclusion that further enforcement is necessary, the court can determine that additional years must be served before a new hearing takes place. Mazurek claims to be innocent. If he is released, he will try to prove it.

But will the judge accept the request for release on probation? In Munich, a woman has been intensively involved in the Ursula Herrmann case since 2019. While researching a crime novel, she comes across inconsistencies. My name is Christa von Bernuth. I have been working as a journalist and author for several decades .

In their search for clues in the Herrmann case, an elite boarding school on Lake Ammersee, which is only 600 meters from the crime scene, always plays a role . I have a personal connection to this case. A year and a half before the crime happened, I was a student at this boarding school. The time at Ammersee at the end of the 1970s was an important and formative period in her life. The surroundings are a paradise, an ideal world. All the memories and this fright, this shock that gripped me even though I didn’t know Ursula Herrmann. But I knew the whole environment.

That’s why it wasn’t really a question for me to deal with this case. In 2021, Christa von Bernuth will publish her novel, which is based on the criminal case surrounding Ursula Herrmann. If you spend a lot of time with it, it really gets to you. You see a little girl and you know that girl could have grown up. The case doesn’t let her go even after the publication of her novel . The author therefore wants to get to the bottom of the crime further. I would like to find evidence that might shed the case in a completely new light. This whole case took place in a place where you would never have expected it. And it’s about the Ammersee area. This is an idyll that you couldn’t imagine being more beautiful. In 1981, the Herrmann family lived in one of the small villages on the north bank of the lake.

These are small places, very picturesque places. Mostly grown around a town center. Especially in Eching, where the Herrmann family lived. My name is Holger Sabinsky-Wolf. I was a police and court reporter at Augsburger Allgemeine for around 15 years and came into contact with the Ursula Herrmann case for the first time

Around 2005 . Since then, the case has never let me go. Everyone knew each other in the place and that, apart from a break-in or something like that, a crime like that could happen was completely unimaginable. In 1981, Ursula Hermann was ten years old and had just started high school. Ursula was a very cheerful, thoroughly happy child. And that was just sunshine.

My name is Michael Hofstetter, I am a conductor. And I spent part of my youth at Lake Ammersee. The Herrmann family no longer speaks publicly about the case. Michael Hofstetter knows the family well. At the time he was friends with Ursula’s older brother Michael and was a frequent guest of the Herrmanns.

Her father was a teacher, but very musical and music-loving. And they had sheep and apple trees in front of the house. And so just like that in a kind of paradise. (Sabinsky-Wolf:) On September 15, 1981, that was the first day of school after the big holidays, a Tuesday. Ursula attended school, then went to her gym class in the afternoon in Schondorf and then, in consultation with her parents, had dinner at her aunt’s in Schondorf. The mother or father called and said,

People, please send Ursula home now. But Ursula just dawdled a bit. Anyway, it was around half past seven, maybe even a little later than half past seven, Ursula drove off. And this cycle path runs relatively close to the lake. And on the land side there is a forest area. And it must have been around five past eight or something like that that the mother suddenly said, what’s going on now? Why isn’t Ursula there? And so she immediately called her brother-in-law and sister-in-law

And asked, what’s wrong? Why isn’t Ursula there? Where is the? And they said Ursula left a long time ago. It should have been there by now. Then the police were immediately alerted. And the police reacted immediately. More than a hundred actually came. Neighbors and friends also help in the search. (Hofstetter:) At first it was assumed that she somehow fell in the vineyard or something. At around 11 p.m. a police officer makes a discovery in the forest. A few hours after Ursula’s disappearance, the searchers found the red bicycle in the forest.

Of course, that was the first moment where you said: Oh, now, something must have happened. The child was gone and stayed gone. Until the first mysterious phone calls came the next day. Then the first call came to the Herrmann parents. This is a very scary thing. They picked up, the caller was silent. Instead, he played the traffic tune from the radio station “Bayern 3,” which every child here in Bavaria knew back then. There were a lot of calls like that in the days that followed. Nobody is speaking. The family and police can only assume that they are the kidnappers. Why the sound signal keeps playing remains a mystery. The police recorded this jingle several times. And that would become very important later and cost Mazurek’s freedom. Then a blackmail letter arrived at the parents. Where a ransom demand of two million marks was raised. With this letter it was of course clear that it was a kidnapping.

A second ransom note arrived which essentially said you had agreed to pay. The blackmail letters that the Herrmann family received were very special. First of all, as you imagine in a bad film, made up of letters and words cut out from newspapers. The police examine the letters for clues. But the checkered paper is a mass-produced item and the words come from newspapers that are distributed nationwide. The analysis doesn’t help the investigators any further. Ursula’s father borrows the required two million marks from wealthy acquaintances and neighbors. All hope now lies in

The girl being released after the ransom has been handed over. At least the money was there. Now you thought, now something is going to happen. But nothing happened. After the letter, the blackmailers stopped contacting us. And the parents waited desperately. After contact with the kidnappers has been broken, the search for Ursula Herrmann in the forest is resumed. On the 19th day after Ursula’s disappearance, the search parties suddenly came across something in the forest floor. One of the searchers then started digging and came across this prison box relatively quickly.

The box was locked with seven bolts. The lid could be opened. The dead girl sat in this box. The box was specially prepared by the kidnappers. There was seating, there was a toilet bucket, there was food, there was water and fruit juice drinks. It was already set up as a prison in which the child would have survived for several days. (Holzhaider:) And there was a kind of pipe system attached

To the outside of the box that was supposed to be used for ventilation, but it wasn’t functional. The girl simply suffocated from lack of oxygen. After the discovery , mistakes were apparently made in the forensics and the crime scene was apparently not secured. An investigator states that authorized people were at the site.

Because so many people were looking, there were a lot of police there. It is perhaps understandable that they, unfortunately there is no other way to say it, trampled around. So in other words, there was an investigator who later said that it was a pure trace destruction machine.

And of course that still characterizes this case today, because so many traces could perhaps have been found, but they were all destroyed. It wasn’t until decades later that investigators found a tiny trace. A DNA print on a screw in the box. Does it lead to the perpetrator? At the request of “ARD Crime Time”, the LKA Bavaria no longer wants to comment on the course and quality of the forensic investigation at the time.

They refer to the final judgment in which all evidence was assessed. After the box is found, the parents and siblings are informed about Ursula’s death. It’s a Sunday and the family has just come from a church service. I think it was a form of… bewilderment. And sadness. But there were also very, in a deeper sense, also religious people. I think that was actually

The only way to deal with it. And how someone, from whatever stupid and base intention , could so irreparably interfere with the life of such a happy family is unforgivable. Today the regional court will decide whether the convicted Werner Mazurek will be released on parole after 15 years. The result of today’s hearing is that Mr. Mazurek will be released on June 7th. should be dismissed. It is by no means a given that a person sentenced to life imprisonment who denies the crime will be released after 15 years. The outcome of this hearing is all the more surprising.

This day is not a happy day for me in itself. I am of course happy for Mr Mazurek that he is being released. Only I have in the back of my mind, like him, of course, much more than me, he has 15 years in prison behind him.

And from what we know, he was wrongly imprisoned. One thing has always been clear, Mr. Mazurek will continue and will try to prove that he was not the perpetrator. My name is Werner Mazurek. I was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a crime in the Ursula Herrmann case that I did not commit. Werner Mazurek continues to claim he is innocent. Now he wants to find evidence of this. He has been in a wheelchair since a fall in prison. A supporter

Helped him find accommodation suitable for people with disabilities. I was lucky with the apartment, it was organized for me. But now the whole administrative war is starting. We need an appointment for every Tralala. Everything is tough, it’s not like it used to be. Werner Mazurek fights his way through the case files. While he was still in prison, Ursula’s brother Michael unexpectedly contacted him. Even the victim’s brother, Michael Herrmann, no longer believed in Mazurek’s guilt. He says that the investigation simply wasn’t done properly. Michael Herrmann’s research should actually lead to new leads in the years after the verdict . (Nervous music) Only if Werner Mazurek and his lawyer manage to find new evidence

Can there be a retrial and an acquittal. (Rubach:) Think about it, you were innocently in prison for 15 years and could be called a blackmailer and murderer. Then you want to get rid of this flaw. That’s one thing and the other, but that was always in the background, is the compensation.

It’s for 15 years, it’s 550,000 euros that he would get. For some that would be a lot of money, but spending 15 years in prison for it is certainly no satisfaction. Werner Mazurek’s conviction is based largely on a tape recorder that was confiscated from him in 2008. The LKA expert came to the conclusion in court that it was probably this device that played the blackmail calls. Mr. Mazurek made a very clear statement that he bought the tape recorder

At a flea market in 2007 . (Uneasy music) If Werner Mazurek could prove that he only bought the tape recorder 25 years after the crime, that could be an indication that he is actually innocent. To do this, he would first have to find the seller of the tape recorder

And he would also have to remember the purchase. Werner Mazurek will try. Yes, my fondest wish for the future is to have proof that I did not commit the crime in the form of a retrial. And that is the absolute goal. Christa von Bernuth asks herself: Why did it happen to the Herrmann family of all people? She makes her way to Eching am Ammersee, Ursula’s place of residence at the time. Many wealthy families live here. However, Ursula’s family was not one of them. There were so many things going against them,

Including the fact that the family had no money. Then the fact that she only went to this gym class a few times. And I actually always assumed that it was a case of mix-up. Christa von Bernuth repeatedly spoke to local people. She received indications that her suspicions could be correct. Back when I was researching my novel, I met a friend and she said to me: “The crazy thing is that back then in our family we all thought that this could possibly

Be a family member of ours, namely mine little brother.” The son of the family looked very similar to Ursula, at least from a distance. Well, he was slim, he had short blonde hair, just like Ursula did back then. He was a similar age and he drove through the vineyard regularly.

But can that be? At least the fact is that Ursula had her hair cut short a few days before the kidnapping . So she looked different than in the photos that were later published. And Christa von Bernuth notices another point. The boy has a connection to the nearby elite boarding school. This brother went to this boarding school and it was strange that this lead wasn’t followed at all. The school fees for the boarding school were at least 2,000 D-Marks per month.

Most of the students came from wealthy families. So did Bernuth’s friend Christa’s brother. Can it be a coincidence that a child is kidnapped near a boarding school where there are lots of rich people’s children? And that was just one point that repeatedly led me to the country home in my research. After the discovery of this box with the dead Ursula inside, the horror was of course huge not only at Ammersee, but also far beyond, actually throughout Germany. (Holzhaider:) That was gigantic. I mean, here it was primarily the tabloids that played it up and down. My name is Hans Holzhaider.

I was a court reporter for the Süddeutsche Zeitung for many years . This was really an exceptional crime, because of the … because of the disgust that it aroused. Shortly after the box was found, a special commission was formed by the Fürstenfeldbruck police station . (Reporter:) The public prosecutor’s office and the police are in the dark in the Ursula Herrmann case. With tips from the public, the police hope to track down the perpetrators. We have to assume

That the perpetrators had very good local knowledge and that they also had a well-equipped hobby workshop that went beyond the normal, which is proven by the production of this box. Mr Mazurek came under suspicion because there was a call to the LKA, an anonymous tip, look at Mazurek, he’s in debt, just take a look around him. His technical and manual skills also come into play; he is a television technician and electrical engineer. So everything that was needed in terms of craftsmanship

To build the box. Werner Mazurek moved from the Ruhr area to Lake Ammersee in the 1970s and built a life here with his wife and two children. I lived in Eching with our family and in Utting I had a company for video and connection technology. I was fully integrated into the community,

I was in the shooting club and back then on the festival committee for the 800th anniversary celebrations in 1980. I was with the water rescue service, so everything was fine. At six in the morning there is a rattle at the door and I think three or four detectives from Fürstenfeldbruck,

Including a woman, are standing there demanding entry. That was a disaster. First of all, he could not provide an alibi for the time of the crime. So these were all circumstances that made it seem possible that it was him, he lived in the neighborhood. Then you went to his workshop,

I think he even had several workshops, and looked at everything. The investigative report from the Fürstenfeldbruck Criminal Investigation Department records the result. Yes, there’s nothing there, there are no facts, it was all just blah and no facts and no fingerprints and whatnot. So after a few days he presented an alibi. On the evening in question, he was playing a board game

With his wife and several friends . And the friends confirmed that and that was the end of the matter. This shouldn’t be the end of the investigation against Werner Mazurek. Over 20 years later, he unexpectedly comes back into the focus of the police. In the 1980s, investigators focused on another suspect. A former police officer from the area seems to fit the profile of the perpetrator. Harald Wilhelm.

The most important suspicion against him: his profound local knowledge. He was a hunting assistant in the hunting area to which this forest area belonged. And of course he knew his way around there very well. There was a statement that his car was seen on the day of the kidnapping

In the parking lot near where the body was found. The convicted Werner Mazurek has a clear opinion about this suspect. For me, and for many others, the perpetrator is the former hunting assistant Harald Wilhelm. Ex-cop. Not a fool when it comes to craftsmanship either. And so had the opportunity. He was able to move around freely,

He knew when who was there and who wasn’t there, all the forestry workers. This is my number one favorite. But Werner Mazurek has no evidence for his suspicions. Wilhelm was investigated extensively, telephones were tapped and house searches were carried out. And in the end it all came to nothing.

Then at some point in the early to mid-1980s, the investigators actually reached a deadlock. So nothing worked anymore. Everything they had pursued, every lead they had pursued, simply led to nowhere. So the investigation stopped at that point. And at that time people really believed that nothing would happen anymore. It wasn’t until 20 years later that the case took an unexpected turn. That’s where they found this tape recorder. The phonetician at the State Criminal Police Office had been working on this case for years. And when she got this tape recorder, she had an aha moment because she recognized these sounds again. This gave the matter a completely new dynamic. SWR 2024