Murder of Tristan Brübach
Tristan Brübach | |
---|---|
Born | Frankfurt am Main, West Germany | October 3, 1984
Died | March 26, 1998 Frankfurt am Main, Germany | (aged 13)
Cause of death | Slashing |
Occupation | Student |
Known for | Victim of unsolved murder |
Tristan Brübach (3 October 1984 – 26 March 1998) was a 13-year-old
Life
Tristan Brübach was born on 3 October 1984 in Frankfurt am Main to parents Iris and Bernd.[1] Iris committed suicide in 1995, leaving Bernd to raise Tristan alone. Brübach grew up in Höchst and Unterliederbach, both suburban neighbourhoods on the outer fringes of Frankfurt. He attended Walter Kolb Primary School in Höchst before going to secondary school in Sindlingen, another suburb of Frankfurt. Tristan was described as shy but very streetwise, spending a lot of his free time walking around his neighbourhood with no specific purpose. He was extremely fond of animals: despite his shyness in all other scenarios, he would regularly approach strangers of all ages who were walking their dogs, so that he could enter into conversation with them about their pets.[2]
Murder
Brübach was last seen alive at Bruno-Asch-Anlage – a park in front of
Investigation
Fingerprinting
A large-scale
False leads
Among other false leads, an American woman told the police that her German ex-husband was the murderer. However, she later recanted her accusation, admitting that she had made up the story to take revenge on her ex-husband after an acrimonious divorce.
Manfred Seel
On 19 May 2016, the
Seel was considered a potential suspect primarily because he and Brübach lived in the same area, rather than there being any evidence linking him to Brübach's murder. Brübach does not fit Seel's victim profile in terms of age and gender. However, Seel did exhibit sexual sadism in his presumed murders and kept the genitals of some of his victims. In October 2017, the press officer of the Frankfurt Police announced that Seel had been excluded as a suspect in Brübach's murder.[8]
Particularities
Unidentified ponytailed man
The prime suspect is a male aged between 20 and 30 with either a
Unknown caller
On 7 April 1998, the day after Brübach's funeral, a man called the police to report that he was the murderer. He reported that he was at Höchst railway station and would wait there for the police to come and arrest him. When the police arrived, he was nowhere to be found. Parts of the call were made public and can be heard on YouTube. The caller has never been identified.
Grave
In October 1999, an unknown person entered Höchst Cemetery at night and dug 1.2 metres into the ground, down to Brübach's coffin. The coffin was not opened. The police believe that the act was committed by a mentally disturbed person with no connection to Brübach or his murder. Under German law, graves in public cemeteries are maintained by the state for a certain period of time (20 years in Hessen, the state where Brübach lived), after which the deceased person's family must pay to lease the grave site if they wish to keep their loved one there. If the family does not pay, the headstone is removed and the grave is reused for a new deceased person. Brübach's father died aged 59 in 2015 and no other relatives could afford to pay the fees to keep Brübach's grave in place, so a public initiative was launched to fund a memorial stone. In March 2018, after Brübach's grave was reused, a memorial stone was erected under a nearby tree, within sight of the grave.
Rewards offered
The Frankfurt am Main Prosecutor's Office is offering 15,000 euros for any information leading to conviction of Brübach's murderer. A private individual has added 5,000 euros to this, making the total reward sum 20,000 euros. Another private individual offered a time-limited 80,000-euro reward, but it expired in May 2016 with no one coming forward. The 20,000-euro reward remains in place.
See also
- List of unsolved murders
References
- ^ "Fahndung nach Personen - Ungeklärte Mordfälle: Mord an dem 13-jährigen Tristan Brübach". BKA (in German). Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2019-05-07. Mord an Tristan Brübach: Biographie von Tristan.
- ^ "Tristan Brübach". Unresolved. 1998-03-28. Retrieved 2019-05-07. Unresolved Podcast
- ^ publisher. "Fahndung nach Personen - Brübach, Tristan". BKA (in German). Archived from the original on 2016-12-24. Retrieved 2019-05-07. German Federal Criminal Police Office wanted-person announcement, 2009
- ^ "Fahndung nach Personen - Ungeklärte Mordfälle: Mord an dem 13-jährigen Tristan Brübach". BKA (in German). Retrieved 2019-05-07. Tagesablauf von Tristan Brübach am Todestag, 26.03.1998
- ^ "Tristan Brübach". Unresolved. 1998-03-28. Retrieved 2019-05-07. Unresolved Podcast
- ^ "BKA Unbekannte Personen". Archived from the original on 2016-05-08. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
- ^ Online, Spiegel (2018-03-24). "Fall Tristan Brübach: Kommissar Fey und das Rätsel vom Liederbach-Tunnel - Panorama". SPIEGEL ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2019-05-07.
- ^ http://www.hessenschau.de/panorama/fall-tristan-heisse-spur-zerschlagen---internetfahndung-geht-weiter,tristan-104.html Archived 2018-08-06 at the Wayback Machine Fall Tristan. Heiße Spur zerschlagen - Internetfahndung geht weiter.