Village secret: Student uncovers missing father and murder!

Village secret: Student uncovers missing father and murder!

The drama surrounding the student Anja begins in a small village in the Upper Palatinate. She did an internship at the Neustadt Forestry Office at the end of the 1990s. But her stay has a very personal background: her father disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the woods as a child, and Anja wants to solve the secrets surrounding his disappearance. However, the villagers are becoming increasingly hostile to her questions. And when a murder occurs, Anja realizes that she is involved in a terrible secret that puts her life in danger. ARD Mediathek reports on this exciting plot, which is characterized by a talented cast around Henriette Confurius in the role of Anja Grimm.

But while Anja is searching for answers in the woods, something equally mysterious is happening elsewhere in Bavaria. On September 15, 2022, a classic car, an Audi A100 Coupé S, was discovered in a reservoir in Tännesberg. The car, which dates back to the 80s and had a TÜV badge from that time, raises many questions. The police rule out “unusual scrap disposal” and assume that the Audi was still registered when it was sunk in the lake. This is said to have happened around the time of a student's disappearance, which could further fuel the investigation. InFranken points out that the police have already received around 20 tips based on speculation about an East-West espionage case all the way up to a murdered nightclub operator.

The darkness of the past

The disappearance of student Monika Frischholz, who has been missing since 1976 and was last seen on May 25, 1976, is also being investigated. She is said to have gotten into a yellow Opel Kadett Coupé, and the fact that this could be linked to the Audi that was found does not give the investigators peace of mind. The investigators have now looked at data from the registration register that may have been deleted and are asking the public for help. Anyone who knows anything can pass on important information to the Vohenstrauß police station on 09651/9201-0.

The context of these cases shows how important the role of institutions such as the BKA's Missing Persons Office is. This not only handles missing person cases, but also helps identify unknown bodies and helpless people. A look at the numbers illustrates the explosive nature of missing people in Germany: On January 1, 2025, around 9,420 missing person cases were registered. While 50% of cases are resolved within a week, a small percentage remain missing for over a year. The statistics regarding underage refugees are particularly alarming, of which around 4,300 were reported missing in 2024. [BKA](https://www.bka.de/DE/ UnserAufgabe/Ermittlungsunterstuetzung/BearbeitungVermisstenfaelle/bearbeitungVermisstenfaelle.html) emphasizes that the police can only help if the relevant criteria are met and that referrals are often made to other institutions.

The connections between the mysterious cases in Upper Palatinate and the classic car from Tännesberg have not yet been fully clarified. But they show that behind every missing person there is often a dark story.