Germany Germany - Gerard Pelzer, 19, Kaster, 19 Jun 1980

[TheArtfulDetective]

Gerard Pelzer



Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: June 19, 1980
Location Last Seen: Kaster, Germany

Physical Description
Date of Birth: March 7, 1961
Age: 19 years old
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Height: 169 cm approx.
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Chestnut
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Scars from third degree burns on the inside of both legs. Scar from a cigarette burn on his forearm. A genetic abnormality in one of his ears.

Identifiers
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not available
DNA: Not available

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Civilian suit and army boots.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Pelzer, a Belgian citizen, was last heard from on the 29th of May 1980, when he called his mother saying he was coming home for the weekend. He never arrived and was never heard from again.

At the time of his disappearance, Pelzer was stationed as an air force soldier at the NATO site of Kaster, Germany, and was reported as a deserter. Only his civilian suit and army boots were missing from his equipment. In his personal belongings, a present for his mother, his civilian identity card, and a tightly folded Model C report were found. The report stated that "Private Gerard Pelzer was found unconscious alongside the road by two German civilians and was brought to the base infirmary." This information was never revealed by the military authorities, as well as other disturbing facts that were uncovered. Pelzer's whereabouts remain unknown.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Netherlands National Police
Agency Phone Number: 003793459955; 0031654736752


https://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/297dmdeu.html
MM-0127

 

[branmuffin]

Gerard Pelzer

View attachment 327706 View attachment 327707

Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: June 19, 1980
Location Last Seen: Kaster, Germany

Physical Description
Date of Birth: March 7, 1961
Age: 19 years old
Race: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Height: 169 cm approx.
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Chestnut
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Scars from third degree burns on the inside of both legs. Scar from a cigarette burn on his forearm. A genetic abnormality in one of his ears.

Identifiers
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not available
DNA: Not available

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Civilian suit and army boots.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Pelzer, a Belgian citizen, was last heard from on the 29th of May 1980, when he called his mother saying he was coming home for the weekend. He never arrived and was never heard from again.

At the time of his disappearance, Pelzer was stationed as an air force soldier at the NATO site of Kaster, Germany, and was reported as a deserter. Only his civilian suit and army boots were missing from his equipment. In his personal belongings, a present for his mother, his civilian identity card, and a tightly folded Model C report were found. The report stated that "Private Gerard Pelzer was found unconscious alongside the road by two German civilians and was brought to the base infirmary." This information was never revealed by the military authorities, as well as other disturbing facts that were uncovered. Pelzer's whereabouts remain unknown.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Netherlands National Police
Agency Phone Number: 003793459955; 0031654736752


297DMDEU - Gerard Pelzer
MM-0127

So if this guy was brought to the base infirmary what happened to him? Was he treated and released? Did he leave under his own recognizance? It almost sounds like the poor kid wanted to be in the army or was told to join the army to toughen him up and he wasn't doing well at all. His 3 'mates' were probably reassigned to different bases because they caused his injuries. Is there any information as to his level of injury?

 

[branmuffin]

So if this guy was brought to the base infirmary what happened to him? Was he treated and released? Did he leave under his own recognizance? It almost sounds like the poor kid wanted to be in the army or was told to join the army to toughen him up and he wasn't doing well at all. His 3 'mates' were probably reassigned to different bases because they caused his injuries. Is there any information as to his level of injury?

Why would the Netherland police be investigating his disappearance if he was Belgian?

He was a member of the 13th wing of Belgium Air Force based Kaster, Belgium. If he told his mother he was going to visit her that weekend why would the present he bought for her still be in his belongings at the base? So when they say he never came back and listed him as a deserter, it sounds to me like he never left the base at all. It also sounds like there was a coverup regarding what happened to him, especially since his mates were relocated to other bases. Almost sounds like when the Catholic church would relocate priests to other parishes when they'd been accused of child molesting. Call me cynical, regarding his disappearance.

 

[ZaZara]

Why would the Netherland police be investigating his disappearance if he was Belgian?

He was a member of the 13th wing of Belgium Air Force based Kaster, Belgium. If he told his mother he was going to visit her that weekend why would the present he bought for her still be in his belongings at the base? So when they say he never came back and listed him as a deserter, it sounds to me like he never left the base at all. It also sounds like there was a coverup regarding what happened to him, especially since his mates were relocated to other bases. Almost sounds like when the Catholic church would relocate priests to other parishes when they'd been accused of child molesting. Call me cynical, regarding his disappearance.

BBM

The Dutch Police does not investigate disappearances of Belgians in Kaster, Germany. Why indeed would they?

In 2021, I checked the data that the DOE network so gracefully offers about this case * sarcasm off *

I could not find the detectives whose names appear on the page of the DOE network. Tanja Berendsen is a real person, she is the owner of a beauty salon. Very dedicated to skin care and never mentions that she was with the police in a former life.
The first phone number will lead you to Lithuania or thereabouts - I am quoting from memory here - could be Latvia as well. Check: Lithuania indeed.
The other phone number is a mobile number in the Netherlands, but that is not how the Dutch Police operates when they request info from members of the public. I am not going to bother the owner.

But do not despair, there is good news too. I will save that for my next post, so hang on!

 

[ZaZara]

Bureau Van Meerbeeck is investigating the disappearance of Gerard Pelzer.

Video about the case, text in Dutch. No translation availabe, but the images are almost self-expanatory.
Bureau Van Meerbeeck meets with Gerard's sister and speaks with her about his life. Together with students of the Saxion University of Applied Sciences they investigate Gerard's last days and hours. They try to find DNA on his belongings and the put together a time line of the disappeance.

From Kurt Wertelaers, founder of Van Meerbeeck on Linked In:

"He was supposed to come home for Mother's Day, but we never saw him again."
For 44 years, Fabienne has been waiting for her brother Gerard to come home. That Belgian soldier with roots in the Netherlands was on a mission in Germany when he disappeared without a trace in 1980.

Cold Case Bureau Van Meerbeeck delved into the investigation with Fabienne over the past few years. We went to the German army base and visited his army buddies at the time. We took DNA from Fabienne and used it to search commercial databases. We worked with students from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences to find the missing soldier's DNA on the letters he had left behind that he had written. We published frequently about the case and about the fact that over 2,000 anonymous dead are buried in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany today.

Meanwhile -and we are so grateful for this- the police have jumped on the case and attempts are being made to get the Pelzer family's DNA into Interpol's so-called I-Familia Database. That is a huge step!

BBM

 

[ZaZara]

From Van Meerbeeck's April / May 2024 Newsletter Cold Case Chronicles:

With Cold Case Bureau Van Meerbeeck, we have been diving into the mysterious disappearance of Gerard Pelzer, the Belgian soldier with Dutch roots who disappeared in Germany in 1980.

Today, all possible hypotheses and scenarios remain open. He could have staged his disappearance himself and be living on the other side of the world today. Also, something could have happened to him on or around the base and today there is someone out there who knows more. Or maybe Gerard took his own life.

Either way, a body has not yet been found. Or, at least there has been no match yet with the many unidentified bodies in our country and around it.
Enquiries reveal to Cold Case Bureau Van Meerbeeck that there are more than 2,000 bodies (or body parts) waiting to be identified.

BBM

 

[branmuffin]

So I'm confused. Where was Pelzer stationed? There is a Kaster in both Belgium and Germany. Why would Belgians be allowed to have a military base in Germany? And if the military base was in Kaster Belgium, why would a 19 year old be on some kind of secret mission in Germany when he went missing? Makes no sense to me.

And if he was taken to the hospital after being found he either left voluntarily, died and the records are screwed up, or he got better was released and went missing afterwards. The whole story is confusing and contradictory.

Are there no people in Europe with the same names? After 40 years the likelihood of more than one Tanja Berendsen doesn't seem odd.

Are we supposed to dismiss all the information on the Doe Network? All the information uploaded onto DN is done by volunteers. It's not necessarily done by law enforcement organizations. Some of the information is limited because many police forces are reluctant to provide information for missing persons or UIDs so it's left to interested individuals, family members, friends, etc.

 

[ZaZara]

So I'm confused. Where was Pelzer stationed? There is a Kaster in both Belgium and Germany. Why would Belgians be allowed to have a military base in Germany?

BBM


The year is 1980. Cold War wasn't over yet. This was NATO policy.

 

[branmuffin]

Right, thanks. So Kaster was in West Germany. He was stationed in Germany I presume as part of NATO. So he told his parents he was coming home for the weekend but never arrived. We know he never left Germany because the gift he bought for his mother was still in his barracks. He never arrived because he was found unconscious in Kaster and sent to the military hospital. And that's where all the information becomes fuzzy and suspect. His hospital records are lacking; we don't know whether he was discharged by the doctors, whether he left without approval from the doctors, or whether he died in the hospital.

It's unfortunate that the Doe Network information is garbled maybe because it was someone who didn't speak the language and relied on some website translation to submit the details.

 

[ifindedout]

Kaster has no English Wikipedia entry, but it is north of the town of Bedburg, and is on the edge of the huge, and ever-expanding, Garzweiler Tagebau lignite strip mine.
Bedburg - Wikipedia
Kaster - German Wikipedia
Garzweiler surface mine - Wikipedia

 

[ZaZara]

Gerard Pelzer's mother was Belgian. His father was Dutch. He died before Gerard was born. The mother then returned to Belgium with her children. Life wasn't easy for the mother, nor for the children. Years later, the family moved again to the Netherlands.


From the info at Bureau Van Meerbeeck:

Waar is Gerard?


Gerard has a childhood dream. He wants to join the army. Become a soldier. To serve his country. "That had to be the Dutch army then, because the teenager had Dutch nationality. Only, for that Dutch army he turns out to be too small. His dream is blown to pieces." Until it turns out that in Belgium the minimum height was different. Suddenly, Gerard has a chance. He is only seventeen when he gets naturalised as a Belgian.

From then on, things move fast. On 16 July 1979, Gerard Pelzer becomes a soldier (volunteer) in the Belgian army. He is very proud. He writes letters home. To his mum, his sister and half-brother. First from Koksijde, on the Belgian coast. Later from Blankenheim, Germany, where he works at the NATO base, with the so-called 13th Wing.

He regularly returns home to his mother, sister and half-brother. They now live back in the Netherlands. And Gerard, even though he is Belgian and serving in the Belgian army, still feels like a Dutchman. He writes as much in one of so many letters to his mum. "A proud Dutchman who loves his family and especially his mum," he ends a letter on 10 February 1980. A day later, the young soldier writes another letter to his mother. A very short one this time. "Mama, I forgot in the previous letter: I love you so much. Gérard."

He seems almost a dream son.

On 30 April 1980, Gerard is home for the last time, with his family. It is Queen's Day. The Netherlands celebrates Queen Beatrix ascending the throne. Later that day, Gerard takes the train from Venlo to Germany, to the army base. He promises his mum to return two weeks later for Mother's Day.

But from then on, things go horribly wrong.

At home, in the Dutch town of Sevenum, mum Claudia prepares for her son Gerard's visit. It is early May 1980 and Mother's Day is approaching. Gerard, who was doing his army service in Germany, had promised to visit especially for Mother's Day. But instead of a visit, mum Claudia receives a phone call from the infirmary of the NATO base. Gerard has been hospitalised.

Whether we are ever going to find out exactly why Gerard was hospitalised, we do not know today. The fact is that in Gerard's personal effects we find a document, dated 8 May 1980 and signed by 'widow Pelzer', or mama Claudia. It is a 'permis de visite', a permission to visit her son in Kaster's infirmary. She stays there for an hour.

What Mother Claudia and her son discuss is not clear. At least that he will not visit for Mother's Day, as promised. But neither does he hand over the gift he bought. Presumably, they did discuss that Gerard would come home a month later. Specifically, the weekend of 7 and 8 June 1980.

"I remember us waiting in vain for him that Saturday," says sister Fabienne. "Very briefly, we wondered if we shouldn't call the NATO base in Kaster, where Gerard was. But again, that would be embarrassing for such a young soldier. For his worried mum to call the barracks. So we didn't do that then. We waited. And waited. But Gerard didn't come home."

On Monday 9 June, a telegram arrives at the Pelzer family in the Netherlands. From the barracks, an army commander writes in bold ink to Private Pelzer "Return to your unit immediately! ...
"At home we understood nothing about it," says Fabienne. "Gerard was with them, wasn't he? In the barracks? What had happened?"

The mystery begins. Gerard is NOT at home with his family. And Gerard is no longer at the NATO base in Kaster, Germany. Gerard has disappeared.


BBM


to be contunued

 

[ZaZara]

From the info at Bureau Van Meerbeeck, continued:

"A few days later, maybe a few weeks later, I was home alone," says Fabienne. "Suddenly two men were at the door. In civilian clothes. Long dark coats. To the best of my memory, I can't remember what language they were speaking.

They stormed upstairs to Gerard's bedroom and searched through absolutely everything.

They took all the clothes out of the wardrobes, all the books off the shelves. They took all the records out of their sleeves. Everything was upside down. They were looking for something, but I never knew what. And then they left. As quietly as they had come."


"Until today I think it was military police or something, but I was only 20 myself. What did I know?"

"Mum searched, called, walked and cried in the weeks and months after the disappearance. She wrote letters to Gerard's friends, to the Red Cross in Belgium and the Netherlands. To both monarchs and both defence ministers.

No one knew where Gerard was. Our questions remained."

And never an answer would come. Mama Claudia has since died. Without knowing what happened to Gerard.

Anno 2021 Fabienne retrieves a large cardboard box from the attic at home in the Netherlands. "It is the correspondence I was talking about. The letters to and from the Red Cross, ministers and monarchs. The letters Gerard wrote from the NATO base. You may read them. And there are also photos with them, from the base. Photos of him and his army buddies. Maybe they will be useful to you..."

In the weeks that followed, the letters and photographs are displayed on a long table at Bureau Van Meerbeeck. One letter immediately stands out. It is a letter from one 'Jacky' to Gerard's mother. Written from the army base in Blankenheim, barely two weeks after the disappearance. Jacky turns out to be an army mate of Gerard's.

"I would go looking myself if I thought it made sense," Jacky writes. "Because you should know that we cared a lot about Gerard in Blankenheim. Especially Jimmy, Michel and I. Because we knew him well, he was our little protégé. Know that you can count on me and my friends.

See you soon, Jacky."

(...)

At Bureau Van Meerbeeck, we meticulously analyse the many letters and documents we got hold of thanks to Gerard's sister. They allow us to get a picture of a teenager growing up into a mature young man with an eternal dream: to join the army. We put important dates on a timeline. For instance, Gerard starts his military career on 16 July 1979 with the Belgian army in Koksijde, but very soon he makes his transfer to Germany's Blankenheim, a military site with so-called Nike missiles. This was not only heavy anti-aircraft artillery, in case of emergency, nuclear warheads could be mounted on them. Both the US military and the NATO alliance had as many as a few hundred such special sites worldwide. Blankenheim, a highly secure site, was one of them. How proud Gerard must have been to be part of such an alliance after just two months of voluntary army service.

(...)

How strange, by the way. The boy who just a year earlier had correspondence with some pen pals about the futility of war and nuclear weapons is here in the heart of such a destructive installation.

There is indeed something strange about the story of Gerard, the tough soldier. For apart from the loving letters to pen pals, some of Gerard's army mates also say that the young man did not actually find his place in that tough, dangerous world. Because yes, we found those army buddies thanks to you. Not long after our appeal, we got in touch with Jacky for the first time. He describes Gerard as a fine friend and friendly guy. "But not actually a soldier," Jacky says from his residence somewhere in the south-west of France. "He wanted so much, but it was so very hard for him. He was too small and too skinny. He had to tie his thick, heavy army belt twice around his middle for his trousers to remain in place. Physically, it was hard on him. I remember the tough running tests in the blazing sun on the beach at Koksijde. Gerard's tongue hung on the ground. Often we told him 'Gerard, stop it boy. This is not your world.' But he wouldn't give up. He wanted to become a soldier at any cost." Gerard persisted and at night, on his bed in the barracks, he wrote long letters to his mother about his adventures.

Many of his army mates apparently did not know for a long time that Gerard Pelzer had disappeared. "One day he was gone. We thought he himself had called it a day..."


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

At Bureau Van Meerbeeck, they wonder if Gerard had left of his own accord:

Could it be? Could it be that Gerard himself left the army base? Could it be that Gerard didn't dare to go home either? Because perhaps he was not the soldier he had described in his letters? Because he had disappointed himself and might do the same to his mother?

"It is of course possible," says sister Fabienne, going through the letters with us. "That he had built a life somewhere far away and under a different identity. Maybe with a woman, maybe with a child...".

Even if this scenario is wafer-thin, we are not ruling it out and are not taking any chances. Together with Benoit Vermeerbergen -good friend, confidant and authority on genealogy- we take a DNA sample from Fabienne. That sample is then sent to a worldwide DNA database where people are looking for relatives. The chance is small, but if there is a descendant of Gerard somewhere in the world who is looking for his or her roots, we will find a clue to our missing soldier. (*)

Among the personal belongings Gerard's family recovered after his disappearance, we suddenly find a letter. Addressed to a certain Nicole, but never sent. It is a love letter. The soldier had fallen deeply in love.

In the page-long and very beautiful letter, Gerard expresses his love to this mysterious Nicole. The letter is not dated, but from analysis of the paper we suspect it was written in the last months of 1979, when Gerard was in Blankenheim.

Who is Nicole? How does she suddenly come into Gerard's life? Was she a German? Was she working at the NATO base? Is she the woman who knows more about Gerard? Would she know at all that she once stole Gerard's heart? Many unanswered questions. But if we know one thing it is that our search for the truth requires us to try to find Nicole.

BBM

And that is where the investigation stands as of now.


(*) With his sister's DNA in the private databases, Gerard might be identified in minutes if his remains were located and DNA was recovered - but the use of private databases is generally still not allowed in the EU. Fingers crossed that Belgian LE will manage to get Gerard's family DNA into Interpol's I-Familia database.

 

[branmuffin]

At Bureau Van Meerbeeck, they wonder if Gerard had left of his own accord:

Could it be? Could it be that Gerard himself left the army base? Could it be that Gerard didn't dare to go home either? Because perhaps he was not the soldier he had described in his letters? Because he had disappointed himself and might do the same to his mother?

"It is of course possible," says sister Fabienne, going through the letters with us. "That he had built a life somewhere far away and under a different identity. Maybe with a woman, maybe with a child...".

Even if this scenario is wafer-thin, we are not ruling it out and are not taking any chances. Together with Benoit Vermeerbergen -good friend, confidant and authority on genealogy- we take a DNA sample from Fabienne. That sample is then sent to a worldwide DNA database where people are looking for relatives. The chance is small, but if there is a descendant of Gerard somewhere in the world who is looking for his or her roots, we will find a clue to our missing soldier. (*)

Among the personal belongings Gerard's family recovered after his disappearance, we suddenly find a letter. Addressed to a certain Nicole, but never sent. It is a love letter. The soldier had fallen deeply in love.

In the page-long and very beautiful letter, Gerard expresses his love to this mysterious Nicole. The letter is not dated, but from analysis of the paper we suspect it was written in the last months of 1979, when Gerard was in Blankenheim.

Who is Nicole? How does she suddenly come into Gerard's life? Was she a German? Was she working at the NATO base? Is she the woman who knows more about Gerard? Would she know at all that she once stole Gerard's heart? Many unanswered questions. But if we know one thing it is that our search for the truth requires us to try to find Nicole.

BBM

And that is where the investigation stands as of now.


(*) With his sister's DNA in the private databases, Gerard might be identified in minutes if his remains were located and DNA was recovered - but the use of private databases is generally still not allowed in the EU. Fingers crossed that Belgian LE will manage to get Gerard's family DNA into Interpol's I-Familia database.

Wow, thanks so much for fleshing out the circumstances regarding Gerard's disappearance. It still is murky regarding his hospital stay and how he came to leave the hospital.

 

[ZaZara]

Kölnische Rundschau, 13.06.2021

Aus Bedburger Kaserne verschwunden: Noch immer fehlt jede Spur von Gerard Pelzer

But something must have gone very wrong from then on. One of Gerard Pelzer's last signs of life: according to an official reprimand, two civilians are said to have found the drunken soldier unconscious by the roadside and brought him to the barracks, where he was taken to the infirmary.

Pelzer had been "looking for trouble in pubs". The document was issued by a superior officer on 28 May 1980 - just four days before Pelzer's disappearance. On 29 May, he called his mother and announced his visit again - but Gerard Pelzer did not reach his mother and sister's house. Instead, on Monday, 9 June 1980, a telegram arrived from a superior: "Return to your unit immediately!"

A few days later, military police searched Gerard Pelzer's room in his mother's house and even pulled all the records out of their sleeves. His mother Claudia has since died, but Gerard's sister Fabienne is still looking for her brother. As Kurt Wertelaers reports, letters have been sent to the Red Cross, to former comrades and also to the ministries of defence in Belgium and the Netherlands as well as to the royal palaces. Without success.

A love letter that was never sent and was found in Gerard Pelzer's personal belongings at the time has now become a new lead for Wertelaers. It is addressed to a Nicole. She is now being sought. "We don't know whether Nicole was German," says Wertelaers. But it is quite possible. "She would be around 60 years old now."

The Nato base in Bedburg consisted of three parts: the barracks in Kaster, the missile launch base in the Rübenbusch forest and the radar station near the Kaiskorb property. Belgian and US soldiers were deployed here. The facilities were in operation from the 1960s until 1983 and Nike missiles were stored in the launching area. These were anti-aircraft missiles that could be equipped with nuclear warheads at short notice. At its most powerful, the barracks was manned by 360 soldiers. (dv)

For the police authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, the Gerard Pelzer missing persons case does not exist. The computer at Cologne police headquarters did not return any results from a Europe-wide search, and the case is missing from a list on the Dutch police website that goes back to 1966.

There are also no documents on the case in the archives of the district police authority. Only the German Federal Criminal Police Office has records. "In this case, the investigation has now been concluded", the authorities in Wiesbaden announced. Please "understand that the Federal Criminal Police Office cannot provide any further information".


BBM


So after he had been found unconscious on the side of the road, his mother visited him in the army hospital on May 8, and on May 28 Gerard Pelzer gets an official reprimand for passing out drunk? Are these two separate occasions, or was the paperwork about 3 weeks late? (IMO it was probably late.)

Gerard Pelzer was drinking, that much seems clear.

 

[branmuffin]

I wonder if the military thought he had compromised their facility by leaking information.