https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=305348929613664&set=pcb.305348946280329&type=1&theater#!/photo.php?fbid=309529375862286&set=a.199382916876933.1073741828.199137286901496&type=1&theater
Sorry for long text, have tried my best at the translation, hopefully it makes sense. Thought it would be of interest as previous posters have commented on the rumours about the mum.
Schwarzwälder Bote 04.04.2014
Bitter reality – A child’s birthday without the child.
There still hasn’t been any trace of Maria-Brigette Henselmann from Freiburg. 11 months of uncertainty for her mother and her brothers.
Article by Ralf Deckert
Freiburg: 11 months have passed since the 13 year old Maria-Brigette Henselmann disappeared from Freiburg. She has fled with a man who is 40 years older than her, and his dog. The man, she got to know from chatting on the internet. The trial of the pair has gone cold, despite searches by the Police and by the mother of the girl. However it’s not only the uncertainty which is so difficult for the family. The longer the child is gone, the wilder the rumours that are coursing through the internet.
On the 12th April Maria will be 14. On her birthday, her mother will get together with the supporters who have been organising the search for the girl throughout Germany. IN a conversation with this newspaper in the autumn, Monika Beisler had already said she couldn’t comprehend that her daughter would stay away for so long. In the meanwhile, she is left with the thoughts of Maria’s birthday without Maria being there, and a year after the event, the ever intensive thoughts. Already Christmas was hard enough, although the 50 year old had said that Christmas had never been a big thing for her. Working hasn’t been on her mind for months – the longer maria is gone for, the harder she is finding it to deal with her depression.
The reason for this, is that after the disappearance of her daughter the smear campaigns began – that the mother seemed to have been exposed. “so-called experts on the internet have been saying it from the start. It has become a downright mobbing. The craziest rumours have been circulating” Monika goes on to say. “For example, that twice a year I go on holiday with money from the savings account of the white ring” (*edit.. I couldn’t easily find what the Weisse Ring was… whether it’s an actual organisation or slang for something) “Or that I am hiding under the roof of the scientologists and they are holding Maria prisoner in Spain, or that I am a sex or drug addict”
“In the internet, on certain blogs, we are able to cope with it. It is harder when these rumours are reflected in the newspapers. From local newspapers to national tabloids, we have had some bad experiences. In one case I was put under pressure by text message from one reporter. He said that he had exclusive knowledge about Maria’s case, things that only the police knew.” Once she realised this wasn’t true, and didn’t pay him any more attention, he had written a smear-article about her.
At the same time, the internet is also a source of strength for her, said Beisler. Other parents of children who have disappeared have got in contact. Other people have contacted her to say that they as a child were in a similar situation. Some people find it easier to remain anonymous. Through these contacts, she has discovered much about how children and young people think, how more or less free women will get with a pedophile, and how hard it is for someone to break away from this situation, because they feel responsible for the offender and they are under a lot of psychological pressure. Before it was more a question of violence, that the offender would use violence to get the child, but today it is easier on the internet to build relationship to the victim.
For Maria’s brothers, Daniel (15) and her half-brother Tobias (23) the uncertainty is just as hard. Both were present at the interview with Monika Beisler. Tobias is himself a father, six months ago his daughter was born. He works in a restaurant, attends evening school and wants to build a future for him and his young family. He manages to blend the worries about his “self-confident, cheeky, clever” half-sister into his everyday life. “There is no other way – and what else should I be doing?”
He can just about give his mother consolation, even when he can hardly stand it - “Even when it is painful”
About the speculation of his family in the media, he has a clear opinion – “It is 90% not about Maria” “And that doesn’t interest me. The only thing I am interested in, is that she comes back”
The situation is a little harder for Daniel, who is only a year older than his sister. “We had our little fights, but they were always in jest” He goes to the same grammar school that Maria attended before her disappearance. Do people talk to him about his sister? “Not so much now” Did he notice a change in her behaviour? Not really, she was always on her mobile, but so is everyone.
