“An expert's report confirmed that the letter is in fact Tanja's handwriting. And a comparison of the traces of the letter with the DNA on her old toothbrush will confirm that Tanja touched this letter. There was her DNA on the letter and one other person’s DNA was found on it as well. It is the last sign of life that the desperate parents have received from their daughter to this day. The letters are still an unsolved mystery for the police: "The style of the letters is very strange," says Alexander Kresta, spokesman for the Wuppertal police. Has Tanja been urged to write the letters?
"It's not easy for a 15-year-old to disappear from the scene without a trace," says Kresta. Especially since Tanja had never attracted negative attention at high school or had any contact with the drug scene. Her academic performance is good, she earns her pocket money by babysitting and attends dance classes. Her dream was to act in a musical one day.
Recently there had been a few arguments with the parents. As an only child, Tanja felt too controlled by them and announced that she would be moving to a supervised residential group for young people. But the youth welfare office explained to her that she wasn’t a candidate to be accepted there.
A witness claims to have seen Tanja in a silver-gray BMW with two pit bulls. The police will later explain a trail that led nowhere.
The relationship of the parents did not survive the disappearance of their daughter. Father and mother separated. "It's not uncommon for relationships to break up over such cases," says book author Jamin. At the initial stage, friends and relatives try to help loved ones. Tanja's mother expressed her feelings on the Internet. Elsabeth M. addresses her missing daughter on her own website:
"Again and again I ask myself how it could be like this. But only you can give me the answer. That is my only and dearest wish: to hear from you everything that you have been through, what made you leave, what you blame me and whether you can forgive me. (...) I'm no longer married to dad (...). If you just want to find your way to me, nothing stands in the way. I would like to tell you one more thing: you need not be ashamed or afraid of anything anymore. If anyone has to be ashamed, then it's me. Because I didn't notice how you felt."
The article is German but the translation is very good.
Düsseldorf (RPO). 1900 Kinder werden jährlich in NRW als vermisst gemeldet. Jedes Mal beginnt für die Eltern ein Alptraum: Wurde das Kind Opfer eines
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