All language subtitles for The Child In The Box Who Killed Ursula Herrmann [2022] [1080p] eng

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My sister's fate

has stayed with me for 40 years.

I carry it with me.

It's something that is a part of me.
I'll carry it with me until I die.

I never really stop here.

This is in the immediate vicinity
of the crime scene.

It is still unclear who
was actually responsible

for the death of my little sister.

One of the most notorious

criminal cases in German history.

We know something so cruel

only from horror thrillers.

It was a particularly evil crime,

10-year-old Ursula is kidnapped,

weeks later the child is found suffocated,

in a wooden box buried in the woods.

Following my sister's death,
we were in a state of trauma.

The death of Ursula Herrmann in 1981

has occupied the police, the judiciary

and the public for decades.

This crime was so inconceivably cruel.

How can someone do something like this?

Almost 30 years after the crime,

a man is convicted in a spectacular trial.

I think the trial wasn't designed
to reveal the truth,

I think a lot went wrong there.

I think he was the right one,

I would have convicted him as well.

My name is Werner Mazurek.

I was sentenced to life imprisonment

for a crime I didn't commit.

My main motivation was to get
closer to the truth.

I wouldn't know where to start.

Then I came across a chat forum

where they were also dealing
with my sister's criminal case.

I looked at the investigation files again.

The perpetrators

left so many clues and
that was the breakthrough.

If there are lies, I'd like to
be there to expose them.

Lake Ammersee is located in

a Bavarian, idyllic, fairytale landscape.

On the north shore are the two villages

of Eching and Schondorf.

Picturesque villages with churches,
onion domes, farms,

that have been around for centuries.

It's a romantic landscape.

You have the feeling
you're in a small paradise.

It's absolutely typical of Bavaria.

It can't really be more Bavarian.

Definitely Catholic and very conservative.

It has just become a very rich area,

and a lot of Munich residents move there

because Lake Ammersee is beautiful.

But in this peaceful corner of Bavaria,

you wouldn't have expected it,

a child abduction nearby

was something

you couldn't imagine.

The case of Ursula Herrmann

was certainly a real shock

for this very peaceful area
on Lake Ammersee.

Something so brutal, so cold,

you couldn't even imagine.

Who would do something like that?

The village is definitely shaped
by this tragedy

even though it was so long ago.

Germany has been dealing
with this case for over 40 years

because it's so unbelievable.

Ursula was just a normal girl.

She no longer played with dolls

but rather played with stuffed animals.

We had a shared interest
in playing the piano,

and sometimes I helped her practice.

Ursula was, of course,
the chick in the family.

This little girl was loved
and pampered by everyone.

She had a sunny disposition,

I remember her as sunny and
loving with all her heart.

She was just cheerful.

What happened to my sister
changed my life,

I have never been able
to fully come to terms with it.

September 15, 1981,
was the first day of school.

In the afternoon,
Ursula cycled through the forest

to Schondorf.

That's where she had her gym class.

And after gym class,
she went to her cousin's.

My parents then called
to say to come home.

Around 7:30 she left cycling

across the woods and along the lake.

That usually only takes a few minutes.

I was friends with the Herrmann family,

especially with Michael.

Michael came over in the evening

and we just practiced music.

We worked a bit and then I set the table

because we wanted to have dinner.

And then the phone rang.

The second I picked up the phone,

I realised that something was wrong.

It was Michael's mother,

I immediately noticed

there was a form of excitement

but an excitement

that cannot be slowed down,
that comes from the very core.

I immediately handed the phone
over to Michael.

His mother spoke relatively loudly,

you could hear her through the phone,

she said, 'Ursula didn't come home
something's happened.'

As a rather unsuspecting older brother,

I thought to myself,

she probably stayed with her friend

and is now hiding.

That was the first thought.

We just wanted to calm her down:

'She will come, maybe
she's still with a friend.'

'No, no, I can feel it,
something happened.

Come back right away.'

There was something,
maybe it's the deep bond

that connects parents,
and mothers especially,

with their children.

She felt horror at that moment,

and I could feel it through the phone too.

And that changed everything.

I drove Michael home right away.

When we arrived at the Herrmann house

Michael and his father went
into the woods to search.

Michael stayed home in case anyone called.

That was the hope.

Maybe someone would call
and say, 'Ursula is here,'

and then everything would be okay.

About half an hour later,
we called the police

to report a missing person.

Then the fire brigade was called
in to search.

When the child went missing

the news spread quickly in the village

that Ursula from the Herrmann family
had gone missing.

People didn't think too much of it.

'She'll come back home.'

But that changed very quickly

when the news came that
Ursula's bicycle had been found.

I remember that the bike
was found around 11pm,

and that was, of course, the alarm signal

because who pushes their bike
into the forest and disappears?

Since 7:30pm yesterday evening,

10-year-old Ursula Herrmann
has been missing,

the girl was cycling home from Schondorf.

She is slim and has short blond hair.

They looked for her intensely

with hundreds of police

and divers.

And suddenly you heard a helicopter.

It was an event for Eching.

Everyone was hoping that things
would turn out well.

It was a mixture

of endless sadness and bewilderment

but then hope again.

As long as you don't know
that someone is dead

you always hope.

The police were at our house
on the first day,

and they were there during those calls.

There was no speech.

Once, you could hear
a short scraping sound,

Most of these calls played this jingle,

Then a short break, and then
again the same jingle.

People know it as
the Bayern Radio 3 jingle.

My parents didn't know what it meant.

We received seven calls that day.

That was extremely strange.

The fact that this was really a kidnapping

was actually only clear
three days after the event

because it was only on this third day

that we received the first ransom note.

We kidnapped your daughter

if you ever want to see
your daughter alive again

pay a ransom of two million marks.

Where and how the money
should be handed over

will be communicated at a later time
in a letter or by telephone.

We will call you on Thursday.

We'll identify ourselves with a whistle.

Say only if will pay or not.

If you involve the police in the case,

or if you don't pay,
we will kill the hostage.

That was, of course, a complete shock.

You'd think that this
only happens in crime movies,

but this was just the reality,

and it's pretty crazy.

At that point, the police search
was called off.

The police agreed with my parents

that they should say that
they were willing

to pay the ransom.

No one could understand

why anybody would kidnap
a child from this family

because the Herrmanns
were not a rich family.

My father asked the neighbors.

There were a few people
who had money around us.

We didn't have any ourselves,

It was a way of raising the money.

We definitely had hope,

that the situation could be resolved.

And then the second ransom note arrived.

You have communicated your readiness
to pay over the telephone.

The money handover can only
take place with a yellow Fiat 600.

Keep the money in a suitcase.
We'll call you.

After our phone call,

set out in your car and
the money immediately.

We will tell you over the phone

exactly where you should go.

We will be watching you
from several places.

Again, no police.

There were no instructions on
what exactly we should do now,

only that the ransom money should be
handed over with a Fiat 600.

Which, of course, was strange for us,

why is a Fiat 600 important?

The blackmailers then broke off contact.

There was not a single attempt

to get in touch with us.

We sat at home and just waited.

The waiting was very hard.

We were in a traumatic situation.

The Weingarten is not a beautiful forest

where you can walk easily among the trees.

There are places where
the terrain is rougher.

Of course, everyone tries
to scan their area

to see if there's anything suspicious,

if anything can be found.

It's not easy,

but what can you do?

You just have to do your job.

I thought to myself, my God,
this forest can't be that big!

They must have ploughed
over every inch by now.

I was wondering, why is it all
taking so long?

It was a pretty dense forest.

There was a small clearing
in the undergrowth.

There was a sort of rag,
and underneath it, a wooden lid.

When I got there, I didn't
think anything of it.

I assumed it was a place for poachers
to store their ammunition

because it was only a small lid.

I opened it.

There was the girl.

She was sat there.

I can still picture it.

We came back from the church service,

and then police officers came and told us

that my sister had passed away.

The moment we found out what had happened

that she was found dead there,

for me, I fell silent,

there was a speechlessness.

The family reacted differently
to her death,

I thought the father seemed

more composed at first,

but I think that he was
particularly affected by it.

The mother cried endlessly,

and Michael and his sister,

they fell silent.

Because it was utterly clear
in that moment

that this family,

and this place

would never be,

could never be

what it once was.

KIDNAPPED

CHILD

BURIED

ALIVE

A helpless girl

buried alive in a wooden box,

the murder of Ursula Herrmann
shakes the nation.

URSULA HERRMANN FOUND DEAD
IN WOODEN BOX

It was a gigantic shock wave

because this crime was
so inconceivably cruel.

For God's sake, what is this?

How can someone do something like this?

CHILD ABDUCTION - MURDER
30,000 DEUTSCHMARK REWARD

With help from the population,

the police hope
to track down the perpetrators.

What kind of monster comes up
with a plan like this?

Because it was clear that
this was not a spontaneous act.

The kidnappers probably assumed

that their plan would work and
that the girl could actually survive

in this hideout for a few days.

She was given books to read

and a light had been installed.

She had food and drink, including water.

However, the box's ventilation system,

clearly visible here, failed to work,

and the girls suffocated
within five hours.

I am Axel Petermann,
a murder investigator and profiler.

The case files are very revealing

as far as the motive is concerned.

I don't think it was
the perpetrator's intention

for Ursula Herrmann to die.

The fact that the box contained food,

a track suit, two blankets,
and even reading material

indicates that he thought
of this affair as business:

'I get the money and
you get the child back'.

I think that this was about money.

A few days, or maybe a week
after the discovery

there was an anonymous tip

that Mazurek might have
something to do with the crime

because he was in debt.

Werner Mazurek was just another villager,

and he was known around town

because he ran an electrical repair shop.

Prosecutor Franz Ammer]
We have to assume

the perpetrators had access
to a professional workshop

which is evident from
the build quality of this box.

Mazurek was known to be
very skilled at woodworking,

he was initially very hesitant
with his alibi

and said that he didn't have one,

but later he came up with one
which was possibly made up.

And something else was suspicious:

He denied knowing who Ursula was,

even though she played with his daughter,

and his wife worked as
a house cleaner for the Herrmanns.

They turned his entire workshop
upside down

and searched everywhere at his home too.

They were looking for
fingerprints, naturally,

as well as dust and wood chips.

Despite a very intensive search,
they found nothing,

not the slightest speck of evidence,

and therefore the investigation
was dropped.

And that was it.

The question was, who else
would fit as a suspect?

Some wire was found at the site
of the abduction.

This kind of wire is called bell wire

because it can be used
for telephone lines,

hence the name.

And this bell wire was initially
ignored by the investigators.

It only came back into focus later,

actually a year and a half later.

The most obvious conclusion would be
that this was an alarm system

used by lookouts to let them know

if someone was coming
from either direction.

It became clear that those who did this

must have known the woods very well.

At the time there was a system
of trails in the woods.

It seems that Ursula was carried
along one of these trails,

from where she was snatched off
the bike to the location of the box.

There is also evidence
that some of these trails

had been cut a few weeks before.

This means it can only be someone
who spends a lot of time in the woods

and considers it their territory.

Then in 1984, the police realised that

'there is still a suspect.'

He became the subject of the investigation

because he had a license to
hunt in the woods.

Shortly after the girl had been found
in the forest,

Harry, my old acquaintance
and former colleague came to me

and told me that he often
took care of a hunter's hide

near Ursula's burial site.

He was a former police officer

who had been badly injured on duty

and had to leave the police force.
He was very bitter about this.

I thought it was likely

that he had something
to do with the crime.

He met conditions

that match those of the criminal
who committed this crime.

He behaved very suspiciously

when the police asked him to help
with their investigation.

He had to march through
the woods with them,

and at the grave,

he started shaking and sweating.

It was alleged that this was because
he had committed the crime.

And then a witness stated

that he had seen his vehicle
on the evening of the crime

on a drive leading into the woods.

In May 1984, a newspaper claimed

that a perpetrator had been arrested,

which wasn't true at all.

YESTERDAY POLICE ARREST
ONE OF THEIR OWN

Horst Fischer became a suspect too

simply because he was
a good friend of Harald's.

In the '70s, the two of them
were colleagues in the police.

My world was turned upside down.

My telephone was tapped

for a year, continuously.

They checked everything.

Then they said that the bell wire

that had been found in the woods

was twisted in a very specific way.

The police claimed that this
special way of twisting the wire

was only taught in the police radio unit

that Harald had worked for.

Just imagine, two police officers

who are familiar with
walkie-talkies and other equipment

go into the woods and play
with bell wire like children.

They were official suspects
for a very long time,

until the late '80s.

There's only circumstantial evidence,

the knowledge of the
woods and nothing else

and that's why I came to the conclusion

that this possibility
is not very realistic.

Harald went from bad to worse,

and there was always
the same question: 'Why?'

Harry didn't do anything.

He just sat at home

and drowned his sorrows

until his death.

Since the end of the '80s,
we as a family have accepted

that it's possible that
this crime will never be solved.

If you can blame someone,
that helps a lot.

That wasn't possible for us.

Over the years and decades,

we learnt to live with that.

The knowledge of this death
always accompanies us.

And that is perhaps

the most horrible thing,

that you never have closure.

DNA analysis opens up

technical possibilities nobody
would have thought of 20 years ago.

At the Munich Criminal Police Office

there's now hope for a breakthrough
in the investigation.

In 2005, DNA analysis had
become very advanced,

so we re-examined the evidence

to try and find DNA traces.

I am Bernhard Egger,

department chief at the Bavarian
State Criminal Police Office.

I was the department head

in charge of the overall
investigation back then.

They went back and examined the box

that Ursula Herrmann
was found in for traces,

and they did find DNA,
on one of the screws.

It turned out

that this DNA was linked to another
murder case in Munich.

In May 2006,

59-year-old Charlotte Böhringer

was murdered in her apartment
above the Isar parking garage.

Charlotte Böhringer was the widow
of a wealthy entrepreneur.

She was brutally beaten to death
in the hallway of her apartment.

Her nephew was suspected

and then convicted of her murder,

but the whole case was
based on circumstantial evidence.

There's a big question mark in this case.

The police found a glass
in the dishwasher in her apartment

with DNA from an unknown man.

In the apartment of Charlotte Böhringer,

DNA traces have been discovered
which can be linked to this box.

DNA identical to that found
on a screw in the box

has now been found in the apartment
of the murdered millionaire.

It was, of course, a big headline
in the media:

'Is Ursula's killer
also Charlotte's killer?'

That electrified me as a journalist.

We don't know who the man was
who left his DNA there.

The DNA doesn't belong to the nephew.

Since DNA was found

in the Böhringer case

which is identical to the DNA
in the Ursula Herrmann case

it must be concluded that the same person

played a role in both murder cases.

There was pressure on investigators
and the judiciary.

BAVARIAN STATE CRIMINAL
POLICE OFFICE

The Ursula Herrmann case

was treated as kidnapping
with deadly consequences

and the statute of limitations
would have expired in 2011,

30 years after the crime.

Nobody could have been convicted anymore,

and that drove the police
investigators insane.

Initially, we worked through
all the theories

about the crime and the perpetrator.

It was a huge amount of work.

It is extremely important

that you don't just tap into old ideas

but have a fresh approach.

That was very important to us.

And in the end we just kept
getting closer and closer

to one suspect.

Then the whole investigation into
Werner Mazurek got going again.

But the DNA that was found
on the screw of the box

definitely didn't belong to Mazurek.
That had been established.

Despite this, we were convinced

that we had the right suspect.

It's important to us
that we work through everything

using all available methods
to find the truth.

We used video surveillance,
telephone surveillance

and audio surveillance

and eventually there was a house search.

Then something happened
that we never could have dreamt of.

We found this tape deck.

Almost 27 years after the
fatal kidnapping of Ursula Herrmann

this notorious
crime is about to be solved.

The man who is suspected

of having abducted and
killed Ursula 27 years ago

lived in this house in Schleswig-Holstein.

The 58-year-old had already
been a suspect in 1981.

The search produced a tape deck

which is likely the device

used during the ransom calls

to the Herrmann family.

I was a court reporter
at the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

My colleagues and I were
completely flabbergasted.

Nobody had expected

that the investigation

would turn up anything useful.

In the course of the new investigations,

a tape deck with very specific features

was found in the home of the accused.

I am Walter Rubach.

I am Mr. Mazurek's defense lawyer.

The tape deck was the missing link
for the prosecution.

Somehow, it fit the picture
of what they were looking for.

They noticed that this tape
deck had some anomalies,

which are possibly unique,

and that was one of the reasons
why the case got going again.

Is this man the perpetrator?

Today begins the trial of
58-year-old Werner M.

in the Augsburg district court.

'I don't have anything to do
with the crime'

he said in a long declaration.

Then came the day when the expert

who had examined the tape deck testified.

The expert established

that the tape deck
exhibited peculiarities,

namely a misaligned recording head,

which could have led to the sequence
of tones used by the kidnappers.

The expert witness then testified
that it was 'probably' a device

used to record the sequence of tones
used in the crime.

It was so well-founded and clear

that I wondered

what a strange coincidence
it must have been,

that this exact device was found
at this man's house.

From that day on, I really thought,
'Yes, it was Mazurek.'

The audio expert is definitely

a convincing person with
a high level of expertise.

But I have to say very clearly,

it's impossible to draw the conclusion

that any particular device was used.

As an audio expert myself,

I knew that it's extremely
difficult to trace audio signals

from so long ago.

It was decades ago and
also across multiple devices.

The theory is that the jingle

is played on the Bavarian
radio station, Bayern 3.

It's then recorded by the perpetrators

onto the tape deck

and is then transferred
to a portable device

because it has to be
played back in the phone box.

Finally, the jingle is recorded
from the phone

onto the police tape deck.

There are so many recording processes

that it's no longer possible
to draw conclusions

as to where the jingle came from

and which devices were used to record it.

The expert witness did not
respond to my criticism.

It was surprising that Mr Herrmann,
the joint plaintiff

stated his objections during the trial

and said 'this expert report is flawed.'

She was a Germany-wide,
recognized expert in this field.

She had much more knowledge
than Michael Herrmann.

Apart from the tape deck,

there was another very
important piece of evidence.

In 1982, someone claimed

to have dug a hole in the forest
at Mr. Mazurek's behest.

If there was anything that convinced me

that Mazurek committed this act

it was this story with Pfaffinger.

Pfaffinger's landlord
reported him to the police.

He claimed he had
regularly seen Pfaffinger

ride into the forest around
the time of the crime,

in early September 1981
with a spade fixed to his moped.

Then it turned out

that Pfaffinger was friends with Mazurek

and that was a connection
that electrified the police.

Pfaffinger was interrogated
for many, many hours.

When the police had finished,
he broke down in tears.

And then he told them

that at Mazurek's behest
he had dug the hole

in which the box was later found.

The police officers drove him to the woods

and they told him,

'show us where the hole was,'

and he couldn't find the spot.

Then he recanted his confession

and said 'no, it's not true.'

And so the lead went cold.

These statements of Mr. Pfaffinger
had to be read out in the court room

because he died a long time ago.

We concluded that his confession

which he later recanted,
was actually believable.

There was also no reason why
he should wrongly accuse Mazurek.

That's the heart of the matter,

why would he tell a false story?

We knew we were standing
with our backs against the wall

because it was well known
who Mr. Mazurek was

and that he had a difficult personality.

It's clear that people don't find
Mazurek to be a likeable character.

He appears quite threatening
to some people.

That's just what he's like.

He's a rather abrasive person.

People did think,
what kind of guy is capable

of burying a 10-year-old girl
in a box in the woods

and leaving her there?

And Mazurek was deemed capable
of doing this.

His personality was described

as being very determined
when it came to recovering debts,

even physically violent.

He was egotistical and lacking in empathy.

One shouldn't beat around the bush.

Mr. Mazurek is not a person
trying to gain people's affection.

This story with the dog
is the best example.

You cannot play this down.

The family dog must have
knocked over the bin.

Mazurek, in a fit of anger,
grabbed the dog,

opened the lid to the freezer
and put the dog inside,

shut the lid and let it freeze to death.

When his wife discovered the dead dog,

he said, 'I banished him to Siberia.'

I know a lot of murderers and killers

but you don't see something like that
very often.

A man who was capable
of doing that to a dog,

could also do it to a child,

and that was a big problem.

There was further evidence that,

according to the prosecution,

was supposed to be suspicious.

The police back then

were listening in
on a lot of telephone calls.

In 2007, Mazurek spoke to an acquaintance

about what had happened back then.

During this conversation,
Mazurek remarked

that the death of Ursula Herrmann

was just a 'job related accident.'

And that captivated everyone
involved in the trial.

'How can one speak about this crime
in such a brutal way,

without empathy?'

One can say that this
is a very brutal remark

when it comes to the death
of a young girl.

In Germany, a trial based
on circumstantial evidence

goes as follows:

The individual pieces of evidence
are treated like pieces of a puzzle.

Each individual piece
means nothing by itself

but taken as a whole, you can
of course paint a picture.

Today, the Augsburg district court

sentenced a 59-year-old to life in prison.

The accused insisted
on his innocence until the end.

The Augsburg district court followed
the proposal of the prosecution

after 55 days of trial, with
197 witnesses and 11 experts.

I am strongly convinced

that we put the actual perpetrator
behind bars for life.

If we had any doubts,
we would have acquitted him.

The court's job is to find the truth.

We cannot expect the truth
to flutter onto the judge's desk

in the form of a confession
in a trial like this.

The family of the victim still has doubts.

The evidence is stacked against him

but there's also evidence that
points strongly in another direction.

The fact that they had to solve
the case at all costs

with these methods, greatly distressed us.

The trial was a real low-point

that showed the Bavarian
justice system in a bad light.

I think he was the right one.
I would have convicted him as well.

But there are still doubts to this day.

There is no actual,
conclusive piece of evidence

proving that Mazurek was the perpetrator.

What am I thinking?

I think I'm in the wrong film.

To my mind, the verdict had been decided

before the trail had even begun.

My name is Werner Mazurek.

I was sentenced to life imprisonment
in Augsburg in 2010

for a crime I didn't commit.

The trial rested on only two
pillars of evidence.

There's the expert report
about the tape deck

and there is Pfaffinger's statement.

Pfaffinger?

When you read all the evaluations
of Pfaffinger's testimony,

it's all nonsense.

If Pfaffinger had dug the hole,

they would have found
25 empty beer bottles in it.

The idea that he would have dug
such a hole is ludicrous.

He never would have done it.

I then went to Pfaffinger's house
and I asked him,

'What is this crap you're telling people?'

He said, 'Well, they put
such pressure on me,

and they promised me
the reward and a new job.'

So it was complete rubbish.

And then there was the circus
with the tape deck.

Mr. Mazurek had given
a plausible explanation

as to where he had bought the tape deck:

At a flea market in Beverungen in 2007.

We heard from over 40 witnesses
from this flea market

and they unanimously said that on this day

no tape deck was sold.

The Mazureks themselves gave
significantly different accounts

as to when, where and
under what circumstances

this tape deck had been acquired.

Why do I need a tape deck
to record this Bayern 3 jingle?

They already had dictaphones back then.

It's on the radio every half hour.

If I take a dictaphone, hold it up,
then I'll have it.

The tape deck theory is complete nonsense.

Mazurek wrote to me.

The first letters gave me the impression

that he wanted to be my ally.

'We will look for the real
perpetrator together.'

I think I received the first letter
while the trial was still ongoing.

'2 families, 1 goal.'

'To solve a crime, but how?'

'The fact is that it wasn't me. Period.'

This is a really weird person.

Someone who writes like that

has a screw loose somewhere.

I wanted to test how he would react.

Why shouldn't I have done that?

There was no good reason not to do it.

I have to admit that the tone
of the letters seemed authentic,

and they didn't seem to be written
by someone trying to hide his guilt.

In his first letter replying to me,

he said, 'if you did it, go to hell,

and if it wasn't you, then
we'll bring this to a good end.'

So there was no animosity really.

The trial made me more self-aware.

Previously I'd been
quite a trusting person

who would accept things quickly

who could be quite forgiving
and would take a step back.

That has changed now.

Since 2018, I've gone back
to studying the documents.

Mazurek as the perpetrator
doesn't make sense to me.

The aim of studying the documents
was to look for alternatives.

I wouldn't know where to start.

It's all...

Every speck of dust, every
wooden splinter, every screw

has been turned over
a thousand times in this case.

The first question
that naturally arises is,

who is responsible for this?

I had the impression that the authorities

hadn't achieved anything
for over 25 years.

How did the whole thing happen?

And what was the motive behind it?

It's all completely in the dark.

I was looking for alternative ways
to gain knowledge

that would help me to move forward
and gain closure.

I knew some of the police
investigators from that time.

I was hoping that questions
would be answered.

The investigators didn't want
to comment on this

and aren't prepared to provide
much information.

Then I came across a chat forum which
deals with various criminal cases.

Lots and lots of different ones.

That's when I discovered there's a thread

that actually deals with my sister's case.

THE URSULA HERRMANN CASE,
EARLY 1980s

I was quite surprised

that complete strangers
were discussing our case.

And at some point I thought,

I could post there too
and introduce myself.

I'm new to this forum, but I can imagine

that I could make helpful
contributions to the discussion.

My name is Michael Herrmann,
I am Ursula's brother.

In the beginning, I wasn't quite
sure how to react to this,

whether I should express
my condolences first?

She introduced herself as Barbara Zipser

and then presented herself as someone

who is very familiar with script
and speech recognition.

But somehow he didn't believe me.

I am skeptical about everyone at first

because I often get mail from
people who are completely insane.

So I sent him my CV,
just to be professional about it.

My initial impression was

that this is a scientist.

She wants to help
to get closer to the truth,

and I realised that's my intention too.

It is an absolute exception

that a member of a victim's family
joins in such a chat.

Michael offered to answer
any questions about the case.

Michael Mühlmann wrote to me,

'I am still convinced that the right
person was convicted with Mazurek.

But let's assume it wasn't him.

Then who?'

I have always been interested
in criminal cases.

While I was surfing the internet,
I came across

the Ursula Herrmann case

which interested me
more than the other cases

because it was so extraordinary.

A relationship of trust was established.

I thought that we could crack the case.

The only way to make progress in this case

is to do the research ourselves.

And that's when I decided

to send the ransom note

with all its details to Ms. Zipser.

I work at Royal Holloway,
University of London.

I analyse text

and I'm good at it.

To my knowledge, no criminal
profile was ever created

using the ransom notes, so far.

The fact that the author uses
newspaper cut outs

is very naïve.

The reason he chose to do this is to say,

'This is a ransom note,

a real ransom note,

according to all the conventions
found in crime thrillers.'

But it wasn't smart
to write such long letters

and leave me so many clues.

Take for example the sentence,

'our instructions you
must keep precisely.'

The word order is twisted.

The author changed the syntax
to make it sound like a foreigner's,

someone who doesn't
speak German very well.

and yet he used all the correct
word forms.

The individual words used suggest
that he had a large vocabulary

and was skilled at composing text.

That indicates a high level of education.

He was 30 years old at most.

More like 20, I'd say.

You can tell this from the way he writes.

I also sent her a scan of the back
of one of the ransom notes

because there were some lines there.

It was well known back in the '80s
that there were imprints there,

and no one could figure out what
they meant or where they came from.

I looked at it from a distance.

I think the problem was that the police

were trying to recognise characters
or symbols that weren't there.

I thought no, that's not kinks
or dashes or a big symbol or letter.

That's a probability tree.

So, someone had used a writing pad

and the marks had pushed
through to the underlying sheet.

That was amazing for me.

Probability trees are usually drawn
by pupils in school.

Barbara Zipser's analysis revealed
that Mazurek

is most likely not the author
of the ransom notes.

And then of course you ask
yourself, who else could it be,

if it wasn't him?

I thought we needed to start over.

We started at the abduction site.

There's evidence that several people

were involved in this crime.

For example the bell wire.

That's one of the
most bizarre elements in the case.

The wire was discovered on
the second day of the investigation

by a police officer.

The wire had a total length of 140 metres.

It was hung between two points
through the forest

parallel to the lakeside path.

It was used to transmit signals
from a lookout

down to the kidnapping site

where the second perpetrator
was waiting to take the victim.

The bell wire proves that at least
two people had to be involved.

But the police didn't follow up on this.

It was only six months later

that two students from
a boarding school in Schondorf

discovered the wire, took it down
and brought it to their school.

In January 1983,
there was a search in the Landheim.

That's a boarding school

a few hundred meters from the crime scene.

And when it was announced
there would be an investigation,

two pupils handed over the bell wire
before being questioned.

I found that odd, so Michael and I
had a closer look at the files.

The boys said that they had been
in the woods, stalking an owl,

when they saw the wire in the trees.

They decided to take the wire with them.

One of the boys kept the wire in his room

inside a box to which only he had the key,

and he said that he had
'imprisoned' the wire.

This word choice is very strange

because you can only 'imprison'
animals or people, not objects.

The two pupils were questioned
about finding the wire

but were never suspected
of having committed the crime.

I think it's highly problematic that
those two were questioned together.

That's not how it should be done.

I then realised
that this was one aspect of the case

which is occasionally mentioned
in the files

but in the end, was never
really investigated.

The questioning was very inconsistent.

Something was preventing them
from getting to the bottom of this.

I'm a former pupil of the Landheim school.

The boarding school was for
children from wealthy families.

It was a sort of microcosm.

We lived in a bubble.

In a microcosm like this, there are
always people who don't quite fit in.

People who are strange,

not very socially competent,
shy, not quick witted.

And they may sometimes
come up with weird ideas.

The police did not apply
the same standards

while investigating the school

that they applied to
investigating other locals.

There are several reasons

why young people ought
to be considered as suspects.

When I analysed the letters
I came to the conclusion

that a young person was
involved in the planning.

That would fit with the strange setup
of this abduction and extortion.

There are a number of elements
that point to young perpetrators.

The ransom letters were
incredibly long and convoluted.

An adult would have written
something far shorter.

'We have your daughter, we want
2 million, no police.' That's all.

Pupils often hung out in the forest

exactly where the child was abducted.

The perpetrators must
have known the woods very well.

They used the trails to get around.

And these trails were
created mainly by the pupils

from the boarding school.

They certainly knew
their way around there.

Theoretically, the crime could
have been prepared at the school

because there was a car
and carpentry workshop there,

and the pupils had access to it.

There was a neighbour who
told the police back then

that prior to the abduction,

the light was on in certain
workshops, often until midnight.

That would indicate that something
was built there over the holidays.

It's obvious that the people
who came up with this

didn't have any clue about life.

For example, the demand
that a yellow Fiat 600 be used

to hand over the ransom money.

Among the reading material
in the box were comics.

I noticed an interesting connection.

In the ransom note, the kidnappers

demanded a Fiat 600 be used
in the money exchange.

This model of car, which was
very rare in Germany at the time

plays a role in the comic.

The possible conclusion, is that
they were fixated on this car

because it appeared in
this series of comic books.

Who reads such stuff?
Probably young people.

They thought it was great
and were inspired by it.

It's certainly a possibility.

I didn't know that, it's astonishing.

It reinforces the idea that
whoever wrote the ransom letter

must have been either out of their minds

or perhaps they were teenagers.

Michael Hermann and I were chatting
and we suddenly noticed

that two aspects of this crime
fit together.

Some of the pupils and the lid of the box.

The lid of the box top had a varnish
made of a special type of bitumen.

Bitumen repels moisture and
that was arguably the purpose,

that no rain water or
dirt could enter the box.

This varnish is so unique

that it could lead to the perpetrator.

The police contacted
over a thousand companies

but not a single one used this mixture.

I then reviewed the interviews
with the pupils,

and when I saw the surname
of one of them, I had a realisation.

The father of this pupil owned companies

that developed special varnishes.

I found no evidence in the files
that these were investigated.

That's really strange.

I can't really figure out why
there was no further investigation.

The idea that some pupils
had abducted this girl

and buried her in a box

seems far-fetched to me.

Just the logistics of it,

to build such a contraption
and move it into the woods...

I don't believe it.

I don't really agree
that it was teenagers.

To get money, they'd
commit a crime like this?

It could have been done for the 'thrill,'

but I don't think that
this was the motive here.

Michael Herrmann's theory,

I rule that out.

Too young, too dumb...

Little spoiled kids from rich families...

I can't imagine that.

One has to ask, wouldn't there be
one of the young people

who stops playing along,
who has a crisis of conscience

when it becomes
apparent that the girl is dead

and says, 'I need to
get this off my chest'?

This could be the spot where
Ursula Herrmann was found.

The autopsy determined that Ursula
died in the box

within five hours at the most,

and that the cause of death was
hypoxia due to a lack of oxygen.

But when you think that through
it doesn't really make sense.

Because the box was perfectly arranged,

and there were no signs of struggle.

Ursula didn't try to find out
what was in the box.

She didn't try to open the lid by force.

Suffocation causes severe symptoms.

It makes you panic, and you think
you're choking, which you are.

You try to escape.

None of that happened.

It became clear that my sister
had been anesthetised.

Nitrous oxide would have been
the only possible anaesthetic

because it's not traceable,
as nitrous oxide is volatile.

It was clear that she was
in a comatose state

even before she was put in the box

due to an overdose of nitrous oxide.

She had died, either before
she was transferred to the box

from this overdose,

or she was already so unconscious

that she died very quickly in this box.

At some point, the kidnappers
would have realised

that their victim was no longer alive.

She probably failed to respond
to their knocking

and that's when the kidnappers
blocked the two pipes

which were supplying air

with soil and spruce branches,

and as camouflage they planted
several young spruce trees.

That's a pretty clear indication

that the kidnappers wanted
to convert the box into a tomb.

The crime had not been thoroughly
thought through at all.

So much went wrong that you have to assume

if it was adults who did it,
they were either a bit stupid

or really crazy or hadn't planned at all.

That is something that fits young people.

An adult who wasn't crazy would
simply have planned it better.

In October 2018, I sorted all
the evidence that I'd collected

and handed it over to the Augsburg
public prosecutor's office.

My hope was that the prosecution
office would say,

'that's interesting,
let's investigate this.'

The Prosecution
Office in Augsburg will have to check

whether Hermann's circumstantial
evidence is sufficient for a retrial.

The Bavarian Minister of Interior
wants to take the evidence seriously.

This will need to be checked
by the criminal police.

The chances of a retrial are slim,
the legal hurdles are high.

Obviously there are a number
of diverging theories of who did it,

otherwise we would have
solved the case very quickly.

The longer a crime remains unsolved,

the more theories will arise ―
even conspiracy theories.

Especially in trials based on
circumstantial evidence.

In August 2019, the prosecution
said that they would not investigate,

and that even though the evidence
was remarkable,

it wasn't strong enough to call
into question the original verdict.

I'm still convinced that my idea

that the pupils should have been
investigated much more thoroughly

is very much justified.

Everything should have
been done differently

in the investigation
and the legal proceedings.

I think a lot went wrong there.

I always viewed the tape deck
evidence as a weak point

because I realised that the expert's
report that was produced back then

was not very solid.

The tape deck was the main hook
for the prosecution

and from the judge's point of view

it was the main piece of evidence
for the conviction.

We have always been of the opinion

that there was something
wrong with the expert's report.

It's important to me that a renowned
audio expert has been instructed

to re-evaluate the expert's report
that had been produced back then.

My name is Volker Dellwo.

I'm a professor here
at the University of Zurich's

Institute for Computer Linguistics.

My name is Peter French.

I'm professor of Forensic Speech Science

at the University of York in the UK.

I've known Peter
French for many years.

He is one of the most renowned
forensic phoneticians in the world.

I've worked on recordings
for the International Criminal Court

in The Hague in relation to the
war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

Over the years,
I would have been involved

in close to 6,000 cases internationally.

The task of the audio expert is clear.

Is it possible to decide

if the tape deck found at Mazurek's home

was used in making the ransom calls?

It was obvious from the evidence
in the sequence of tones

that the amplitude of the sixth tone
was much diminished.

The German police expert had concluded

that the cause of that, was that
there was a misaligned recording head

on the machine in question.

The experts then concluded
that it was 'probable'

that this specific tape deck was
used to create the recordings.

IT CAN BE ASSUMED THAT THE TAPE DECK
IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE DEVICES USED

We went in there with a very
neutral frame of mind

just to see where it took us.

The first task was to analyse
if the lowering of the amplitude

of specific tones in the sequence

could also have been
caused by other factors.

We placed a microphone
in different positions.

We discovered that the diminished
amplitude of the sixth tone

can be caused by many other factors.

For example, by the position
of speakers in a room,

by the position of a microphone
between two speakers

and we can see clearly here

that the sixth tone
is strongly diminished.

We conclude that the diminished
amplitude of the sixth tone

can be caused
by an infinite number of factors.

It's possible it was this particular deck

but it could also equally have been
one of any number

and we don't know what that number is,

of other decks that were
around in the world at the time.

I have received a message
that Mr. Rubach has news

regarding a new expert report.

If there's a new report with new
results that's very exciting to me.

- Hello!
- Mr. Rubach, hello.

- Please have a seat.
- Thank you.

It's nice to see you again.

Yes.

We have some real news here.

We have a report by
the University of Zurich

by the Phonetics
and Speech Sciences Group.

That sounds good already.

It's about the expert report
presented at the trial.

The expert concluded that it
was a misaligned recording head

that caused the attenuation of the...

- The highest tone.
- ...The highest tone.

Now, the University of Zurich
has come to the conclusion

that we always suspected,
but could never prove

despite all our efforts.

They say,

the testimony is incorrect.

With this position of the
sound head on this device

the attenuation cannot be produced.

That's a sensational statement for me

because it actually says

that the report is junk.

Yes.

So, in principle, this report confirms

what we have always been saying.

That means

the probability that this device
was used by the perpetrator

is one in five million.

Exactly, and without the tape deck
there wouldn't have been a trial.

There was no other new evidence
since the 1980s.

We always thought we were right.

We never found the right angle
and this gives me the impetus

to try again to overturn the verdict.

Personally, I wouldn't say
I'm touched, but I'm relieved

because the result confirms what
was in our heads over the years.

What happens legally,
that's your department. We'll see.

Yes.

Now I have to sit out another year,

then I have to get back in shape.

I can neither stand, nor walk.

Will you investigate the case yourself

when you get out of here?

I'll try.

In any case, I will search for
the vendor from the flea market,

and I will find him.

What are you hoping to achieve?

I want to shame the judiciary,
completely and utterly.

It would be unfair to say that
this court was in any way biased.

But the Bavarian justice system
is designed in such a way

that the defendant will often
be convicted.

Had the trial taken place in, say,
Schleswig-Holstein or Lower Saxony

then I'm pretty sure,
he would not have been convicted.

What can we learn from this case?

There is not enough justice,

that's the lesson you learn.
And I find that terrible.

If it is really the case

that the true murderer

is allowed to live his life undetected...

that's a situation that cannot stand.

Things that remain unsolved
create uncertainty.

If you can assign guilt to someone
and this person also confesses

that helps a lot,

but in our case that wasn't possible.

That means it stays undefinable

and everyone has to find
their way of dealing with that.

The family still don't know what happened

to their daughter or sister.

That must be a very difficult
situation, having to deal with that,

and that's why I would really wish

that the truth will emerge in the end.

It's a terrible crime

and it preoccupies Michael Herrmann
to this day.

It's what drives him.

It's not about revenge for him.

He wants the case to be solved

and for it to be solved properly.

This longing for honesty, for justice,

I think that is what really
drives Michael.

To keep thinking about the case

and bringing it into the light
again and again

so that it doesn't end with a lie.

Michael Herrmann can
sometimes put the case to one side

and do something else,

and that's probably why
he hasn't gone crazy yet.

Otherwise, the case would
completely overwhelm you.

My main reason for dealing with the
case was to get closer to the truth.

But actually, I would not like
to do that anymore.

I would like to draw a line.

The probability that it won't
be solved is very high,

and I would like to be content with that.