Desecration of Tristan’s Grave
7/8 October 1999, Cemetery Höchst, Frankfurt
In the night of 7 to 8 October 1999 (just four days after Tristan’s birthday on October 3 and about one and a half years after his murder) an unidentified person went to Tristan’s grave.
This person carefully digs out the flowers on the grave and lays them down next to it. Then the stranger unfolds a plastic tarpaulin on which to place the excavated earth, “nice and neatly” separated from the clay. Then he digs about 1.3 yards deep (1.2 meters) not reaching the coffin so he cannot open it. It seems very likely that he was disturbed and fled. Tristan’s grandmother found the opened grave of her grandson the next morning.
This person carefully digs out the flowers on the grave and lays them down next to it. Then the stranger unfolds a plastic tarpaulin on which to place the excavated earth, “nice and neatly” separated from the clay. Then he digs about 1.3 yards deep (1.2 meters) not reaching the coffin so he cannot open it. It seems very likely that he was disturbed and fled. Tristan’s grandmother found the opened grave of her grandson the next morning.
on a tarpaulin. (© Police video via SPIEGEL TV)
Whether the vandal (or the vandals, in case several persons were present) is Tristan’s murderer is still unknown, as if what the possible intention of the desecration was.
It is one possible theory of the police that it might have been Tristan’s murderer. Since he had been observed in the Liederbach Tunnel by some children for a short moment (and it is unknown whether he noticed this), it is possible that he could not finish the act of maiming Tristan’s body at that time. Maybe he came to the cemetery to get to Tristan’s body again. But this remains pure speculation, along with other theories around Satanists, black masses or the like.
The desecration of Tristan’s grave seemed to show parallels to the desecration of Markus Wachtel’s grave, who was from Niedersachsen and had also been killed in March 1998. While his killer was convicted the background of the two desecrations has remained unsolved to date. Investigators consider a connection between the desecrations to be unlikely.
It is one possible theory of the police that it might have been Tristan’s murderer. Since he had been observed in the Liederbach Tunnel by some children for a short moment (and it is unknown whether he noticed this), it is possible that he could not finish the act of maiming Tristan’s body at that time. Maybe he came to the cemetery to get to Tristan’s body again. But this remains pure speculation, along with other theories around Satanists, black masses or the like.
The desecration of Tristan’s grave seemed to show parallels to the desecration of Markus Wachtel’s grave, who was from Niedersachsen and had also been killed in March 1998. While his killer was convicted the background of the two desecrations has remained unsolved to date. Investigators consider a connection between the desecrations to be unlikely.