Tristan's Backpack is Found
25 March, 1999, Niedernhausen
On March 25, 1999 (almost exactly a year after Tristan’s murder) police secured Tristan’s backpack in a forest near Niedernhausen.
Niedernhausen is a community in the Taunus about 22 miles distant from the crime scene in Frankfurt-Höchst.
The backpack is found at a dirt road close to a power pole between two forest areas near a rocky outcrop named “Eselskopf” (donkey’s head).
Niedernhausen is a community in the Taunus about 22 miles distant from the crime scene in Frankfurt-Höchst.
The backpack is found at a dirt road close to a power pole between two forest areas near a rocky outcrop named “Eselskopf” (donkey’s head).
(© OpenStreetMap contributors / Licence: ODbL, Reference: www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)
An employee of a Frankfurt energy provider discovered it on his inspection and informed the police. The witness remembers having seen the backpack lying at the same spot already months earlier. He only informed the police now because they had begun searching for the backpack with posters in spring 1999.
The backpack lay near a power pole. (© Kati S.)
backpack was found, looks today. (© PP Kati S.)
The olive green Fishbone backpack was identified as Tristan’s due to a reparation seam.
There was a map of Germany in Czech and a blue garbage bag in the backpack. Czech workers lived close to the site at the time, building railroad tracks for the Intercity Express (ICE). Subsequent police investigations in Eastern Europe, for instance in Prague television, led to nothing.
Tristan had his backpack with him at the time of his murder. The offender emptied it at the scene of the crime. Tristan’s school materials were strewn all around the southern entrance of the Liederbach tunnel. The perpetrator might have taken the backpack to transport some parts of Tristan’s body parts which he had removed. But this could not be proven beyond doubt.
The backpack could have been left where it was found by the offender or another unknown person.
There was a map of Germany in Czech and a blue garbage bag in the backpack. Czech workers lived close to the site at the time, building railroad tracks for the Intercity Express (ICE). Subsequent police investigations in Eastern Europe, for instance in Prague television, led to nothing.
Tristan had his backpack with him at the time of his murder. The offender emptied it at the scene of the crime. Tristan’s school materials were strewn all around the southern entrance of the Liederbach tunnel. The perpetrator might have taken the backpack to transport some parts of Tristan’s body parts which he had removed. But this could not be proven beyond doubt.
The backpack could have been left where it was found by the offender or another unknown person.
The police asks your assistance:
• How did the backpack end up in the forest?
• In whose possession was it prior to being placed there?
• Where was the backpack seen with other persons?
You may find the contact data of the German police at the bottom of the page.
of Germany. (© PP Frankfurt)