Who was Peggy Knobloch, the ‘German Madeleine McCann’ and who are the National Socialist Underground?
COPS in Germany have solved the case of a young girl who went missing 15 years ago – after the DNA of a dead neo-Nazi killer was found on her body.
Mushroom pickers found the body of Peggy Knobloch – who was 9 years old when she disappeared on the way home from school in 2001 – just nine miles from the girl’s home.
Who is Peggy Knobloch?
Peggy Knobloch was nine years old who went missing on May 7 2001 on her way home from her German primary school.
Her disappearance sparked an international missing person’s search.
The search for the young girl spread across her village, with authorities even using military planes in the extensive hunt for clues.
A line of inquiry took authorities to the Czech Republic and to Turkey in the belief Peggy may have been kidnapped.
Why is Peggy Knobloch compared to Madeleine McCann?
Peggy's case sparked comparisons with Madeleine McCann who was just three when she went missing from a resort in Portugal in 2007 with reports of sightings of the toddler following from around the world.
The two girls look startlingly similar with their blonde hair and wide eyes.
Who discovered the remains of Peggy Knobloch?
After 15 years of intense search, her remains were found last July in a wooded part of Thueringen - just nine miles from the girl’s home.
The young girl’s body and other items were found by a member of the public who was walking through the forest looking for mushrooms.
After making the devastating discovery, they immediately notified police and more than 100 police officers then descended onto the scene to search for more clues.
It is understood the bones surfaced after wild animals picked up the scent of the body and excavated it.
How did police solve the missing case of Peggy Knobloch?
German police announced that DNA matching that of Uwe Boehnhardt, a member of a neo-Nazi cell, was found on a piece of cloth recovered from her grave.
Uwe Boehnhardt was part of the National Socialist Underground group - accused of murdering 10 people.
He committed suicide in 2011 alongside Uwe Mundlos after police discovered their three-member cell by chance.
Who are the National Socialist Underground?
The name National Socialist Underground echoes the name of Adolf Hitler's National Socialist, or Nazi, party.
It was a far-right German terrorist group which was uncovered in 2011
Its members Uwe Böhnhardt, Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe are responsible for a series of crimes including:
- the murders of nine immigrants - eight Turks and one Greek - between 2000 and 2006
- the murder of a policewoman and attempted murder of her colleague
- the 2001 and 2004 Cologne bombings
- a series of 14 bank robberies
Beate Zschaepe, the lone surviving member of the neo-Nazi cell, is currently on trial for her alleged role in the killings of eight Greeks, one Turk and a German policewoman.
She broke her silence earlier this year, telling the court that she disavowed the ideology behind the killings and condemned them.
Zschaepe has also told judges she wants to testify about the death of a girl.
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