R.I.P little Mirco ** may the angels look after you **

You may recall my article on this blog called :

Madeleine vs Mirco - so close, and yet so far away

In this article I explained the story of a little missing boy Mirco, aged 10, and how the investigation was progressing in the search for him. I found it very disturbing, and came to the conclusion then already, that these things happen on my doorstep.

Almost 5 months of non-stop investigating and searching, 146 days after Mirco went missing, the tragic news of his death and the circumstances surrounding his death, has been announced, as well as the arrest of a suspect. During these entire 5 months, I had the feeling this case was not going to end well, but I kept my hopes up. A child doesn´t just disappear; he had to be somewhere ! Even the chief policeman, Ingo Thiel, had promised the boy´s parents, that he would find him, and he did.

Little Mirco´s body was found, after the suspect admitted to the crime and finally told the police where his body lay. The story is quite complex, as to how the investigaters puzzled the case together, having had over 9000 tip-offs from the public, and especially one witness who gave the most important information, having seen the perpetrator stop on the side of the road, wait for Mirco to drive past him, stop him and force him into the car. This witness could describe the car in which Mirco was taken, easily.

From then on, a VW Passat of a particular model was being looked for, and over 1500 of those type cars were searched, to no avail. Not a lot more information was given out to the public, in order not to jeopardize the ongoing case. However, a third piece of clothing was found shortly after the car type was announced, and in December Mirco´s mobile phone was also found.

For a long time after, it was silent, and nothing more was said about the case at all, until this last Wednesday 26^th January 2011.

An arrest was made at 6am on Wednesday morning, and by lunchtime of the same day, Mirco´s body was also found. A 46 year old family man of three children, was arrested. Nobody knew who he was or where he was from at that point; all I knew was that Mirco´s body had been found, and I felt a very strong pang of sadness….. I had so hoped……

This man apparently seemed relieved when the police arrived to take him away; he´d obviously been waiting for it to happen, as the psychologists explained that a person committing such a crime is too coward to own up, although according to neighbours where he lived, he appeared to be well integrated in his family life, just nobody had the slightest idea that he could have been a murderer ! There is even a local policeman who lives next door to him, who had discussed the disappearance of Mirco at a party, and did not have a clue !

After this man ( he has been named Olaf H. ) had been heard and Mirco´s body found, the replay of events of the 3^rd September 2010 came to light,and these are shocking ! Olaf H. claims that occupational stress motivated him to seek someone weaker than himself and give him the feeling of control , after his boss had rattled him that afternoon on the phone. He drove around aimlessly for a long while, until at around 10pm he came across Mirco riding alongside the road on his bicycle. He overtook the bicycle and stopped ahead and waited until Mirco rode by. This is the point the bicycle was found, and where the important witness noticed the car.

Olaf H. drove approx. 12 kilometers until he came to a forest; undressed the boy and sexually abused him. Realizing he could not just let the boy go, he strangled him and left the naked body lying in the undergrowth. He then drove off and on his way dumped some of the clothing in one place and more elsewhere, and threw the mobile phone out the car window again elsewhere. He then drove home in the early hours of the morning of the 4^th September. His wife and children at home did not have a clue; they had been told he was doing important work that had to do with his job.

It has also now come to light , as to how the police “found” the VW passat they were looking for. It was a leased company car, driven by Olaf H. until the end of October 2010, and was then replaced when the lease expired. The car was then to be sold and taken off the German registration system, and was traced as being on it´s way to Russia. That deal however never went through, and it was bought up by someone in Luxemburg. When it was registered there, the reg details popped up on the German system, and was tracked down at Frankfurt airport. It´s new owner had gone off to Bali on holiday and parked it there.

It is understood, that the car was searched and DNA was found which corresponded to Mirco´s DNA, but that it was not the only piece of evidence, causing the arrest to be made last Wednesday. I don´t think we will find out how Olaf H. was found, because some parts of the investigation have to remain secret. Ingo Thiel, chief of the police department, has said that sadly Mirco will not be the last child to go missing and murdered under the same circumstances ! He also went on to say that he doesn´t care how much all this has cost to unravel; he made a promise to Mirco´s parents that he would bring their little boy home and he has held to that; unfortunately not alive, but they can at least now have closure and grieve for their child.

The biggest shock for me, came on Thursday 27^th, when the public were told where Olaf H. lived: pictures of his house were shown on TV and a shiver ran down my spine when I recognized the street on the video…. It´s just a few roads down from my doorstep…… my worst nightmare came true, and before I became actively involved in missing children, I never would have dreamt it were possible so close to home ! And no matter how vigilant I have become, this goes to show it is still possible to have a murderer in one´s own vicinity without knowing at all !

View Mirco's thread on the Find Madeleine forum HERE!