German police revive 43-year-old case
April 8, 2019
Forty years since the disappearance of 12-year-old Monika Frischholz, police in the German state of Bavaria announced they were working on a new lead in the case.
In a forest near Flossenburg, directly on the Czech border, police were unearthing a vehicle they believed was connected to the missing girl.
Stressing that investigators have not changed their minds that the girl was most-likely murdered, a police statement on Monday said that "excavation work on a potential burial site began today."
Authorities said that a comprehensive team of specialists was working to dig up what was left of the Volkswagen Beetle.
Monika Frischholz was last seen at 3:15 p.m. on the afternoon of May 25, 1976, leaving her parents house. She said goodbye to some friends, whom she reportedly told she was meeting a boy near the train station.
In the intervening decades, police have had success tracing Monika's steps, and witness accounts led them to believe the girl was no longer alive.
Police said they had found the car based on a lead that came to them at the end of 2016. The vehicle was hidden less than five kilometers (3.1 miles) from her parents' former home.