BERLIN—An investigation into the 2010 kidnapping and slaying of a German banker’s wife has been closed after failing to find a perpetrator in more than a decade, authorities said Monday.
Maria Boegerl, who was 54, was taken from her home in Heidenheim in southwestern Germany on May 12, 2010.
The kidnapper then contacted the woman’s husband, an executive with a local bank, and demanded a ransom of 300,000 euros ($328,000). Boegerl was able to briefly speak with her husband by phone, telling him that her life was in danger, but wasn’t heard from again.
The ransom money was left at the side of a highway as requested, but was never picked up. On June 3, 2010, Boegerl’s body was found in a wooded area near where the ransom money was left. An autopsy concluded she had been stabbed to death.
Prosecutors said in a joint statement with police that the investigation has been closed “after 13 years of the most intensive cooperation” in which more than 10,000 leads were evaluated but no perpetrator could be tracked down.
But they said that the probe could be reopened at any time if new evidence emerges, since murder does not fall under the statute of limitations in Germany. They said investigators still have a trace of DNA in hand that points to a male perpetrator.
