Dig Deeper: The Disappearance of Birgit Meier (2021) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
1
The second case in Lüneburg
revolves around the fate of a woman
who has been missing since August 14th.
Her name is Birgit Meier.
She is 1.65 meters tall.
She is thin.
She has blond hair and green-gray eyes.
[man] When a family experiences
such a heinous crime,
their world falls apart.
Things are no longer how they were,
and they won't ever be how they were.
The fact that our daughter,
our wife, our sister had gone missing
left a mark on us all.
Of course, I sometimes pushed away
the thoughts of what may have happened.
Sometimes I thought,
"Do I even want to know?"
"Do I need to know?"
While reading the files,
it became clear to me
that I had to do something
because I suddenly realized
that certain steps were taken in a way
that didn't make sense forensically.
Some of it was so unbelievable
that you think, "Oh God."
"Did I miss something?
What's going on here?"
And that many things
required further explanations.
That's the bitter truth, I must say,
which, in retrospect, is even harder
for the family to stomach, right?
I mean, from 1989 to 2017,
we didn't know
what had happened or where she was.
We could've been spared all that
if it had been done correctly.
But at no point did we give up.
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES
[eerie music playing]
[slide s clicking]
[woman] On Monday, August 14th, 1989,
around 10:00 p.m., was the last time
I ever spoke to my mother,
the very last time.
Birgit and I had arranged
to meet at around, let's say
HARALD MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S HUSBAND
6:00 p.m. or something like that.
We wanted to discuss
how we wanted
to handle the upcoming divorce
and the financial settlement.
[woman] My parents
were going to meet for a talk,
and we wanted
to have a call about it later.
The call seemed totally normal to me.
YASMINE MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S DAUGHTER
I didn't notice
anything out of the ordinary.
Though I have to admit, due to the trauma,
I can only remember
bits and pieces of the discussion.
The main thing
I remember was my final question
about what she wanted to do next.
She said she was
in her nightgown and going to bed.
She also said the first thing
she wanted to do the next day
was to call me.
[handset clicks onto base]
I imagine we would've sat down here,
where we're sitting now.
We were sitting here.
If I was drinking water or not,
I don't remember.
It lasted maybe 20 minutes.
I left, went to my apartment,
and went to bed later.
I'd been sleeping for a while
until exactly midnight.
I'm totally sure about the time
because I had a digital clock,
and it showed "00:00"
when I was startled awake,
as if a bomb
had just gone off right next to me.
My immediate thought was,
"Did something bad happen?"
- [soft eerie music playing]
- [crickets chirping softly]
[phone line clicking]
[phone line clicking]
[phone line crackling]
[phone line clicking]
- [phone receiver clicks]
- [eerie music intensifies]
[dial tone]
[phone buttons dialing]
[phone calling and ringing repeatedly]
[Yasmine] Of course, I tried to call
Mom early the following morning.
Despite all the ringing, nothing happened.
That was not like her at all.
You could count on her like clockwork.
[phone rings, stops]
[Yasmine]
I took the next taxi to Brietlingen.
So many thoughts, none of them good.
I got to the house.
I was trembling and shaking.
I still rang
the doorbell just like normal.
But I saw that there was a curtain
that is normally opened
after she wakes up in the morning.
- It was drawn shut.
- [phone line clicking]
I went around the house
and saw one cat through the window
looking at the other cat,
which was unusual.
Like my mom and I, they stuck together.
Candy and Kimby, they were never apart.
[phone line calling]
Eventually, I entered the house
and called for Mom.
I turned the house
I turned the house upside down.
I was obviously scared
each time I opened a door
that I'd find her in an awful situation.
[phone line calling]
Fortunately, that didn't happen,
but what did that mean?
I felt like it wasn't real life.
[phone line crackling]
[phone line calling]
[Harald] Yasmine called me
in the morning and said,
"Dad, do you know where Mom is?"
- "I can't get a hold of her."
- [phone line calling]
And I told her,
"I don't know where she is."
"She wanted to go to Bad Segeberg today"
That's the name of the city.
"to go to a furniture store.
That's all I can tell you."
[receptionist] I can connect you.
Could you stay on the line, please?
My secretary said,
"Your niece is on the line."
WOLFGANG SIELAFF
BIRGIT MEIER'S BROTHER
Then I picked up, and it was Yasmine.
And she said, "Mom is gone."
She didn't go to Bad Segeberg
because her car's still here.
Her car still being there
made me very suspicious.
That's when I called the head
of Lüneburg's criminal investigation unit.
"Mr. Rollert, have you heard
my sister's gone missing?"
"Yes, I've heard."
To that, I said, "I have a request."
"Please treat the house
from which my sister went missing"
"Please treat her house as a crime scene."
[shutter clicks]
AUGUST 15TH, 1989
[man] Following the disappearance
of Mrs. Meier,
Chubby Döhnert and yours truly
tried to get to the bottom of it.
First, we visited the house in Brietlingen
in order to determine
MANFRED HAMEL
FORMER INVESTIGATOR - LÜNEBURG POLICE
if we could gather any clues
about her disappearance.
I think you can assume,
if you saw the house at the time,
that these weren't people
who were begging on the street.
There weren't
any traces of violence at all.
None at all.
There were no disputes,
no traces of blood, no signs of a fight.
It was a normal, empty house.
[shutter clicks]
I still remember a
footprint
in the wet grass.
But we couldn't make sense of it.
I didn't know any more
I think it led to the house.
GARDEN DOOR
(BACK SIDE)
You tried to follow every lead
FENCE TO THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE
FENCE HEIGH
and to shed light on the situation.
When an adult goes missing,
there are four
causes or motives.
The first is,
"I'm going to go pick up cigarettes,"
and then your partner is gone
for the next 30 years or forever.
We'll call them "the dropouts."
The second is an accident,
the third is suicide, and fourth is crime.
[Yasmine] When I arrived,
there was this green cash box,
which was opened,
and there were black-and-white photos
from the past in there.
It had cigarette ashes on it
as if it had been repurposed
as an ashtray.
To this day, I still remember seeing
this thing on the nightstand.
WITNESS QUESTIONING
But according
to some police reports and files,
it was supposedly on the ground.
OLD GREEN METAL BOX
WAS IN FRONT OF HER BED.
I also remember a bottle
but don't remember what was in it,
plus two champagne glasses.
One had lipstick on it.
This suggests
she had some sort of company.
I had just talked to Dad.
That's all I knew.
So, who was there?
Who should have been there?
I think we might be
better off calling a psychic
who could tell us exactly what happened.
But we have to
stick strictly to the facts,
to things that a detective can work with.
[eerie music playing]
[Wolfgang] My sister's case
took place in the Lüneburg area,
and Lüneburg is
around 60 kilometers southwest of Hamburg.
It's just a stone's throw.
In the summer of '89, I was head
of the State Criminal Police in Hamburg
and so the head of the CIU,
and when my sister went missing,
my mother asked,
"Can you do anything?"
And I always said, "Well,
technically, I can't
because I'm not in charge of the case."
She meant "do something" as in,
"You're the head of the Hamburg CIU."
It was natural to assume
that because I'm in the department,
I should know what's been done so far
and what sort of options there are
and so on,
but every state has its own police.
Their loyalty and trust were
with this case in Lüneburg.
There was no reason to think
they wouldn't do their job correctly.
[dog barking in distance]
"Assumption of Mary, August 15th, 1989.
Bike tour to Niendorf Park with Claudi."
CLAUDIA SIELAFF AND TANJA DAVID
BIRGIT MEIER'S NIECES
"Bought ice cream from Correl's.
Sat on the bench."
"Aunt Birgit went missing."
"Dad is in Lüneburg."
"Search with dogs and helicopters."
"Yasmine is sleeping at Harald's."
"Ingrid and I are picking Grandma up.
She's totally distraught."
Then I wrote, "Birgit is coming to her,"
then dot, dot, dot.
My grandma, in total shock,
probably said, "She's coming."
"She's coming to my house.
She's not gone."
[Claudia] I still remember.
We sat down looking toward the airport
where you see the planes.
We were looking and thought,
"Where could she be?"
Not that she was in an airplane,
but where was she?
What did she do? Where did she go?
There are statistics
from the Federal Criminal Police Office
about missing persons
who never turn up.
They don't always have to be
cases involving violent crimes.
Many just disappear and don't want
people to know where they went.
[female announcer
speaking indistinctly over PA]
[Wolfgang] Of course,
in order to rule out every possibility
and follow every lead,
and with the help of her family,
we looked for traces of Birgit in Mexico
because she had a friend in Mexico City.
[plane whooshing]
[Wolfgang] Nothing came out of it
that would suggest the first option.
This one
"Bye, I'm off to start
a new life somewhere else."
Completely unfounded.
I didn't think it was possible
that she had gone to Mexico.
She was far too kind a person
to ever consider
doing something like that.
Not because of the cats.
Of course, she loved them too.
But she would've never done that,
because of Yasmine.
Never. Never.
[eerie music playing]
[Wolfgang] I was told [chuckles]
to wait until the cornfields
had been harvested
because I kept
asking about the investigation.
It was a clear indication
he thought my sister committed suicide.
I can't imagine
my daughter hurting herself
LIESELOTTE SIELAFF
BIRGIT MEIER'S MOTHER
because she adored her daughter.
She would've never done that,
just because of her child
because she meant everything to her.
[Yasmine] I really held on
to the thought that she would come back.
To just leave and not tell anyone
wasn't in her character.
Or that she'd kill herself
and not tell anyone
is just as nonsensical.
NO TRACE OF BIRGIT MEIER
I would've known something.
She wouldn't have left my grandma behind
without her knowing where her daughter is.
VICTIM OF A CRIME
That's when I said,
"We're going to have to do something."
"We can't just sit around
and wait for something to happen."
I went out with flyers
and glued them onto billboards.
10,000 DM REWARD
I also placed a missing-persons ad
on the back page of a sports journal.
We tried to make
the public aware of Birgit's case.
I even got into the habit
of always looking everywhere,
no matter where I went,
to see if I could find Birgit.
Because at that time, it was unknown
what had happened.
We got more worried every day.
GÖHRDE NATIONAL FORES
20 KM AWAY
JULY 1989
4 WEEKS BEFORE BIRGIT MEIER WENT MISSING
Within just a few weeks,
there've been four murders near Lüneburg.
On July 12th, in the Göhrde Forest,
the bodies of the missing Hamburg couple,
Reinhold, were found.
This past Thursday,
just a few hundred meters away,
the police found the bodies
of Ingrid Warmbier
and Bernd-Michael Köpping.
The man was strangled and shot.
The woman was beaten to death.
There's a reward of up to 50,000 marks
for the capture of the perpetrator.
[male reporter] The police
are completely in the dark.
The public is in shock,
particularly Göhrde residents.
[woman]I used to go walking
here in Göhrde Forest every year
but not anymore.
To be honest, I'm scared now.
You only go into the forest if you must.
- Are you scared of going into the forest?
- Yes, definitely.
We hope the killer isn't a local.
[female reporter] What about you?
Do you think the killer is a local?
Yes.
- [female reporter] Why do you think that?
- [man] They know the area.
Everything points to the perpetrator
being sexually disturbed.
CASE 1
LÜNEBURG CRIMINAL POLICE
The police believe both crimes
were committed by the same man.
Since the discovery
of the second double murder,
hikers and visitors
have avoided Göhrde Forest.
POLICE
[Wolfgang] The fact
that there were two double murders
was a total bombshell. It still is today.
THE GÖHRDE MURDERER'S GRUESOME KILLINGS
It's called the forest of death now.
Then, the police were under pressure.
Of course, the public expected them
to solve it soon
because the murderer was on the loose.
SINISTER FOREST MURDERS
And he could kill again.
2 COUPLES ALREADY DEAD
So we'd better keep an eye on it.
HAMBURG IN PANIC
FOREST MURDERER! ALREADY 4 DEAD
These cases aren't simply
about solving murders.
It's about preventing them.
[anchorwoman] The police suspect
these two crimes are connected
because the bodies
were found close together.
[female reporter] If the bodies
were hidden here on the 12th,
then the police and the killer
must've almost seen each other.
That can't be ruled out.
We just weren't in this part.
- [female reporter] 500 meters away.
- Exactly, to the south.
[female reporter] It's crazy to think
the police almost ran into him.
Yes, we think so too.
[Wolfgang] When these crimes shock people,
journalists are particularly interested.
KILLER SURPRISES
COUPLE IN BLUEBERRY BUSH?
They were less interested in my sister.
And the public
They acknowledged it
then went about their daily business.
Not possible with the Göhrde cases.
The main focus was on the Göhrde murders.
So, a second crime shortly after those
had them completely overwhelmed.
We had the impression
that our case was kind of secondary.
[rifle cocks]
[man]Of course, the murders
happening around us caused us anxiety.
We're paying
more attention than ever before
to who's roaming around.
And if it's a stranger,
you take a good look at them.
I'm an old East Prussian.
My father was a forester too.
And this is what he taught us,
"See everyone
you come across in the forest
as a criminal."
"You can still change your mind."
"If you don't,
you might not have a mind left to change."
[device beeping]
[beeping continues]
[man 2] The thing that fascinates me is
that this case is so mysterious.
There are few cases
that really reach this level of mystery.
There were so many unknowns
and difficulties for the police
and also errors, mishaps, and negligence.
The whole thing.
Everyone has their own theories and ideas
JENS FUHRMANN
AMATEUR DETECTIVE
and they don't all match up
with what the police told
the public at the time.
But because the killer's motive
was unknown,
it is, of course, extremely difficult
to be sure there's only one killer.
POLICE SKETCH: THE GÖHRDE MURDERER
IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS
THE MONSTER IS AMONG US
60 MURDERS UNDER INVESTIGATION
[Wolfgang] What I found
a little problematic was
that the detectives
were very quick to focus on one person
who they made a sketch of
and thought was the Göhrde killer.
"The Bag Man."
"The Bag Man." Right.
THE SINISTER CHARACTER LEFT NO TRACE
JUST FEAR
So, berry pickers
found the Reinholds' bodies.
Then this "Bag Man" walked past.
A man with a backpack or a large bag,
which is how he got that name.
And who,
according to their description later,
behaved strangely.
Supposedly,
he was a grim-looking, unpleasant man.
He crossed their path
and went to the second crime scene.
The police sketch was made
based on this encounter
with the berry pickers.
"Speculation is rife."
"Is the missing woman
a victim of the Göhrde killer
VICTIM OF A CRIME?
who already has people on his conscience?
That's been ruled out."
"There isn't the slightest parallel."
Actually, in situations like these,
you should be cautious
when completely ruling out a possibility.
In other words,
ruling out something completely,
at that stage,
is totally irresponsible.
AUGUST 29TH, 1989
[anchorman]
Two weeks after Birgit Meier went missing,
her ID was found
at the central post office in Hamburg.
It must have been mailed in
the day before by an unknown person.
Could this be a sign
that she's still alive?
They found her ID
in what was the central post office then,
where mail from all Hamburg mailboxes
was brought multiple times a day
and where they began sorting it.
They were able to determine
that the ID was in the mail
collected from mailboxes
in northwest Hamburg.
The important thing may not be
where it was mailed in
but that it was mailed in at all.
It was
an important indication
that it couldn't have been my sister
who put it there.
What reason could she have
to put her own ID in the mail?
We picked up the ID
and asked the postal workers
who was responsible for this mailbox,
but no one remembered seeing anyone
who could have put it in the mailbox.
You have
a better chance of winning the lottery
than seeing someone put
an ID into a mailbox instead of a letter.
POLICE CHIEF'S MISSING SISTER -
WHO PUT HER ID IN THE MAILBOX?
[Wolfgang]
The media also reported this at the time
because, of course, they had a clue now
UNKNOWN PERSON PUT ID IN MAILBOX
that might lead to something concrete
if the public was informed.
And if someone said,
"I'm the one who put the ID in there,"
it would disprove the theory
that it was the perpetrator.
I mean,
that the perpetrator was misleading us.
But if it were someone else,
then I would've had more questions.
Where'd you find the ID?
How did you touch it?
Because of fingerprints and whatnot.
Today, we'd even look for DNA
because the perpetrator
must've touched it.
There was hope, in the first two weeks,
that she would come back,
until her ID was found in Hamburg.
For me, that was the sign
that she wasn't coming back.
Of course, I kept my hopes up.
No one wants to hear,
"Mom is dead or has been killed."
I've always tried to keep hope alive.
Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd have made it.
[dramatic music playing]
[Wolfgang]
She must be 17 or 18 in this picture.
She was a trainee for the newspaper,
which involved photography.
She got married at 20.
People got married younger back then.
At that time,
sexual procurement was still illegal.
It was considered improper
to go to bed with an unmarried woman.
Those were the days.
[shutter clicks]
[Harald] That was a really long time ago.
I was 22 years old
and worked as a typesetter
for a small company.
Birgit worked
as a trainee for this newspaper.
We met there.
Birgit was an attractive young lady.
She was happy. She loved life.
And that led to us liking each other,
no question about it.
It also led to a child being conceived.
Namely, Yasmine.
My father, who was still very traditional,
said, "Now you have to marry her."
Then, everything went so fast.
The years flew by.
Though, maybe we didn't
marry for love.
That's just the way it was.
It was a bit early for me
because I wanted to achieve something.
I wanted to achieve more
than what I already had at that point.
And, for that reason,
I basically neglected my family a bit.
I just didn't have the time
and focused more on
building up the company.
[machines whirring, clacking]
[Harald] We had
over 300 employees at Datacolor.
[woman] Working together there was great.
It was a lot of fun.
We all got along well.
ANGELIKA MÖWES
FORMER COLLEAGUE OF BIRGIT MEIER
Some of us
even got together outside of work.
[keys clicking]
[Angelika] For me, Mrs. Meier
was always the company's "kind soul."
Even though she was the boss's wife,
she never made anyone feel that way.
When I think of Mrs. Meier,
I think of her hands.
Her hands were always well-manicured.
She always wore nail polish.
She had a special way of walking.
I didn't even need to look up.
I could always tell
when it was Mrs. Meier coming.
She just had
this kind of spring in her step.
It was very special.
We really started getting to know
each other by playing tennis.
Of course, we talked about our families,
what we did or what our plans were
or things like that.
But never about problems
or anything we had to deal with.
And, like I said,
Mr. Meier was the love of her life.
We all knew that.
[seagulls mewing]
[Yasmine] It's always so hard
to say in retrospect.
I think it must've been
sometime after 1984.
That's when it became
noticeable.
They'd sometimes fight and such.
They didn't seem like a married couple.
They seemed more like
[chuckles]roommates.
I moved out and got my own apartment.
We had a relationship
that could only be described
as painful for Birgit.
Of course, we noticed.
We didn't just have
a relationship with her
but also with her daughter and husband.
It was obvious that she
that this separation
was a real blow to her
and that she started to turn to alcohol.
Not that she was constantly drinking,
but every now and then,
and with increasing frequency,
she'd pass out drunk.
[gulps]
[gulps, exhales shakily]
I found alcohol in her wardrobe
that I wanted to get rid of
so she couldn't keep drinking,
but, of course,
she had other hiding spots.
At some point,
rumors started popping up and
[inhales sharply]
[exhales]
But
Okay
We knew [hesitates]
that Mr. Meier and Mrs. Philips
had a relationship, but
Yeah
When you think about it now
[exhales]
She'd already realized
that I had a girlfriend.
Of course,
this fact wasn't ignored by her.
We had discussions about this.
She wasn't the kind of person to say,
"Let's sit down and sort things out."
Let alone all three of them doing this.
No. She was deeply hurt.
And so she made some rash decisions.
[cassette tape clicks]
- [pop song plays]
- Rest your pretty head ♪
Before you head out ♪
And lead me away ♪
Don't let me catch you
Looking over my shoulder ♪
Why has your love been going down?
You're much older ♪
Just come on back now ♪
WHORE
- Come on back to me ♪
- [song ends abruptly]
I'm no psychologist.
I can't judge
what was going on in her head.
Ultimately,
she wasn't strong enough as a person
to say,
"Okay, I can accept things as they are
and start a new life for myself."
She was actually still in love with me.
[Yasmine] Too much, I fear.
She would never have left him.
You have to imagine,
her husband was suddenly gone.
He was the love of her life.
It changed her life completely.
She didn't get over it.
She couldn't get over it.
- It wasn't swept under the rug.
- No, but
She did have a problem with alcohol, yes.
And it surfaced from time to time.
And she lived with us for a while.
- You drove her somewhere.
- [Claudia] Yes.
- To the addiction
- To Alcoholics Anonymous in her car.
[Wolfgang] We had good opportunities
to talk to her about it.
"Birgit, you can't change it.
You can't change things."
"It is what it is.
You have to look forward."
"You have to find
a way for your life to go on."
She was financially independent.
She clearly had no financial problems.
Then, she suddenly said,
"Hey, I have a house,
uh,
in my sights that I want to buy.
I've already visited it. It's great."
She seemed to have her life back on track.
Everything we heard
from others who knew her
was that she was really euphoric, happy
to have found her footing again.
We were thankful and happy
that she seemed
to have her life back together.
That's what is so dramatic and what
[sighs]makes it so awful.
She was just starting
to build a new life for herself,
and then she goes missing.
[Yasmine] "For Mom."
"My light never goes out entirely."
"It just shines dimly sometimes."
"I will rise up again."
"I still haven't seen the sun."
"Without you, I live in the shadows."
"I don't know your universe."
"Today is yesterday, is tomorrow."
"A new day and the old sorrows."
[gunshot echoes]
[Yasmine] "Your child misses her mother."
"For Mom.
Missing since August 14th, 1989."
"Please get in touch."
[anchorman] On the evening of August 15th,
Harald Meier visited his wife,
who had lived on her own for two years,
to talk about their divorce agreement.
He was the last one to see her.
If anyone has something
to do with Birgit's disappearance
HARALD MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S HUSBAND
or knows anything about it,
I'd urge them to immediately pass on
any information, even anonymously.
Mom, I'm begging you
YASMINE MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S DAUGHTER
if you can see and hear us,
to reach out to us.
But the best thing would be
for you to come back to us
because we all miss you,
and because we all love you.
Dear Birgit, where are you?
Please get in touch.
We miss you so much.
I think about you day and night.
[sobbing]
We miss you so much,
and we all love you so much.
[sniffles]
Please get in touch with us.
Where are you?
[sniffles]
[Wolfgang] After two months,
even the dumbest cop should have realized
that she may have been
the victim of a crime.
And so, I basically had to put pressure
on the DA's office
to finally open a criminal investigation
against unknown persons
suspected of a criminal act,
because the police have far more options
when criminal proceedings are underway.
To put it the way it felt at the time,
he finally had the heart
to initiate proceedings.
[Manfred] One thing
that was a bit suspicious at the time
was that if it had been
a normal divorce
1. MRS. BIRGIT MEIER BORN SIELAFF
2. THE BUSINESSMAN MR. HARALD MEIER
a larger sum of money
would have been paid to the wife.
MRS. MEIER SHALL RECEIVE:
- 490,000 DM IN CASH
For us,
that was a lead worth investigating,
at least to uncover a motive.
The crucial question is always,
"Who benefits from this crime?"
In other words,
you're always looking for a motive,
because once you know the motive
or are getting close to finding a motive,
you'll soon find the perpetrator.
[Manfred] Based on the facts,
we then questioned her husband.
We spoke to him for a long time,
taking turns.
I think the interrogation lasted
six, seven, eight hours.
One line of thought was that,
if they had gotten divorced,
he'd lose a million.
"That's so much money.
I can't accept this."
"I'll kill my wife and save the money."
That was the idea.
AUDIO FROM THE INTERROGATION
OF HARALD MEIER
[Harald on tape] Birgit opened the door.
I didn't notice anything was wrong
and, above all, any smell of alcohol.
It seemed to me
that she hadn't had any alcohol.
It didn't take long.
Twenty minutes, maybe.
Then I left, drove to my apartment
and later went to bed.
The reason we questioned
and interrogated him was always
to get the truth out of him,
even if he didn't want to tell us.
We didn't go easy on him
during the interrogation.
[cassette crackling]
"Just admit it!"
"Maybe, you did it
in the heat of the moment."
"Yes, and then your wife,"
they basically went on,
"had a bit too much to drink again,
and your hand slipped
because your wife threw something at you,
and then she was lying on the ground."
I said, "Are you insane?"
Then, I got really angry.
I said, "In the heat of the moment?"
They said, "You got rid of the body."
I said, "Stop this now."
When you've interrogated
suspects for so many years,
you can tell if a person is acting
or if they're really speaking
from the heart.
[Harald on tape] She does sometimes forget
to turn on the alarm system at night.
That does happen.
The police also asked me,
"Can you rule out
your brother-in-law from this case?"
I said, "I can't rule anything out."
It would be foolish
to rule that out immediately.
This is also me speaking professionally,
because the worst thing an investigator
can do is to rule something out.
AUDIO FROM QUESTIONING
OF LIESELOTTE SIELAFF
[Lieselotte] That evening at 10:00,
my phone rang. She said,
"You're right, Mom. Harald just left."
Birgit brought me all the papers.
And all I said to her was,
"And how was your talk?"
And she said,
"To the point and harmonious."
Everyone had their own theory about it.
Everyone talked about it.
The police also asked me
if I could imagine
Mr. Meier being involved.
And I said, "I can't imagine that at all."
"Mr. Meier is
an uncompromising businessman,
but a murderer? No."
Toward the end,
it really became so argumentative
that he got up and told me
to stop playing games
and just confess to killing my wife.
What happened was that Mr. Meier
had tears in his eyes
during the conversation,
and we thought we were close
to the truth and that we might get him.
From then on, I realized
that I was somehow a prime suspect.
HARBORMASTER
[engine gradually fades and stops]
[Harald] Our boat, which was docked
on the Baltic Sea at the time,
was secretly searched without a warrant
because they assumed they might find
her body or some clues
related to my wife's disappearance.
[Manfred] If I remember correctly,
it was a big ship.
I think it was a large sailboat
docked in Travemünde or Timmendorf.
It was on the Baltic Sea, in any case.
My colleague, Döhnert, and I went there.
[Wolfgang] The theory was
he'd killed my sister
and had to get rid of the body,
so he put it in his Porsche
then drove up to the Baltic Sea with it.
And
after bringing it onto the ship,
he sailed out to sea
and threw the body in the water.
They asked the harbor captain
if anyone heard a motor during the night.
They made distance-time calculations.
These calculations determine
how long you need at night,
when the highway is relatively empty,
to get from Lüneburg to there
and back again
and arrive fresh for work the next day.
I don't know
if it says "yacht" in the police records.
I don't remember at all.
In any case, it was a motorboat.
Unfortunately, the problem is
that the media's sensationalism, um,
is always the same.
They want to make
a mountain out of a molehill
because they assume,
"He's a millionaire, and look, uh,
that's what happens
in millionaires' families."
To be totally honest, for a while,
I pretty much suspected everybody.
But the fact is
Mom disappeared from one day to the next,
and Dad was a suspect.
But any realistic possibility
that could've happened to Mom,
that could be eliminated quickly
had been ruled out.
Then my brain got going again
and started imagining
totally absurd things.
I always tried to keep Yasmine
from knowing too much
about how I was feeling
because I know
how sensitive Yasmine is about everything
and how much it ultimately weighs on her.
POLICE CHIEF'S SISTER MURDERED?
MISSING
FEAR FOR POLICE CHIEF'S SISTER
[Wolfgang] At the time,
the media was relatively sensitive.
The fact that my sister had gone missing
couldn't be kept secret.
It was obvious,
and the media was very careful
not to immediately publicize the story
but to wait until much later.
As the director of Hamburg's CID,
I spent a lot of time in the media
due to the major cases in the '80s,
some of which really shook Hamburg.
Barely a week went by
where Sielaff
wasn't interviewed about some crime.
I was a real thorn in the side
for some criminal gangs, of course,
and some were even shut down.
We had some major successes back then.
Of course, as the director,
some of them held me responsible.
Two major cases
When my sister went missing,
there was a relevant question,
"Might someone in the criminal underground
have wanted to make my sister disappear?"
Was this a threat,
an act of revenge or something like that?
The Organized Crime Unit looked into this.
POLICE
There's a saying that goes,
"Watch who's watching."
My own team watched me to see
if I was being watched by the other side.
I had a police car, and when I drove home,
I was always told very clearly,
"Make sure
you don't always go the same way."
"Take detours and check your mirror
to see if you're being followed."
It was always during these phases,
when we were dealing with gangs,
that these things
happened from time to time.
Since there are
also informants within the police,
someone, uh,
might have asked,
"Do you know if Sielaff has
a sister or a brother or something?"
You just never know.
Of course, I knew
it was a challenge for them in Lüneburg,
from a psychological perspective, to know,
"That's the sister
of the head of the Hamburg CIU."
I found myself in situations
where you sensed that, on the one hand,
you did a lot
that you might not have in other cases.
But at some point, it was the opposite,
and whenever I asked anything,
it was always seen
as interfering in their investigation.
They would feed me platitudes like,
"Don't worry, we'll find your sister."
I wanted more to be done
to try and reach people
who might be able
to help with the investigation.
Like the show Unsolved Mysteries.
The second case in Lüneburg
revolves around the fate of a woman
who has been missing since August 14th.
The evidence suggests
that it was a violent crime.
The woman's name is Birgit Meier.
She was 41 years old,
living in Brietlingen Moorburg.
Of course, there's a difference
between an episode of Unsolved Mysteries
that doesn't affect me
and a show
that involves a member of my family.
You have mixed feelings.
On one hand,
there's the case,
which is already a strain.
On the other hand, you think,
"Thank God, something's happening."
"Hopefully,
this will lead to solving the case."
[presenter] She was wearing
a green jumpsuit and a yellow top.
Tips that lead to solving
this presumed crime
will be rewarded with 10,000 marks.
Please send your tips
to the Lüneburg Police.
I think we received 105 tips.
My mother regained some hope.
"Maybe this will lead to something. Maybe
someone did see her."
[Harald] I can still remember
I had to drive to Frankfurt
to visit a customer.
On the way back, I went to
a rest stop and sat there drinking coffee,
when someone came in
with another person.
From the side,
this person looked like Birgit.
I got up and left my coffee where it was.
I was convinced it was Birgit.
One person had seen my sister
in Hammerfest in North Cape.
The next one saw her
at the same time in South Africa.
And on it went, round and round.
One of Birgit's friends, who at the time
hadn't yet realized the importance
of a conversation she'd had with her,
began to be bothered by it
at a certain point.
So she worked up
the courage to tell my brother-in-law
that in the conversation
she'd had with my sister
on the evening of August 14th,
my sister had mentioned a man.
I can't even remember
if we spoke about it
on the phone or in person.
She told me she had been
to a birthday party at her neighbor's
and that their gardener was also there.
I know that my aunt
What did she call him?
- She spoke about a
- [Claudia] Her housemate.
Her "housemate," right,
and that he seemed a bit
crazy or something.
I just thought of him as someone
who wore gardening boots and dug around.
[Wolfgang] My brother-in-law told me,
"There's this man
who sporadically worked
on the neighbors' property as a gardener."
He shared this with the police,
and so I obviously assumed
that the police "checked him out,"
as we say in law enforcement.
I remember him very clearly.
He had a very penetrating gaze,
such a penetrating gaze.
I'd basically set my sights on him
when I told the police about him and said,
"How about actually looking
in the right place?"
"Who is he?
What does he have on his record?"
Wait, stop! Huh?
When you get a tip that a woman
talked to your sister on the phone
a few hours before she went missing
and your sister talked about the gardener,
then you see
what he has on his criminal record,
you have to go search his house.
Immediately!
[eerie music playing]
[music intensifies, stops]
[eerie music continues]
The second case in Lüneburg
revolves around the fate of a woman
who has been missing since August 14th.
Her name is Birgit Meier.
She is 1.65 meters tall.
She is thin.
She has blond hair and green-gray eyes.
[man] When a family experiences
such a heinous crime,
their world falls apart.
Things are no longer how they were,
and they won't ever be how they were.
The fact that our daughter,
our wife, our sister had gone missing
left a mark on us all.
Of course, I sometimes pushed away
the thoughts of what may have happened.
Sometimes I thought,
"Do I even want to know?"
"Do I need to know?"
While reading the files,
it became clear to me
that I had to do something
because I suddenly realized
that certain steps were taken in a way
that didn't make sense forensically.
Some of it was so unbelievable
that you think, "Oh God."
"Did I miss something?
What's going on here?"
And that many things
required further explanations.
That's the bitter truth, I must say,
which, in retrospect, is even harder
for the family to stomach, right?
I mean, from 1989 to 2017,
we didn't know
what had happened or where she was.
We could've been spared all that
if it had been done correctly.
But at no point did we give up.
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES
[eerie music playing]
[slide s clicking]
[woman] On Monday, August 14th, 1989,
around 10:00 p.m., was the last time
I ever spoke to my mother,
the very last time.
Birgit and I had arranged
to meet at around, let's say
HARALD MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S HUSBAND
6:00 p.m. or something like that.
We wanted to discuss
how we wanted
to handle the upcoming divorce
and the financial settlement.
[woman] My parents
were going to meet for a talk,
and we wanted
to have a call about it later.
The call seemed totally normal to me.
YASMINE MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S DAUGHTER
I didn't notice
anything out of the ordinary.
Though I have to admit, due to the trauma,
I can only remember
bits and pieces of the discussion.
The main thing
I remember was my final question
about what she wanted to do next.
She said she was
in her nightgown and going to bed.
She also said the first thing
she wanted to do the next day
was to call me.
[handset clicks onto base]
I imagine we would've sat down here,
where we're sitting now.
We were sitting here.
If I was drinking water or not,
I don't remember.
It lasted maybe 20 minutes.
I left, went to my apartment,
and went to bed later.
I'd been sleeping for a while
until exactly midnight.
I'm totally sure about the time
because I had a digital clock,
and it showed "00:00"
when I was startled awake,
as if a bomb
had just gone off right next to me.
My immediate thought was,
"Did something bad happen?"
- [soft eerie music playing]
- [crickets chirping softly]
[phone line clicking]
[phone line clicking]
[phone line crackling]
[phone line clicking]
- [phone receiver clicks]
- [eerie music intensifies]
[dial tone]
[phone buttons dialing]
[phone calling and ringing repeatedly]
[Yasmine] Of course, I tried to call
Mom early the following morning.
Despite all the ringing, nothing happened.
That was not like her at all.
You could count on her like clockwork.
[phone rings, stops]
[Yasmine]
I took the next taxi to Brietlingen.
So many thoughts, none of them good.
I got to the house.
I was trembling and shaking.
I still rang
the doorbell just like normal.
But I saw that there was a curtain
that is normally opened
after she wakes up in the morning.
- It was drawn shut.
- [phone line clicking]
I went around the house
and saw one cat through the window
looking at the other cat,
which was unusual.
Like my mom and I, they stuck together.
Candy and Kimby, they were never apart.
[phone line calling]
Eventually, I entered the house
and called for Mom.
I turned the house
I turned the house upside down.
I was obviously scared
each time I opened a door
that I'd find her in an awful situation.
[phone line calling]
Fortunately, that didn't happen,
but what did that mean?
I felt like it wasn't real life.
[phone line crackling]
[phone line calling]
[Harald] Yasmine called me
in the morning and said,
"Dad, do you know where Mom is?"
- "I can't get a hold of her."
- [phone line calling]
And I told her,
"I don't know where she is."
"She wanted to go to Bad Segeberg today"
That's the name of the city.
"to go to a furniture store.
That's all I can tell you."
[receptionist] I can connect you.
Could you stay on the line, please?
My secretary said,
"Your niece is on the line."
WOLFGANG SIELAFF
BIRGIT MEIER'S BROTHER
Then I picked up, and it was Yasmine.
And she said, "Mom is gone."
She didn't go to Bad Segeberg
because her car's still here.
Her car still being there
made me very suspicious.
That's when I called the head
of Lüneburg's criminal investigation unit.
"Mr. Rollert, have you heard
my sister's gone missing?"
"Yes, I've heard."
To that, I said, "I have a request."
"Please treat the house
from which my sister went missing"
"Please treat her house as a crime scene."
[shutter clicks]
AUGUST 15TH, 1989
[man] Following the disappearance
of Mrs. Meier,
Chubby Döhnert and yours truly
tried to get to the bottom of it.
First, we visited the house in Brietlingen
in order to determine
MANFRED HAMEL
FORMER INVESTIGATOR - LÜNEBURG POLICE
if we could gather any clues
about her disappearance.
I think you can assume,
if you saw the house at the time,
that these weren't people
who were begging on the street.
There weren't
any traces of violence at all.
None at all.
There were no disputes,
no traces of blood, no signs of a fight.
It was a normal, empty house.
[shutter clicks]
I still remember a
footprint
in the wet grass.
But we couldn't make sense of it.
I didn't know any more
I think it led to the house.
GARDEN DOOR
(BACK SIDE)
You tried to follow every lead
FENCE TO THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE
FENCE HEIGH
and to shed light on the situation.
When an adult goes missing,
there are four
causes or motives.
The first is,
"I'm going to go pick up cigarettes,"
and then your partner is gone
for the next 30 years or forever.
We'll call them "the dropouts."
The second is an accident,
the third is suicide, and fourth is crime.
[Yasmine] When I arrived,
there was this green cash box,
which was opened,
and there were black-and-white photos
from the past in there.
It had cigarette ashes on it
as if it had been repurposed
as an ashtray.
To this day, I still remember seeing
this thing on the nightstand.
WITNESS QUESTIONING
But according
to some police reports and files,
it was supposedly on the ground.
OLD GREEN METAL BOX
WAS IN FRONT OF HER BED.
I also remember a bottle
but don't remember what was in it,
plus two champagne glasses.
One had lipstick on it.
This suggests
she had some sort of company.
I had just talked to Dad.
That's all I knew.
So, who was there?
Who should have been there?
I think we might be
better off calling a psychic
who could tell us exactly what happened.
But we have to
stick strictly to the facts,
to things that a detective can work with.
[eerie music playing]
[Wolfgang] My sister's case
took place in the Lüneburg area,
and Lüneburg is
around 60 kilometers southwest of Hamburg.
It's just a stone's throw.
In the summer of '89, I was head
of the State Criminal Police in Hamburg
and so the head of the CIU,
and when my sister went missing,
my mother asked,
"Can you do anything?"
And I always said, "Well,
technically, I can't
because I'm not in charge of the case."
She meant "do something" as in,
"You're the head of the Hamburg CIU."
It was natural to assume
that because I'm in the department,
I should know what's been done so far
and what sort of options there are
and so on,
but every state has its own police.
Their loyalty and trust were
with this case in Lüneburg.
There was no reason to think
they wouldn't do their job correctly.
[dog barking in distance]
"Assumption of Mary, August 15th, 1989.
Bike tour to Niendorf Park with Claudi."
CLAUDIA SIELAFF AND TANJA DAVID
BIRGIT MEIER'S NIECES
"Bought ice cream from Correl's.
Sat on the bench."
"Aunt Birgit went missing."
"Dad is in Lüneburg."
"Search with dogs and helicopters."
"Yasmine is sleeping at Harald's."
"Ingrid and I are picking Grandma up.
She's totally distraught."
Then I wrote, "Birgit is coming to her,"
then dot, dot, dot.
My grandma, in total shock,
probably said, "She's coming."
"She's coming to my house.
She's not gone."
[Claudia] I still remember.
We sat down looking toward the airport
where you see the planes.
We were looking and thought,
"Where could she be?"
Not that she was in an airplane,
but where was she?
What did she do? Where did she go?
There are statistics
from the Federal Criminal Police Office
about missing persons
who never turn up.
They don't always have to be
cases involving violent crimes.
Many just disappear and don't want
people to know where they went.
[female announcer
speaking indistinctly over PA]
[Wolfgang] Of course,
in order to rule out every possibility
and follow every lead,
and with the help of her family,
we looked for traces of Birgit in Mexico
because she had a friend in Mexico City.
[plane whooshing]
[Wolfgang] Nothing came out of it
that would suggest the first option.
This one
"Bye, I'm off to start
a new life somewhere else."
Completely unfounded.
I didn't think it was possible
that she had gone to Mexico.
She was far too kind a person
to ever consider
doing something like that.
Not because of the cats.
Of course, she loved them too.
But she would've never done that,
because of Yasmine.
Never. Never.
[eerie music playing]
[Wolfgang] I was told [chuckles]
to wait until the cornfields
had been harvested
because I kept
asking about the investigation.
It was a clear indication
he thought my sister committed suicide.
I can't imagine
my daughter hurting herself
LIESELOTTE SIELAFF
BIRGIT MEIER'S MOTHER
because she adored her daughter.
She would've never done that,
just because of her child
because she meant everything to her.
[Yasmine] I really held on
to the thought that she would come back.
To just leave and not tell anyone
wasn't in her character.
Or that she'd kill herself
and not tell anyone
is just as nonsensical.
NO TRACE OF BIRGIT MEIER
I would've known something.
She wouldn't have left my grandma behind
without her knowing where her daughter is.
VICTIM OF A CRIME
That's when I said,
"We're going to have to do something."
"We can't just sit around
and wait for something to happen."
I went out with flyers
and glued them onto billboards.
10,000 DM REWARD
I also placed a missing-persons ad
on the back page of a sports journal.
We tried to make
the public aware of Birgit's case.
I even got into the habit
of always looking everywhere,
no matter where I went,
to see if I could find Birgit.
Because at that time, it was unknown
what had happened.
We got more worried every day.
GÖHRDE NATIONAL FORES
20 KM AWAY
JULY 1989
4 WEEKS BEFORE BIRGIT MEIER WENT MISSING
Within just a few weeks,
there've been four murders near Lüneburg.
On July 12th, in the Göhrde Forest,
the bodies of the missing Hamburg couple,
Reinhold, were found.
This past Thursday,
just a few hundred meters away,
the police found the bodies
of Ingrid Warmbier
and Bernd-Michael Köpping.
The man was strangled and shot.
The woman was beaten to death.
There's a reward of up to 50,000 marks
for the capture of the perpetrator.
[male reporter] The police
are completely in the dark.
The public is in shock,
particularly Göhrde residents.
[woman]I used to go walking
here in Göhrde Forest every year
but not anymore.
To be honest, I'm scared now.
You only go into the forest if you must.
- Are you scared of going into the forest?
- Yes, definitely.
We hope the killer isn't a local.
[female reporter] What about you?
Do you think the killer is a local?
Yes.
- [female reporter] Why do you think that?
- [man] They know the area.
Everything points to the perpetrator
being sexually disturbed.
CASE 1
LÜNEBURG CRIMINAL POLICE
The police believe both crimes
were committed by the same man.
Since the discovery
of the second double murder,
hikers and visitors
have avoided Göhrde Forest.
POLICE
[Wolfgang] The fact
that there were two double murders
was a total bombshell. It still is today.
THE GÖHRDE MURDERER'S GRUESOME KILLINGS
It's called the forest of death now.
Then, the police were under pressure.
Of course, the public expected them
to solve it soon
because the murderer was on the loose.
SINISTER FOREST MURDERS
And he could kill again.
2 COUPLES ALREADY DEAD
So we'd better keep an eye on it.
HAMBURG IN PANIC
FOREST MURDERER! ALREADY 4 DEAD
These cases aren't simply
about solving murders.
It's about preventing them.
[anchorwoman] The police suspect
these two crimes are connected
because the bodies
were found close together.
[female reporter] If the bodies
were hidden here on the 12th,
then the police and the killer
must've almost seen each other.
That can't be ruled out.
We just weren't in this part.
- [female reporter] 500 meters away.
- Exactly, to the south.
[female reporter] It's crazy to think
the police almost ran into him.
Yes, we think so too.
[Wolfgang] When these crimes shock people,
journalists are particularly interested.
KILLER SURPRISES
COUPLE IN BLUEBERRY BUSH?
They were less interested in my sister.
And the public
They acknowledged it
then went about their daily business.
Not possible with the Göhrde cases.
The main focus was on the Göhrde murders.
So, a second crime shortly after those
had them completely overwhelmed.
We had the impression
that our case was kind of secondary.
[rifle cocks]
[man]Of course, the murders
happening around us caused us anxiety.
We're paying
more attention than ever before
to who's roaming around.
And if it's a stranger,
you take a good look at them.
I'm an old East Prussian.
My father was a forester too.
And this is what he taught us,
"See everyone
you come across in the forest
as a criminal."
"You can still change your mind."
"If you don't,
you might not have a mind left to change."
[device beeping]
[beeping continues]
[man 2] The thing that fascinates me is
that this case is so mysterious.
There are few cases
that really reach this level of mystery.
There were so many unknowns
and difficulties for the police
and also errors, mishaps, and negligence.
The whole thing.
Everyone has their own theories and ideas
JENS FUHRMANN
AMATEUR DETECTIVE
and they don't all match up
with what the police told
the public at the time.
But because the killer's motive
was unknown,
it is, of course, extremely difficult
to be sure there's only one killer.
POLICE SKETCH: THE GÖHRDE MURDERER
IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS
THE MONSTER IS AMONG US
60 MURDERS UNDER INVESTIGATION
[Wolfgang] What I found
a little problematic was
that the detectives
were very quick to focus on one person
who they made a sketch of
and thought was the Göhrde killer.
"The Bag Man."
"The Bag Man." Right.
THE SINISTER CHARACTER LEFT NO TRACE
JUST FEAR
So, berry pickers
found the Reinholds' bodies.
Then this "Bag Man" walked past.
A man with a backpack or a large bag,
which is how he got that name.
And who,
according to their description later,
behaved strangely.
Supposedly,
he was a grim-looking, unpleasant man.
He crossed their path
and went to the second crime scene.
The police sketch was made
based on this encounter
with the berry pickers.
"Speculation is rife."
"Is the missing woman
a victim of the Göhrde killer
VICTIM OF A CRIME?
who already has people on his conscience?
That's been ruled out."
"There isn't the slightest parallel."
Actually, in situations like these,
you should be cautious
when completely ruling out a possibility.
In other words,
ruling out something completely,
at that stage,
is totally irresponsible.
AUGUST 29TH, 1989
[anchorman]
Two weeks after Birgit Meier went missing,
her ID was found
at the central post office in Hamburg.
It must have been mailed in
the day before by an unknown person.
Could this be a sign
that she's still alive?
They found her ID
in what was the central post office then,
where mail from all Hamburg mailboxes
was brought multiple times a day
and where they began sorting it.
They were able to determine
that the ID was in the mail
collected from mailboxes
in northwest Hamburg.
The important thing may not be
where it was mailed in
but that it was mailed in at all.
It was
an important indication
that it couldn't have been my sister
who put it there.
What reason could she have
to put her own ID in the mail?
We picked up the ID
and asked the postal workers
who was responsible for this mailbox,
but no one remembered seeing anyone
who could have put it in the mailbox.
You have
a better chance of winning the lottery
than seeing someone put
an ID into a mailbox instead of a letter.
POLICE CHIEF'S MISSING SISTER -
WHO PUT HER ID IN THE MAILBOX?
[Wolfgang]
The media also reported this at the time
because, of course, they had a clue now
UNKNOWN PERSON PUT ID IN MAILBOX
that might lead to something concrete
if the public was informed.
And if someone said,
"I'm the one who put the ID in there,"
it would disprove the theory
that it was the perpetrator.
I mean,
that the perpetrator was misleading us.
But if it were someone else,
then I would've had more questions.
Where'd you find the ID?
How did you touch it?
Because of fingerprints and whatnot.
Today, we'd even look for DNA
because the perpetrator
must've touched it.
There was hope, in the first two weeks,
that she would come back,
until her ID was found in Hamburg.
For me, that was the sign
that she wasn't coming back.
Of course, I kept my hopes up.
No one wants to hear,
"Mom is dead or has been killed."
I've always tried to keep hope alive.
Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd have made it.
[dramatic music playing]
[Wolfgang]
She must be 17 or 18 in this picture.
She was a trainee for the newspaper,
which involved photography.
She got married at 20.
People got married younger back then.
At that time,
sexual procurement was still illegal.
It was considered improper
to go to bed with an unmarried woman.
Those were the days.
[shutter clicks]
[Harald] That was a really long time ago.
I was 22 years old
and worked as a typesetter
for a small company.
Birgit worked
as a trainee for this newspaper.
We met there.
Birgit was an attractive young lady.
She was happy. She loved life.
And that led to us liking each other,
no question about it.
It also led to a child being conceived.
Namely, Yasmine.
My father, who was still very traditional,
said, "Now you have to marry her."
Then, everything went so fast.
The years flew by.
Though, maybe we didn't
marry for love.
That's just the way it was.
It was a bit early for me
because I wanted to achieve something.
I wanted to achieve more
than what I already had at that point.
And, for that reason,
I basically neglected my family a bit.
I just didn't have the time
and focused more on
building up the company.
[machines whirring, clacking]
[Harald] We had
over 300 employees at Datacolor.
[woman] Working together there was great.
It was a lot of fun.
We all got along well.
ANGELIKA MÖWES
FORMER COLLEAGUE OF BIRGIT MEIER
Some of us
even got together outside of work.
[keys clicking]
[Angelika] For me, Mrs. Meier
was always the company's "kind soul."
Even though she was the boss's wife,
she never made anyone feel that way.
When I think of Mrs. Meier,
I think of her hands.
Her hands were always well-manicured.
She always wore nail polish.
She had a special way of walking.
I didn't even need to look up.
I could always tell
when it was Mrs. Meier coming.
She just had
this kind of spring in her step.
It was very special.
We really started getting to know
each other by playing tennis.
Of course, we talked about our families,
what we did or what our plans were
or things like that.
But never about problems
or anything we had to deal with.
And, like I said,
Mr. Meier was the love of her life.
We all knew that.
[seagulls mewing]
[Yasmine] It's always so hard
to say in retrospect.
I think it must've been
sometime after 1984.
That's when it became
noticeable.
They'd sometimes fight and such.
They didn't seem like a married couple.
They seemed more like
[chuckles]roommates.
I moved out and got my own apartment.
We had a relationship
that could only be described
as painful for Birgit.
Of course, we noticed.
We didn't just have
a relationship with her
but also with her daughter and husband.
It was obvious that she
that this separation
was a real blow to her
and that she started to turn to alcohol.
Not that she was constantly drinking,
but every now and then,
and with increasing frequency,
she'd pass out drunk.
[gulps]
[gulps, exhales shakily]
I found alcohol in her wardrobe
that I wanted to get rid of
so she couldn't keep drinking,
but, of course,
she had other hiding spots.
At some point,
rumors started popping up and
[inhales sharply]
[exhales]
But
Okay
We knew [hesitates]
that Mr. Meier and Mrs. Philips
had a relationship, but
Yeah
When you think about it now
[exhales]
She'd already realized
that I had a girlfriend.
Of course,
this fact wasn't ignored by her.
We had discussions about this.
She wasn't the kind of person to say,
"Let's sit down and sort things out."
Let alone all three of them doing this.
No. She was deeply hurt.
And so she made some rash decisions.
[cassette tape clicks]
- [pop song plays]
- Rest your pretty head ♪
Before you head out ♪
And lead me away ♪
Don't let me catch you
Looking over my shoulder ♪
Why has your love been going down?
You're much older ♪
Just come on back now ♪
WHORE
- Come on back to me ♪
- [song ends abruptly]
I'm no psychologist.
I can't judge
what was going on in her head.
Ultimately,
she wasn't strong enough as a person
to say,
"Okay, I can accept things as they are
and start a new life for myself."
She was actually still in love with me.
[Yasmine] Too much, I fear.
She would never have left him.
You have to imagine,
her husband was suddenly gone.
He was the love of her life.
It changed her life completely.
She didn't get over it.
She couldn't get over it.
- It wasn't swept under the rug.
- No, but
She did have a problem with alcohol, yes.
And it surfaced from time to time.
And she lived with us for a while.
- You drove her somewhere.
- [Claudia] Yes.
- To the addiction
- To Alcoholics Anonymous in her car.
[Wolfgang] We had good opportunities
to talk to her about it.
"Birgit, you can't change it.
You can't change things."
"It is what it is.
You have to look forward."
"You have to find
a way for your life to go on."
She was financially independent.
She clearly had no financial problems.
Then, she suddenly said,
"Hey, I have a house,
uh,
in my sights that I want to buy.
I've already visited it. It's great."
She seemed to have her life back on track.
Everything we heard
from others who knew her
was that she was really euphoric, happy
to have found her footing again.
We were thankful and happy
that she seemed
to have her life back together.
That's what is so dramatic and what
[sighs]makes it so awful.
She was just starting
to build a new life for herself,
and then she goes missing.
[Yasmine] "For Mom."
"My light never goes out entirely."
"It just shines dimly sometimes."
"I will rise up again."
"I still haven't seen the sun."
"Without you, I live in the shadows."
"I don't know your universe."
"Today is yesterday, is tomorrow."
"A new day and the old sorrows."
[gunshot echoes]
[Yasmine] "Your child misses her mother."
"For Mom.
Missing since August 14th, 1989."
"Please get in touch."
[anchorman] On the evening of August 15th,
Harald Meier visited his wife,
who had lived on her own for two years,
to talk about their divorce agreement.
He was the last one to see her.
If anyone has something
to do with Birgit's disappearance
HARALD MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S HUSBAND
or knows anything about it,
I'd urge them to immediately pass on
any information, even anonymously.
Mom, I'm begging you
YASMINE MEIER
BIRGIT MEIER'S DAUGHTER
if you can see and hear us,
to reach out to us.
But the best thing would be
for you to come back to us
because we all miss you,
and because we all love you.
Dear Birgit, where are you?
Please get in touch.
We miss you so much.
I think about you day and night.
[sobbing]
We miss you so much,
and we all love you so much.
[sniffles]
Please get in touch with us.
Where are you?
[sniffles]
[Wolfgang] After two months,
even the dumbest cop should have realized
that she may have been
the victim of a crime.
And so, I basically had to put pressure
on the DA's office
to finally open a criminal investigation
against unknown persons
suspected of a criminal act,
because the police have far more options
when criminal proceedings are underway.
To put it the way it felt at the time,
he finally had the heart
to initiate proceedings.
[Manfred] One thing
that was a bit suspicious at the time
was that if it had been
a normal divorce
1. MRS. BIRGIT MEIER BORN SIELAFF
2. THE BUSINESSMAN MR. HARALD MEIER
a larger sum of money
would have been paid to the wife.
MRS. MEIER SHALL RECEIVE:
- 490,000 DM IN CASH
For us,
that was a lead worth investigating,
at least to uncover a motive.
The crucial question is always,
"Who benefits from this crime?"
In other words,
you're always looking for a motive,
because once you know the motive
or are getting close to finding a motive,
you'll soon find the perpetrator.
[Manfred] Based on the facts,
we then questioned her husband.
We spoke to him for a long time,
taking turns.
I think the interrogation lasted
six, seven, eight hours.
One line of thought was that,
if they had gotten divorced,
he'd lose a million.
"That's so much money.
I can't accept this."
"I'll kill my wife and save the money."
That was the idea.
AUDIO FROM THE INTERROGATION
OF HARALD MEIER
[Harald on tape] Birgit opened the door.
I didn't notice anything was wrong
and, above all, any smell of alcohol.
It seemed to me
that she hadn't had any alcohol.
It didn't take long.
Twenty minutes, maybe.
Then I left, drove to my apartment
and later went to bed.
The reason we questioned
and interrogated him was always
to get the truth out of him,
even if he didn't want to tell us.
We didn't go easy on him
during the interrogation.
[cassette crackling]
"Just admit it!"
"Maybe, you did it
in the heat of the moment."
"Yes, and then your wife,"
they basically went on,
"had a bit too much to drink again,
and your hand slipped
because your wife threw something at you,
and then she was lying on the ground."
I said, "Are you insane?"
Then, I got really angry.
I said, "In the heat of the moment?"
They said, "You got rid of the body."
I said, "Stop this now."
When you've interrogated
suspects for so many years,
you can tell if a person is acting
or if they're really speaking
from the heart.
[Harald on tape] She does sometimes forget
to turn on the alarm system at night.
That does happen.
The police also asked me,
"Can you rule out
your brother-in-law from this case?"
I said, "I can't rule anything out."
It would be foolish
to rule that out immediately.
This is also me speaking professionally,
because the worst thing an investigator
can do is to rule something out.
AUDIO FROM QUESTIONING
OF LIESELOTTE SIELAFF
[Lieselotte] That evening at 10:00,
my phone rang. She said,
"You're right, Mom. Harald just left."
Birgit brought me all the papers.
And all I said to her was,
"And how was your talk?"
And she said,
"To the point and harmonious."
Everyone had their own theory about it.
Everyone talked about it.
The police also asked me
if I could imagine
Mr. Meier being involved.
And I said, "I can't imagine that at all."
"Mr. Meier is
an uncompromising businessman,
but a murderer? No."
Toward the end,
it really became so argumentative
that he got up and told me
to stop playing games
and just confess to killing my wife.
What happened was that Mr. Meier
had tears in his eyes
during the conversation,
and we thought we were close
to the truth and that we might get him.
From then on, I realized
that I was somehow a prime suspect.
HARBORMASTER
[engine gradually fades and stops]
[Harald] Our boat, which was docked
on the Baltic Sea at the time,
was secretly searched without a warrant
because they assumed they might find
her body or some clues
related to my wife's disappearance.
[Manfred] If I remember correctly,
it was a big ship.
I think it was a large sailboat
docked in Travemünde or Timmendorf.
It was on the Baltic Sea, in any case.
My colleague, Döhnert, and I went there.
[Wolfgang] The theory was
he'd killed my sister
and had to get rid of the body,
so he put it in his Porsche
then drove up to the Baltic Sea with it.
And
after bringing it onto the ship,
he sailed out to sea
and threw the body in the water.
They asked the harbor captain
if anyone heard a motor during the night.
They made distance-time calculations.
These calculations determine
how long you need at night,
when the highway is relatively empty,
to get from Lüneburg to there
and back again
and arrive fresh for work the next day.
I don't know
if it says "yacht" in the police records.
I don't remember at all.
In any case, it was a motorboat.
Unfortunately, the problem is
that the media's sensationalism, um,
is always the same.
They want to make
a mountain out of a molehill
because they assume,
"He's a millionaire, and look, uh,
that's what happens
in millionaires' families."
To be totally honest, for a while,
I pretty much suspected everybody.
But the fact is
Mom disappeared from one day to the next,
and Dad was a suspect.
But any realistic possibility
that could've happened to Mom,
that could be eliminated quickly
had been ruled out.
Then my brain got going again
and started imagining
totally absurd things.
I always tried to keep Yasmine
from knowing too much
about how I was feeling
because I know
how sensitive Yasmine is about everything
and how much it ultimately weighs on her.
POLICE CHIEF'S SISTER MURDERED?
MISSING
FEAR FOR POLICE CHIEF'S SISTER
[Wolfgang] At the time,
the media was relatively sensitive.
The fact that my sister had gone missing
couldn't be kept secret.
It was obvious,
and the media was very careful
not to immediately publicize the story
but to wait until much later.
As the director of Hamburg's CID,
I spent a lot of time in the media
due to the major cases in the '80s,
some of which really shook Hamburg.
Barely a week went by
where Sielaff
wasn't interviewed about some crime.
I was a real thorn in the side
for some criminal gangs, of course,
and some were even shut down.
We had some major successes back then.
Of course, as the director,
some of them held me responsible.
Two major cases
When my sister went missing,
there was a relevant question,
"Might someone in the criminal underground
have wanted to make my sister disappear?"
Was this a threat,
an act of revenge or something like that?
The Organized Crime Unit looked into this.
POLICE
There's a saying that goes,
"Watch who's watching."
My own team watched me to see
if I was being watched by the other side.
I had a police car, and when I drove home,
I was always told very clearly,
"Make sure
you don't always go the same way."
"Take detours and check your mirror
to see if you're being followed."
It was always during these phases,
when we were dealing with gangs,
that these things
happened from time to time.
Since there are
also informants within the police,
someone, uh,
might have asked,
"Do you know if Sielaff has
a sister or a brother or something?"
You just never know.
Of course, I knew
it was a challenge for them in Lüneburg,
from a psychological perspective, to know,
"That's the sister
of the head of the Hamburg CIU."
I found myself in situations
where you sensed that, on the one hand,
you did a lot
that you might not have in other cases.
But at some point, it was the opposite,
and whenever I asked anything,
it was always seen
as interfering in their investigation.
They would feed me platitudes like,
"Don't worry, we'll find your sister."
I wanted more to be done
to try and reach people
who might be able
to help with the investigation.
Like the show Unsolved Mysteries.
The second case in Lüneburg
revolves around the fate of a woman
who has been missing since August 14th.
The evidence suggests
that it was a violent crime.
The woman's name is Birgit Meier.
She was 41 years old,
living in Brietlingen Moorburg.
Of course, there's a difference
between an episode of Unsolved Mysteries
that doesn't affect me
and a show
that involves a member of my family.
You have mixed feelings.
On one hand,
there's the case,
which is already a strain.
On the other hand, you think,
"Thank God, something's happening."
"Hopefully,
this will lead to solving the case."
[presenter] She was wearing
a green jumpsuit and a yellow top.
Tips that lead to solving
this presumed crime
will be rewarded with 10,000 marks.
Please send your tips
to the Lüneburg Police.
I think we received 105 tips.
My mother regained some hope.
"Maybe this will lead to something. Maybe
someone did see her."
[Harald] I can still remember
I had to drive to Frankfurt
to visit a customer.
On the way back, I went to
a rest stop and sat there drinking coffee,
when someone came in
with another person.
From the side,
this person looked like Birgit.
I got up and left my coffee where it was.
I was convinced it was Birgit.
One person had seen my sister
in Hammerfest in North Cape.
The next one saw her
at the same time in South Africa.
And on it went, round and round.
One of Birgit's friends, who at the time
hadn't yet realized the importance
of a conversation she'd had with her,
began to be bothered by it
at a certain point.
So she worked up
the courage to tell my brother-in-law
that in the conversation
she'd had with my sister
on the evening of August 14th,
my sister had mentioned a man.
I can't even remember
if we spoke about it
on the phone or in person.
She told me she had been
to a birthday party at her neighbor's
and that their gardener was also there.
I know that my aunt
What did she call him?
- She spoke about a
- [Claudia] Her housemate.
Her "housemate," right,
and that he seemed a bit
crazy or something.
I just thought of him as someone
who wore gardening boots and dug around.
[Wolfgang] My brother-in-law told me,
"There's this man
who sporadically worked
on the neighbors' property as a gardener."
He shared this with the police,
and so I obviously assumed
that the police "checked him out,"
as we say in law enforcement.
I remember him very clearly.
He had a very penetrating gaze,
such a penetrating gaze.
I'd basically set my sights on him
when I told the police about him and said,
"How about actually looking
in the right place?"
"Who is he?
What does he have on his record?"
Wait, stop! Huh?
When you get a tip that a woman
talked to your sister on the phone
a few hours before she went missing
and your sister talked about the gardener,
then you see
what he has on his criminal record,
you have to go search his house.
Immediately!
[eerie music playing]
[music intensifies, stops]
[eerie music continues]