On the evening before Maundy Thursday it is still early and light, but the streets in Wunsiedel are already almost deserted. Only at the church “To the Twelve Apostles” do small groups accumulate in the village with its almost 9200 inhabitants until nightfall.
No locals, mind you, but recognizable journalists. They position their TV cameras and microphones in front of the church, which is right next to the home for children and young people. The lifeless body of a ten-year-old girl was found there on Tuesday morning. According to the police, the autopsy showed that the young resident died through “third-party negligence”. However, the public prosecutor’s office is now assuming it was a homicide.
No suspects at this time
The interest in the terrible death of the little girl in the Fichtelgebirge village is very great. A twelve-year-old girl named Luise was killed in Freudenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, in mid-March. And by two friends of the same age with dozens of stab wounds.
How the little girl died in the Wunsiedler children’s home is unclear. Police are keeping a low profile on how two 11-year-olds and a 16-year-old who also live in the home and were being questioned by investigators could be involved. Officially, according to the public prosecutor’s office, there are currently no suspects.
Wunsiedel: “We are all very shocked here”
How the town itself deals with the terrible events is illustrated by a visit to a small pub not far from the children’s and youth home on the evening after the announcement of the ten-year-old’s death.
Although it is quite well staffed with almost 20 mostly male guests of an advanced age, for a long time not a single word is spoken about the events that took place so close by. The landlord keeps going to the tap and tapping beer. Everything seems to be going its way as always.
But a lady who has just had dinner with her husband a little further away corrects this impression when the reporter asks her about the impression: “The Upper Franconian is very reserved here by nature,” she says, her husband nods with his Head. “We are all very shocked here,” she says. Nobody can really grasp what happened.
Parents glad victim wasn’t in daughter’s group
The lady herself kept checking her cell phone before eating to tell her husband what the media was reporting on the case.
At first she doesn’t want to say anything about the case herself. But then she breaks out that her daughter works in the home as a teacher. “We’ve only been able to speak to her briefly so far. But we are glad that the poor girl wasn’t in her group and that she doesn’t know anyone from the group.” The burden on the other caregivers and children is already great enough.
Crisis team assists children in care homes
While the police continue to question witnesses two days after finding the dead girl from the children’s home, a crisis team is to help the children in this difficult situation. In this situation, they need familiar people who will continue to take care of them, explained the Catholic youth welfare of the diocese of Regensburg. “They need the opportunity to ask any questions they have, and they need child- and age-appropriate answers.”
Police operations also outside of Wunsiedel
However, the police are apparently not only investigating in Wunsiedel in the home and the surrounding area, but also in neighboring Bad Alexandersbad, where residents have seen a number of patrol cars.
At the moment, the investigators are said to have no indications that someone gained unauthorized access to the home at the time of the crime. The investigations into the circumstances of the death of the ten-year-old child in a home should therefore concentrate on the around 90 children and just as many educators.
