A 19-year-old is suspect. He had often looked after the four children in Pankow. A judge has now issued an arrest warrant against him.
Candles and flowers are not far from where the badly injured child was found.Paul Zinken/dpa
On Tuesday, a five-year-old girl disappeared from the playground – more than three hours later, a woman with a dog found the little one in a bush in the Bürgerpark in Pankow with a stab wound. The girl died a little later in a hospital. Shortly thereafter, a 19-year-old was arrested on suspicion of killing the child. The young man is the babysitter of the family.
The police cordoned off the place where the girl was found.Andreas Kopietz
“He had often taken care of the four children between the ages of one and five,” said Sebastian Büchner, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office. On Tuesday afternoon he was with the children at a playground in nearby Paule Park. According to investigators, the 19-year-old is said to be the girl’s cousin.
According to the information, the oldest child had to go to the toilet around 2.30 p.m. The 19-year-old left the playground with the five-year-old girl and asked other adults to look after the other three children. He later returned without the five-year-old. The adults who were supposed to look after the other three children and also the child’s mother, who had meanwhile arrived at the playground, asked where the girl was. The babysitter said he lost track of her. So they alerted the police.
Officers from a squad search the bushes for the murder weapon.Andreas Kopietz
This approached with a large contingent and started a search for the missing child. A police helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging camera circled the area. Individuals also took part in the search.
Around 5.40 p.m. the terrible certainty: A dog owner who is said to have taken part in the search found the lifeless girl in a bush.
The area around where the child was found was surveyed with a drone.Andreas Kopietz
Rescue workers tried in vain to resuscitate the child. It is believed to have been stabbed to death. Büchner only confirms stab wounds. The dead girl’s autopsy is ongoing.
The spokesman did not provide any information as to whether the suspect had commented on the allegation that he had killed the child. An investigating judge issued an arrest warrant against the 19-year-old in the afternoon. The 4th Murder Commission took over the investigation.
On Wednesday morning, police officers were on duty in a large area of forest in the Pankow Citizens’ Park. Measurers of the crime scene documentation of the Forensic Institute in the LKA examined the area using photogrammetry. A drone flew over the area strip by strip. The overlapping images are later combined into 3D images on the computer.
After the death of a five-year-old, the police continue to secure tracks in the park.Pudwell
After the drone overflight, officers from a platoon of the 22nd operational group went through the area – among other things, they were looking for the murder weapon.
The killed girl is said to have German-Polish-Turkish citizenship. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey was shocked. “I’m shocked. My thoughts are with the little girl’s parents and their families. It breaks my heart and I am deeply saddened,” she wrote on Twitter.
I’m shocked. My thoughts are with the little girl’s parents and their families.
It breaks my heart and I am deeply saddened.The police are investigating with high pressure. https://t.co/flqGeFC8UW
— Franziska Giffey (@FranziskaGiffey) February 21, 2023
How does such a crime change people’s sense of security in the neighborhood? On Wednesday, walkers in the Bürgerpark were also shocked by the news of the child’s death. “It’s unimaginable,” says an elderly gentleman who, like every day, walks his German Shepherd mix. “It’s actually been pretty idyllic up until now.”
The 44-year-old Thomas D. has lived near the Bürgerpark since 2009. “A murder like that could have happened anywhere. But that’s definitely not good for the feeling of security.” He has two children himself. On Thursday he wants to entrust one of them to another family for the first time, who will take it to kindergarten. Of course he trusts the family, he says.
An elderly woman pushes her bicycle through the park. “I heard they got the guy. He’ll probably get a 14-day youth sentence for that,” she says bitterly.