Deceased or in hiding?
Many rumors about the disappearance of Tengelmann boss Haub
Billionaire Karl-Erivan Haub never came back from a ski tour in April 2018. He was last seen on a Valais ski lift. Could the latest body find solve the mystery of his disappearance?
Karl-Erivan Haub († 58), head of the German family company Tengelmann, disappeared in Zermatt VS on April 7, 2018. The father of twins wants to train there for the Patrouille des Glaciers, the largest ski touring race in the world.
A camera on the ski lift at the Klein Matterhorn mountain station records the billionaire one last time. Since that moment there has been no trace of him. Haub’s disappearance remains a mystery, the body has not been found to this day. Despite it: On May 14, 2021, almost three years after his disappearance, the district court in Cologne finally declared Haub dead.
At 9.09 a.m. his trail was lost
There are still numerous rumors about Haub’s disappearance. Some are certain that the billionaire actually had a fatal accident in the Swiss Alps. Others, however, believe that he went into hiding – and possibly still lives.
The case therefore has a special explosive force. “RTL” and “Star” investigated the case in more detail in 2021. In the documentary “Tengelmann – The Mysterious Disappearance of the Billionaire”, the reporters tried to reconstruct the last hours of the German. The reconstructions show that Haub left the hotel “The Omnia” in Zermatt at 7.30 a.m. He then took the first gondola up into the mountains.
At 9:09 a.m. he was last seen on a surveillance camera at the Klein Matterhorn mountain station. After that, his trail is lost.
Was Russia involved?
According to “RTL”, the evening before he disappeared, he last called a Russian number for a total of 108 minutes. According to the research, the numbers can be assigned to a Russian woman. Haub has known the woman since 2002 – but what role she plays in his life is completely unclear. Was she his lover? A business partner? Or even an agent of the FSB secret service?
According to their own statements, the journalists were shadowed during their research. E-mails have disappeared and people have observed them during filming. Perhaps the Russian secret service even had a finger in the pie? Or was there a big family quarrel?
After her research, reporter Liv von Boetticher has a clear opinion on the mystery surrounding Haub: “I don’t think Karl-Erivan Haub had an accident in Zermatt.” But what exactly happened is still unclear to this day. It remains to be seen whether the corpse that has now been found will finally bring light into the darkness. (oco/zis)