The authorities haven’t ruled out that the killer moved in diplomatic circles
On July 31, 2001, people walking along the Main river in Nied, Germany, made the horrifying discovery of a body in the water. It was 2:50 p.m., and the body had been floating for at least twelve hours.
The victim was a young girl, no older than sixteen, with long, dark hair. Although she was petite at only 5 feet 2 inches, she weighed a troubling 85 pounds.
An autopsy confirmed that the girl had suffered horrific abuse over a period of years, none of which had been treated by a doctor. Numerous scars and burn marks from cigarettes dotted her body. Her left ear was deformed, as were her arms, both from repeated injuries.
It was clear that someone or multiple people had treated this girl with unimaginable cruelty during her short lifetime. Their final act of violence against her was blunt force trauma that resulted in two fractured ribs that injured her lungs and spleen and ultimately killed her.
The killers callously tossed the dead girl into the river like a piece of garbage. Her knees were bent against her skinny body, and a cloth bound her to an umbrella stand, presumably used in a failed attempt to sink the body.
Who is the Girl from the Main?
From the beginning, investigators struggled to identify the victim. Although her face was mostly recognizable, her eye color was no longer discernible. Nobody came to claim her, and she became known simply as “The girl from the Main.”
One clue investigators latched onto early on was the cloth used to tie the girl to the umbrella stand. The fabric appeared similar to the kind worn in Pakistan and Afghanistan, leading investigators to believe that the victim originated from the Middle East.
Police diligently distributed posters in Afghanistani, Pakistani, and North Indian places of worship and youth centers throughout Germany. They also interviewed over a thousand young women from Middle Eastern countries who had…
