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happy listening [Music] our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents
00:01:07
if you feel at any time you need support please contact your local crisis center
00:01:11
for suggested phone numbers for confidential support please see the show notes for this episode on your app
00:01:17
or on our website don't walk down a lonely german street particularly at night if you do you might feel something heavy
00:01:32
jump on your back weighing you down you can't shake off the creature nor can you kill it according to german
00:01:42
folklore the alpha meaning leap upon is a mythological shape-shifter that will hang onto you until you pass
00:01:50
away from exhaustion or terror variants to the legend say that the alphaka kills its victims by tearing out
00:01:58
their throats it can take the form of a goblin or a sad old lady and in some cases no shape at all
00:02:08
the alpha can never be caught changing shape as it pleases and disappearing into the night
00:02:16
it is said that church bells sunlight prayer and profuse swearing may help to ward off the evil creature
00:02:26
another version of the alpha lies in the legend of a beautiful young woman who preyed upon a border guard returning
00:02:33
home after a long day at work he spotted the woman and as he approached was attacked from behind by a
00:02:41
force that he could not see nor fight off the guard struggled and screamed before the attack suddenly ceased
00:02:52
the beautiful woman disappeared leaving the guard to wonder if he had even seen her at all
00:02:59
although the legend of the alpha was derived from roots buried deep in german mythology
00:03:06
a real-life shape-shifter struck throughout europe in the early 90s so pervasive was this woman who became
00:03:14
known as the woman without a face that she travelled through multiple countries and murdered recklessly
00:03:20
without ever being seen she vanished every time leaving few clues behind to mark her presence
00:03:39
[Music] [Music] lisa lotta schlanger was going about her morning as usual on may 23 1993
00:04:06
the 62 year old retired church warden lived alone in the german town of eda uberstein
00:04:13
kilometers south of west of berlin lisalotta made some lemon cakes and placed them in the oven to cook
00:04:21
in preparation for any house guests that might visit on her kitchen table lay a bouquet of
00:04:28
flowers tied neatly together with metal wire three days later lisa lotta's neighbor
00:04:36
arrived at her home to chat over a cup of tea she knocked on the front door there was no
00:04:43
answer finding a way inside the neighbor came across lisalotta's body on the floor
00:04:52
flowers littered the kitchen table around lisa lotta's neck was the metal wire that had been used to bind them
00:05:02
she had been strangled with such force that the wire was embedded into her throat
00:05:09
the brutality of the murder coupled with the strength needed to overpower the victim
00:05:14
and inflict her injuries led police to assume that lisalotta's killer was a man a thorough examination of the crime
00:05:23
scene uncovered a little in the way of evidence the wire was common available for
00:05:29
purchase from many hardware stores no foreign fingerprints or footprints were left behind by the killer
00:05:38
while left unharmed lisalotta's yorkshire terrier didn't make a peep around the time of the attack which occurred on
00:05:46
the morning she was found or the day prior this led to speculation that lisa lotta knew her killer or
00:05:54
otherwise welcomed to them inside unsuspecting of any danger several items were taken into evidence
00:06:03
including a brightly coloured floral teacup that was sitting out in lisa lotta's
00:06:08
kitchen a neighbor reported who they thought resembled a salesman leaving lisalotta's
00:06:15
house in the days before her body was found he was carrying a pilot's case and had a
00:06:21
bodybuilder-like figure detectives focused on this lead but the man was never identified eight years passed
00:06:31
and at least a lot of schlanger's murder remained unsolved on march 26 2001 61 year old
00:06:45
joseph valzenbach was alone at his home in freiburg in breisgau 300 kilometers south of where lizalotta
00:06:53
schlenger was murdered joseph lived alongside a small shop where he dealt antiques
00:07:01
hearing a knock at the door joseph opened it and let the person on his doorstep inside
00:07:08
as he turned his back joseph was hit over the head multiple times with a heavy object
00:07:15
police later found joseph velsenbach's body on the floor of his home in addition to having his skull broken
00:07:23
joseph had also been strangled with a piece of garden wire 125 euros had been stolen from him
00:07:34
a foreign dna profile was found on joseph's body presumed to have come from his killer
00:07:40
the same profile was also uncovered in his kitchen on a glass and in joseph's antique shop
00:07:47
adjacent to his house sampling found on the sign in the shop window indicated that the killer had been
00:07:55
brazen enough to turn it from open to closed after carrying out the murder the dna profile was run through
00:08:04
germany's national dna database as it was still in its infancy the database did not locate a match
00:08:12
however the sample was uploaded in the hope of one day identifying joseph's killer
00:08:20
the sample itself was particularly intriguing while it was suspected that joseph's
00:08:26
killer was a male the dna proved otherwise it had come from a woman of eastern european ancestry
00:08:40
although separated by almost a decade the similarities between the murders of lisa lotto schlanger and
00:08:46
joseph valzenbach were obvious both were aged in their 60s lived alone and were strangled by wire
00:08:56
evidence taken from lisa lotta's house was re-examined following joseph's murder
00:09:03
a residual saliva sample from an unknown source was found on the floral tea cup taken from her kitchen when compared to
00:09:12
the sample on file from joseph valzenbach's murder there was a match the same unknown woman
00:09:19
of eastern european ancestry was present at both crime scenes [Music] after following up nearly three thousand
00:09:28
leads authorities were unable to identify the woman as with lisa lotto schlanger's case the
00:09:36
investigation into the murder of joseph valsenbach went nowhere over the following months the mysterious
00:09:46
woman went on a crime spree throughout germany in august 2001 police linked her dna to
00:09:54
several break and enters of garden sheds 200 kilometers northeast of where joseph
00:09:59
was murdered a month later a caravan was broken into a further 200 kilometers north
00:10:07
the wanted woman's saliva was found on a half-eaten biscuit one month after the caravan break in a
00:10:16
seven-year-old boy was walking near his home 175 kilometers west in the town of geraldstein
00:10:24
he stepped on a used syringe on a pathway obtaining a needle stick injury the boy was taken to hospital and tested
00:10:33
for the transmissible diseases hiv and hepatitis results came back in negative the syringe contained trace amounts of
00:10:43
heroin and a minute sample of blood test results revealed that the blood contained
00:10:50
the same dna profile as the woman who was suspected of murdering lisalotta schlenger and joseph
00:10:56
valsenbach as well as breaking into garden sheds and a caravan it seemed as though she was an
00:11:03
intravenous drug user with the need to fund her heroin addiction offering a possible motive for
00:11:09
her crimes without any further clues to hint at her identity she was henceforth known as the woman
00:11:19
without a face over one year passed with no further crimes occurring that could be linked to
00:11:27
the woman without a face then in 2003 she re-emerged [Music] 220 kilometers east of where her used
00:11:40
syringe was found in garrelstein lies the bustling town of dietzenbach on new year's day 2003 dietzenbach
00:11:49
police were called to a break-in at a downtown office building nothing much was stolen aside from some
00:11:56
loose change however dna recovered from the crime scene matched the woman without a face
00:12:05
she had returned after 15 months of inaction a high-profile prosecutor who liaised
00:12:11
with the police spoke of the deatenback break-in telling reporters it was a professional job she left no
00:12:20
fingerprints but she did leave a scraping of skin and that was enough to pin the job on her
00:12:30
a year later in 2004 the woman without a face's dna was found yet again this time
00:12:38
on a spring-loaded rifle used by a man to carry out a robbery in france it appeared that she was on the move
00:12:46
across europe but by may 2005 she was back in germany earlier that month a nomadic romani man
00:12:57
named randolph attempted to shoot and kill his brother police located the gun used by randolph
00:13:05
in the rhine river which winds its way through the city of warms dna on a bullet was a match to the woman
00:13:13
without a face warmth was in close proximity to some of her previous crimes randolph was arrested and charged with
00:13:23
attempted murder he testified that the gun had been given to him by his father years earlier he could not think of how
00:13:32
any woman could be connected to the firearm and its bullets in any way detectives believed
00:13:39
randolph and the woman frequented the same bohemian community even if they didn't know one another or
00:13:45
interacted directly this explained how and why she moved back and forth across europe
00:13:53
and had ties to everywhere she visited but never seemed to settle down in one spot
00:13:59
for long a year later 120 kilometers away in the german town of zabrulken an apartment was broken into
00:14:12
neighbors witnessed the offender enter the property and were able to provide a description to police
00:14:18
it was a man with short brown hair dark eyes a large nose and a thin vertical line of
00:14:25
facial hair that ran from his lower lip to his chin police were stunned when dna uncovered
00:14:33
at the crime scene came back as a positive match to the woman without a face this revelation provided a possible
00:14:43
answer as to why they had been so unsuccessful in tracking her down investigators now suspected that their
00:14:51
target identified as a man or donned a male disguise a police spokesperson told the bbc we can't rule out that our
00:15:02
suspect is a man now or that she looks like a man we just don't know later that year the woman's dna was
00:15:14
discovered yet again this time in the austrian village of mauthausen like previous robberies this one
00:15:22
targeted a store in this case the woman had accomplices a gang of robbers set off an explosive
00:15:30
device under a manhole cover near a large shopping center the blast caused the windows of an
00:15:38
electronic store to shutter allowing the group to enter the premises and steal mobile phones before fleeing
00:15:46
though dna belonging to the woman without a face was found at the crime scene no other foreign samples were found
00:15:55
one of the gang members was eventually arrested for the robbery but denied any knowledge of the woman
00:16:02
and wouldn't offer any further information that could lead to her identity she had somehow coerced or threatened
00:16:10
her co-offenders to stay silent [Music] michelle kizawata grew up in the small german town of uber weissbach
00:16:25
350 kilometers southwest of berlin upon finishing school michelle joined the police force
00:16:35
she started training at age 19 and once completed joined the anti-terror unit of the
00:16:42
german federal police by age 22 michelle was stationed in heilbronn a historic city close to where the woman
00:16:51
without a face was known to strike in april 2007 michelle kizawata was a drug squad officer
00:17:01
working undercover on the 25th she was on duty driving her green and silver series 5 bmw
00:17:10
her policing partner martin arnold was riding in the passenger seat just before 2 pm the pair stopped for
00:17:19
lunch they pulled into a terraisian visa in heilbronn an open space used for flea markets and
00:17:27
festivals that served as a parking lot when not in use a short time later witnesses heard
00:17:35
multiple gunshots ring out from the parking lot first responders found michelle lying on
00:17:42
the ground outside her bmw she had been shot dead execution style martin had also been shot in the face
00:17:52
with a bullet lodging behind his right eye he was lucky to survive after waking from a month-long coma
00:18:02
martin revealed that he couldn't recall anything in the lead-up to the attack a special task force titled special
00:18:13
commission parking lot was established to investigate the shooting of the two police members
00:18:20
officers set up a dragnet registering any vehicles within a certain radius of the crime scene
00:18:26
in the hope that it would reveal any leads while a forensics team went through michelle's bmw
00:18:34
both michelle and martin's service weapons and handcuffs were missing presumed stolen by their attacker
00:18:42
the bullets fired upon the officers came from two different guns indicating there were at least two
00:18:49
offenders the trajectory of the discharged bullets revealed that the gunman had entered the
00:18:55
bmw via the rear doors and shot the officers point blank from the back seat it happened so quickly that neither
00:19:04
officer had time to draw their own weapons working on the theory that the crime was
00:19:11
an act of revenge on the state police investigators zeroed in on groups that would harbor such resentment
00:19:18
they made enquiries with the local homeless and drug affected communities but failed to uncover any leads or rule
00:19:26
anything out the chief superintendent of special commission parking lot conceded
00:19:33
it was brutal apparently random and with no apparent motive what are we dealing with
00:19:40
here and who is the accomplice [Music] special commission parking lot received its first major lead in june
00:19:50
two months after the shooting dna samples taken from the center console and one of
00:19:56
the rear armrests of michelle kizawata's bmw came back with a match the woman without
00:20:04
a face had been implicated in yet another murder following this revelation police ramped
00:20:13
up their search to find the killer who had earned the new moniker based on her latest crime
00:20:20
the phantom of heilbronn a reward of 10 000 euros which was later increased to 15 000
00:20:28
was offered for any information leading to the identification of the phantom the gang member who had worked with her
00:20:36
previously to carry out a robbery of an electronic store in mount hausen was interrogated
00:20:42
yet again even with a reward on offer he remained tight-lipped leads dried up and of the 18 homicides
00:20:54
investigated by the heilbronn police in 2007 the murder of michelle kizawata was the
00:21:01
only one left unsolved the phantom of heilbronn however was just getting started
00:21:12
dna from the phantom of heilbronn or the woman without a face was found four months after the murder
00:21:19
of michelle casavata it was located in a shared garden south of heilbronn following a series of house break-ins in
00:21:28
the area nothing of major significance was stolen only a few bottles of beer some bell peppers and a bunch of grapes
00:21:39
her dna was found at other crime scenes including the theft of a car and computer equipment from a school
00:21:46
in the german town of zarland as well as a stolen car from lintz in austria anyone else arrested in relation to
00:21:56
these crimes refused to name the phantom on january 30 2008 three men from the country of georgia traveled to
00:22:07
the german town of happenheim 80 kilometers northwest of heilbronn they had planned to buy used cars to
00:22:15
transport home for resale their dead bodies were later fished out of the rhine river
00:22:22
after traveling 25 kilometers downstream two men were quickly apprehended for the
00:22:30
murders one of whom was working as a police informant as reported in crime magazine the
00:22:37
informant had previously been given a station wagon by the local police which he used to transport the bodies
00:22:44
prior to dumping them in the river the station wagon was examined thoroughly the carpet within was stained with the
00:22:54
blood of the victims when forensics took swabs of the carpet they also uncovered the phantom of
00:23:02
heilbronn's dna her accomplices refused to give her up instead implicating each other as being
00:23:11
the killer the chief superintendent overseeing special commission parking lot told the mirror publication
00:23:22
we are as baffled as everyone else about how her dna came to be there but it is one more piece in the mosaic
00:23:30
all criminals no matter how deadly or how clever all slip up eventually we just hope we
00:23:38
catch her before she kills again on october 22 2008 45 year old diana pavlenko was completing chores in her home in
00:23:52
weinsberg six kilometers east of heilbronn after cleaning some dishes the psychiatric nursing assistant
00:24:01
locked up and left her house four days later diana's body was found near the hospital where she worked
00:24:11
the phantom of heilbronn's dna was found in diana's car co-workers described diana pavalenko as
00:24:20
someone who was friendly and nice but also extremely reserved nobody knew much about her private life
00:24:29
even though diana had worked on the same ward for 20 years a neighbor spoke of seeing diana only
00:24:37
when she went onto the balcony to hang out washing otherwise she remained indoors usually
00:24:44
with the blinds drawn diana's murder offered investigators a rare opportunity to narrow in on a
00:24:52
suspect they theorized that the phantom might have been a current or former patient at
00:24:59
the hospital where diana worked the psychiatric ward treated 8 000 patients a year between the ages of 18
00:25:07
and 62. police interviewed some persons of interest at the facility but privacy laws prevented them from
00:25:16
accessing patient files that might have contained more valuable clues the ward's chief physician was fairly
00:25:24
dismissive that a female patient was responsible for the murder of his colleague
00:25:29
quote the connection between the dna trace and us is a mystery to me i can't explain it
00:25:37
all to myself when diana pavlenko disappeared she was off duty for a week during this
00:25:45
period no patient went into hiding at diana's funeral a witness noticed the peculiar and somewhat unnerving presence
00:25:58
he described to quote neglected figures at the service unshaven and unkempt men donning parkers that no one knew
00:26:07
personally he said that they were the type of people that he didn't want to meet in
00:26:13
the dark [Music] despite the possible psychiatric ward lead diana pavlenko's murder investigation
00:26:22
reached the same conclusion as the others and was soon relegated to the cold case
00:26:28
files it seemed as though authorities were always one step behind the phantom but were unable to
00:26:36
catch a break by the end of 2008 the phantom of heilbronn had been on the run for over 15 years her dna was linked
00:26:52
to nearly 40 major and minor crimes ranging from small burglaries to murder including that of police officer
00:27:00
michelle kizavata the phantom's crime spree spread across central europe with germany her most popular location
00:27:09
to strike but she had also been linked to over a dozen crimes in austria another one of her frequent destinations
00:27:19
officials were left scratching their heads while they had uncovered some leads in
00:27:24
her transient lifestyle drug use and possible psychiatric treatment there was only one certainty the head of
00:27:33
the upper austria state criminal police claimed the only hypothesis we're going to use
00:27:40
is that it has to be a woman several men had now been arrested in relation to crimes involving the phantom
00:27:50
but their involvement was the tip of an iceberg minute strands of male dna had been
00:27:58
uncovered at multiple crime scenes suggesting the phantom had accomplices from albania
00:28:04
croatia france iraq poland romania serbia and slovakia the same male dna was never found twice
00:28:17
the phantom had a different accomplice for each crime she carried out in an article about the violent fugitive
00:28:25
the sydney morning herald noted the phantom of hyobron picks up and discards helpers with the
00:28:33
same casual abandon with which she kills [Music] highly regarded viennese psychiatrist dr
00:28:42
kurt kletzer had profiled many disturbing and dangerous individuals in his time he was quoted in the mirror as saying
00:28:53
the phantom is able to project an aura of normalcy while being anything but she is
00:29:00
compelled to murder to feed her drug habit thus reducing the victim to the status
00:29:06
of a worthless object these psychopathic traits would have been formed at a very
00:29:12
early age i would venture that the police are looking for someone from a damaged home life
00:29:18
perhaps a foster child or orphan a child who was abused or whose carers were addicts
00:29:26
what doesn't fit at all is the murder of the policewoman and the attempted killing of her partner
00:29:33
unless they thought that they would have drugs the act may be seen as the ultimate lashing out at authority
00:29:43
by early 2009 800 suspect women had been dna tested but all were ruled out as being the
00:29:51
phantom the cost of the investigation had reached over 12 million euros the reward for information leading to
00:30:00
the identification of the elusive figure was now at 300 000 euros she had become as the international
00:30:09
media dubbed her germany's most wanted criminal in march 2009 badly burnt male corpse
00:30:23
was discovered in france along the french german border disfigured beyond recognition french
00:30:31
authorities thought that the body belonged to an asylum seeker who had been missing for seven years
00:30:38
they attempted to identify the man by matching his fingerprints to those on his asylum application paperwork
00:30:44
but his fingers were so burnt that his prince could not be obtained alternatively authorities swabbed his
00:30:52
asylum seeker paperwork hoping that minute traces of dna from his fingertips would still be present on
00:30:59
the paper they were in luck the paper contained to dna allowing for a comparison to the burnt
00:31:08
remains the results were startling the only dna extracted from the paperwork was female it was a match
00:31:21
to the phantom of heilbronn given that the asylum seeker who made the application
00:31:28
was definitely male this revelation forced investigators all over europe to rethink
00:31:34
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south of heilbronn is the production plant for grinder bio1 the bioscience company specialises in
00:38:20
the development and production of high quality laboratory products during the period that the phantom of
00:38:27
heilbronn was wreaking havoc greiner bio1 was busy manufacturing cotton swabs for use in laboratories all
00:38:35
over europe they were also used by certain police departments to collect a dna at crime scenes a 71 year old woman
00:38:46
worked in the grana bio1 production plant in germany a long-term employee her job was in the
00:38:54
factory packaging the cotton swabs of eastern european descent this woman was the phantom of heilbronn
00:39:05
however she was completely innocent of any crime unbeknownst to her and everyone else
00:39:13
she had been contaminating the swabs with her own dna this discovery was made in 2009
00:39:21
when investigators realized that the phantom of heilbronn's dna only showed up at crime scenes where the
00:39:28
grinder bio1 cotton swabs were used crime labs who had used swabs from other sources
00:39:36
never had a case attributed to the phantom an investigator explained the contamination to the built
00:39:43
newspaper the things were double packaged we thought they were the mercedes of cotton swabs
00:39:52
the swabs were marketed as being sterile and they were they had been processed to
00:39:57
remove all germs fungi and viruses but the process did not destroy dna they simply weren't designed for
00:40:07
collecting genetic material hence forensic technicians across three nations had for years
00:40:14
found the same dna at scores of crime scenes because they had brought it there on the
00:40:21
sterile swabs they carried griner bio1 international expanded on this they announced that the swabs which were
00:40:32
sterilized with ionizing radiation and were sterile for medical purposes were never certified for use in dna
00:40:41
analysis as any existing contamination could not be removed by sterilization the revelation that the phantom of
00:40:51
heilbronn was no more than an unsuspecting elderly factory worker proved a huge embarrassment for
00:40:58
investigators a member of the berlin association of lawyers told the times that dna analysis
00:41:08
is a perfect tool for identifying traces what we need to avoid is the assumption
00:41:14
that the producer of the trace is automatically the culprit dna evidence on a crime scene says nothing about how
00:41:22
it got there there is good reason for not permitting convictions on the basis of dna circumstantial
00:41:30
evidence alone upon learning that the phantom of heilbronn didn't exist dozens of crimes across europe needed to
00:41:41
be re-examined while detectives had been chasing a literal ghost the real perpetrators were getting away
00:41:50
with murder [Music] in 1963 the american comedy film the pink panther was released
00:42:02
it follows the story of a bumbling inspector named jacques cluso as he hunts down a jewel thief
00:42:09
known as the phantom before he can get his hands on a priceless diamond called the pink
00:42:14
panther the film was an international success and inspired a spin-off cartoon series
00:42:21
of the same name two years after the phantom of hyobron had been identified the police were still no closer to
00:42:30
solving the many murders falsely attributed to her including that of police officer
00:42:36
michel kizawata in early november 2011 a number of german media outlets received a dvd
00:42:47
they placed the disc into a player and a recognizable cartoon character popped up
00:42:53
on screen the pink panther as reported in the guardian the dvd started with the pink panther
00:43:02
strolling through an unknown city with the show's iconic music score playing in the background
00:43:09
the pink panther then bombs a grocery store suddenly real news footage taken in 2001
00:43:17
of a shop being bombed in cologne germany flashed on screen the disturbing video continued with the
00:43:26
pink panther watching television as horrific images of real murder victims and the associated crime scenes were shown
00:43:34
one after the other just before the conclusion of the dvd the pink panther could be seen reclining
00:43:42
in a chair as he watched media footage from the funeral of police officer michel kizawata
00:43:50
then the image of a firearm appeared on screen it was michelle's service weapon stolen
00:43:58
from her by her killer immediately after her murder the dvd ended with an exasperated pink
00:44:06
panther pointing to a sign on the screen that featured the words national socialist underground
00:44:18
[Music] over bernhardt and uva muntelos grew up in the city of vienna 300 kilometers northeast of hyobron
00:44:29
as reported in the guardian yena had a long been a heartland for those with radical far right views
00:44:37
the youth club where bernhardt and muntelos met as teenagers served as a location where young people
00:44:44
could find others with extremist right wing views when biato shaper became a member of the same club
00:44:52
she and uva muntelos quickly fell in love on her 19th birthday shaper met uva bernhardt and developed strong romantic
00:45:02
feelings for him also initiating a love triangle between the group together the trio founded the neo-nazi
00:45:11
terrorist group the national socialist underground or nsu they spent the 90s getting into
00:45:20
fights with left-wing groups on the streets both bernhardt and muntellus shaved to
00:45:26
their heads and dressed in a tyre befitting of the neo-nazi scene at the time as reported in the guardian they visited
00:45:35
the buchenwald concentration camp memorial dressed in homemade ss uniforms and invented a board game
00:45:43
in which the winner was the person who had sent the most to jewish people to concentration camps
00:45:49
[Music] bernhard muntellus and chapa all came from well-respected families their parents treated their children's
00:45:59
interest in neo-nazism as a passing phase but it was far from a hobby it consumed every aspect of the three
00:46:09
teens lives they even worked in a store that sold nazi paraphernalia under the counter the nsu
00:46:19
were just getting started in april 1996 bernhard hung a dull torso with the word
00:46:28
jew and a star of david off a motorway bridge connected to the doll were wires leading
00:46:34
to a cardboard box that read beware of the bomb although a hoax bernhard's fingerprint
00:46:42
was found on the phony bomb device enabling police to make a quick arrest bernhardt already had a long rap sheet
00:46:52
including offenses for endangerment of road traffic resistance to a law enforcement officer
00:46:58
extortion dangerous bodily harm sedition and violation of gun laws yet he was acquitted for the bomb hoax
00:47:08
incident while it could be proven he handled the box there was nothing to prove he had knowledge of the hoax
00:47:18
he was still put away serving just over two years in juvenile detention for possessing three right-wing
00:47:25
extremist cds he intended to sell this coupled with his criminal history was enough to get him off the streets
00:47:34
temporarily two years later in january 1998 police in yena received a tip-off and
00:47:43
searched bernhard's garage inside they found 1.4 kilograms of tnt enough to cause a major explosion
00:47:55
however by this time the three members of the nsu bernhardt his friend muntelos as well as
00:48:03
their girlfriend chaper were already on the run they hid out in an apartment 85 kilometers away
00:48:12
and used fake ids and aliases to avoid recognition while german officials were hunting the
00:48:23
phantom of heilbronn bernhardt and mutlos went on a murderous rampage unrelated to any of the phantom's crimes
00:48:32
harboring an intense hatred for turkish immigrants the two men targeted the turkish
00:48:38
population with chaper assisting in the planning of the attacks on september 9 2000 they shot and killed
00:48:47
a florist as he sat in his work van in nuremberg police fabricated a motive for the crime
00:48:54
involving the turkish criminal underworld despite the victim's wife denying this theory
00:49:02
police were staunch in their opinion when three more turkish nationals were found shot dead soon after
00:49:10
the police were certain it was all gang-related meanwhile the nsu continued their string
00:49:18
of attacks they sent a bomb disguised as a christmas present to a grocery store owned by a turkish family when the store
00:49:28
owner opened the gift the bomb detonated nobody was killed in the blast but the store owner's daughter was
00:49:36
seriously injured following this the nsu went underground for three years they resurfaced in
00:49:46
february 2004 to kill the manager of a kebab restaurant four months later they placed the nail
00:49:54
bomb on a busy shopping street in koipstrasa cologne an area with a high turkish population
00:50:01
the blast injured 22 people over the following two years three more turkish men were murdered
00:50:10
police were well aware of the pattern but were adamant it was an internal conflict
00:50:18
another shooting in june 2006 was believed to be related but as the victim was of greek german
00:50:25
heritage investigators could not be certain all of the shootings committed by the
00:50:32
nsu were the same in that they were all done in an execution-style manner the victims were shot in the face while
00:50:40
looking directly at their killer the firearm used was a cz-83 semi-automatic pistol
00:50:50
police efforts to narrow in on the offenders were hampered by their ongoing assumption that they
00:50:56
were members of the turkish criminal underworld they maintained this belief despite
00:51:02
evidence of the contrary two of the murders took place near police stations something the underworld would avoid at
00:51:11
all costs witnesses reported two men of german or eastern european appearance fleeing the
00:51:18
scenes of the shootings on pushbikes furthermore the murders took place when the victims were breaking their regular
00:51:26
routine implying they were opportunistic not premeditated although a right-wing terrorist group
00:51:35
was briefly suspected by the police it wasn't until the pink panther dvd emerged
00:51:41
when the perpetrators were formally identified as the national socialist underground
00:51:51
on november 4 2011 over bernhard and uva muntelos donned gorilla masks and attempted a robbery in the easter
00:51:59
german city of isenac robberies were the pair's means of funding dnsu their efforts failed and the pair were
00:52:09
forced to flee on their bicycles they took shelter in a caravan bernhard had rented
00:52:17
where they'd wait until the heat died down the two men were completely unaware that
00:52:24
they had been covertly tailed from the scene of the botched robbery to their current whereabouts
00:52:31
upon realizing they were surrounded bernhardt and muntelos made a pact after setting the caravan on fire
00:52:40
monteluz shot bernhardt fatally in the head before turning the gun on himself in the remains of the caravan police
00:52:49
uncovered a number of guns including the firearm issued to police officer michel kizawata
00:52:58
a check of the caravan's registration revealed that it was one of the vehicles identified in the police dragnet
00:53:05
shortly after michelle's murder biata chaper learned of the suicide of both her lovers
00:53:13
later that day at 3 05 pm she emptied a 10 litre canister of gasoline throughout the apartment the
00:53:22
trio used as a hideout chaper then made a hasty exit with her two pet cats in cages
00:53:30
she also had with her 15 copies of the pink panther dvd the group had edited together as she
00:53:38
walked away the apartment wall exploded and flames engulfed the building chaper approached a woman walking by and
00:53:48
placed the cages containing her cats at her feet she asked the stranger to look after her
00:53:55
animals for a minute chaper then ran away inside the wreckage of the apartment investigators found
00:54:06
several newspaper articles about murders committed on turkish immigrants several thousand euros in cash and
00:54:12
checks a caesar pistol and a pair of handcarves the handcuffs had belonged to officer
00:54:20
michel kizavatar german authorities were confident that uber bernhardt and uva muntelos were responsible for
00:54:30
michelle kizawata's murder testing of the cz pistol revealed it was the murder weapon used
00:54:38
in the other nine murders attributed to the nsu meanwhile biata chaper was on the run
00:54:46
traversing germany via the railway system sometime during her travels she posted
00:54:52
the copies of the pink panther dvd to various media outlets the dvd and the confessions from the nsu
00:55:02
soon made national headlines [Music] november 8 2011 marked four days after the deaths of ulver bernhardt
00:55:14
and uva muntelos local police in yenar where the nsu was founded received a call
00:55:23
when a police officer answered she was greeted on the line by a female voice biada chapa here i'm the one you're here
00:55:33
for the local police department was not aware that biata chaper was wanted for the nsu crimes
00:55:42
and the officer terminated the call however chaper soon turned herself into authorities
00:55:52
biata chaper was charged with all the crimes attributed to the nsu this included the shooting murders of
00:56:00
the nine turkish men the two bombings the attempted murder of officer martin arnold
00:56:05
and the murder of his policing partner officer michelle kizawata four men were also charged as
00:56:14
accomplices and ordered to stand trial with chaper on the grounds of procuring weapons for
00:56:20
the nsu and for being accessories to the bombings of the four men only one a former
00:56:28
neo-nazi showed a genuine remorse for his role in the murders the failure of the german police to
00:56:37
acknowledge that the spree killings of turkish nationals could be anything but an internal
00:56:43
conflict within the community's criminal underbelly prompted outrage from the public
00:56:50
german police were even accused of turning a blind eye to right-wing extremists this level of ignorance enabled the nsu
00:56:59
to function unabated for 13 years in response to the criticism the president of the federal intelligence
00:57:08
agency as well as several other high-ranking security officials resigned from their positions
00:57:16
the informal title of the investigation into the crimes the kebab murders was also criticized
00:57:23
for being deeply offensive to the turkish community only two of the victims worked at kebab
00:57:30
shops and even so the racial and comical undertones of the name were obvious it did little to depict the
00:57:39
seriousness of the crimes and the grief of those impacted causing an overall dismissiveness of the growing
00:57:47
threat by the mainstream media and those of other creeds the trial against beater chaper and her
00:57:57
four accomplices began in 2013 overseen by a panel of judges only neo-nazis packed the courtroom and
00:58:07
loitered outside with publication the new republic commenting that it gave the trial a
00:58:13
menacing presence chaper barely spoke leaving her attorney to communicate on her behalf
00:58:21
through lengthy pre-written statements those called to give evidence on behalf of the defense
00:58:28
attempted to slow proceedings as much as possible victims families who had hoped for some
00:58:35
answers as to why their loved ones had been targeted were left largely in the dark
00:58:43
in closing arguments biata chaper's legal team argued that she had once been a nazi but
00:58:50
had changed her ways shortly after the nsu began their attacks therefore she was no longer a part of
00:58:59
the national socialist underground when uber bernhard and uva uvamuntlos began their crime
00:59:05
spree against the turkish community rather she was just their roommate as german law required at least three
00:59:15
consenting people to form a group the defense argued that their client could not be held responsible for the
00:59:23
actions of two people if she didn't associate with them as a group the prosecution argued that chaper knew
00:59:32
exactly what she was doing and was always an active member of the nsu stating the motive of
00:59:41
all these crimes was a far-right ideology the fever dream of a country free of foreigners
00:59:48
and the intention to shake this free friendly country in which we live to its core in order to
00:59:56
prepare the ground for a disgusting nazi regime the trial lasted 437 days and involved 73 separate lawyers and
01:00:09
hundreds of witnesses all defendants were found guilty sentences for chapis four accomplices
01:00:19
ranged from two and a half to ten years prison chaper received a life sentence with
01:00:26
particular gravity this means she can apply for parole after serving 15 years jail time
01:00:33
but will be unlikely to receive it although it couldn't be proven that chaper had been at any of the crime
01:00:42
scenes the judges concluded that she was aware of and contributed to the killings that
01:00:48
were designed to spread fear and insecurity among immigrant communities not everyone was convinced that the
01:00:57
deaths of uva bernhard and uva muntelos and the imprisonment of biata chaper marked
01:01:03
the end of the national socialist underground the nsu watch an alliance of anti-fascists and
01:01:11
anti-racists dedicated to tracking the nsu movement and imparting knowledge about neo-nazis
01:01:19
commented the court is desperately maintaining that the nsu is a thing of the past
01:01:26
that right-wing terrorism no longer exists the results of the main hearings the inquiry committees
01:01:35
and our own research show that the nsu is a network it still exists and it was not a group of three loners
01:01:45
we will persist until the families the public and we all know the identities of all
01:01:52
the nsu supporters and until they've been held accountable we want justice lawyers for beyotted shaper lodged an
01:02:05
appeal which has yet to commence the reason why the nsu targeted police officers michelle kizerveda and
01:02:17
martin arnold remains a mystery the notion that they were targeted for their service weapons
01:02:24
or seized drugs although readily accepted in the beginning lost traction over time
01:02:32
one other theory has since emerged that helps shed a lot on why the offenders stepped out of their typical
01:02:38
racially motivated mo and targeted two police officers michelle kizuwada had a cousin named
01:02:47
anya who was also a police officer as reported on the world socialist website in 2014 anya told a parliamentary
01:02:58
committee that her daughter who was michelle's cousin might have had ties with a neo-nazi group
01:03:05
named blood and honor anya also admitted having links to the far-right scene in the past
01:03:12
including supporters of the nsu she stated that her father who was a police officer
01:03:20
and her husband a security officer also had ties to neo-nazi groups the inquiry concluded that perhaps
01:03:29
michelle kizerveda knew too much about the workings of the nsu it was also established that at least
01:03:38
two of the ten authorities including the lead investigator assigned to the michelle
01:03:43
keyservatic case had once belonged to the white supremacist group the ku klux klan
01:03:52
this prompted speculation that the police were intentionally turning a blind eye to the attacks carried out by
01:03:59
the nsu in 2016 an international standard was finalized to minimize the risk of human dna
01:04:10
contamination in products used by authorities to collect forensic material this came about largely due to the
01:04:19
errors caused by the phantom of hyalbrong case known as iso-1838 the guidelines provide advice to
01:04:28
manufacturers police forces and laboratories worldwide on steps that can be taken to avoid
01:04:35
similar incidents from happening in the future many of the murders attributed to the
01:04:42
phantom remain unsolved [Music] in july 2016 a man gathering mushrooms in the woodlands near rhoda her bruin
01:04:53
central germany found skeletal remains that had been partially uncovered by wild animals
01:05:01
they belonged to a nine-year-old girl named peggy canoblock who went missing 15 years prior while
01:05:08
walking home from school and dna samples from a small piece of cloth found at the scene matched to those of
01:05:16
deceased national socialist underground member ulva bernhardt the finding shocked investigators
01:05:26
news publication dw reported that the finding might open a new chapter on the nsu's
01:05:33
shocking murder spree discovery led to the implementation of a special police force
01:05:40
tasked with going back through unsolved homicide cases involving children to see if any others
01:05:46
could be attributed to hoover bernard and the nsu a year later investigators concluded that bernhard
01:05:55
had nothing to do with peggy's death his dna had been transferred accidentally onto the cloth uncovered at her burial
01:06:05
site this occurred via equipment that had previously been used to examine evidence
01:06:12
from the burnt out caravan that contained bernhardt's remains marked yet another dna contamination
01:06:20
blunder despite the lessons learnt in the phantom of heilbronn incident a reef sardic was a survivor of the 2004
01:06:31
nail bomb blast carried out by the national socialist underground he is still coming to terms with the
01:06:39
attack that seriously wounded his daughter but has since revealed that what he faced in the aftermath
01:06:46
was worse than the actual explosion in an interview with dw a reef stated i said that i think neo-nazis were
01:06:57
behind the attack the officer then just held his finger to his lips and he didn't seem to want to hear
01:07:05
anything more about it fear became my constant companion i could not even talk to my wife about
01:07:14
it until five years later [Music] a reef speaks at events about the consequences of racism and xenophobia
01:07:25
he continues to spread awareness about the far-right terrorist extremists who he believes are
01:07:31
still operating today at one conference a member of the crowd asked a reef how his family were coping
01:07:40
with tears in his eyes he said i won't stay silent that i have learnt as long as you say nothing nothing
01:07:54
changes [Music] you