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Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680

June 29, 2023 / 58:40

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the mysterious disappearance and murder of Fruka Leaves, focusing on her last communications, potential suspects, and the investigation's challenges. Key discussions include the details of Fruka's phone calls with friends and family, the timeline of her disappearance, and the involvement of law enforcement.

Fruka Leaves went missing after a night out at a pub. Her last communications with her roommate Chris and sister Karen raised concerns about her safety. During these calls, Fruka expressed confusion and fear, hinting at being in danger. Chris and Karen noted that Fruka sounded slurred and possibly drugged, leading them to suspect foul play.

Investigators later determined that Fruka's phone was moving during her communications, suggesting she was being held captive. The timeline indicated she had to have gotten into a vehicle to travel significant distances in a short time. Despite extensive investigations, including interviews with over 900 people, no clear suspects emerged.

The episode also discusses the discovery of Fruka's remains months later in a remote area, with no signs of violence. The investigation turned towards potential suspects, including a couple known as the Lonely Hearts killers, but no direct connection to Fruka was established.

Throughout the episode, the hosts emphasize the emotional turmoil faced by Fruka's family and the haunting questions left unanswered after her tragic death.

TLDR

Fruka Leaves' disappearance and murder raise questions about her last communications and the investigation's handling of the case.

Episode

58:40
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thank you [Music] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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truecrime garage.com and that is enough of the biz all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's
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talk some true crime foreign [Music] leaves went missing after a night out at the pub
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we already talked about a couple of communications that came in from fruka to her roommate and to some family
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members and a big reminder here before we go through these additional Communications
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remember that the calls were not recorded the police were not heavily involved there is no real investigation
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going on at this point so when we go through these calls these are transcripts that have been created based
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off of memory reconstructed through the memory of the person or persons who received the call that were on the call
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with fructa leaves we start off with Sunday the 25th this is at 10 28 p.m fruka called Chris her
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roommate and friend fruka says coming home today Chris says are you in danger fricka no
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Chris says why didn't you come home yesterday froka says can I explain to you I wonder if this is supposed to mean
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can't I explain to you or I cannot explain to you but the notes we have say can I explain to you Chris says where
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are you froka I'll tell you when I'm home Chris who is with you froka I'll tell you
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later this is weird right because not just the communication but weird for the person
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receiving it you gotta feel like the roommate who cares about his friend and the family
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members who care about their loved one when they are getting these phone calls they they come in unannounced
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they come in they may even catch them off guard but at the same time you have a person
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on the other end the receiving end of the call that's trying to extract as much information as they can from froka
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before the call goes dead or before she hangs up so your natural instinct is going to
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want to be to interrogate her to question her to to get as much information from her as you can
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to try to help the situation but the other thing the problem with that is with the the quickness of these
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calls with the short time period that they are on the call together you got to be conflicted wondering do I
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spend my time questioning her to try to get her to open up and give us some information or do I just be silent
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and let her talk that way we do get more information it's a very it's a very sketchy situation a very kind of a
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catch-22 to find oneself in two days after she goes missing her friends and family start getting some communication
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with her saying that she's coming home soon she keeps saying I'm coming home today she doesn't come home on the 26th
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though which is a Monday no communication correct and so the next communication doesn't happen until that
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Tuesday the 27th we have Chris he's at the apartment that they share together and
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also at the apartment with him Captain is Karen Karen is fruka's sister so the two of
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them are at the apartment together now her mother and father were actually there for the majority of this day but
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had left just a brief time before another mysterious phone call comes in Chris's phone rings at 11 24 p.m the
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good thing the Saving Grace here is while these phone calls are not recorded the time stamps are
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via his phone his listening device Chris picks up the phone he says froka Karen is here too froco replies are Mom
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and Dad there too Chris they're gone already hey I'll just put you on speaker says is Karen close to you he responds
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yes she says I'd like to talk to her please Karen jumps on saying hello froka how
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are you froka please don't ask Karen where are you the reply I can't say Karen again come
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home the reply no that won't do Karen says are you scared froker replies no Karen says are you tired remember we
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talked about what Chris had said before that in one of the previous at least one
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of the previous Communications he said that she sounded like she was blurry and we wondered if this meant like she
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sounded sleepy or slurring her words right so her sister asked are you tired froka says yeah very tired please tell
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everyone I love them very much Karen says when are you coming home froka I've got to hang up please hand the phone
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over to Chris Chris says why did you leave frocuses you know that Chris says are you being held
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froka and this is what's it's reported as she says this very faintly remember Chris says are you being held
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very faintly she replies yes and then all of a sudden she gets loud and goes no no
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Chris you know that the police are looking for you froka yes I've been away for a week Chris says who's with you she
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replies I can't say Chris says no did you meet another guy to which she replies you have to know I haven't been staying
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away for a week because I met another guy come on you know me our mom and dad there too
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Chris says they were here remember he's already answered this question she circled back to this question and the
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same phone call he says they were here and then she says tell them I love them very much Chris
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says should I pick you up she says no that won't do Chris asked can we meet up somewhere
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again that won't do Chris says where are you and now focuses mama Chris says Where Are You froka Mama
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Chris says Where Are You froka Mama Chris says are you afraid to come home the reply is no Chris says something to
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the effect of we'll clean up your apartment um some sources say that that he said
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that the apartment is vacant remember we have to translate this from German to English and some words and phrases just
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don't translate into something that makes 100 percent s uh so he's saying something to the
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effect of we'll clean up your apartment or your apartment's vacant and nobody will ask you what happened just come
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home she replies that won't do I'm still alive which again is it's very strange because she's talking yes and remember
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she's already circled back to a question that he answered very clearly earlier with the are my parents there no they've
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already left later again in a very short conversation are my parents there no they've already left it's almost like
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between the blurry and the incoherentness of her questions and statements you almost wonder if she's drugged yeah
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or or again I mean if somebody's holding a gun to your head or who knows how they're overseeing these calls
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they're policing your words and you're policing your own words because you don't know you may not there may not be
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a clear line a clear divide of what is right and wrong for you to say right if your life's on the line and she might be
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watching and monitoring the person that's watching and monitoring her so she's it's almost like um some of her
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communication sounds like you know when you call somebody and you're talking to him you talk to him and all of a sudden
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you hear them typing or you can hear the TV in the background and they just don't
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seem like they're paying attention much that's how some of this communication comes off but I think because she's
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monitoring whoever's monitoring her and she's trying to see if what I just said how is how are they reacting to that and
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I I think the reason why I shoot circles back is this we're coming to the end and
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she knows it all my sisters here put her on I'd like to talk to her hey I love you and I love everybody and tell
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everybody I love them hey are my parents there yet right you know tell them I love them
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the mama the repeat of mama is strange is because we have in other conversations
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repeating of words and he wonder if she was trying to communicate something by doing that and that's scary to me too
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because we've we've covered many a case where we know that someone was crying out for a parent
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specifically their mother on many occasions when they're terrified or death is at their door
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and now this next part Captain I want you to pay attention to and everybody out there at
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listener land plump up them ear balls uh because listen to the difference in the words now this is again we're just
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the same conversation here right after froka replied with that weird statement of I'm still alive
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Chris says are you with one or more people broker replies please don't ask me I'd like to be with you all I'd like
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to come home that's where your earballs gotta perk up and and the the difference there that's
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a huge shift and what she's saying because before everything was I'm coming home soon
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right we now have a shift to I would like to come home yeah it's almost like she is talking to her Captor at that
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point I like to be home with my family where she's giving up I'd like to be home with you all or maybe if she was
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believing her captor earlier that I will let you go at some point you will get to
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go home at some point maybe she doesn't believe that anymore right but like like
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I said that's the thing about these I'm just assuming never kidnapped anybody I'm just assuming that if you did you
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can say whatever you want until it gets that Crossroad and I think obviously the longer that
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she's been held captor the the longer she is not going to believe somebody if he goes hey on on Wednesday I'm going to
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take you home and that doesn't happen on Thursday I'm going to take you home and
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that doesn't happen at some point you go it's it's not going to happen Chris then
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ask when will you call again she replies I'm not sure Chris says please call every day and then she replies yes I
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will ciao bye for now so in this call we have the sister Karen and roommate Chris listening together
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and they both said the same thing that Focus sounded slurred and they both thought that maybe or suspected that
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maybe she had been drugged for this call well let's face it Chris is an ex-boyfriend
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they've been friends for a long time she moved out there they live together don't know if
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there's no evidence that they had any romantic relationship but she's leaving the bar she makes a
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text message she sends a text message to Chris I'm going to be home she never shows up
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he starts getting this communication at first if you're reading the story or if when
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you start investigating the story you go gotta look into this guy is this communication actually happening
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now what we know is earlier a few days earlier the brother made contact so that's obviously
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some evidence that Chris is telling us the truth but it again even more evidence that Chris is telling us the
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truth because his sister is there correct and I mean unless he's working in tandem with somebody right Chris is
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not responsible for whatever's happening to froka at this point in our timeline now one thing that's really interesting
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we would learn later okay gotta be clear later we're going to learn from law enforcement that when they were able to
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try to figure out the location of these communications where they were coming from where her phone was at the time of
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the the communications in the very first text that she sent they determined the location of her phone to be near a town
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called nahim now this is very interesting for many reasons but one in particular is after this communication
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right here that we just went through Captain remember she says Mama three times in a row her mother Ingrid goes to
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the police and says look my daughter's calling communicating with us we believe that she's being held
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captive we also believe that some of her messages and words to us sentences to us
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are cryptic and maybe she's speaking in code or trying to tell us something trying to get us to read between the
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lines Ingrid tells police her concern is that reading between the lines of this last phone call when she says Mama
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three times in a row the Ingrid had once worked at a school in a small town near nahim Ingrid would
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later learn this information and wonder if this was her daughter trying to tell them
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saying Mama repeatedly that there's some connection to my mom to where I am to where I'm being held I can't tell you
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where I'm being held because they'll kill me right but here's here's a clue here's a little
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clue now we'll never know for certain but it is certainly interesting I still don't understand
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the hesitation by law enforcement to get involved once you have a couple Communications that don't add up to the
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family and friends and we have a missing person why isn't there more involvement by law
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enforcement this call unfortunately will be the last one that she will make to her family
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and think about what's very different about this call compared to the previous ones
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first off there seems to be much more desperation in my opinion in her word choices compared to earlier
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Communications secondly this call much much more lengthier than the other calls this call
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is about five minutes long the other calls some of them were just seconds we're just two sentences and
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then a hang up right Ralph Osterman the lead investigator on the case he said a couple of things
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he said that he believes that this call was very likely a cry for help and that froka may have known at the
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time of the call that she would not be talking to her family again remember she says a couple of times tell my family I
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love them tell Mom and Dad I love them right I love them very much that's almost a good buy
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uh the mama mama could have been some kind of code cry for help a very different call than the other
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ones and then unfortunately this is the last communication that friends or family receive from the
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missing from froka out of all the calls the content of this call I think is probably more accurate than all the
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other ones because we don't have just one person trying to reiterate what they remember from the call we have two
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individuals exactly and here's an interesting thing to ponder too is that there's no doubt in the family's mind
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that the phone calls were from froka that that it was her on the other line they recognized their voice they know
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her better than anyone else we have no reason to to not believe them as for the text
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let's face it that I mean the text could be from anyone could be from the captor right the
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family and Chris agree that the first text was definitely from froka and I I believe that as well we there's a huge
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shift uh in in that communication to the rest of them that one was very personable so I don't think trying to
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suss out the the what calls and texts came from whom is worth spending a whole lot of time on I
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think all of us can agree the calls were from froco we don't know what Puppeteer
00:20:42
is is orchestrating the words of that call or the communication of that call but the text
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first one definitely from her the other one's all up to question but would you disagree or agree that
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she's being monitored every time there's communication I would find it highly unlikely that she wasn't I agree and I
00:21:08
I'm with you Captain I feel like there's only one two or three possible reasons that the
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captor allows her to communicate either it's to buy time keep the cops away which seem to work
00:21:24
or some kind of fetish some kind of sadistic torture mind F situation or three It's a combination of both
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now the police later they got so they get involved they gather the cell phone data information
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they're going to be able to paint a picture get a picture of where these calls and text messages were coming from
00:21:45
at the time that they were placed or sent the first text as we mentioned was from the area of nahim and the hockster
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district population of about 6 500 people this is 35 kilometers Northeast of peterborn of where she was last seen
00:22:02
of the peterborn center the rest of the calls in the text came from an industrial areas in and around
00:22:09
peterborn itself yeah I think you could dive into these there's a lot of information you could
00:22:16
dive into about the whereabouts of these locations I think there's evidence from
00:22:21
her communication to our family and friends that she has been moved at some point because she says I was here now
00:22:28
I'm now I'm here again we don't know if that's just a ruse to throw people off or not and we don't know if there's some
00:22:36
device that is moving the location of these calls either I don't know how much that matters in
00:22:44
this investigation though well I think what we have here is like you said her indicating that it sounds like she's
00:22:49
been moved around according to what she's saying and then we have the science to
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when you cross-reference it seems to line up with that so she apparently she the device the
00:23:01
phone that's communicating is moving and the the second of the communications comes in from 16 kilometers about 10
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miles away from the area that she went missing interestingly enough it comes in about 27 miles from Naim which was the
00:23:20
location of the first text one thing we have to point out here is that that first text that comes in at
00:23:30
12 49 A.M the first night when she's supposedly leaving the pub a little after 11 she
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says she's leaving on foot but what we do know happened here Captain is she had to have gotten into a vehicle
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because that location that location is 35 kilometers from the pub that she was previously seen with her friends right
00:23:58
she didn't walk 22 miles in the course of an hour and 50 minutes so basically what you're saying is that
00:24:07
First Communication the night she went missing was that was a controlled communication I think it could be but
00:24:14
what I think is happening here is I think that she she's either she's either abducted at this point and as unaware of
00:24:22
it or she's in another town or she took a ride from someone thinking she would in fact be coming home that night so
00:24:30
just to to flesh this out a little bit here so that text comes in 35 kilometers from where her previous location was
00:24:41
and one thing that we have is law enforcement stating that they think we know she had to have gotten to a vehicle
00:24:48
to travel that distance in that amount of time we know she left with her phone there's
00:24:54
a couple of problematic things to the story here though her phone should have been dead when she left that Pub yet she
00:25:01
places a text that or shortly well she borrowed her friend's battery to continue communicating that night before
00:25:10
leaving right so she gives her friend her battery back and then leaves and then all of a sudden an hour and 50
00:25:15
minutes later she's able to text people because the text comes into Chris so during the course of that hour and 50
00:25:22
minutes she travels 35 kilometers or roughly 22 miles and is able to bring life back to her cell phone battery
00:25:32
this to me indicates that she got into a vehicle with somebody and maybe either borrowed their battery again this was a
00:25:40
very common phone in Germany back in 2000 in the early 2000s or gets into a vehicle with somebody and
00:25:48
and gets access to someone else's phone charger and so what would further indicate that she is
00:25:58
not stressed out or unaware of what may be about to happen is the investigators are saying at this
00:26:08
time this time of year in this location in Germany it's it's light Twilight is nearly all night long so
00:26:18
it's never particularly dark dark and he also says because of this being a very busy area a populist area and
00:26:28
all the things that are going on all the soccer games and all the football games
00:26:31
the matches that are going on there would have been a lot of people on that route that she would have walked
00:26:37
home and so he believes that she would have got into a vehicle would had to have
00:26:44
gotten to a vehicle willingly because we don't have there would have been witnesses that would have heard screams
00:26:51
or witnessed something that would indicate Foul Play I think that the investigator the lead
00:26:58
investigator Ralph osterman's probably right based off of kind of the chatty nature the happy
00:27:06
nature of that text that was sent but it's very bizarre and we've covered hundreds of cases now I don't know if
00:27:13
we've had a case where there's been so much communication once the person went missing
00:27:20
with the exception of Larry Gene Bell but that communication was quite different right right not it's not from
00:27:28
the victim it's from well it's from both victim and the captor but right but what
00:27:33
was clear in those cases what is what is not clear here in those cases it was very obvious it was stated
00:27:41
I've been abducted I've this guy's holding me here that's not the case now based off
00:27:47
of the science based off of the uh geographical locations of when these texts and phone calls are coming in
00:27:57
what police say is police police believe that she was being held in or near peterborn this just like she was saying
00:28:07
I'm in peterborn I'm in painter born I'm in paperborn and that the calls in the text to her family were
00:28:14
uh coming in from those locations but police concluded that she was being driven around or believed that she was
00:28:21
being driven around as these calls and texts were active driven around by her captor who they
00:28:28
believe is very familiar with the area this as simply a diversion as a diversion as a way to throw
00:28:38
throw the dogs off the scent [Music] [Music] all right we are back hope everybody's
00:29:03
having a great week cheers to you all and cheers to you Colonel cheers captain on October 4th of that same year a
00:29:11
hunter found a body this is 10 meters off of a very remote country road if you want to call it that this a remote area
00:29:20
near lichten now the body was really just bones and tattered clothing that were found lying
00:29:30
under or near a tree in a dense forest this area is called Totten grund which translates to death grounds or or the
00:29:40
death grounds it was 20 kilometers away from paderborn the killer according to law enforcement
00:29:48
must have known their way around this area was very familiar with this wooded area because it was
00:29:56
an obscure dirt road 10 kilometers off of an obscure dirt road that led to this body recovery site
00:30:05
and to get to the dirt road you had to get to these narrow Country Roads so it was a bit of a maze to get out to where
00:30:15
this location is and the investigators have been very public stating that they believed that
00:30:20
this site was selected on purpose so that the victim would not be found anytime soon
00:30:29
this turns out to be fruka who had been missing she's been missing now for four months
00:30:38
and then this body is found police do tell us that the killer left no clues at the scene
00:30:45
that they the the scene suggests that she was killed elsewhere the weather had erased all Footprints
00:30:53
and tire tracks The Remains were covered with sticks and leaves but there was Zero signs of violence at
00:31:02
the scene and on the body itself the bones at this point Captain were devoid of Flesh but the clothing was very
00:31:09
discernible so it was jeans a red shirt and white sneakers these are the exact items that fructo was wearing when she
00:31:19
was last seen right investigators ruled this a homicide however to be clear they have no idea
00:31:27
what caused the death what the cause of death was and that was then and still to
00:31:33
this day they do not know the cause of death the skeleton bore no signs of sharp or
00:31:38
blunt force trauma no stab or gunshot wounds the hyoid bone was intact there was no trace of drugs that was detected
00:31:46
in her hair or bones but of course some of that could or all that could leave her system by the time uh death occurred
00:31:55
that that is possible but it's more likely to find um but because of those tests that they
00:32:03
did do the hair samples and the bone drugs normally stay in the system longer in those items law enforcement said that
00:32:11
she was killed within days after her last call that's about as much as they could narrow it down or at least what
00:32:18
they're telling the public it looks to me with everything we've gone through here
00:32:23
captain that the only possibilities I see here is that haven't been ruled out would be
00:32:30
Suffocation or drowning that she was drowned and they did they specifically did say
00:32:39
that they ruled out an accident because there would be they believed that there would have been
00:32:43
trauma that they would see to the skeletal remains that was not present investigators scouring the scene also
00:32:51
found a small Silver Cross it looked like a necklace pendant and she did not own according to friends and family did
00:32:59
not own such a cross or necklace some have wondered could it have been left there by the killer or could it
00:33:06
just be an item that was out there by happenstance it's not it's not indicated on where in
00:33:12
relation to the remains this item was found right but if it's found within let's say a three feet radius I'm
00:33:19
guessing it wasn't this happenstance or on the tree that she was under or on her
00:33:25
herself or under the sticks or leaves or debris that was placed on top of her all
00:33:30
these things would indicate that somebody left that there purposely and the other thing of Interest here is
00:33:37
what is not found and this is pointed out by police that fruka's Nokia 6230 phone
00:33:45
was not recovered her fossil brand watch wristwatch was not recovered her black purse not found now what is not
00:33:55
highlighted by police and so we just don't know if it this occurred or not but her undergarments
00:34:05
we would assume she was wearing them they never state that they were not found but they never say that they are
00:34:10
found on the remains right and I think that maybe they're they're leaving that to
00:34:16
as some hold back information we already talked about Ralph Osterman who would end up leading a Sev a team of
00:34:25
seven Detectives this task force if you will was constructed for the sole purpose of
00:34:32
solving this one particular homicide note we are talking about areas of Germany that are rather low on the crime
00:34:40
rate in fact violent crime is very low murders and homicides very low uh typically
00:34:50
the most severe crime that they are investigating is attempted murder um that that they these these towns in
00:35:00
cities may not even experience a single homicide in some of the calendar years right
00:35:07
now they did look at Chris very hard as you pointed out it helps his case that other people were present and other
00:35:13
people had Communications with froka after she was abducted they also were able to clearly point out
00:35:21
that during large portions of when she was gone he has Alibis right he is where he says he was so he is not considered a
00:35:33
suspect in this case then nor now police track down everyone at the pub that night as we mentioned earlier they
00:35:41
ruled all of them out as well uh it's been reported that they spoke to everyone at the pub multiple times not
00:35:49
just once they also looked hard at kneels now I'm telling you I'm a little suspicious of this Niels guy
00:35:55
we'll get to some people that are more suspicious of here in a minute but they looked at him he was the guy that
00:36:02
fruka was texting with that night they had recently been introduced by Isabella and they have this platonic friendship
00:36:08
but who knows where it might have led Niels his best friend had recently taken his own life
00:36:16
and what we've been told is that froka was helping him through this tough time Niels was frequenting a cemetery where
00:36:26
his friend was buried some of the location information that they get about the calls and texts
00:36:35
not all but some do line up to areas that are somewhat near kneels and where he lived and where he would frequent
00:36:43
but we should point out that they did interrogate him multiple times they searched his vehicle and eventually by
00:36:49
Alibis they were able to rule him out as well well here becomes the issue though
00:36:56
is because I think either she told Niels I'm going to come visit you or she like we said hey come to this
00:37:05
Pub and he's like I can't because I have plans with my friend to play pool I'm guessing if they're they're longtime
00:37:13
friends that they both are grieving their friend taking his own life and so she might have thought oh well you know
00:37:19
I'll leave this Pub and I'll head that way I'll surprise him he might not even known that and that you know between
00:37:26
that Pub and Neil's location is probably where she was abducted and so it would make sense that some of
00:37:35
these locations would be similar because where she because of where she was abducted if
00:37:40
that makes any sense well the other thing too that's troubling to me is I keep circling back to the idea of what
00:37:46
the lead investigator said that he believes that she based on the distance from the pub to the first text an hour
00:37:55
and 50 minutes later that she would have had to have received some help in traveling that distance she would have
00:38:00
gotten to a vehicle and then on that route she couldn't have done that Kicking and
00:38:06
Screaming because somebody would have witnessed that and they don't have anybody to tell them that they heard or
00:38:11
saw anything like that that night so that first text it seems to be chummy seems to be happy
00:38:19
either she's in the company of someone who will become her Captor and she's unaware of it at that time
00:38:28
or that first text that family and Chris and myself all believe did come from her
00:38:35
from froka didn't come from her and somehow her captor was able to extract information from her that made it seem
00:38:43
personable like it did come from her right it's a it's a very puzzling case it's
00:38:49
it's one of the more puzzling cases that I believe that we have covered here well
00:38:54
it's also tough because all these communications these text messages these calls like we've said and like you have
00:39:02
um so a astutely made us aware of is these these calls weren't recorded so you can sit there and try to dissect
00:39:13
each communication but we don't even know how accurate those are because I think
00:39:23
the level of seriousness once you know that she's missing and and once you believe that she's possibly
00:39:32
being held captive the the serious level I think actually is a hindrance on you remembering the
00:39:43
details yeah you're you're an emotional state that you might not be able to provide
00:39:48
the best information now the lead investigator Osterman revealed that the initial investigation
00:39:55
focused heavily on five potential suspects now they due to German law and as you know we we see this often here in
00:40:04
the states as well they were prohibited from naming those five Suspects now no doubt my mind kneels and Chris
00:40:13
were probably two of these we know that they were looked at heavily and both cleared what we do know is a follow-up
00:40:19
statement from investigators saying that all five of those potential suspects were eventually cleared
00:40:25
uh in this case yeah I saw a report where they interviewed over 900 people yep that's a lot of people that that are
00:40:39
connected to her and her community well 100 of those 900 were internet contacts of hers
00:40:46
that were checked out and there were over 40 properties that were searched uh in this investigation as well now
00:40:57
here is where you know this there's nothing that's black and white about this case right 50
00:41:05
Shades of Gray let's go ahead and call it 10 000 Shades of Gray in this case but one thing that gets makes it a
00:41:12
little more tricky too is the potential of some really good suspects and and listen to this information here Captain
00:41:19
these two have been dubbed the Lonely Hearts killers and some people believe or believed that this case was
00:41:31
solved just not closed and for a time I believe that police seem to think so as well it's unclear
00:41:38
whether they still do or not but what happened was in April of 2016 a vehicle breaks down on a dirt road this
00:41:47
outside of the town of Osborne or both born sorry doing my best there this is 50 kilometers from peterborn
00:41:57
in the back seat of this vehicle is a 41 year old woman who is in medical in need
00:42:03
of medical attention big time whereas we say in the states bigly the car's driver was forced to call the
00:42:11
ambulance but only because neighbors came rushing out to try to help the vehicle that broke down
00:42:17
So This Woman's taken to the hospital where she would eventually recover from her injuries we
00:42:25
need to point out these injuries did not occur because the vehicle broke down whatever happened to this woman happened
00:42:30
to her before she was placed in that vehicle what the medical experts determined very quickly what this woman
00:42:38
was actually in a coma her name turns out to be Susan she she would later die in the hospital due to this head injury
00:42:46
right during the ambulance trip and at the hospital doctors and and EMTs noticed
00:42:53
that there were wounds to her entire body this included bruising signs of being bound toenails that had been
00:42:59
pulled out and Rotting Flesh on her tailbone area Susan and they've not I could not find
00:43:08
her full name she's referred to as Susan f would have had to have been lying in the
00:43:14
same position for weeks to have that Rotting Flesh in that area an autopsy showed that she had actually died from
00:43:20
blows to the head doctors called the police to report this as a homicide police went to the home of the vehicle
00:43:27
that broke down so there was a driver and a passenger and this injured woman in the vehicle
00:43:33
that broke down they go to the home the driver and passenger are there their names are Wilfred Wagner age 46 and his
00:43:44
ex-wife current roommate Angelica who's 47 right they were arrested and charged with
00:43:51
abusing the woman who later died now the man Wilfried refused to talk but Angelica immediately turned on Wilfried
00:44:00
and spilled the beans she tells police that the two of them took this woman captive
00:44:07
and when they realized she was going to die from a head injury which she said she sustained when she fell after a
00:44:16
beating they decided to drive her to her back to her own apartment they were going to leave her to die there
00:44:23
so that nobody would connect her death to these two people but of course with the car breaking down
00:44:30
their secret is discovered unfortunately this one woman turns out to just be the
00:44:38
tip of the iceberg because when they searched the home and this was this place was pigsty would be
00:44:45
polite cops found evidence that this couple had held other women captive they collected personal items and cell phones
00:44:53
from women who were held captive in this house the house and the News was referred it was
00:45:02
referred to here's one headline for you in the how sorry here's one news story for you in the house of the torture
00:45:08
couple police discovered hundreds of slips of paper on which Wilfried and Angelica had gotten their victims to
00:45:15
declare all of their injuries to have been self-inflicted those who have seen it described the crime scene as looking
00:45:22
like an indoor garbage dump right it was cold and damp the wallpaper was coming off the walls there was mold everywhere
00:45:30
it turned out that this couple had scores of victims and what they would do is they would lure the victims in using
00:45:36
personal ads referred to as lonely hearts ads with Wilfred advertising that he was seeking seeking
00:45:44
a companion to live with him and his air quotes sister Angelica remember she's technically his ex-wife now roommate
00:45:53
the women would meet him and get tricked into staying there I guess I I'm I wonder if
00:46:03
they were just taken they show up for a meeting and they're taking it captive immediately
00:46:08
given the description of the the home they would keep these this couple would keep these women
00:46:17
captive torture them and at least two victims died one Suzanne who we already talked about
00:46:26
and two a woman named Annika you know it does sound like there's like this is an interesting suspect but do we
00:46:35
have any connection between our victim in in these two no we have zero connection other than
00:46:45
the very uniqueness of their crimes and the weird uniqueness of what we speculate may have taken place with our
00:46:57
victim what I mean by that is these are two very unique situations in areas that don't have high murder
00:47:06
rates it's I don't know I I get where you're going Captain but it's hard for me to
00:47:13
believe I'm not saying they're connected 100 but there are similarities here that cannot
00:47:18
be denied so for one of the victims that was killed um what we learn from Angelica who again
00:47:27
she spills the beans she described how the couple tortured Annika one of the victims who died she
00:47:34
was 33 years old this took place in 2013. so this is inching our way toward when our victim fruka disappeared and
00:47:44
then was killed they after death they dismembered annika's body they burned it in an oven
00:47:50
and disposed of the ashes on a country road for months the victim had been beaten kicked Chained and once almost
00:47:57
drowned to death Annika had been tortured and abused for two months before dying she ended up
00:48:05
being chained face down in a bathtub and somehow died of head injuries when she tried to escape
00:48:11
but get this Wilfried texted annika's mother using annika's mobile phone after he had killed her to say that she
00:48:24
moved to Amsterdam pretending to be her hey Mom I'm in good health I've moved to Amsterdam
00:48:32
the Lonely Hearts case was a huge case in Germany uh Wilfried and Angelica's house became known as the hockster House
00:48:41
of Horrors the prosecution saying that they were aware of at least eight victims but
00:48:46
could not determine how many victims it had actually fell victim to these two I have a lot of the information on the
00:48:55
different torture that they dealt out I don't know that we need to go through and linger too long on those
00:49:02
on those facts of the of this horrible case it's it's there for you if you want to to find that information for yourself
00:49:11
but will freed had been torturing and abusing people since 1995. so he was active at the time when our
00:49:23
victim goes missing and again their modus operandi with their ruse of getting people to come and
00:49:33
meet them for a potential place to live or companionship does not fit with anything that we suspect was going on
00:49:39
with froka but could they have changed their ruse she was a helpful person and there's a woman present that makes
00:49:50
it you see a couple you're it feels less threatening than when you see a single male
00:49:55
what if they pulled a Ted Bundy on her we know she was a helpful person we know she was into nursing we know she took
00:50:01
care of the disabled at that facility for over a year where she did an internship
00:50:06
what if somebody pulled a Ted Bundy broke fake broken arm fake broken leg deal on her
00:50:12
so what I think is there is no direct connection what there is is similarities in what I
00:50:22
think may have happened and took place with froka leaves and what we do know about these Lonely Hearts killers
00:50:31
thankfully they were caught they were apprehended uh unfortunately Angelica was sentenced to only 13 years in prison
00:50:39
uh Wilfried he gets sent off to a psychiatric Psychiatric Hospital sentenced to 11 years and that was all
00:50:48
all uh ruse bamboozlement itself because once there the doc the doctors determine
00:50:54
that this guy is not uh in need of medical attention he's in need of imprisonment
00:51:02
yeah very interesting suspects it was also there's rumors that she had a stalker but what information do we have
00:51:11
on that yeah I feel like every there's a rumor that every woman walking the planet has
00:51:17
a stalker the so well let's face it most guys are creeps just driving around creeping out people creepy people uh
00:51:25
this is difficult to report on here Captain because there's not a whole lot of information so I wonder how much of
00:51:31
this is just pure speculation but where this thought this angle for this case comes is from a German armchair sleuth
00:51:41
website called all mystery and it was a neighbor of frucas who told of a weird feeling that she got that
00:51:51
that she believed she was being stalked and therefore maybe her neighbor fruka was being stalked as well
00:51:59
um look it here's here's what gives a little bit of weight to this idea for me is that if she was being watched or
00:52:12
followed or stalked it would be very easy for that individual to be at that Pub that night there's a lot of people
00:52:20
there it's Rowdy people are probably not paying super attention to their surroundings who's around we're all
00:52:26
drinking we're having a good time we're watching football so and there would have been a lot of
00:52:31
people on the streets that night as we have heard from law enforcement somebody could have easily followed her on foot
00:52:38
somebody familiar with her could have offered her a ride it's a very puzzling and troubling case
00:52:47
I wonder if the Lonely Hearts killers were involved why that information would be
00:52:55
left out I I it's hard for me to sit here in a garage in Ohio and sift through all of the information
00:53:06
that came out because we do know that one of the Lonely Hearts Killers did talk to police and did go into detailed
00:53:14
information about some of their crimes now do I sit here believing that she would have gone into detailed
00:53:21
information about all of their crimes no we know that one thing that Killers one
00:53:27
trait that most Killers share they're Liars yep so it it's you sit here and you you you
00:53:36
try to you try to sort this thing out and really at the end of the day all that you can figure out is that
00:53:44
scientifically the the evidence states that that that device that phone her phone was being
00:53:53
moved around at the time that she's communicating with friends and family and at that time it seems to be that law
00:54:02
enforcement family and friends all agree that she was taken captive at some point
00:54:07
during that week and was being held captive during most if not all of that communication
00:54:15
it's very bizarre that she would be being moved around like that I wondered this too Captain going into
00:54:23
this I know that here in the United States we have an issue with a spike in human trafficking in the
00:54:32
areas near and around the Super Bowl right hosting City and well not just that but also any any
00:54:40
time there's a large event yeah you know I'm sure if you look up um like Comic-Con or you look up some of
00:54:49
these like the Arnold Classic well even Even This is Gonna this is disturbing as
00:54:54
hell even our uh political parties right you have an uptick in um that type those types of crimes some
00:55:03
of them we're also talking about you know lesser crimes like sex work and things of that nature but there is an
00:55:11
uptick in those areas at those times and human trafficking and I couldn't help but wonder if
00:55:19
the World Cup being held in this area could have anything to do with with a certain element being there and then not
00:55:28
there I bet I bet that uptick is way bigger for the World Cup than it is for the Super Bowl because you have
00:55:36
all these people coming from all these other countries there is last I could find there was a
00:55:44
30 000 Euros reward for information in this case uh you have a family that that is left with
00:55:58
not just all kinds of hurt and heartache but the the amount of questions they must have
00:56:04
you know we review so many cases that are so sad and heartbreaking of people that disappear they vanish
00:56:10
Into Thin Air and you're left with all kinds of questions here in this situation
00:56:16
yes there was the remains that were recovered there was a funeral service a very nice
00:56:23
beautiful funeral service but at the end of the day this family is left with a whole different set
00:56:30
of Haunting questions than those that lose a loved one that just disappear [Music]
00:56:44
thank you foreign for joining us here again in the garage for everything True Crime Check out true
00:56:56
crime garage.com and make sure you sign up on our mailing list Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the
00:57:02
beautiful listener this week we are going to recommend one that we've recommended in the past but recently
00:57:08
they did a launch party this last Sunday June 25th down in Orlando for this great
00:57:16
book and the author is a friend of a friend of the show we met one of his dear friends at our show at brewdog just
00:57:24
a few months back so recommending this week the aftermath of Jennifer Cassie's abduction and uncle's quest for
00:57:31
understanding and inspiring Life Lessons by Bill Gilmore many of you will remember the Jennifer kessie missing
00:57:40
persons case I believe it's an abduction and murder case and I think many of you
00:57:45
out there do as well check out bill Gilmore's book aftermath of Jennifer Cassie's abduction you can find that
00:57:53
great title and many more on our recommended page on truecrime garage.com join us back here in the garage next
00:58:00
week and until then be good be kind and don't listen foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 75
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • Fruka's Last Call
    Fruka's final communication reveals desperation and possible captivity. 'Tell everyone I love them very much.'
    “Tell everyone I love them very much.”
    @ 07m 40s
    June 29, 2023
  • The Mystery of Communication
    Fruka's calls raise questions about her safety and state of mind. 'Are you being held?'
    “Are you being held?”
    @ 07m 57s
    June 29, 2023
  • Body Found in Remote Area
    A hunter discovers a body 10 meters off a remote road, raising questions about the case.
    “This area is called Totten grund, which translates to death grounds.”
    @ 29m 38s
    June 29, 2023
  • Investigation Reveals No Clues
    Law enforcement finds no clues at the scene where the remains were discovered.
    “The killer must have known their way around this area.”
    @ 29m 48s
    June 29, 2023
  • Lonely Hearts Killers
    Two suspects, dubbed the Lonely Hearts killers, are linked to multiple abductions and murders.
    “This one woman turns out to just be the tip of the iceberg.”
    @ 44m 35s
    June 29, 2023
  • The Lonely Hearts Case
    The case involved notorious killers Wilfried and Angelica, known for their horrific acts.
    “The Lonely Hearts case was a huge case in Germany.”
    @ 48m 32s
    June 29, 2023
  • Speculation on Stalking
    Rumors suggest the victim may have been stalked, adding complexity to the case.
    “Every woman walking the planet has a stalker.”
    @ 51m 15s
    June 29, 2023
  • Human Trafficking Concerns
    The discussion raises concerns about human trafficking spikes during large events like the World Cup.
    “I couldn't help but wonder if the World Cup could have anything to do with it.”
    @ 55m 16s
    June 29, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • Tell everyone I love them very much.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680
  • I'm still alive.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680
  • This area is called Totten grund, which translates to death grounds.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680
  • The killer must have known their way around this area.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680
  • It's a very puzzling case.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680
  • This family is left with a whole different set of haunting questions.
    Frauke Liebs /// Part 2 /// 680

Key Moments

  • Welcome to True Crime Garage00:40
  • Final Words19:10
  • Desperate Communication19:24
  • Remote Discovery29:38
  • No Clues Found29:48
  • Hockster House of Horrors48:38
  • Victim's Communication54:04
  • Haunting Questions56:34

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown