Previously missing 9-year-old girl from Ukraine found murdered in eastern Germany
More than 400 law enforcement officers were involved in the search operation
A nine-year-old girl from Ukraine, Valeria, who went missing last week in the city of Debelle in the federal state of Saxony, was found dead in a forest area. This was announced by a local police spokesman on Wednesday, 12 June, DW reports.
According to police, the girl was the victim of a crime, and police are working on a version of the murder.
"The absolute priority is to identify the attacker or attackers. The loss of a child is heartbreaking," said Chemnitz police chief Carsten Kempf.
According to the prosecutor's office, investigators are focusing on the immediate social environment of the deceased girl. There are no indications that the crime was committed on sexual grounds.
Valeria's body was found on 11 June, 4 km from one of the settlements. "The body was located away from any forest paths, far away in the thickets," said Mandi Kürschner, head of the Chemnitz Criminal Police Inspectorate. She said that the body was found in a forest area between the settlements of Hermsdorf and Malitsch, noting that it would not have been possible to find it without a special search operation. According to the prosecutor's office, the place where the body was found was a crime scene.
The search operation involved more than 400 police officers from the federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. They combed the Mulde River and interviewed local residents. The operation involved specially trained dogs, a helicopter and divers. Local residents formed their own search teams.
Valeria, a native of Ukraine, has been living in Germany with her mother since 2022. Her father lives in Ukraine. The police were working on all possible leads. Close contact was also maintained with the girl's father.
Valeria was last seen alive on 3 June, when she was on her way to school. She never made it to school. The school did not inform her mother about her absence that day. Her disappearance was discovered only in the afternoon, when the girl did not return home. At first, it was her mother who started looking for Valeriya. In the evening, she turned to the police. The school is being checked for possible violations.
Background. As a reminder, in late April, a Russian man killed two Ukrainian citizens in Bavaria. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the two killed Ukrainians were members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Russian who stabbed them to death was "aggressive" and had already had problems with the law.
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