Once upon a time......this is a short essay of sorts....on a factual event....with an epic collapse.
Around spring of 2007, journalists from around Germany got into a hot story which had been talked about via cop circles for over a decade. It involves DNA and a desperate killer of sorts.
In April of that year, a German cop who specialized in drug episodes around Bad Kreuznach. It's not a big town or known for a lot. The US Army had a big presence for years and years.....then started decreasing their presence.
The female was set to have lunch with a co-worker, in the cop car. Events unfolded.....someone (probably two people) got into the backseat of the car, and shot the female cop dead.....seriously wounding the second cop (he survives but remembers little to nothing of the incident).
This turns into a high priority episode. DNA is found....goes through the database and is compared with other profiles. Oddly, after roughly three months.....there's this match. In fact, two different murder episodes, which go back at least a decade.
So starts the 'phantom killer' title. Actually, the other name given was the 'phantom of Heilbronn'.
What the cops come to find within the DNA chase was this long listing of crimes across southern Germany, and to some degree....into Austria and France. One murder episode involved three Georgian used-car dealers....found near a river in Heppeneim (Hessen). Oddly, they eventually got around to two guys.....an Iraqi and a Somali....who were the killers of the Georgian guys. But when they did a DNA test of the car belonging to the Iraqi and Somali.....there is this DNA from the 'phantom killer'. So they think the 'phantom killer' had some involvement.
Reaction from the Iraqi and Somali? No one says much. It's like a mystery to them, and the cops are just shaking their head because there's some bad character involved in this episode beyond the Iraqi and Somali.
All of this leads onto roughly twenty episode of theft, assault and murder.....linking the DNA.....great distances apart. The odd thing is that on one or two occasions.....there is a description of the person involved....a young woman.
So the 'phantom killer' is now being tied to a female of sorts.
This gets the FBI-equivalent (the BKA) involved in this as a national case.
Break-in's are noted where the DNA was collected. There's a murder going back to May of 1993 where some gal was strangled by a strand of wire. There's a murder in 2001 of a antiques dealer....strangled again. Some cop recovers a heroin syringe which was tested for DNA in the Bad Kreuznach area.....yep, matches the 'phantom killer'.
Doper, robber, willing to use violence and mayhem, blood-thirsty killer, etc.
A break-in of a office in Dietzenbach in 2003? Yep, the 'phantom killer'.
Records are building.....an enormous listing of crimes attributed one single person.
Robbery over across the border into France with a toy pistol used? Yep, DNA identified the 'phantom killer' again.
Car thefts along the Austrian border? Yep, DNA evidence identifies the 'phantom killer'.
Cops thought they were getting close to the killer when some gypsy guy threatened his brother....with cops arriving and arresting the guy and doing a DNA test on his gun. One of the bullets in the gun? It had 'phantom killer' DNA on it. Just one.....oddly. Yeah.....one of several bullets....but it only has that single DNA.
Somewhere down in Saarland, in a small quiet town....someone whacked a cleaning lady on the head, stole her pocket money, and left DNA. 'Phantom killer'? Yep.
All of this lead onto a huge database and hundreds of 'hints'. It was the greatest manhunt of a unknown character....ever in German history.
Then, one day.....someone accidentally or purposely sent a clean DNA swab to the lab. It came back with the DNA of the 'phantom killer'. That raised some questions.
You can imagine the room where this is laid out and some cops standing there.....asking some stupid questions.
So, they travel to the factory where the swabs are made. They talk to the manager. You see.....he wasn't aware that his swabs were being purchased by some company and re-marketed as DNA collection devices. They walk into the back, and here are women carrying the swabs around the factory with their arms touching the swabs....leaving a small marginal amount of sweat.....and DNA.
The 'phantom killer'? Wrapped up in five minutes.
The cop killer? Still unknown. Never solved.
It would make for a five-star movie script.....except there never was a 'phantom killer'.
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