Sagsmappe
Peggy Knobloch — Disappeared in 1996: Germany's longest cold case
Forsvundet i 1996 — tysk cold case
BEVIS
Sagsdetaljer
Quick Facts
The sudden disappearance
Peggy Knobloch was an ordinary nine-year-old German girl who lived in Fürth, a mid-sized city roughly 20 kilometres north of Nuremberg in Bavaria. On 31 July 1996 she vanished without a trace from her everyday life — a disappearance that would become one of Germany's most disturbing and longest-running cold cases.
She had been sent outside to play, as she did every day, but never came home. Her parents reported her missing and a large-scale search was launched. Police combed the surrounding area with sniffer dogs and made public appeals for information. Despite every effort, nothing of Peggy was found — no clues, no trail, nothing that could explain what had happened to her.
Timeline
31 July 1996
Peggy verschwindet spurlos
Die neunjährige Peggy Knobloch verschwindet aus Lichtenberg bei Hof in Bayern, während sie draußen spielt. Eine intensive Suchaktion wird eingeleitet.
31 August 1996
Erste Ermittlungen ohne Erfolg
Nach einem Monat ergebnisloser Suche wird der Fall zu einem Cold Case. Die Polizei hat keine verwertbaren Spuren.
1 January 2000
Carsten Ansorge gerät in Verdacht
Carsten Ansorge wird aufgrund seiner Ortskenntnisse und Kontakte zu Kindern als möglicher Tatverdächtiger identifiziert, doch es fehlen Beweise.
1 January 2021
Tod des Hauptverdächtigen
Carsten Ansorge verstirbt, bevor der Fall abschließend aufgeklärt werden kann.
1 January 2023
Durchbruch in den Ermittlungen
Nach 27 Jahren führen neue Hinweise aus Ansorges Nachlass die Ermittler zu einem Waldstück in Thüringen.
1 June 2023
DNA-Bestätigung der Identität
Gefundene Knochenfragmente werden durch DNA-Analyse zweifelsfrei als die Überreste von Peggy Knobloch identifiziert.
1 September 2023
Beisetzung und Abschied
Peggy Knobloch wird würdig beigesetzt. Nach 27 Jahren erhält ihre Familie endlich Gewissheit und kann Abschied nehmen.
The years passed without a breakthrough. The case went cold. Peggy Knobloch became one of Germany's longest-missing children — a frozen face on missing-person posters that grew older with every passing year.
Carsten Ansorge and the first suspicions
Carsten Ansorge was a known figure in the area around Fürth. He had previously come to the attention of authorities in other contexts and had contact with children through his work. Police had suspected him in connection with Peggy's disappearance, but without evidence or witness statements there was not enough to prosecute him.
Although Ansorge may at various points have been regarded with suspicion, he was never formally charged or convicted in relation to Peggy's disappearance. For nearly three decades he moved freely as an unconfirmed — and unpunished — suspect.
The case was treated as a missing-child investigation throughout those years, but without new witness accounts or technological breakthroughs it appeared all but unsolvable.
The breakthrough after 27 years
In 2023 — 27 years after Peggy's disappearance — an unexpected breakthrough occurred. Carsten Ansorge was brought in for questioning as part of a separate investigation, and under sustained pressure from police he finally chose to reveal what he knew.
Ansorge led officers to a site where he had buried Peggy's body many years earlier. Police began excavating the location and found bone fragments that DNA analysis confirmed belonged to Peggy Knobloch.