Six-year-old Arian disappeared from his parents’ house more than two months ago. Even after extensive searches, there was no trace of the boy. Now a child’s body has been discovered. A missing persons expert is surprised by the police’s actions.

The photo went through the media: A little boy with brown hair and a yellow shirt smiles timidly into the camera. “Can you roar like a dinosaur?” is written in thick, dark letters on the top.

The boy’s name is Arian, he is six years old and has been missing since April 22nd. Arian comes from Bremervörde in Lower Saxony and is autistic. Shortly after his parents reported him missing, the police started an extensive search operation.

Hundreds of helpers spent a week combing through an area of ​​15 square kilometers. Helicopters, dogs and thermal imaging cameras were used, as well as balloons and sweets to attract the boy. But it was no use: the six-year-old remained missing.

A further search several weeks later did not change this. Now, however, there seems to be new movement in the case. Almost exactly two months after Arian’s disappearance, a farmer’s employee discovered the body of a child in a meadow in the district of Stade.

According to the “Bild” newspaper, the location is just 1.5 kilometers as the crow flies from Arian’s home. “My employee was scared shitless. And it was immediately clear to me what it could be,” farmer Jan Schlesselmann told the paper.

Schlesselmann claims to have seen a yellow T-shirt on the body. He therefore suspects that the dead child is Arian. The police also believe this. An autopsy will be carried out to finally clarify the identity question.

The publicist Peter Jamin, who has been dealing with the topic of “missing people” for more than 30 years and advises relatives on a voluntary basis, is “irritated that the identification is taking so long,” he says in an interview with FOCUS online.

In the quickest case, eight hours are needed to create a DNA profile, according to a report by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR). If additional samples still need to be taken, it takes longer.

“I would assume that the police had already secured Arian’s DNA when the missing person was reported. For example, through a toothbrush or hair,” says Jamin. He is surprised that it has still not been announced whether the dead child is Arian – after all, the body was found two days ago.

What is also confusing for many observers is that Arian’s alleged remains have only now turned up. After all, search teams have combed the meadow in question several times in recent weeks in an attempt to find the boy.

“There were so many helpers out here and they looked into every hole on our farm,” farmer Schlesselmann told the “Bild” newspaper.

Even the police seem at a loss. “The fact that a body was found there is a surprise for all the forces that were searching,” a spokeswoman told the portal “kreiszeitung.de”. “We have searched the area several times.”

Jamin has dealt with many missing persons cases over the past decades. He was involved in solving them himself on several occasions. He can think of several possible explanations. “First of all, the search area was very large, including houses and farms. It’s difficult to really cover every corner,” he says.

“On the other hand, it is not clear how far away the helpers were searching for Arian. Four metres is recommended on clear areas, but significantly less on densely overgrown terrain.” Perhaps, as Jamin explains, the distance between the searchers was too great.

Then a gap could have appeared and the child’s body could have been overlooked. “In such operations there are always moments of inattention, without wanting to blame the helpers.”

However, these scenarios assume that Arian’s presumed remains were lying in the grass the entire time, including during the search. This does not necessarily have to have been the case.

“It is conceivable that he only ran to this spot later,” says Jamin. The six-year-old could have hidden from police officers, firefighters and other searchers and then reached the meadow where he eventually died.

The police do not currently believe that anyone else was at fault. But such a scenario would explain why the body – if it is that of the six-year-old – has only been found now.

“Another person could have placed Arian’s remains on the lawn after the search was over. Someone who killed him, not necessarily as part of a crime, but perhaps in an accident. Or an innocent third party,” says missing persons expert Jamin. In that case, however, injuries would have to be identified during the autopsy.

Arian is not an isolated case. In the course of 2023, a total of around 16,500 children up to the age of 13 were reported missing, according to figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Around 15,800 of them have since been accounted for.

The unsolved cases include not only victims of possible violent crimes, but also persistent runaways, unaccompanied refugee children and cases of child abduction. It is rare for missing children to die. If it is confirmed that the child’s body is that of Arian, the six-year-old will be one of these sad cases.

Parents whose children disappear have to cope with a stressful situation. Jamin speaks of a “nightmare” that those affected live through every day. An “almost unbearable uncertainty”.

“If it is confirmed that the child’s body is that of Arian, the only good thing is that his parents will finally have clarity about the fate of their son,” he says. Then, the missing persons expert explains, they can say goodbye and begin to mourn.

Even if questions may arise that no one can answer. “If Arian died through no fault of his own, his parents will probably always wonder: Was it our fault? Could we have prevented this?” says Jamin.

From conversations with numerous relatives, he knows that the death of a child has an impact for years and sometimes decades. “Many parents leave the room of their deceased son or daughter exactly as it was. It becomes a kind of altar.”

In Jamin’s eyes, at the end of the day, there is not enough support in Germany for parents who have lost children.

“There are initiatives like ‘Bereaved Parents’. But that’s not enough. More support is needed. It’s not for nothing that they say that the death of one’s own child is one of the worst situations a person can find themselves in.”