A farmer found the body of a child on a meadow in the Lower Saxony district of Stade, where the missing boy Arian was being searched for. According to the police, it is highly likely that it is the boy.
11.20 a.m.: The investigation by the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) shows no evidence of third-party negligence. This was stated by the Rotenburg police and the Stade public prosecutor’s office in a joint press release.
However, the investigations to clearly identify the body are still pending. “However, the police assume with a high degree of probability that the deceased child is Arian from Elm, who has been missing since April,” the statement said.
Thursday, June 27, 8:40 a.m.: After the discovery of a child’s body in northern Lower Saxony, the results of the forensic investigation are expected to be announced this Thursday. A police spokesman in Rotenburg an der Wümme said this this morning. Then it will be clear whether the dead child is six-year-old Arian from Bremervörde. The boy has been missing since April 22 and was searched for intensively for around a week by hundreds of emergency personnel – on land, from the air and in the water.
Talks with the public prosecutor’s office are planned for Thursday morning, said the police spokesman. The public prosecutor’s office is therefore generally involved if criminal conduct cannot be ruled out. A criminal offence is not assumed in this case. “But until the results of the autopsy are known, we cannot know with 100 percent certainty,” explained the spokesman.
On Monday afternoon, a farmer discovered a dead child while mowing a meadow in Estorf in the Stade district. Investigators believe it is highly likely that the dead child is six-year-old Arian from Bremervörde. The autopsy of the body should provide information about the identity, cause and time of death.
Wednesday, June 26, 4:11 p.m.: Missing persons expert Peter Jamin is amazed at how long it is taking to identify the child’s body that was discovered in the Stade district. In the quickest case, eight hours are needed to create a DNA profile, according to a report by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR). If samples still need to be taken, it will take longer.
“I would assume that the police secured Arian’s DNA when the missing person was reported. For example, through a toothbrush or hair,” Jamin told FOCUS online. 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. Read the whole article here: Child’s body found in field – is it Arian? Missing persons expert is “irritated that identification is taking so long”
9:56 p.m.: FOCUS online spoke to a helper who, with her group, searched for Arian in Behrste, among other places, just a few days after his disappearance at the end of April. She, too, is puzzled as to why the search parties did not find the six-year-old. As she does not yet know the exact location where the child’s body was found, she can say little concrete information about her own operation. “We do not know whether Arian was still mobile,” she explains about the time of her own search in the neighboring town of Arian’s parents’ house. “There were also cow pastures there that we did not find,” she notes. But footprints in the fields showed that the boy had been searched for intensively and extensively for several days.
What exactly happened and why Arian was not found will hopefully be revealed by the reconstruction of the search in the coming days, says the helper: “We are currently working on it.” So far, she only has the sparse information that is publicly known. To some extent, the search teams had expected the bad news after all this time, but now everyone is “deeply affected” and has to process it for themselves.
2:56 p.m.: It is not known whether the child’s body is that of Arian. The police were unable to give any definitive information on this. Forensic pathologists are examining the body. “A result is not expected until later this week at the earliest,” the police said in a statement. The investigators believe it is likely that the body is that of Arian. There is no evidence of third-party negligence.
2:33 p.m.: After the discovery of a child’s body in northern Lower Saxony, the police are in close contact with the parents of six-year-old Arian from Bremervörde, who has been missing since April. The parents were informed of the discovery by the police, said a police spokesman. “We want the parents to hear about this officially and receive the best possible care.” The family is therefore being closely looked after by police officers. “It is intensive contact,” said the spokesman. In addition to the police services, there are other professional offers of help, such as emergency chaplains.
1:40 p.m.: After the discovery of a child’s body in the north of Lower Saxony, the cause of death remains unclear. There are still no results as to what the child died of, a police spokeswoman told the news channel “Welt TV” in Rotenburg on Tuesday, referring to the forensic examination. This should also clarify the identity of the dead child.
The investigation team assumes “with high probability” that the body is that of six-year-old Arian from Elm near Bremervörde, who has been missing since April. A farmer found the body on Monday afternoon while mowing a meadow in Estorf in the district of Stade.
12.30 p.m.: The farmer who discovered the child’s body while mowing in northern Lower Saxony was stunned. “That was the first thing I said to the police: Why didn’t you find him?” he told the German Press Agency on Tuesday. The field had been searched by emergency services in the past, said the 54-year-old. “They were everywhere.” He doesn’t understand it. “It’s all a bit much right now.”
“My colleague saw something and said there was something there,” the farmer continued. He went straight to the spot and recognized a T-shirt that Arian was wearing. “I knew immediately that it was the boy,” the man said.
After the discovery of a child’s body in the north of Lower Saxony, investigators have found no evidence of third-party negligence. The forensic investigation at the site has been completed, police announced on Tuesday. Forensic pathologists in Hamburg are to determine the identity of the dead child.
“Bild” spoke to the farmer who discovered the child’s body in one of his fields. He told the paper that his son and an employee had previously seen “something colorful.” When the farmer went to look himself, he discovered the child’s body. “It was actually clear to me what it could be,” he told “Bild.”
What surprises the farmer most is that the police and helpers have already combed the entire area in the search for the missing Arian. The field, which according to the farmer is only 2 kilometers from Arian’s hometown, was also searched, as was the farmer’s entire business.
According to information from “Bild”, the child’s body was discovered in the area that the emergency services had previously combed through in their search for the six-year-old.
Police officers searched the site until late into the night. The site was meticulously recorded, a police spokesman said on Tuesday morning.
Six-year-old Arian has been missing in the region for weeks. Specialists from the “Arian Investigation Team” have carried out a forensic examination of the location where he was found. No details were given.
The farmer found the body on Monday afternoon at around 4:30 p.m. in the municipality of Estorf in the district of Stade, it was said. The police also said that no further information could be provided.
Arian, who comes from Elm, a district of Bremervörde between Bremerhaven and Hamburg, has been missing since April 22nd. For about a week, emergency services and helpers searched for the boy day and night in villages, meadows and forests. At times, up to 1,200 people were involved. Most recently, the search for Arian lasted for two days in mid-May.
The police have several theories about what might have happened to Arian. The most likely explanation is that Arian had an accident without anyone else being involved. What speaks against a criminal case is that the emergency services found small footprints on the Oste, which probably came from Arian.
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