According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, investigations into the case of the girl, who would have been kept in a house in Sauerland, Germany, for almost all of her life, also extend to the youth welfare office. “We also have to examine whether the youth welfare office has done everything necessary to find out about the case,” Siegen’s chief public prosecutor Patrick Baron von Grotthuss said today.
When an eight-year-old girl is allegedly hidden in a house for nearly seven years, “the question inevitably arises whether the child could not have been found sooner.”
According to the WDR report, hints “from the family environment” this summer in Attendorn at the office responsible for youth welfare in the district of Olpe initiated the discovery of the drastic case. According to its own information, the Youth Assistance Office had made a request to the Federal Ministry of Justice in June 2022 after a couple was informed, which in turn contacted the Italian authorities – with the result that the alleged change of mother with the daughter of Participation in Italy in 2015 never took place.
Defendant acted “very secretly”.
Grotthuss said the main clue came from the family or the neighborhood, according to current knowledge. The whistleblowers apparently assumed the mother and daughter lived in Italy and were suspicious when they saw them anyway. Further details were not initially known.
Attendant is rural. “In the village, you know who enters and leaves the neighbors.” According to the attorney general, the fact that the girl has not been seen there for so many years indicates that the accused acted “in a very secret and very careful way”. The mother and grandparents are being investigated for deprivation of liberty and abuse of those in her care.