Mysterious syringe attack in Hanover – the police want to solve the cold case
A murder like something out of a spy thriller: an unknown perpetrator stabs a passing man in the buttocks – ten months later the victim dies an agonizing death. Even eleven years after the crime, the identity of the mysterious attacker could never be clarified, but the police never gave up the search for the man. In the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY”, the investigators are again asking for information from the public.
Unknown person stabs IT specialist with syringe
The crime happened in July 2011. The victim, then 40 years old, worked according to the “Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung” as a computer specialist for the mining, chemical and energy union in Hanover. On the way home, the man was passing Fischerstrasse in the Calenberger Neustadt district around 4 p.m. when he met a stranger to him. Not suspecting anything, he decided to overtake the stranger, but he suddenly followed him. A burning pain ran through the victim’s buttocks – the stranger suddenly stabbed him with the tip of his umbrella. According to the current state of investigation, the victim pursued the fleeing attacker and confronted him. The 40-year-old noticed a syringe attached to the tip of the umbrella. He was then able to snatch the lower part of the screen from the perpetrator before the unknown ran away in the direction of Jägerstrasse.
Victim dead ten months later
The injured man was treated as an outpatient in a clinic and initially recovered. A few weeks later, however, the first symptoms of poisoning appeared – then several organs failed, so that the man had to be hospitalized. afterwards he died.
Initial investigations could not initially determine what the syringe had contained. At the beginning of 2012 it became known that the father of the family had been poisoned with mercury.
The suspect wore a band-aid on his face
The Hanover criminal police have been investigating the case since September 2011, but the identity of the perpetrator could never be clarified. The victim described him to officers as follows:
- probably German
- about 45 years old
- about 1.75 meters tall
- slim figure
- suntanned, dry skin
- conspicuously large plaster on the right cheek
- wears a dark baseball cap
- shiny black faux leather jacket
Just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
The motive for the crime is also still unknown. It is possible that the 40-year-old was just a random victim, according to the Hanover police. For his family, who commented on this in media reports, the man was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there was no reason for the attack.
A similar case happened in 1987
However, the case brings back memories of the secret service murder on London’s Waterloo Bridge in 1987. At that time, a suspected agent of the Bulgarian secret service is said to have attacked the writer Georgi Markov using a similar approach and injected him with highly toxic ricin. Here, too, the victim did not suffer from any health problems at first, which is why the attack was initially not considered important. Markov Star four days later. According to a report in the “SZ”, the poison for the attack was transmitted by the Soviet KGB.
Fall at case number XY
The investigation into the attack in Hanover could now be about to change. The so-called cold case is to be dealt with on August 24, 2022 in the program “Aktenzeichen XY”. The officials are hoping for new clues. However, this can already be reported to the Hanover police on telephone number 0511 109-3920!