“The Disappearance of Inga: A Chronicle of the Search and Investigation”

Am On May 2nd, 2015, the Gehricke family celebrates a barbecue with friends in Wilhelmshof near Stendal. After 6 p.m. everything should be prepared for the joint barbecue. Inga should also help. Inga’s mother senses that her daughter is no longer there. “It’s as if a rubber band had torn,” she says in the MDR Saxony-Anhalt interview.

With a summoned police patrol, the forest is searched for the five-year-old. After two days, the police operation is expanded to 1,000 police forces, fire brigade and technical aid organization on 3,500 hectares of forest. Helicopters fly over the area, special dogs are used.

After four days of unsuccessful search, the operation is terminated. In the meantime, helpers had already pumped out ponds to follow every lead.

On May 7th, a crime is considered for the first time. The police set up a 40-person investigation group called “Forest”. Information from all over Germany is received. However, the investigative team was disbanded again in August 2016.

By December 2016, 16 boxes will be handed over to files at the public prosecutor’s office in Stendal. However, at the beginning of 2017, the latter formally discontinued the proceedings.

In September 2019, a test group is to check the files again after a tip from the State Criminal Police Office. After just 11 days, the work is declared finished. There were no new investigative leads.

In 2020 there is evidence of a connection with the missing Maddie McCann from Portugal. The extent to which this trail was followed up was part of the questions asked by the Berlin lawyer to the state government in March 2023.