From BZ
There are about 50 homicides in the capital each year. The vast majority, on average well over 90 percent, are cleared up. But some cases remain unsolved.
These four unsolved crimes have attracted a lot of attention in recent years:
Beautician murdered
The criminal case of the Berlin celebrity beautician is still unsolved. The police are still investigating the murder of 50-year-old Oksana R. in spring 2021.
The woman was found on April 1 with fatal injuries to her head and upper body in her apartment on Kurfürstendamm. She ran a beauty salon on nearby Walter-Benjamin-Platz.
From there she had walked to her apartment about 200 meters away the day before. A surveillance video shows a man with a cap and backpack in an inner courtyard on Walter-Benjamin-Platz.
In the meantime, the homicide squad is looking for Oksana R’s cocaine supplier. He may be the perpetrator. Money could also have been the motive. According to the prosecutor, Oksana R. often carried large amounts of cash with him. You could have had up to 50,000 euros with you.
The officials did not find any signs of a break-in on the apartment door of their attic. In addition, only small change was found with her and in the apartment, as the responsible public prosecutor stated. 5,000 euros have been offered for information leading to the arrest of the murderer.
Rebekah gone
Rebecca, who was 15 at the time of her disappearance, has been missing for three and a half years. The investigations continue.
There has been no trace of Rebecca since February 18, 2019. Apart from the parents, hardly anyone has any hope that the young woman will turn up alive. Rebecca stayed with her sister in Britz.
Suspicion quickly fell on the sister’s husband: Florian R. (27) was alone in the house with the student on the morning of February 18th. The police twice arrested and released him.
He denies having anything to do with the disappearance. He is supported by Rebecca’s family. The murder commission analyzed the mobile phone data and interviewed all family members and other witnesses.
In April 2019, hundreds of police officers, sniffer dogs, boats and divers searched for clues in forests and lakes south-east of Berlin for Rebecca’s body.
A statement from the public prosecutor’s office from 2020 has not changed to this day: “We continue to assume that Rebecca did not leave the brother-in-law’s house alive. All alternative events (…) can be ruled out after the investigation. There is absolutely no evidence of voluntary departure from the home environment.”
Knife wounds on Alex
On March 18, 2019, a Lithuanian was stabbed not far from Alexanderplatz.
The police are still looking for a suspect – a reward of 5,000 euros has been offered for information. The publication of recordings of the at least 40-year-old suspect with a strong build and balding with a fringe of hair from surveillance cameras at the Alexanderplatz underground station has not yet led to his identification.
According to the homicide commission, the man is suspected of having stabbed Edgar Orlovskij (26) on Karl-Marx-Allee completely out of the blue. Then he is said to have fled on foot to the Alexanderplatz underground station.
The victim called the police with his cell phone before he lost consciousness. The young man died at the scene of the crime.
Restaurateur killed in the back
On May 26, 2018, Dragisa (called Dragan) Katanic left the “Mila” restaurant in Spandau’s old town at around 11 p.m.
The 63-year-old was co-owner of the restaurant. Every Saturday he would take home the week’s earnings (probably a small four-figure sum) in a small black men’s handbag. He walked 400 meters to Falkenseer Platz and boarded the M37 bus.
He got off at the Im Spektefeld stop and walked 350 meters through a quiet area of terraced houses to his house on Hauskavelweg. There, the unknown perpetrator suddenly attacked him from behind, stabbed him several times with a knife and fled with the loot.
The father of the family bled to death on the sidewalk in front of his house. In this case, too, the public prosecutor offered a reward of 5,000 euros for information.
Dragan’s family saved another 5,000 euros for this case.