Karen Gaucke was a woman who went missing from Hannover, Germany on June 15, 2006 with her 7-month-old daughter Clara Gaucke.
Case[]
Karen had an 8 p.m. appointment with her ex-boyfriend, a manager with the TUI Group, on the evening of her disappearance to discuss child support payments for their shared daughter, Clara.
During investigations of Karen's apartment, investigators found a large amount of blood under the kitchen counter, under the washing machine, on baseboards and the grout of the tiles. Very quickly, therefore, investigators suspect that something happened to Karen and her daughter and that the child's father had something to do with the disappearance. However, searches for Karen and Clara were unsuccessful.
In a circumstantial trial, Clara's child father and Karen's ex-boyfriend was convicted of the murder of the two missing persons. According to the evidence, Karen and Clara stood in the way of the suspect's new life, as he was expecting a child from a new partner. Among other things, his sneakers, on which blood from Karen was found, were decisive in this. He had then taken both of them to an unknown location in a rental car he had rented from June 15-17, 2006. Blood traces of Karen, which were found in the trunk of the rental car, also served as evidence. According to the evidence, he allegedly killed Karen and Clara because he did not want to pay him upcoming alimony payments.
In 2012, the convicted murderer died of cancer. To date, Karen and Clara have not been found.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- HAZ (German)
- Youtube (German)
- Süddeutsche (German)
- Neue Presse (German)
- Stern (German)