It seems highly likely that the German police have spent the last 2 years, used 15,000 man hours, wasted €8 million and made 290,000 phone calls in an attempt to track a mysterious phantom serial killer who may not actually exist.
The mysterious female serial killer, known as The Woman Without a Face, was believed to have been responsible for several killings and other crimes and the German police have been trying to track her down for the past two years. Unsuccessfully.
It started with a DNA sample taken from the scene of a shooting in 2007. Policewoman Michelle Kiesewetter and her partner were taking a coffee break in their unmarked car when two people got into the vehicle and shot both of them in the head. Michelle Kiesewetter died and her partner ended up in a coma for months.
The DNA sample was fed into a computer and resulted in a match with DNA found at the scene of a murder in 1993 of a churchwarden and at the scene of the execution of three Georgian car dealers.
The same DNA profile was also found at numerous sites, from murders to robberies, all over Europe and the hunt was on for a serial killer.
However, it now transpires that the DNA samples may not have belonged to the killer but to a technician who packaged the cotton swabs used to take the samples. If this is proven to be correct, it would break the genetic lnk between the various crimes and mean that the police have, in effect, been chasing their tails for the past two years. An embarrassing state of affairs.