Cold case investigations – New DNA analysis 30 years after taxi driver’s murder – Panorama

Hövelhof/Paderborn (dpa/lnw) – More than 30 years after a brutal robbery and murder near Paderborn, the police are re-evaluating DNA traces from the crime scene. The Bielefeld police's “Cold Cases” investigation team, which is trying to solve crimes that happened long ago, hopes to bring the murderer or murderers of taxi driver Johannes “Hansi” Funke to justice, according to a statement.

In April 1994, the 43-year-old taxi driver of one or more passengers from Paderborn was attacked in Hövelhof, several kilometers away, and then killed with numerous knife stabs. The perpetrator(s) stole his wallet, pushed their victim out of the taxi and drove away. The body was still attached to the seat belt and was initially dragged along for a considerable distance.

Investigators: Unbridled and brutal approach

“The perpetrators' actions revealed a great degree of unrestraint and brutality,” said the head of the investigation team, Markus Mertens. It is not unlikely that they also came to the attention of the police in the years that followed and that their DNA profile could therefore be found.

The extensive trace material from the vehicle and the victim will therefore be examined again in accordance with the latest scientific standards. We are also hoping for information from possible witnesses to the crime and escape or information from people who subsequently became accomplices.

For several years now, police authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia have been investigating hundreds of long-unsolved homicides and missing persons cases in which there is still a chance of tracking down the perpetrator or perpetrators years or decades after the crime – so-called cold cases. In doing so, investigators often rely on today's possibilities of genetic analysis and public relations work – and this has been successful time and again.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:240917-930-234989/1