True Crime from Hesse: The Johanna Bohnacker case: After 18 years, the child murderer is caught

Die achtjährige Johanna wird 1999 entführt und später tot aufgefunden. Fast zwei Jahrzehnte später wird der Täter gefasst. Wer ermordete das Mädchen?

04. September 2024 um 14:44 UhrBobenhausen

Symbolic image. Eight-year-old Johanna Bohnacker was the victim of a cruel crime in 1999; the perpetrator was caught and identified in 2017.

Julian Stratenschulte/dpa

What happened?

Johanna disappeared on September 2, 1999 in Ranstadt-Bobenhausen after she had not returned home from playing. Her father immediately searched for her and discovered his daughter’s abandoned bicycle near a sports field. Despite an intensive search, Johanna remained missing until April 1, 2000, when walkers found her skeletonized body in a forest near Alsfeld, about 100 kilometers away.

The investigation dragged on for five years, but a breakthrough only came in 2016, when the case was reopened and new evidence was found pointing to a man who was already known. In the same year that Johanna disappeared, a witness made an important observation that led to the exact same perpetrator. At that time, however, he was ruled out as the murderer.

In 2016, Johanna’s murderer was caught in a sexually motivated incident with a minor. During a house search, incriminating evidence was found, including child pornography and adhesive tape. The decisive evidence was a fingerprint on an adhesive tape that was found on Johanna’s body and was eventually found with the perpetrator.

Who is Johanna’s murderer?

Rick J. was arrested on October 25, 2017. Since Johanna’s disappearance 18 years ago, he had lived in Friedrichsdorf near Frankfurt. During the interrogation, the terrible details of little Johanna’s murder came to light, leading to a conviction on November 19, 2018: The Giessen Regional Court sentenced Rick J. to life imprisonment followed by preventive detention.

topicnews · September 4, 2024

True Crime from Hesse: The Johanna Bohnacker case: After 18 years, the child murderer is caught

What happened?

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