British military police have started digging up a German river bank to search for the remains of a soldier's two-year-old daughter who went missing 36 years ago, after a review of evidence suggested clues may have been overlooked in the case.
Katrice Lee disappeared from a shop for British troops near the German town of Paderborn in 1981, where her father was based while serving in the British army. The case has never been solved. Her family believes she was abducted.
The military police's senior investigating officer Richard O'Leary said excavations of the bank of the River Alme started on Monday and would take up to five weeks. The aim was to find evidence, possibly some clothing or even Katrice herself.
Former Royal Army officer Richard Lee."As her father, I want them to find nothing, then it leaves the theory that she was abducted," Richard Lee, 68, told reporters at the site in a clear and composed voice.
"My family feels they have walked in a nightmare down a dark tunnel," Lee added. Investigators have released a photo of what investigators think Katrice would look like now at the age of 38, and a photo-fit of a possible suspect.
The new search was prompted by a fresh analysis of witness and forensic evidence. O'Leary said he was particularly interested in a green car seen near the excavation site the day after Katrice's disappearance. On the day she went missing, a witness had seen a man with a child in a green car.
The family is critical of mistakes made in the original investigation.
"I blame the original investigation and I will never forgive them for what they did not do," said Lee.
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On 28 November 1981, Katrice's second birthday, the family decided to go to the nearby NAAFI shopping complex in Schloß Neuhaus to buy things for her birthday party. Katrice's elder sister Natasha decided that she did not want to go shopping, while her aunt Wendy and uncle Cliff, who also worked for the British Army, had come over from Bielefeld for the birthday party. Wendy went to the NAAFI complex with Katrice and her parents while Cliff stayed at home with Natasha. Ritchie Lee drove them to the NAAFI and waited for them in the car-park. The day was the last payday before Christmas, so the NAAFI complex was exceptionally busy. Katrice decided she did not want to ride in shopping cart, so she was carried around the supermarket by her mother Sharon, who placed her down at the checkout. Sharon briefly left the checkout before returning to find Katrice was nowhere to be seen. Her aunt Wendy thought Katrice had followed her mother down the aisle, but she had vanished. Source: Wikipedia |