Suche
Mein Konto
Spectacular turnaround: Missing man from Wildemann identified after skull discovery!
Find key information about the skeleton skull in Goslar: identity, investigation and burial.
Spectacular turnaround: Missing man from Wildemann identified after skull discovery!
In the Upper Harz, a grisly discovery on May 8, 2024 moved people's minds: Hikers came across a skeleton of a human skull in a forest near Clausthal-Zellerfeld. This discovery led to an extensive police investigation that began the same day police were informed. Despite extensive searches to find additional skeletal parts, these were unfortunately unsuccessful. The skull, which had no clues to the identity of the victim, now poses a mystery that the investigators were now able to solve in retrospect.
As HNA reports, the Goslar criminal police announced the first investigation results at the end of May 2025. These showed that the skull could belong to a man who had been deceased for a maximum of five years. Thanks to a comprehensive DNA analysis carried out at the Hanover Medical School, the identity of the dead man was determined during the course of the investigation. It was a 65-year-old man from Wildemann who was reported missing in spring 2023. This raises questions about the circumstances of his disappearance.
Investigation and burial
The criminal police used DNA databases from the State Criminal Police Office to ensure the identity of the missing person. The investigation has now been completed and the skull can be released for burial by relatives. A sad but necessary measure for the family to officially bring closure to the painful loss.
Processing missing person cases is an important task for the criminal police. According to [BKA](https://www.bka.de/DE/ UnserAufgabe/Ermittlungsunterstuetzung/BearbeitungVermisstenfaelle/arbeitVermisstenfaelle.html), a person is considered missing if they are inexplicably absent and a threat to life or limb is assumed. In the case of adults, disappearances are not immediately alarming, but in the case of minors, a danger is assumed, which intensifies police measures accordingly.
Statistical insights
The numbers in the area of missing persons are alarming. On January 1, 2025, around 9,420 missing person cases were registered. Between 200 and 300 new search applications are recorded every day, with around 50% of these cases being cleared within the first week. The clearance rate is particularly high: over 80% of missing persons cases are solved within a month, and only around 3% of missing persons remain undiscovered for longer than a year.
The investigations in this specific case show how crucial modern forensic science and cooperation between different police authorities are. This could also lead to a better understanding of the events surrounding the disappearance of the man, whose story now comes to a tragic end with the discovery of the skull.