Spuren

Stefanie Berghoff from Buchingen had been missing for 17 hours when the Lauburg police station began their search. Detective Chief Inspector Barbara Kramer and her colleague Thomas Riedle coordinated the search along the young woman's jogging route. The longer they searched, the more important it became to secure evidence, find witnesses, and prevent the many volunteers around Berghoff's husband and father from trampling on evidence. When the young woman's body was finally found in the forest, she had already been dead for 72 hours, killed by violence, the murder weapon unknown. Forensic medicine and forensic science began their work. The evidence was thin, and the investigative team led by Barbara and Thomas was expanded to a special task force.

The special task force in the Berghoff case is working flat out, yet Barbara Kramer can provide the public prosecutor with only a few results. Although the forensic team succeeds in securing male DNA from the body, the databases do not provide a match. Thomas Riedle, himself from Buchingen, is confronted with the fears of the villagers, who long for the perpetrator to be found – and hope that he turns out to be a stranger. A second murder of a young woman just 30 km away shakes the region. The Josefine Schora case may be connected to the Berghoff case, so it is also being assigned to Barbara and Thomas's team. New leads must be secured, and the radius of the data query is being expanded. The mountain of work seems insurmountable to the special task force and requires a great deal of perseverance. Nevertheless, it is tackled.

The strikingly colored male hair found in the Schora case leads investigators to a suspect. The case is solved, and there is great relief – even if no breakthrough has yet been achieved in the Berghoff case. At least the missing running shoe and splinters from the victim's cell phone are finally found. Because traces of his husband's DNA are found on them, Tobias Berghoff must spend an unpleasant time in the detention cell before he can be ruled out as the perpetrator. Finally, a search of European databases yields a result: four years earlier, a young woman was killed in Austria in a similar case. The murder remains unsolved. The theory that the perpetrator could be a truck driver is growing stronger. Barbara and Thomas agree to collaborate with their Austrian colleagues. Now 50,000 data records from Austrian toll stations must be examined.

The investigation has now lasted over 100 days. Fatigue and determination alternate within the team, as progress is slow. When Barbara Kramer learns that the special task force is about to be disbanded, work on the toll data and the origin of the iron bar, the murder weapon used in the murder in Steinach, Austria, becomes even more urgent. They finally succeed in linking the bar to a truck brand and narrowing down the circle of potential perpetrators. This helps Barbara Kramer and Thomas Riedle maintain their motivation, even as the special task force shrinks to a smaller investigative team. And it pays off, because after months of hard work, they have a suspect.