WaPo Bodensee

It's rare for such an innocent hobby as birdwatching to end in death. The Washington Post found Sam Birkner, an unemployed amateur ornithologist, at an illegal dumping site on the shore of Lake Constance. The man had been observing not only birds but also people—such as Judge Marla Kohnen, who regularly dismissed Birkner's complaints on the grounds that they were trivial. But the judge was biased, as Nele discovers. She knows Ludwig Kienast, the target of most of Birkner's complaints. The troublemaker Birkner also harassed the renowned ornithologist Kati Hendricks. Sam Birkner accused her of errors in her doctoral dissertation and wanted to make that public. Finally, Jakob and Julia wonder why, of all people, the resolute Ms. Nökel claims to have had a good relationship with Birkner. The curious neighbor failed to notice, of all things, the break-in during which a computer was stolen. The case is becoming increasingly murky.

Nele and Paul barely manage to pull Helmut Pohl out of the water. He had attacked the sailor Lorenz Haller on his boat. Haller was able to fend off the attack. Pohl ends up in the water and falls so badly that he slips into a coma at the hospital. It soon turns out that the man who suffered the accident is the boat's real owner. Haller had bought it in good faith online—from a scammer. Julia and Jakob discover that the payment went to the account of 19-year-old Mila Simic. But Mila is also a victim. She had fallen in love with Jonas, who was just using her. His real name is Maximilian Hofer. He is known to the police as a violent repeat offender. Mila isn't willing to let the matter rest. She meets with Maximilian. A big mistake. Because Nele and her team are also on the trail of this unscrupulous guy.

Jakob sees Vanessa as the woman of his dreams. But Vanessa is recovered dead from Lake Constance—drowned. Paul wants to immediately remove his colleague from the case due to a conflict of interest. However, the worldly-wise Nele fears Jakob might go it alone and keeps him on the team. He immediately sets his sights on Vanessa's ex-boyfriend, Bastian. Bastian had followed her from Düsseldorf to settle debts from a business venture they'd shared. Bastian claims to have spent the night with the receptionist, Marianne Tillich. What about Yvonne, Vanessa's sister? She lives with her boyfriend Georg in a house by the lake that runs a boat rental business. She would have had to give up that idyllic life and sell the house to pay out Vanessa's share of the inheritance. Yvonne presents the investigators with yet another version of events. She says she wanted to sell the house and move to Spain with her sister—without Georg, but also without Jakob. This sends him into an existential crisis.

A lifeguard who drowns? In the case of Daniel Seeger, knockout drops rendered the head of the local DLRG station incapacitated. Nele and Paul investigate the deceased's professional circle and come across his assistant, Leon Berg. The drone expert and motorcycle enthusiast is clearly playing a double game. Then there's the combative environmentalist Carl Weyrich, who felt disturbed by beachgoers and provoked by Daniel. A motive for murder? The WaPo team realizes it has to change its approach. Because, little by little, more and more victims of knockout drops are turning up—people who nearly drowned. For Nele, the case takes on a personal dimension. Her son Niklas, who's skipping school and wants to move out, finds himself in mortal danger. And the DLRG team also includes Anna, whom Noah knows from school. She's happy with her colleague Yannik. Meanwhile, Nele's mother Mechthild is working on a plan to keep the family together.

Mechthild Fehrenbach wanted to record a post for her video blog. When, upon closer inspection of the footage, she discovers that someone on board a ship is writing "Help" on the window with lipstick from the inside, she calls her daughter Nele. Nele is away at a training course and doesn't share Mechthild's suspicion that a crime might be behind it. Mechthild remains undeterred, but she has to pull out all the stops to convince the WaPo that she's on a hot lead. After initial checks by the ship's owner, Stephan Hambach, and a visit on board, nothing points to a crime. However, Sina Bredel, who has just been released from prison, has a score to settle with the ship's owner and threatens to destroy someone's life. While Jakob has his hands full trying to prevent the "Miss Marple of Lake Constance" from continuing her investigation, Sina Bredel's ultimatum is heading toward a deadly conclusion.

Boat owners usually wait 25 years for a berth on Lake Constance. But is that enough of a motive for murder? The feisty doctor Anna Junker has long been impatiently waiting for the eccentric Markus Schwarz to vacate his spot for her with his ramshackle old yacht, the "Holde Isolde." Her grief is muted when, of all people, her daughter Feli finds the murdered loner in the harbor basin. The longer Nele and her team investigate, the more mysterious the case becomes. Markus Schwarz was living on his yacht under a false identity. Who was he really? Meanwhile, Swiss retiree Urs Egli is snooping around the marina—until something happens to him on the "Holde Isolde." Paul has a feeling that his old buddy, the harbor master Konrad, is keeping something from him. Mechthild and her grandson Niklas have staked out moorings for five yachts in front of their own house on the lake and are bringing in the excavator right away. It's a real gold mine—until disaster strikes.

Businessman Hannes Burchardt is found dead in the cabin of his yacht, the Constanza. Everything points to a carbon monoxide accident. But upon closer examination, it turns out that he was murdered with dry ice. At first, all the evidence points to his wife, Zola, as the culprit—she wanted a divorce and now stands to benefit from her husband's death. When Nele Fehrenbach's team questions Zola, Zola's lover, organic farmer Michael Jungbluth, intervenes. He is convinced that both the murder and the investigation are part of a conspiracy against him and Zola. Hannes Burchardt, he claims, was deeply entangled in the web of local political corruption and had been conducting shady deals with local political heavyweight Götz Eberlein. When the WaPo refuses to back down, a scandal erupts. Jungbluth and Zola manage to hijack a police boat to force Eberlein and his diligent office manager, Garber, to confess. The WaPo must stop the enraged Jungbluth.

When the WaPo finds the body of a man who's been shot on a rowboat, Nele immediately notices that this case is particularly upsetting to Paul. Paul knows the deceased. He's a convicted robber and murderer. Rudi Maschke robbed a bank 15 years ago. The one million euro haul never turned up. A security guard was killed in the process, leaving behind two children. Paul was part of the task force at the time. Did Maschke go to his ex-girlfriend Maria Ansböck after his release to claim his share of the loot? Maria had broken up with Rudi right after the robbery-murder and now runs a café on the island of Reichenau. His former accomplice, Robin Steffens—who served only seven years and has just returned from Switzerland, now penniless—would also have a motive. But they're too late; he, too, is found dead. Suddenly, Paul himself is in danger. Yet Paul offers Niklas, who has to write an essay for class, a template on the topic of courage.

Shots are fired at the bank on the Reichenau Peninsula. The perpetrators flee in a black boat. Their target is the motor yacht belonging to architect Katrin Ohlschläger, which she wants to sell. The bank robbers, Martin and Harald Draheim, deliberately take the young mother hostage and flee with her. Julia and Jakob immediately give chase, while Paul, annoyed, pores over files.

It's a nightmare for businessman Alexander Pachmann. Two masked burglars force him to open the safe in his villa and hand over cash and valuables worth nearly 100,000 euros. During the manhunt that follows, Julia and Jakob discover a teenage angler in a rubber dinghy. Clemens Schnitte does have a few prior convictions, but at first glance, he has neither the loot nor a motive.

A summer idyll on Mainau Island just before the Dahlia Queen pageant. But then Bernadotte's head gardener, Sven Gallus, is pulled dead from the water. He was apparently poisoned. The deadly poison—which is extremely difficult to detect—is extracted from the fruits of the miracle tree, a single specimen of which grows on Mainau Island. The officers learn this from apprentice Denise Munk, who comes under suspicion: Gallus apparently had issues with her, especially since the woman—who has a criminal record—only got the job as part of her probation requirements. Did Gallus want to fire Denise, and did she poison him? Gallus's partner, chef Cornelia Hegemann, is convinced of this, because losing her apprenticeship would have meant that Denise would have to serve her prison sentence. The WaPo discovers that Gallus bred the "Hilde" variety of dahlia—the prized tuber was worth half a million euros to an investor. Does Gallus's closest colleague, Martin Proschalla, know more than he's letting on?

Jakob and Niklas's morning kayaking race on Lake Constance ends with a terrible discovery. Suddenly, they have to watch as a competitive swimmer—who had just swum past them using the crawl stroke—is pulled dead from the lake. The deceased is Phillip Guldenstein, the eldest son of a wealthy business dynasty.

Nele is in a state of panic. Businesswoman Ricarda Heimlinger is just about to report the kidnapping of her son Jan—along with a hefty ransom demand—when the boy shows up, completely unaware of what's going on. It quickly becomes clear that a kidnapper has taken the wrong teenager. Instead of Jan, it's his friend Niklas—Nele's son—who is being held captive on a boat. And he's seen his kidnapper.

Julia and Paul find signs of a struggle and blood on an abandoned yacht. Strangely enough, the yacht's extremely unlikable owner, Simon Kohnert, shows little interest in solving the case. This makes Nele suspicious, especially since Miriam Kohnert, the owner's wife, remains missing.

The ferry "Konstanz" leaves the harbor seven minutes early. On board: Captain Heiler, who has given the crew the day off, as well as Nele and Julia, who were lured aboard under false pretenses.

Julia just wanted to practice shooting in peace at the Seeschützen and have a cup of tea with Damian Wendt, the nice son of a Hamburg merchant, when she noticed an argument escalating: Activist Lutz Bremer was confronted by the building manager, Karen Moll, on the Seeschützen grounds and taken away.