The man, who disappeared in Spain in 2004 and was believed by his family to be dead, rebuilt his life with a new woman in Switzerland.

It’s an incredible story that has just been unraveled by the Swiss cantonal police in Switzerland. She spontaneously found a German who had been missing since 2004. In fact, the man voluntarily disappeared and rebuilt his life with another woman.

In the year 2004. A German couple left their home in North Rhine-Westphalia to settle in sunny Spain. They open a car dealership. In September, the man announces to his wife that he must go to Munich to buy a vehicle. Unbeknownst to him, this is the last time he sees him. The man boards a train to Constance, where he alights at the Pilger-Eck Hotel. He was lost on Tuesday, September 21, 2004. No one will have any news.

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A man who had been missing for 18 years in Spain and Germany has been found alive in Switzerland.

Mysteriously disappeared from the hotel

The hotel reported her disappearance to the police, suspecting fraud. When searching the room, the German police found all the personal effects of the missing man: briefcases, documents for the purchase of vehicles, his clothes… everything is there. Apart from the 56-year-old’s shirt and his travel documents. At the same time, in Spain, the wife also alerts the police to report her husband missing.

All hypotheses in the study

Was the person kidnapped? Was he murdered? Did he have an accident? All hypotheses are considered. Time passes, no paths appear, no man is seen.

Four years later, in 2008, police raided a German citizen in the Swiss canton of Switzerland. By checking the documents, the Swiss police realized that the man had gone missing in Spain four years earlier. The Swiss warn their Spanish counterparts. But the Spaniards did not warn their German counterparts or the man’s wife.

At the end of 2020, a criminal police unit from Rottweiler, Germany took on this ‘cold case’, a never-solved criminal case. The German newspaper says investigators have traced the missing man’s itinerary, are looking for his DNA in databases and are resuming contact with Swiss police. The courier.

75 years old after hiding in Switzerland

German police and Swiss authorities finally managed to track down the German car dealer. He still lived in Switzerland. Wisely. Since 2004 with a new partner. The man is now 75 years old.

When questioned, he declined to give an explanation for his disappearance or provide more specific details. He accepted that the authorities would inform his wife that he was alive. The couple has many children.

What is at stake for this man who does not have the courage to tell his wife about his separation? Can he be sued for dropping it all overnight? Concealed voluntarily? Cheated on his wife for 19 years? Could he be prosecuted for mobilizing police forces from multiple countries on his trail? He is absolutely in no danger. “If someone leaves their old life behind, it’s none of our business, it’s personal, and we don’t ask why,” Thomas Faure, deputy chief of Konstanz police headquarters, told Südkurier. The man has no intention of leaving Switzerland.