The 10-Year-Old Girl Buried Alive in a Wooden Box
How groundbreaking voice analysis solved a 27-year-old kidnapping case
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Quick Facts
Quick Facts
The 10-Year-Old Girl Buried Alive in a Wooden Box
Ten-year-old Ursula Maria Herrmann disappeared on September 15, 1981, around 3:15 PM from her family's garden in the small Bavarian town of Eching, north of Munich. She was locked inside a homemade underground chamber measuring just 1.2 x 1.2 x 1.5 meters and suffocated, presumably from oxygen deprivation. It took 27 years before groundbreaking voice technology led to the conviction of postal worker Werner Mazurek—a milestone in German criminal history.
Vanished from the Garden—Found in the Woods
On that September day in 1981, Ursula was playing in the garden at her family's home in the quiet residential neighborhood. Suddenly, she was gone. Shortly after, police received a cassette tape from the kidnapper demanding two million Deutsche Marks in ransom. The family and police followed the instructions, but the little girl was never found.
Almost three years later, on August 30, 1984, people walking in the forest near Eching stumbled upon a strange wooden shed buried in the ground. Inside the primitive prison lay Ursula's body. The construction was simple but effective: She had no chance of escape and had suffocated in the darkness. The investigation hit a dead end. For over two decades, the case remained unsolved and became one of Germany's most notorious cold cases.
