How a nine-year-old's disappearance became one of Europe's most controversial cases
On May 7, 2001, nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch vanished while walking home from school in Lichtenberg, Bavaria. Fifteen years later, her remains were discovered in a nearby forest, but the case remains unsolved—marked by a wrongful conviction, coerced confessions, and investigative failures that continue to haunt German authorities.
Nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch disappeared on May 7, 2001, while walking home from school in Lichtenberg, Bavaria, sparking one of Germany's most troubled criminal investigations. Her case would become known as the "German Madeleine McCann," attracting massive media attention and hundreds of police officers to the search effort, which extended across borders into the Czech Republic and Turkey.
For fifteen years, Peggy's fate remained a mystery. Then, in 2016, remains discovered in a wooded area near Wurzbach—less than ten miles from her home—were identified as "most probably" hers by the Bavarian prosecutor. The identification was supported by a watch she wore on the day she disappeared, which her mother recognized. DNA tests were planned to confirm the discovery.
But the path to answers has been shadowed by serious investigative failures and one of Germany's most controversial wrongful convictions.
In 2001, an intellectually disabled man became the prime suspect after confessing to molesting Peggy four days before her disappearance. He subsequently confessed to suffocating her after she allegedly tried to run away. Based on this confession, he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital on September 6, 2001, and arrested in October 2002.
In 2004, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. But his conviction rested on a confession that would later prove deeply problematic. Court records revealed he had been interrogated more than 40 times without legal representation—a practice that raised serious questions about the reliability of his admission. In 2014, a retrial overturned his conviction after determining that his confession had been coerced. After spending approximately ten years in prison, he was released.
The case took another unexpected turn in 2018 when an unnamed man was arrested and told police that another man had led him to Peggy's body at a bus stop. He claimed he had hidden her body in the forest after a failed attempt at resuscitation, and had burned her bag and jacket. However, this suspect also retracted his confession and was released.
