The Cold Case Files (11 page)

The potential for huge developments which forensic science can have in a cold-case review was clear in a remarkable case solved by the
PSNI
in 2008. For twenty years the
person who battered and strangled 66-year-old Lily Smyth in her apartment in Belfast had escaped justice. But the killer had left a small bloodstain on a towel in Lily’s apartment and tiny
amounts of his blood on her clothing. A full cold-case review had begun in 2005 and advances in forensics led scientists to finally identify the stain on the towel as being that of William
Stevenson, who had lived in the same flat complex as Lily. Stevenson’s blood was subsequently found on items of Lily’s clothing which had been kept safe for two decades, and the
probability of a match was given as one in a billion. In October 2008 Stevenson was given a life sentence and told he would serve a minimum of 25 years for a murder he had committed twenty years
before.

The person who left their
DNA
at Inga-Maria Hauser’s crime scene has never been detected in any other criminal investigation. This means he has not been convicted
of any crime in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland or Wales. Detectives have considered that perhaps the crime scene donor is dead. But even if he is, the developments in familial
DNA
mean he could still be identified through his relatives. The crime scene stain is a permanent fixture in the investigation, and establishing its owner is crucial in moving the
investigation forward.

The
PSNI
have liaised with Gardaí to see if the
DNA
found at Inga’s crime scene matches anyone on files in the Republic. One major
hindrance in this work is the continued lack of a
DNA
database in the Republic, despite repeated promises by successive Governments. While the crime scene was in rural
north-east Antrim, it is still possible that people south of the border have information about the case. Perhaps they were on the ferry that night, or know people who were.

The murder of Inga-Maria Hauser is the only murder of its kind to have occurred in Northern Ireland. Many visitors were killed in violence linked to the Troubles, but no other tourist was
sexually assaulted, murdered and their body hidden by an opportunistic random attacker, similar to what happened to Inga-Maria. However, in the Republic of Ireland there are a number of tragic
cases of women who came to the Republic of Ireland to either visit or live and who fell victim to murderers. One of those women was also from Munich. Twenty-three-year-old Bettina Poeschel was on a
holiday in September 2001 when she decided to visit the historic Newgrange site in Co. Meath. She got a train from Dublin to Drogheda and then began to walk towards Donore, three miles from
Newgrange. Bettina failed to return that night and her body was found 23 days later during a Garda search. Her murderer was a convicted killer from Drogheda named Michael Murphy. He had previously
served a sentence for the manslaughter of another woman. He is now serving a life sentence for Bettina’s murder. Another murder which was committed by a known violent offender occurred in
October 2007, when Swiss student Manuela Riedo was murdered in Galway by local man Gerald Barry. Manuela’s murderer is now serving a life sentence for strangling his victim to death; he is
also serving a life sentence for raping a French student in Galway in the same year he committed murder.

The murders of Bettina Poeschel and Manuela Riedo were committed by men with a history of extreme violence who lived local to the areas where they committed opportunistic attacks on visitors to
Ireland. A major difference between these solved cases and Inga-Maria Hauser’s unsolved case, is that the ‘crime scene donor’ who left his
DNA
at
Ballypatrick Forest has not surfaced in any other criminal investigation in Northern Ireland or anywhere else where
DNA
databases have been checked.

In the 1990s six women disappeared in the Leinster area, and they have never been found. It is feared that these women may have been killed and their bodies hidden. There has been no clear
evidence to show a serial killer is responsible for any of these cases. Indeed in three of the disappearances—Fiona Pender in Co. Offaly in 1996, Ciara Breen in Co. Louth in 1997 and Fiona
Sinnott in Co. Wexford in 1998—it’s thought the victims may have known their killers. But in the other three cases—the disappearance of American woman Annie McCarrick in 1993, Jo
Jo Dullard in Co. Kildare in 1995, and an 18-year-old woman in Co. Kildare in 1998—it’s believed random abductors may be responsible. And there are also three unsolved murders of women
whose bodies were then hidden, which may have involved random attackers. Marie Kilmartin vanished from Port Laoise in December 1993; her body was found hidden in bog water on the Laois-Offaly
border in June 1994. Patricia Doherty disappeared in Tallaght in December 1991; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains the following June. And the oldest such unsolved case occurred when
Antoinette Smith disappeared in Dublin in 1987; her body was found buried in the Dublin Mountains on 3 April 1988—co-incidentally Antoinette’s body was found while Inga-Maria Hauser was
travelling through Britain en route to Northern Ireland. There is nothing to indicate that Inga-Maria’s killer was responsible for any of the unsolved disappearances and murders which
Gardaí have so far failed to solve, but even if there is no link, it is clear that there were a number of similar type murderers operating on the island of Ireland in the late 1980s and into
the 1990s.

One issue which the
PSNI
have long considered is why was Inga-Maria’s body left so that it was eventually found. Although the killer or killers went to great
lengths to bring Inga-Maria to a remote spot in Ballypatrick Forest, once they had murdered the teenager, they simply left her body there, with all her belongings strewn around. They didn’t
try to bury her body, or hide it in any other way. Did they panic, were they running out of time, were they expected to be somewhere, were they late for a workshift, or late with a delivery of
goods, or would their wife or another family member be asking where they could be?

Northern Ireland has seen a number of cold-case murder trials in recent years. Some of those cases have involved murders which occurred as a result of the Troubles. Some trials have resulted in
convictions, and others in not-guilty verdicts. No matter what the verdict in any particular case, at least evidence has finally been tested in court and a verdict given.

The Courts of Justice have also seen non-Troubles-related cold cases come before them. One of the most remarkable such murder cases only actually came to light because one of the
killers—Colin Howell—finally confessed in January 2009 that he and his lover Hazel Stewart had murdered his wife Lesley and Hazel’s husband Trevor Buchanan in May 1991. For almost
eighteen years, it was believed that Lesley and Trevor had committed suicide by inhaling exhaust fumes in Co. Derry. It was only when Colin Howell suddenly told all that it was realised that a
double-murder had actually taken place and that both Lesley and Trevor had been poisoned by their cheating spouses. Howell later pleaded guilty to murder and Hazel Stewart was convicted of murder
by a jury in 2011 and similarly given a life sentence.

Before his arrest, double-murderer Colin Howell was a pillar of the community. A respected dentist and a church-goer, his friends and the wider community were left stunned by his revelations
when he finally confessed in 2009. A case such as this begs the question—is it possible that Inga-Maria Hauser’s killer is also a pillar of the community, someone who has all the
appearances of being a law-abiding citizen, someone who has lived a lie since 1988?

In Almut’s apartment she keeps a scrapbook of all correspondence from Northern Irish authorities relating to her daughter’s case. There is a letter in German written by an
RUC
officer shortly after the murder to update the Hauser family on the investigation. There is also a letter in German sent by the
PSNI
in recent
times to update the family on the ongoing work to try and identify the full
DNA
profile discovered in 2005. And there are other letters from 1988—correspondence from
the funeral directors in Northern Ireland who cared for Inga-Maria before she was brought home to Germany, and contact from Germany’s Honorary Consul in Northern Ireland. The coroner for
North Antrim wrote in May of that year to say that an inquest into Inga-Maria’s death could not be held due to ongoing police enquiries. In February of 1989 Moyle District Council wrote to
say that still the inquest could not be held because the police investigation was continuing. The letter expressed the optimism that authorities were ‘hopeful of positive action’. To
this day Inga-Maria’s inquest has not been held.

The unsolved murder has been featured twice on the
BBC
Crimewatch
programme, once in 1988 and the second time in 2005. In the second appeal, then Detective
Superintendent Patrick Steele appealed to people who had made anonymous contact with police some years before to get back in contact. Getting the appeal broadcast throughout Britain was important
and still is. While the killer may have had detailed knowledge of Ballypatrick Forest, that didn’t mean he was originally from Co. Antrim. He could just as easily have come from England,
Scotland, the Republic of Ireland or anywhere else. In his appeal Patrick Steele spoke of all that had been taken from Inga-Maria. “If she was alive she could be living in Ireland, or she
could be teaching English in Germany. Her whole life was stolen from her.”

Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray and Detective Inspector Tom McClure and their colleagues are still actively working on the case, but they also hope for the magical
‘ping’—where someone is caught for some other crime and their
DNA
is put on the database and all of a sudden they finally learn the identity of the crime
scene donor. “We would love if that was to happen, that a newly taken
DNA
sample would suddenly match our profile,” says Raymond Murray.

As well as running the
DNA
profile against the databases in Northern Ireland and beyond, the police investigation has now seen over 2,000 people who are not on any
database giving their
DNA
samples for the purposes of elimination. These are people in Co. Antrim and beyond who have voluntarily given their samples when requested by the
police. As well as the
SGM
+ screening and the
Y
-
STR
familial trawl of
DNA
databases, detectives are
also now looking at women who are on
DNA
databases, to see if any of their male relatives should be asked to give a
DNA
sample. This line of enquiry
has developed as forensic science is now so advanced that certain female
DNA
profiles can be identified which show some similarities to the crime scene stain. Because of the
way
DNA
characteristics are inherited from parents, there is a possibility that within that particular female group there may be a male relative of one of the women whose
DNA
profile could match the
DNA
from the crime scene. The
PSNI
has been contacting some women who are on the database to
reach out to their male relatives and ask them to provide
DNA
samples for the purposes of elimination.

The
PSNI
still have Inga-Maria’s backpack and her sleeping bag and other materials found with her body. Each item is safely guarded, each a potential piece of
evidence if the suspected killer or killers are ever brought to trial. Inga-Maria was a bright, confident and friendly young woman who met her violent death over 1,000 miles from home. “It
sits apart, it sits apart from the Troubles,” says Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray. “The murder is completely out there on its own. People are still very animated about it, it
is viewed as a stain on the community, and that is the message coming across to investigators. There is something about an act of brutality perpetrated on a visitor who came to our shores for all
the best reasons. She came to Northern Ireland at a time that it was in a state of conflict, yet she still came to see and to listen and to soak up the culture and the folklore, and somebody killed
her.”

Almut’s front-facing ground-floor apartment looks out on one of the busy streets in Munich just east of the River Isar. As I sit with her and our translator, Almut shows me more paintings
that Inga-Maria did in school and she shows me more photographs of her daughter. One of the sketches that Inga-Maria did was a two-dimensional self-portrait. She also made an elaborate papier
mâché collection of puppet faces. Her sense of humour also comes across in a painting of a woman who is riding a bike which is far too small for her.

Almut has two grandchildren from her other daughter. She worked as a nurse but is now retired and keeps active by playing badminton. Almut has not visited Northern Ireland since 1988. She knows
the
PSNI
are doing all they can to catch Inga-Maria’s killer and she is grateful that they still remember her daughter. As we finish our interview Almut shows me
another photo of Inga-Maria smiling at the camera. “That is my daughter,” she says proudly. “Isn’t she lovely.”