Berlin — Prosecutors in Germany are holding a mother and a grandparent accused of keeping the woman’s eight-year-old daughter captive in a small German town home for nearly her entire life.
There are still many unanswered questions in this case, but the details that have emerged are shocking: The girl was allegedly held in a house in Attendorn, about 20 miles east of Cologne, for nearly seven years. After being rescued by police, the girl said she had never seen a forest or meadow or ridden in a car, according to local newspaper Sauerlandkurier, citing documents from a regional children’s hospital. Police and local child protective services searched the home on September 23 and rescued the girl. A medical examination found her to be in relatively good health and she was placed in emergency foster care. The public prosecutor’s office in Siegen said the child’s mother and grandparents are under official investigation. The girl showed no clear signs of physical abuse or malnutrition, prosecutors said. “However, the girl has never seen the outside world,” senior prosecutor Patrick Baron von Grothus told German news agency DPA. He said the girl was believed to have lived at the home in Attendorn for almost seven years, never being allowed to leave. She was able to talk and walk but “could hardly climb stairs on her own or cross uneven ground”. The senior prosecutor of the German city of Siegen, Patrick Baron von Grotthuss, speaks to a reporter in his office November 7, 2022. Reuters The mother and grandparents did not provide any information to investigators, officials said. In 2014, the mother reportedly told the girl’s father, from whom she had separated before her daughter was born, that she wanted to move to Italy with their child. But suspicions began to grow that he had gone ahead with this plan, despite providing a shipping address in Italy. In September 2015, the father told child protective services that he had seen the mother walking around town several times. When questioned by authorities, the grandparents said their daughter had moved to Italy with the child. The father said the letters and gifts he sent his daughter to the Italian address were all returned unopened. Child protective services also received anonymous tips that the mother, at least, could be in Attendorn. Recent attempts by authorities to contact the grandparents were rebuffed and officials were denied access to the home. The grandparents did not allow the police to enter the house, but due to a lack of evidence, no search warrant was issued. A house in the western German city of Attendorn where a girl was rescued after she was reportedly held captive by her mother and grandparents for most of her life is seen November 7, 2022. Reuters Finally, a relative on the mother’s side of the family contacted police and said he and his wife had recently visited the relatives in Italy with whom the girl and her mother were supposed to be staying. Italian relatives said neither mother nor daughter had ever lived there. The girl’s mother then came by phone to the grandparents’ home in Attendorn, and authorities finally got the search warrant they needed. The mother and grandparents face charges of unlawful deprivation of liberty and abuse. Family acquaintances are also being questioned. The next step, according to von Grotthuss, is a thorough evaluation of the little girl’s mental and physical condition, and he said it was “very likely” that the mother would also be psychiatrically examined and, if necessary, the other accused.