International appeal to identify dead child in Germany

29 August 2023

INTERPOL Black Notice published after body discovered in the Danube

LYON, France – German police and INTERPOL are seeking the public’s help in identifying a deceased boy and to determine the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

The child’s remains were discovered on 19 May 2022 in the River Danube near Grossmehring in Bavaria, Germany, weighed down with a flagstone slab and wrapped in foil. It is not known how long the body was in the water.

The boy is thought to be aged between five and six. He was approximately 110 cm tall and 15kg, with brown hair and blood type 0.

The results of investigations indicate that he likely spent time outside of Germany.

To widen the investigation’s reach, and at the request of German authorities, INTERPOL has circulated a Black Notice to the Organization’s 195 member countries.

Black Notices are international alerts used to gather information and intelligence on unidentified bodies.

As part of the public appeal to identify the boy, key details of the Black Notice are now being shared, including facial reconstruction images and physical characteristics.

“Through this Black Notice, INTERPOL is calling upon the global law enforcement community to cross-check databases and consult open or unsolved cases,” said Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary General.

“Someone, somewhere knows something about this boy, making it equally important to release certain details publicly. Whether he was the victim of trafficking, abduction or violence, we are committed to mobilizing all of INTERPOL’s policing capabilities to identify him and help investigators shed light on his death.”

Members of the public, particularly those who remember a missing child whose characteristics and disappearance indicate a potential link to this case, are invited to contact the national police team in Germany should they have any information.

Since 2021, INTERPOL has been providing investigators with the I-Familia database, a global tool which helps identify unknown bodies through international family DNA kinship matching. For biological relatives who believe the boy could be a member of their family, national police once contacted can liaise with INTERPOL for international DNA comparison.

The case falls under the framework of the Identify Me programme and the public release of information contained in Black Notices to help unlock ‘cold cases’. Identify Me was first launched in May of this year in connection with on-going efforts to identify 22 suspected female murder victims, with more than 500 messages and tips received from the public.