As reported, there had been a large-scale police operation last Thursday in Lüftelberg, the village where the woman and child live. According to eyewitnesses, they were pulled into a car against their will. However, the woman told the local police that she was in Kosovo voluntarily, according to Bonn police. This confirms statements made by the 34-year-old, when she already contacted the police by telephone last Friday afternoon.

In this telephone call and in a subsequent video call, she gave two police detectives in Bonn information about her current whereabouts in Kosovo. She said she was voluntarily staying with a family member there. In the scope of the international investigation, in which the German Federal Criminal Police Office was also involved, the information was checked and confirmed by the local police authorities, according to information available on Wednesday.

Despite this, the investigation by the police and the public prosecutor's office in Bonn is continuing. As reported, the investigations had concentrated at first on the 39-year-old husband living separately from the woman. He had been arrested last Thursday at his home in Ratingen and then released on Friday afternoon.

Bonn police spokesman Frank Piontek told the General-Anzeiger, ”The accusation against the man has not been substantiated.” But Biontek further explained that investigations into the man and other persons, about whom they had concrete information, were continuing.

Police became aware of the situation last Thursday because an eyewitness reported the incident. According to Piontek, the witness report that the 34-year-old woman and her three-year-old son had been dragged into a car was credible.

As a result, a large number of police were deployed to the village of Lüftelberg, population 1,300. Streets were blocked off and a helicopter was used in the search for mother and child.

(Orig. text: Christoph Meurer / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)