In the case of the dead student from Gottenheim in Baden-Württemberg, a 29-year-old man from Hesse with a criminal record is in custody.

As the Freiburg police confirmed on Monday, investigators arrested the man in Frankfurt. He is accused of abduction of minors, sexual assault and murder with intent to cover up.

With the help of mobile phone tracking and technical surveillance, investigators found the body of the 14-year-old girl last Friday. It was found in Teufelsee near Wetterau north of Frankfurt am Main.

The suspect is no stranger to the police

According to investigators, it is still unclear how the 14-year-old died. The fact that the body was in the water for several days made the work of the forensic doctor more difficult, said the head of the public prosecutor’s office in Freiburg, Dieter Inhofer. A first autopsy did not provide any precise information on this.

The suspect is said to have been in contact with 14-year-old Ayleen for weeks before the alleged crime. According to the information, the investigators have to evaluate huge amounts of data on communication in social media and an online game.

The 29-year-old is no stranger to the authorities. According to the investigators, he came to a psychiatric hospital as a teenager in 2007 for an attempted sexual offense. The stay ended in 2017. Until recently, he was in a program for sex offenders at risk of recidivism, as the President of the Hessian State Criminal Police Office, Andreas Röhrig, explained on Monday in Freiburg. The suspect initially denied the allegations and is now silent. The investigating Freiburg prosecutor Franziska Scheuble said there was an urgent suspicion of a sexual offence. She is unable to provide any further information at this time due to the ongoing investigation.

Ayleen left her parents’ home around 6 p.m. on July 21 and has been missing ever since. A major police search, including with dogs and police helicopters, yielded no results. Police announced the 14-year-old’s death on Saturday.

In the home of the student and at the distant place of discovery in Hesse, sadness and horror prevail. “The worst that can happen in such a case has happened. The whole of Gottenheim is in shock,” said Mayor Christian Riesterer.