Overview
- A 24-year-old Lidl branch manager was bound, gagged, robbed of several thousand D‑Mark and strangled inside the St. Tönis store in 1995, and a key ring that opened the entrance and the safe disappeared from the scene.
- Investigators reopened the long-unsolved file, carried out a reconstruction that pointed to multiple perpetrators with knowledge of store routines, and collected extensive DNA samples at the time.
- Police issued a public witness appeal in September 2026 that specifically sought two youths seen near the store shortly before the killing.
- Law enforcement agencies in Mönchengladbach and the Krefeld public prosecutor's office announced the arrest of a suspect on October 12, 2026 but have not released identifying details or formal charges.
- Investigators are urging anyone with information to come forward and say modern forensic methods and renewed publicity have produced new leads in this and other decades-old cases, offering hope to the victim’s surviving family members.