Overview
- Three people—Manfred Meisel, his eight-year-old son Patrick, and animal keeper Claudia Leisten—were shot dead on Meisel’s finca near S'Aranjassa on November 12, 1997, and the killings remain unsolved.
- ZDF will feature the Mallorca case on Aktenzeichen XY... International on October 7, 2026, with the episode also airing on Swiss radio and streaming live on the 'ZDF True Crime' YouTube channel.
- Spanish authorities consider the crime legally time-barred, but the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office continues a parallel investigation because Meisel was a German citizen.
- Authorities describe the attack as targeted and professionally carried out, and broadcasters note possible motives such as rivalries over Meisel’s valuable bird breeding and potential links to organized crime.
- Police hope the televised appeal will prompt decisive witness statements and new leads, and the program places the case among other cross-border cold cases to highlight jurisdictional hurdles in long-running investigations.