History of Europe

April 9, 1998:First criminal search by mass genetic test

Some of the samples taken in 1998, the largest mass genetic test to date.

A terrible murder case ends on April 9, 1998 with the first mass genetic test in German history:a few weeks earlier, on March 16, 1998, eleven-year-old Christina from Strücklingen in the Cloppenburg district was kidnapped and killed. The investigating authorities decide on a new method. Ten weeks later, they ask all men between the ages of 18 and 30 to provide a DNA sample. Around 16,400 men voluntarily come to the saliva test. At the end of May, the redeeming news:the perpetrator has been caught. The DNA of sample number 3889 is identical to the traces left by the perpetrator at the crime scene. It's about Ronny Rieken, already a criminal, himself a father of three children, arrested while mowing the lawn.

Successful search or mistakes in police work?

The controversial method was a great success for the investigators, but the question quickly arose as to whether conventional police work would have led to the perpetrator instead of expensive mass DNA analysis. Ronny Rieken was not only known to the police for property crimes. He was also sentenced to five and a half years in prison in 1990 for raping his 17-year-old sister. In addition, after the murder of Christina, there were indications from the population that the father of the family was incriminated. He had no alibi for the time of the crime.

The fact that the police had not found the perpetrator earlier was mainly due to a breakdown at the Oldenburg police station. She had not fed Rieken's data into the register of sex offenders. The investigating officers knew nothing of his criminal record when they asked the family man about his alibi. Since the man had already submitted his saliva sample, the officers did not initially suspect him.

Serial offender admits to more cases

On the day of his arrest, Rieken confessed to the abuse and murder of eleven-year-old Christina and the abuse of another girl. In both cases, DNA evidence weighed heavily on him. But the police suspected him to be the perpetrator in other cases of child abuse in the region. Another murder case showed the same pattern:13-year-old Ulrike from Jeddeloh drove out in her pony-drawn carriage in the summer of 1996. The horses returned alone.

Rieken is considered untreatable

Two years after their daughter's disappearance, Ulrike's parents received sad certainty:after several weeks in custody, Rieken also confessed to the murder of the 13-year-old and led the officers to the girl's corpse. On November 27, 1998, the district court of Oldenburg sentenced Rieken to life imprisonment for two murders and the abuse of 14 other girls. The judges determined the particular gravity of the guilt. Rieken will be in Celle Prison until at least 2021. It is unlikely that he will then be released from prison. He is considered untreatable. Years ago Rieken had said in prison:It would probably not be 14 days before he would relapse again.

Around 16,400 men came for the mass genetic test. DNA database is introduced

Another consequence of the first mass genetic test:the authorities built a nationwide DNA database. Since then, numerous cases have been solved with their help. One of the most spectacular:The murder of the Munich fashion czar Rudolf Mooshammer in 2005 was solved within two days because the murderer was saved in the database. Large-scale DNA screenings have been carried out repeatedly over the past ten years, but most of them have not been able to help find the suspect.