Found again after around five years: Two siblings from Cottbus are safe

The children were unlawfully taken from their family environment in Cottbus by their mother in August 2021. Their father then initiated the search, which dragged on for years. According to initial findings, the three individuals had stayed in the Chemnitz region and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the meantime. The most recent clue had located them in the Frankfurt (Oder) area.

Children still with their mother

According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the nationwide campaign "Spurlos verschwunden" (Disappeared Without a Trace) brought the breakthrough. Since neither investigations nor inquiries with authorities helped, the public prosecutor's office and the police turned to the public with photos. A recently published public appeal was decisive. "The success of the appeal underscores the importance of public attention in the search for missing children and adolescents," the BKA explained. According to BKA data, this is the first success of the campaign.

The public prosecutor's office also emphasized that the children are still with their mother. "The two siblings are still with their mother," said a spokesperson for the Cottbus Public Prosecutor's Office. The Youth Welfare Office is involved in their care. According to investigators, the mother is to be questioned by the police shortly.

Motive still unclear

The public prosecutor's office did not initially comment on the motive. "A motive for the mother's actions was not initially provided by the spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office." According to a report by the Bild newspaper, the woman cited the Corona measures as the reason in a letter. This could not be independently confirmed at first. According to the public prosecutor's office, there was never any assumption during the investigation that the woman intended to harm her children.

Background: Missing minors in Brandenburg and Germany

Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) expressed his relief that the two missing children from Cottbus had reappeared. At the same time, he pointed to the dimension of the phenomenon: "For us, the principle applies: with a missing child, there is always a risk to life and limb until the contrary is proven." Redmann also explained the typical pattern of such cases: "The most common case is that in very difficult family situations, individual custodial parents go into hiding with the children."

According to the minister, 194 individuals under the age of 18 were registered as missing in Brandenburg in April, 84 of whom were younger than 14 years old. Nationwide, tens of thousands of children and adolescents are reported missing every year, according to the BKA. "The vast majority return to their familiar environment within a short period," the BKA explained. "In 98 percent of all children and adolescents reported missing in Germany, they return safe and sound."

However, not every case ends so quickly: "Some cases remain unsolved for years, leaving relatives in distressing uncertainty." The public search for the two siblings has since been terminated. The police announced that the children had been "found safe and sound." The exact circumstances of their reappearance, as well as the next steps in dealing with the mother and her children, remained open for the time being.

The story of the siblings from Cottbus is exemplary of a small but particularly distressing group of missing persons cases in which a custodial parent goes into hiding with the child. The BKA campaign "Spurlos verschwunden" addresses precisely this: with public attention, cases that would otherwise remain quietly unresolved are to be brought to the public's awareness.