Frauke Liebs

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Paderborn Police Landeskriminalamt (NRW)

Death Location:

Paderborn, Germany

Summary:

Frauke Liebs was a 21-year-old student nurse who disappeared on June 20, 2006, from Paderborn, Germany under mysterious circumstances. Her last phone call was on June 27, and she died sometime after this final contact. Her skeletonized body was found on October 4, 2006, by a hunter in a forested area near Lichtenau. The case remains unsolved and her death is treated as a homicide.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Death:

On June 20, 2006, the 21-year-old student nurse Frauke Liebs disappeared under mysterious circumstances, with the last known sighting of her at a pub in Paderborn's city center, where she and a friend watched the FIFA World Cup match between England and Sweden. Before midnight, Liebs asked if she could use her friend's cellphone battery since hers was drained, eventually returning the battery and heading home around 11pm. Witnesses last saw Frauke traveling on foot, as she did not have enough money with her to catch a bus. At 12:49 AM, Frauke's housemate received a text message from her mobile phone, saying that she would be home later. However, she did not return home that night, and when she also failed to appear at work the day after, her mother reported her missing. The police discovered that the text message had been sent from Nieheim, a small city about 35 km north-east of Paderborn. In the following days, Liebs called her housemate five times via her mobile phone. Police were able to locate the calls, which all came from different industrial areas in Paderborn. During these calls, Liebs continued to say that she would return home soon but did not communicate any information about her situation. Liebs' last phone call was on June 27 in the presence of her sister, who also talked to her. During this conversation, she is said to have answered the question of whether she was being held captive with a faint "yes", immediately followed by a loud "no". Contact broke off after this phone call.

Additional Details:

On October 4, 2006, Liebs' skeletonized body was found by a hunter in a forested area next to a state road near Lichtenau. The body still had the same clothes that she wore on June 20. Her cellphone, handbag, watch and wallet could not be found. Because her body was severely decomposed, no cause of death or exact time of death could be determined. A case analysis by the police came to the conclusion that Liebs was probably held captive in the area around Nieheim and that the phone calls from Paderborn may have been diversionary maneuvers. Over 900 people who were connected to the victim were questioned by the police, and the initial investigation produced a list of five initial suspects. All five were eventually cleared after producing reputable alibis. Though there were initially five strong suspects in the crime, eventually all were cleared once their alibis were confirmed. The case aroused nationwide interest and was among others presented on the popular television show Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst ("Case number XY … Unsolved"). The 13-part Stern podcast series "Frauke Liebs – The Search for the Killer" brought over 150 new tips and was nominated for the German Audiobook Prize in 2024. Since November 2021, a special cold case unit with 24 retired investigators has been systematically working on unsolved cases since 1970 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Of 1,143 cold cases, 403 cases with good prospects for resolution have been identified – Frauke's case is among them. In October 2023, after extensive investigations against two brothers from Lichtenau/Paderborn, these were discontinued. Months of DNA testing and phone evaluations revealed no connection to Frauke. A private reward of €30,000 continues to be offered for tips leading to the identification of the perpetrator or resolution of the case, originally announced by Liebs' family in 2020.

Case Last Updated:

Aug 20, 2026