Claudia Ruf Bio
Claudia Ruf was an 11-years-old boy who was found sexually assaulted and murdered in 1996. No-one has been charged with her death.
Claudia Ruf Age
He has died at the age of 11
Claudia Ruf Sexually Assault, Murder
He was 11 when she was abducted while walking a neighbour’s dog in the German town of Grevenbroich, about 13 miles from Dusseldorf, in May 1996.
Her family became worried when the dog returned home, but she did not. Claudia’s body was found two days later, more than 40 miles away. She had been raped and strangled to death before her body was doused with petrol and burned.
Posters were placed on buses and trains, police gave out pamphlets, and a reward was offered to find Claudia’s killer but with no success.
In a new attempt to track the suspect down, German police have asked 800 men who were between the ages of 14 and 70 at the time of Claudia’s death to give a saliva sample.
Officers say traces of DNA were found on Claudia’s body and they hope the tests will find her murderer.
Claudia Ruf Father Statment
Claudia’s father, Friedhelm Ruf, made an emotional appeal in a video message last week.
After more than 23 years, there’s a big possibility to solve the sad fate of my daughter, and he was quoted by AP as saying. The perpetrator has been able for too long to hide behind all of us.
A police spokesman told Bild newspaper that there had been a lot of interest in their renewed effort to solve the case, including dozens of tips.
Men aged over 14 at the time of her death have been invited to take part in DNA testing.
Hopefully, the culprit will be found. Of course, I have read a lot about the wrong case; he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Reinhold Jordan, the lead investigator on the case, told German media that analysis of the collections would take four to eight weeks.
Police tested 350 local DNA samples in 2010 but made no breakthrough.
According to German media, investigators hope they can utilise a recent change which allows closely-related samples, from relatives, to be flagged in results.
