Fears ‘German Maddie McCann’ may have been victim of sick neo-Nazi serial killer after his DNA was found at her murder site
DNA matching that of Uwe Boehnhardt, a member of a neo-Nazi cell, has been found on her body
THE DNA of a dead neo-Nazi killer has been found on the body of a young German girl who went missing 15 years ago.
Mushroom pickers found the body of Peggy Knobloch, who was 9 years old when she disappeared on the way home from school in 2001 - just nine miles from the girl's home.
Now German police have announced that DNA matching that of Uwe Boehnhardt, a member of a neo-Nazi cell, has been found on her body.
Uwe Boehnhardt, who was part of the so-called National Socialist Underground (NSU) cell that killed nine foreigners and a policewoman between, committed suicide in 2011 alongside Uwe Mundlos after police discovered their three-member cell by chance.
Peggy's remains were found in July in a forest some 95 miles from the city of Eisenach where the pair died.
Beate Zschaepe, the lone surviving member of the cell, is currently on trial for her alleged role in the killings of eight Greeks, one Turk and a German policewoman. She broke her silence last month, telling the court that she disavowed the ideology behind the killings and condemned them.
Peggy Knobloch was nine years old when she went missing on May 7 2001, never making it home from her German primary school, with her disappearance sparking an international missing person's search.
Despite an intense search, the young girl was never found with parallels drawn between the young Bavarian girl and missing English girl Madeleine McCann.
The young girl's body and other items were found by a member of the public who was walking through the forest looking for mushrooms in July.
After making the devastating discovery, they immediately notified police and more than 100 police officers then descended onto the scene to search for more clues.
It is understood the bones most likely surfaced after wild animals picked up the scent of the body and excavated it.
In 2002, a man with a learning disability was accused of killing the nine-year-old girl after allegedly sexually assaulting her. He told police he had sexually abused her then killed her when she went to tell on him.
The man was jailed for life in 2004, spending his time in an psychiatric hospital before he withdrew his confession.
He was released 10 years later when the conviction was overturned.
No one has since been charged with her disappearance.
The search for the young girl spread across her village, with authorities even using military planes in the extensive hunt for clues.
A line of inquiry took authorities to the Czech Republic and to Turkey in the belief she may have been kidnapped.
Her case sparked comparisons with Madeleine McCann who was just three when she went missing from a resort in Portugal in 2007 with reports of sightings of the toddler following from around the world.
The two girls look startingly similar with their blonde hair and wide eyes.
