Police discover body while searching for missing 16-year-old boy

In a large-scale search for a missing 16-year-old girl from near Stuttgart, investigators discovered a body on Thursday. The lifeless body was found in the area of ​​the municipality of Lenningen in the district of Esslingen. In the evening, neither the police nor the public prosecutor's office wanted to confirm whether it was the missing young person when asked by the dpa.

As the police headquarters in Reutlingen and the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart announced on Thursday evening, it is a female corpse. A special commission with 35 officers was set up to clarify the circumstances of death. The identification is still pending.

The teenager from Remshalden in the Rems-Murr district disappeared more than a week ago. She left her parents' house on January 24, but instead of going to her school, she took the train to Kirchheim unter Teck. From there she boarded the Teckbahn in the direction of Lenningen - around 30 kilometers south of Remshalden. After that, their trail was lost. "According to our information, the missing person deliberately did not go to school on Tuesday - she probably told schoolmates that," said a police spokesman.

Most recently, the investigators had set up a so-called anonymous tip system, with the help of which witnesses can easily report via the Internet. A man was identified as a witness on Thursday, the spokesman said. He got on the train with the missing person and could possibly provide information about where the girl wanted to go. The person concerned is not a suspect.

So far, the Red Cross, a helicopter and the mountain rescue service have been looking for the 16-year-old for days on sometimes difficult terrain in vain. According to police information, a search operation between Kirchheim unter Teck and Oberlenningen was pending on Thursday – during this operation, the officers found the previously unidentified body.