Hesse: Slightly fewer missing persons in Hesse

Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - In Hesse, fewer people have been reported missing again this year.

Hesse: Slightly fewer missing persons in Hesse

Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - In Hesse, fewer people have been reported missing again this year. The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) registered 6,377 cases in the country up to a few days before Christmas. A year earlier, 6,573 people in Hesse were wanted. In 2020, just before Christmas, 6,403 cases of missing people were counted.

In 2022, more male children and young people were among the missing in Hesse. According to the information, the numbers for small and adolescent girls went down. For adults, there has been a decrease in missing person searches in the country for both women and men, the LKA said at the request of the German Press Agency in Wiesbaden.

According to the investigators, around half of the searches for missing persons are completed within a week and another 47 percent within two months. This means that people can voluntarily return to their usual circle of life, be apprehended or their whereabouts can be determined.

Minors are also considered missing if they have fled to Germany from war zones without an adult having custody and have avoided being taken into care by the youth welfare offices of their own accord. These are the so-called unaccompanied minor refugees.

Recently, the investigators had also switched on the ZDF search program "Aktenzeichen XY unsolved" when searching for a missing 34-year-old from Kirchhain (Marburg-Biedenkopf district). The mother of one son was four months pregnant when she disappeared in the summer. Since there is no evidence of an accident or suicide so far, it is to be feared that the woman may have been the victim of a crime.