WEBVTT - Season 06 Episode 32: A Death Less Ordinary  

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<v Speaker 1>West Germany was experiencing seasonally cool autumn weather in October

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty four. It would only be another four years

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<v Speaker 1>before the fall of the Berlin War, but for anyone

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<v Speaker 1>living at the time, this was still as inconceivable as

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<v Speaker 1>a future of social media or New York without the

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<v Speaker 1>Twin Towers on those many gray and gloomy days that

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<v Speaker 1>signaled the approach of winter that year. For citizens of

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<v Speaker 1>both East and West Germany, the Cold War was very

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<v Speaker 1>much in operation in West Germany. This could be seen

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<v Speaker 1>most starkly in the numerous acts of domestic terror that

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<v Speaker 1>were perpetrated there in the decade leading up to the

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<v Speaker 1>Berlin Wall's demise. The forefront of this activity was the

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<v Speaker 1>Red Army faction, also known as the Bader Meinhoff Gang,

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<v Speaker 1>named after two of the group's early leaders, Andrea Spada

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<v Speaker 1>and Ulrika Meinhoff. The faction was formed out of radical

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<v Speaker 1>elements from the nineteen sixties German university protest movement as

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<v Speaker 1>a reaction to the post war political landscape. Chief among

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<v Speaker 1>their concerns was the failure of the West German political

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<v Speaker 1>system to completely expunge itself of former supporters of Adolf Hitler.

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<v Speaker 1>And what they viewed as the ever expanding and unchecked

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<v Speaker 1>imperialist approach of the United States government. Using funds gained

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<v Speaker 1>from bank robberies, the group engaged in numerous violent activities

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<v Speaker 1>focused mainly on West German corporations and the people who

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<v Speaker 1>worked for them, as well as u S military installations

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<v Speaker 1>and personnel, killing thirty people in the process. Meanwhile, in

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<v Speaker 1>East Germany, it was the machinations of the uber vigilant

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<v Speaker 1>Ministry of State Security, also known as the Stazi, who

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps most struck fear into its citizens with its ceaseless

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<v Speaker 1>and brutal efforts to sniff out any opposition to the

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<v Speaker 1>country's ostensibly communist government. All in all, it was a

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<v Speaker 1>dark and unsettling time for citizens of both Germanys, framed

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<v Speaker 1>by an ever present atmosphere of violence and paranoia. And

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<v Speaker 1>it was in the shadow of all that that one

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<v Speaker 1>morning in October nineteen eighty four, in Anshausen, a small

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<v Speaker 1>town about thirty five miles east of Bonn in West Germany,

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<v Speaker 1>thirty four year old gunts Stohl was stirred in front

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<v Speaker 1>of his bathroom mirror, contemplating the face that were staring

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<v Speaker 1>back at him. What he saw was dark hair swept

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<v Speaker 1>to one side to conceal his slightly receding hairline, a broad,

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<v Speaker 1>dark mustache under heavy eyebrows, and a dark goatee beard.

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<v Speaker 1>Unbeknownst to him, this very face was shortly to become

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<v Speaker 1>the subject of one of the strangest and most cryptic

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<v Speaker 1>unexplained deaths in recent German history. You're listening to unexplained

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm Richard mc lean smith. By the time late

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<v Speaker 1>October had arrived, Gunta Stall had been unemployed for several months,

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<v Speaker 1>and with the autumn nights drawing in fast, it was

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<v Speaker 1>a difficult time to be out of work. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>the situation had been getting to Stall a little more

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<v Speaker 1>than he'd care to admit. His hands had developed a

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<v Speaker 1>slight tremble, and he couldn't seem to focus on any

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<v Speaker 1>sort of routine. As the days rolled by and Stoll's

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<v Speaker 1>attempts to find a job went nowhere, he seemed only

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<v Speaker 1>to become more and more anxious. Stoll had worked as

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<v Speaker 1>a food engineer at a local factory before losing his

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<v Speaker 1>job a few months earlier. It was a specialist profession,

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<v Speaker 1>and openings for someone with his particular skills were thin

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<v Speaker 1>on the ground as such. Stoll's wife was well aware

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<v Speaker 1>that her husband was unlikely to find work straight away,

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<v Speaker 1>but she'd become alarmed at just how much of an

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<v Speaker 1>effect it was having on him. As he became increasingly

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<v Speaker 1>agitated and unusually nervous. She wondered if, perhaps or the

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<v Speaker 1>TV he was consuming now he didn't have a regular

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<v Speaker 1>day job to go to with its endless reports of

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<v Speaker 1>domestic terror, kidnappings and killings, was beginning to weigh on

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<v Speaker 1>his mind. But it was more than that. Stoll, it seemed,

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<v Speaker 1>was becoming paranoid. Every now and then, his wife would

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<v Speaker 1>catch him glancing furtively out of the window. Other times

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<v Speaker 1>she'd hear him muttering to himself from outside a room,

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<v Speaker 1>only for him to stop the moment she walked in.

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<v Speaker 1>Whenever he went out, she watched on quietly from the

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<v Speaker 1>window as he pulled up the collar of his coat,

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<v Speaker 1>then quickly scanned all around him before getting into his

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<v Speaker 1>pale colored Volkswagen Golf, And when he drove off, he

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<v Speaker 1>would do so slump down low in the driving seat,

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<v Speaker 1>as if trying to avoid being seen. When Stall's paranoia

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<v Speaker 1>seemed to take a turn for the worse, it started

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<v Speaker 1>one evening over dinner, when Gunter's wife asked him why

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<v Speaker 1>exactly he'd been peering out into the street that day

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<v Speaker 1>from behind the curtains, it was, he said, simply because

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<v Speaker 1>of them. When she asked who they were, Staal went

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<v Speaker 1>silent for a moment, refusing to answer the question until

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<v Speaker 1>finally he spoke again. They, he said, were on his trail.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a few evenings later when Gunter's wife found

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<v Speaker 1>him in their bedroom pacing up and down. She asked

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<v Speaker 1>him once more to explain what was wrong, but again

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<v Speaker 1>Stall offered only that they were planning to do something

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<v Speaker 1>to him. A few days later, and he had become

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<v Speaker 1>convinced that they were in fact out to kill him.

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<v Speaker 1>For Stal's wife, it was becoming unbearable. Not convinced that

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<v Speaker 1>there really was a they at all, she was left

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<v Speaker 1>with the sad realization that her husband was most likely

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<v Speaker 1>struggling with a severe psychiatric illness for which she was

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<v Speaker 1>not equipped to deal with. On Thursday, October twenty fifth,

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<v Speaker 1>Stall was once again at home, where he'd been or day,

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<v Speaker 1>Barely able to sit still. By late evening, he was

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<v Speaker 1>sat in an armchair in his bedroom, still muttering to

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<v Speaker 1>himself when his wife joined him. The pair spoke for

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<v Speaker 1>a moment before Stall went back to his now usual

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<v Speaker 1>nervous worrying. It was shortly for eleven p m when

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<v Speaker 1>he suddenly leaped to his feet and shouted, yet get

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<v Speaker 1>mea ein Lichtoff. Its literal translation to English would be

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<v Speaker 1>something like now a light comes on, but perhaps now

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<v Speaker 1>I've got it is a better reflection of its meaning.

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<v Speaker 1>Stoll's wife could only watch on with alarm as her

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<v Speaker 1>husband took a sheet of scrap paper, sat down at

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<v Speaker 1>the bedroom dressing table, and proceeded to scribble something on it.

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<v Speaker 1>When he'd finished, there appeared to be six characters written

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<v Speaker 1>down on the paper. The first two seemed to be

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<v Speaker 1>the capital letters Y and oh, followed by a third

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<v Speaker 1>letter which looked like a capital G but could also

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<v Speaker 1>have been a six, followed by an apostrophe. Then three

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<v Speaker 1>more letters T, Z and E, also in capitals. Together

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<v Speaker 1>if it was indeed a G and not a six,

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<v Speaker 1>they spelled the apparently nonsensical word yogxy. Stoll's wife looked

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<v Speaker 1>on as Gunter stared hard at the cryptic characters for

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<v Speaker 1>a moment before proceeding to cross them out one by

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<v Speaker 1>one then he leapt up once more, dashed out of

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<v Speaker 1>the room and tore off down the stairs. Where are

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<v Speaker 1>you going so late? Shouted his wife after him, as

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<v Speaker 1>Stoll grabbed his coat and keys. Just to the pub

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<v Speaker 1>for a drink, he replied, before swiftly opening the door

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<v Speaker 1>and rushing out into the street. Missus Stall watched on

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<v Speaker 1>from the bedroom window as Gunter backed his car down

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<v Speaker 1>the driveway, turned onto the road and was swallowed up

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<v Speaker 1>by the night. It was the last time she would

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<v Speaker 1>see her husband alive. Later that night, Stall was witnessed

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<v Speaker 1>at his favorite pub in neighboring Wilnsdorf, a former iron

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<v Speaker 1>mining town about three and a half mile south of Anshausen.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a quiet Thursday evening in the Willnsdorf bar.

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<v Speaker 1>A few regulars chatted quietly and sipped their drinks. Ordinarily,

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<v Speaker 1>they would barely pay attention to Stall, other than to

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<v Speaker 1>nod a brief greeting. He was a regular there who

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<v Speaker 1>tended to keep himself to himself, except that night. There

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<v Speaker 1>was something undeniably odd about him, which drew many concerned

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<v Speaker 1>gazes from his fellow drinkers. Just as he had been

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<v Speaker 1>at home for a good few weeks now he seemed restless, agitated,

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<v Speaker 1>and preoccupied. The one thing he wasn't, however, according to

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<v Speaker 1>all who saw there that night, was drunk. Stall did

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<v Speaker 1>order a beer, which the bartender poured for him, but

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<v Speaker 1>before he could take a sip, without any warning, he

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<v Speaker 1>collapsed to the ground, hitting and injuring his face as

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<v Speaker 1>he fell, Having seemingly lost consciousness, The customers and the

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<v Speaker 1>bartender helped him to his feet and suggested he rest

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<v Speaker 1>a moment while they fetched the first aid kit to

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<v Speaker 1>tend to the deep gash on his face, but Stall

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<v Speaker 1>adamantly refused all help. Instead, he simply paid for his

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<v Speaker 1>drink and left, before climbing unsteadily into his car and

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<v Speaker 1>driving off once again into the chilly night. At roughly

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<v Speaker 1>the same time, seven miles south of Wilsdorf, in the

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<v Speaker 1>small country town of heiger Sealbach, the elderly eerner Helfritz

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<v Speaker 1>was struggling to get to sleep. Despite going to bed early,

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<v Speaker 1>she'd so far only managed to doze on and off.

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<v Speaker 1>She was finally drifting off to sleep when she became

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<v Speaker 1>vaguely aware of the sound of a car drawing up

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<v Speaker 1>outside her house. This was followed moments later by a

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<v Speaker 1>flurry of bangs at her front door. Snapping awake. Helfritz

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<v Speaker 1>somewhat nervously alled herself out of bed and with some

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<v Speaker 1>trepidation made her way to the front door as a

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<v Speaker 1>man shouted out to her from behind it. Alfritz relaxed

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<v Speaker 1>a little when she recognized the voice as that of

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<v Speaker 1>Gunter Stoll. Helfritz had known Stol all his life, having

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<v Speaker 1>been a childhood friend of his mother. However, she soon

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<v Speaker 1>became alarmed again when she listened closer to what Gunter

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<v Speaker 1>was saying. Stoll sounded frightened and was begging to be

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<v Speaker 1>let in, telling her that a horrible incident was about

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<v Speaker 1>to occur. Helfritz was concerned about Stoll, but given that

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<v Speaker 1>it was one a m. And how unhinged he sounded,

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<v Speaker 1>she refused to open the door, telling him to go

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<v Speaker 1>to his parents place instead, which was only a few

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<v Speaker 1>minutes drive away. Much to her relief, Stall stopped shouting

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<v Speaker 1>and walked away at three a m. Just two hours

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<v Speaker 1>after Stoll had turned up at Erna Helfritz's home about

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<v Speaker 1>seventy miles away to the north. The traffic was light

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<v Speaker 1>on Autobahn A forty five as the occasional car and

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<v Speaker 1>commercial lorry zipped in and out of the small spots

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<v Speaker 1>of light cast by the motorway lamps. Two drivers in

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<v Speaker 1>the cab of a truck traveling south were listening to

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<v Speaker 1>the radio as they approached Exit thirteen, the off ramp

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<v Speaker 1>for the city of Hargansud, when they spotted a pale

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<v Speaker 1>colored Volkswagen Golf lying in a ditch by the side

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<v Speaker 1>of the southbound carriageway that looked to be badly damaged,

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<v Speaker 1>according to their statements. Later, there was a man in

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<v Speaker 1>a light colored jacket there too, walking around the car,

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<v Speaker 1>seemingly inspecting the inside of it, but as the lorry

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<v Speaker 1>pulled up to the wreckage, the man vanished into the night.

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<v Speaker 1>Having parked up, one of the lorry drivers hurried to

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<v Speaker 1>a nearby emergency phone to call for an ambulance, while

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<v Speaker 1>the other, after taking a few deep breaths to steady

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<v Speaker 1>his nerves, cautiously approached the crashed car. As the truck

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<v Speaker 1>driver drew closer to the smashed up vehicle, he could

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<v Speaker 1>see that the front end of it was crushed inwards

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<v Speaker 1>and its windscreen had been completely smashed. The back tailgate

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<v Speaker 1>was up and the passenger side door was also hanging open.

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<v Speaker 1>Just then, his colleague returned to say an ambulance was

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<v Speaker 1>on the way, and so together they then peered inside

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<v Speaker 1>the wrecked vehicle. There, lying crumpled over in the passenger seat,

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<v Speaker 1>was the badly battered and strangely incomprehensibly naked body of

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<v Speaker 1>a man with thinning dark hair, a black mustache, and

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<v Speaker 1>goateee beard. Even though they were both untrained in emergency

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<v Speaker 1>scene response, it was clear the naked man had severe

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<v Speaker 1>injuries on several parts of his body. Much to their relief,

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<v Speaker 1>he was still alive, but only just conscious and barely

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<v Speaker 1>clinging on to life. As they waited for the ambulance

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<v Speaker 1>to arrive, the two drivers tried to keep the man talking,

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<v Speaker 1>comforting him as best they could. Did he remember what happened?

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<v Speaker 1>They asked? Why wasn't he wearing any clothes? The man

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<v Speaker 1>fought to find the words, then eventually, in a shaky

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<v Speaker 1>and raspy voice, explained that four other men had been

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<v Speaker 1>with him in the car before he'd crashed. The men

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<v Speaker 1>had apparently beaten him up before running away and leaving

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<v Speaker 1>him there. When asked if he knew the men, the

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<v Speaker 1>man said no. They were complete strangers. An ambulance arrived

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<v Speaker 1>on the scene soon after, and emergency workers carefully extracted

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<v Speaker 1>the naked man from the wreckage. It was, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>gun to Stall. Sadly, though he was alive when he

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<v Speaker 1>was taken away in the ambulance, he died en route

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<v Speaker 1>to the hospital shortly after. With the circumstances of Stoll's

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<v Speaker 1>death and his apparent crash being so odd, the police

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<v Speaker 1>quickly decided to make the case a criminal investigation. The

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<v Speaker 1>following day, the two truck drivers were questioned at the

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<v Speaker 1>local police station, having first been put into separate rooms

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<v Speaker 1>to check if their story is tallied. Both drivers testified

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<v Speaker 1>to having seen a man in a bright or white

0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.119
<v Speaker 1>jacket walking around the crashed car as they arrived on

0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.320
<v Speaker 1>the scene, but the man was gone by the time

0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:57.920
<v Speaker 1>they parked up. Other witnesses who were driving that stretch

0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.560
<v Speaker 1>of road at the same time also spoke of seeing

0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.760
<v Speaker 1>someone they described as possibly a hitchhiker in a bright

0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:12.280
<v Speaker 1>or white coat where Stoll's wrecked car was found. Curiously,

0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:17.199
<v Speaker 1>some witnesses described the white coat as looking like a

0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:22.160
<v Speaker 1>lab coat. There were also onlooker reports of a pickup

0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:28.040
<v Speaker 1>truck near exit thirteen, heading towards Frankfort immediately after the

0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:34.040
<v Speaker 1>vehicle crashed. However, this vehicle was never traced. As more

0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:39.560
<v Speaker 1>and more facts were uncovered, it seemed the mystery only deepened.

0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.359
<v Speaker 1>No evidence of the mysterious passengers Stole claimed to were

0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.800
<v Speaker 1>with him, nor his missing clothes could be found, and

0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.600
<v Speaker 1>there were no leads on the white coated stranger spotted

0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.960
<v Speaker 1>at the scene either. The official cause of death was

0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:05.520
<v Speaker 1>pronounced as vehicular manslo caused under suspicious circumstances, and then

0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:14.320
<v Speaker 1>came Stall's autopsy. Firstly, it showed somewhat unexpectedly that Stoll's

0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.600
<v Speaker 1>injuries had not been sustained from inside his own car,

0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:24.160
<v Speaker 1>but elsewhere, With the likely possibility that he'd been struck

0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:29.280
<v Speaker 1>outside his vehicle by another car before somehow ending up

0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:35.280
<v Speaker 1>back inside the Volkswagen. Police surmised that having somehow been

0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.840
<v Speaker 1>run over, Stoll was then deliberately positioned in the passenger

0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.920
<v Speaker 1>seat of his own car before it was then driven

0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.639
<v Speaker 1>or pushed into the ditch where it was found. This, again,

0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.720
<v Speaker 1>according to the police, was most likely done to hide

0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:56.760
<v Speaker 1>the evidence of how, where, and by whose hand he'd

0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:04.199
<v Speaker 1>received his fatal injuries. In subsequent questioning, Stoll's distraught wife

0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.840
<v Speaker 1>told the police that her husband had made some solo

0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.800
<v Speaker 1>holiday trips to the Netherlands over the previous couple of years.

0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.000
<v Speaker 1>The police's immediate suspicion was that Gunter had been involved

0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:22.680
<v Speaker 1>with drug dealing, but further investigations failed to reveal anything incriminating.

0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:29.280
<v Speaker 1>As the investigation wore on, police profiled around twelve hundred

0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.560
<v Speaker 1>potential suspects, but neither the identity of the man in

0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:37.600
<v Speaker 1>the bright or white jacket or the four people that

0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.600
<v Speaker 1>Stole claimed were with him just before he died could

0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:46.760
<v Speaker 1>be ascertained. As for the location of where he'd supposedly

0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:58.000
<v Speaker 1>first been injured, that too remained elusive. As news of

0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.199
<v Speaker 1>what became known as the Auto Barn riddle hit the

0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:05.680
<v Speaker 1>press and gained notoriety in the West German media and beyond,

0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:10.480
<v Speaker 1>a plethora of theories began to circulate around Stoll's death.

0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.400
<v Speaker 1>With all the strange details, the fact that he'd spoken

0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.440
<v Speaker 1>repeatedly about how he was in danger in the lead

0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.639
<v Speaker 1>up to the fatal incident began to seem less like

0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:26.480
<v Speaker 1>paranoia and more like a distinct possibility. Then something new

0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.800
<v Speaker 1>came to light. It was during further questioning by the police,

0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:36.280
<v Speaker 1>while Stoll's wife detailed the extent of his ever increasing

0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:40.960
<v Speaker 1>paranoia that she remembered the mysterious note he'd written the

0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.520
<v Speaker 1>night of his death. Having thought nothing of it at

0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.399
<v Speaker 1>the time. Stoll's wife had thrown the note away, but

0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:53.520
<v Speaker 1>was adamant she could remember it vividly. On it was

0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.040
<v Speaker 1>written the word yoxey, she said, give or take, the

0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:01.200
<v Speaker 1>G being a six or not. The revelation of this

0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:06.320
<v Speaker 1>mysterious code inevitably led to even more public speculation about

0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.240
<v Speaker 1>the case. What on earth could it mean? People wondered,

0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.880
<v Speaker 1>as all manner of theories were put forward. What if

0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.520
<v Speaker 1>it didn't say yoggze at all, but the O was

0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.080
<v Speaker 1>in fact a zero, and the letter Z actually the

0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.720
<v Speaker 1>number two, And if the third letter was indeed the

0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.399
<v Speaker 1>number six, could it be a vehicle license plate? Some

0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.840
<v Speaker 1>wandered the license plate of a car that had been

0:22:32.880 --> 0:22:38.000
<v Speaker 1>following him, only to later run him over. Perhaps others

0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:42.119
<v Speaker 1>suggested the characters were linked to a Romanian radio station,

0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:47.639
<v Speaker 1>the call sign of which was exactly YO six t ze.

0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.600
<v Speaker 1>There are no mentions of what the police made of

0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.480
<v Speaker 1>the license plate theory, but any connection between the note

0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.800
<v Speaker 1>and the Romanian radio station were found to have been

0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:04.520
<v Speaker 1>merely coincidental, with police soon hitting a dead end with it.

0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:09.560
<v Speaker 1>All cryptographers were brought in to analyze the mysterious characters,

0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:20.760
<v Speaker 1>they too hit a dead end. In the years since

0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:25.200
<v Speaker 1>Gunter Stoll's beguiling death, many more theories have been put

0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:29.000
<v Speaker 1>forward to try and make sense of it. Since Stoll

0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:33.280
<v Speaker 1>was a food engineer, some amateur sleuths have speculated that

0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:39.080
<v Speaker 1>the letters yog tze are an anagram for the word psygote,

0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.439
<v Speaker 1>the scientific term for the earliest developmental stage of a

0:23:43.520 --> 0:23:48.800
<v Speaker 1>fertilized egg, and that Stol had unwittingly discovered evidence of

0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:54.359
<v Speaker 1>some sort of secret genetic engineering experiment. Was the man

0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.200
<v Speaker 1>in the white coat seen leaving the crash site, according

0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:03.320
<v Speaker 1>to some, a scientist from a research laboratory, Or perhaps,

0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.919
<v Speaker 1>rather than being an unwitting innocent said others, was Stoll

0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:13.480
<v Speaker 1>actually an active agent deeply entangled within the clandestine world

0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:19.520
<v Speaker 1>of industrial espionage working for the East German government. Perhaps

0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:23.320
<v Speaker 1>in his capacity as a food engineer, Stohl had been

0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:28.920
<v Speaker 1>privy to some secret food ingredient or food modification program

0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:31.720
<v Speaker 1>knowledge which he was trying to smuggle out to the

0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:36.199
<v Speaker 1>other side. What if the first three letters y O

0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:41.320
<v Speaker 1>G referred to yogurt, thought some, although in German this

0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:44.159
<v Speaker 1>would be spelt with a jay or yacht as it

0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:48.440
<v Speaker 1>is called, and not a y. Those following this line

0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:53.000
<v Speaker 1>of thought contend that the letters t ze might also

0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:57.520
<v Speaker 1>denote a type of secret flavoring found in yogurt that

0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:02.480
<v Speaker 1>Stoll was working with. These might seem fanciful ideas to

0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:06.720
<v Speaker 1>think it now, but throughout the Cold War, including well

0:25:06.800 --> 0:25:10.480
<v Speaker 1>into the nineteen eighties, the East German government at a

0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:16.520
<v Speaker 1>highly developed industrial espionage program. At the time of Stoll's death,

0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:19.879
<v Speaker 1>there were thought of being thousands of operatives in West

0:25:19.920 --> 0:25:25.879
<v Speaker 1>Germany engaged exclusively in industrial espionage for the East. Such

0:25:25.920 --> 0:25:30.280
<v Speaker 1>spying was an attractive option to some West Germans struggling

0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:36.040
<v Speaker 1>with their finances. Hans Raider was one prominent example. A

0:25:36.080 --> 0:25:41.159
<v Speaker 1>physicist and former member of the National German Socialist Workers Party,

0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:45.040
<v Speaker 1>Raider was deep in debt and struggling to provide for

0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:48.240
<v Speaker 1>his family when he was recruited by the East German

0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:52.879
<v Speaker 1>government during the nineteen fifties. An employee at a West

0:25:52.920 --> 0:25:56.879
<v Speaker 1>German electronics firm, Raider's work put him in contact with

0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:02.119
<v Speaker 1>detailed information about a range of technologies the company was developing.

0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:07.680
<v Speaker 1>In exchange for monthly payoffs, Raider stole key files from

0:26:07.720 --> 0:26:11.400
<v Speaker 1>his employer and passed them on to East German agents

0:26:12.440 --> 0:26:17.080
<v Speaker 1>Between nineteen fifty seven to nineteen eighty five. Raider's side

0:26:17.160 --> 0:26:21.800
<v Speaker 1>hustle spying career delivered staggering amounts of material into the

0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:26.679
<v Speaker 1>hands of the Stazi, and he was never caught. It

0:26:26.760 --> 0:26:30.639
<v Speaker 1>all certainly paints Stole's strange behaviour in the lead up

0:26:30.640 --> 0:26:35.480
<v Speaker 1>to his death in a slightly more complicated light. Or

0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:40.480
<v Speaker 1>did gun to Stall simply suffer a psychotic breakdown caused

0:26:40.520 --> 0:26:45.800
<v Speaker 1>by the increasing mental stress and depression of unemployment. In

0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:49.080
<v Speaker 1>the end, with it being close to forty years since

0:26:49.119 --> 0:26:52.840
<v Speaker 1>Stoll's death, it's unlikely will ever learn the truth of

0:26:52.880 --> 0:26:58.199
<v Speaker 1>what exactly happened to him. Even the cryptic message often

0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:01.560
<v Speaker 1>touted as the only solid clu from the case was

0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:06.440
<v Speaker 1>in fact delivered second hand from his wife's memory, something

0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:11.919
<v Speaker 1>routinely found to be fallible. Every year the case is

0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:15.760
<v Speaker 1>re examined by the Attorney General's Office in the hopes

0:27:15.840 --> 0:27:19.919
<v Speaker 1>of finally solving the mystery, and as its resurfaces in

0:27:19.960 --> 0:27:24.560
<v Speaker 1>turn in the German public imagination, the amateur sleuths take

0:27:24.600 --> 0:27:29.240
<v Speaker 1>another stab at finally cracking the case, but it remains

0:27:29.280 --> 0:27:39.720
<v Speaker 1>to this day unexplained. This episode was written by Diane Hope.

0:27:39.880 --> 0:27:44.320
<v Speaker 1>Unexplained is an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard

0:27:44.400 --> 0:27:48.719
<v Speaker 1>mclin Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music,

0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:53.600
<v Speaker 1>are also produced by Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book

0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:57.800
<v Speaker 1>and audiobook, featuring stories that have never before been featured

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0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:14.040
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0:28:14.119 --> 0:28:16.680
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0:28:17.280 --> 0:28:19.399
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0:28:19.480 --> 0:28:22.840
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