A FIVE-year-old girl known as 'Germany's Madeleine' vanished without a trace from a forest in Saxony-Anhalt in 2015.
The disappearance of Inga Gehricke, has been often compared to the case of Madeleine McCann who vanished while on holiday in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.
Eight years after Maddie's disappearance, little Inga went missing during a family picnic in the northern town of Stendal.
The prime suspect in McCann's abduction, pedophile Christian B was investigated over the disappearance of the five-year-old as he owned a derelict property nearby which was searched by cops a year later.
He was ruled out as a suspect in 2021.
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Who is Inga Gehricke?
Inga Gehricke, five, has been known as the “German Madeleine” since she suddenly disappeared in Germany in 2015.
When did she go missing?
Inga went missing on May 2, 2015, from a forest in Schönebeck, Saxony-Anhalt, during a barbecue.
At the time of her disappearance, the girl was visiting the Wilhelmshof district of Stendal.
She went to collect wood for a campfire with other children in the forest.
But, Inga did not return, and there’s been no sign of her ever since.
Why has her disappearance been linked to Madeleine McCann?
Like Madeleine’s case, there has been no trace of missing Inga.
A search with tracking dogs and police helicopters proved unsuccessful.
Cops were left none the wiser despite more than 1,000 helpers, including firefighters and police officers, searching for her.
They turned up no clues as to her whereabouts.
Police said at the time that they suspected the girl was kidnapped.
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Head of the investigation, Reimar Klockziem, told reporters in Germany that her disappearance was “inexplicable and unbelievable”.
It was as if Inga had been "beamed away from the world”, he said.
Bunte pointed out in May 2020, that “only a few missing person cases are not cleared up in Germany for a long time. One of them is that of Inga.”
The publication spoke to profiler Axel Petermann, who said there was “no recognisable motive, no crime scene, no traces of a crime, and no body.”
Despite five years of police appeals and a reward of 25,000 euros for information leading to her whereabouts, Inga has never been found.
It has since been claimed in the German media that Christian B booked a parking space in a rest area less than 60 miles from the spot where Inga disappeared - at the same time - near Schönebeck.
Nine months later, his ramshackle farmhouse in Neuwegersleben was raided in February 2016 in connection with the little girl's disappearance.
But the line of inquiry was never pursued and the case on Christian B was closed shortly after.
The convicted German paedo is serving a seven-year sentence in Germany over the rape of a pensioner in Praia da Luz.
In October last year, he was charged by German prosecutors with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of the sexual abuse of children, in alleged crimes spanning 17 years between 2000 and 2017.
