Ursula Herrmann, a ten-year-old girl from Eching, Germany, vanished on September 15, 1981, while cycling home from her cousin's house. Her absence was quickly noted, and her family promptly alerted the authorities when she failed to return as expected. Despite initial searches by police and locals, Ursula remained missing, and when she was eventually found, it was tragically too late.

On the day she disappeared, Ursula had attended her first day of school alongside her three older siblings. After classes, she practiced piano with her brother Michael before riding her bike to Schondorf for gymnastics. Having traveled this route many times, Ursula stopped at her cousin’s house for dinner after her class.

At around 7:20 PM, Ursula’s mother called, instructing her to return home. The ride was only ten minutes, and it was still daylight—a route Ursula was familiar with. However, when she did not arrive promptly, Mrs. Herrmann called her aunt’s house and learned that Ursula had left nearly half an hour earlier. The family immediately sensed something was amiss.

Ursula’s father retraced her path from Eching, while her uncle approached from Schondorf. They met midway but found no trace of her. As panic set in, they began searching the adjacent woods, calling out her name, but to no avail. Soon, neighbors and relatives joined the frantic search, later assisted by police and firefighters, as the sun set and rain began to fall.

Ursula had disappeared near Landheim Schondorf, a prestigious private school frequented by many affluent locals. While the Herrmann family struggled financially, they had lived in Eching due to land purchased by Ursula's great-grandfather.

Around midnight, police introduced a sniffer dog to aid in the search. The dog led them off the path and into the nearby woods, discovering Ursula’s red bike approximately twenty meters from where she had last been seen.

As dawn broke, the woods were filled with police, clad in rubber boots and rain jackets, as they scoured the area with boats and divers searching the local lake. The media began covering the story of Ursula’s disappearance extensively.

Ursula, born on November 24, 1970, was a petite girl with shoulder-length blonde hair. On the day she went missing, she wore reddish-brown sandals, dark green pants, and a grey cardigan. The youngest of four siblings, she was the child of a teacher and a homemaker.

Two days after her disappearance, the Herrmann family began receiving puzzling phone calls, where they heard a familiar radio jingle from Bayern 3 station. Initially confused, they soon received a ransom note demanding DM 2 million, constructed from newspaper clippings and detailing the earlier phone calls as coded messages.

The note warned the family against contacting the police, or else they would face dire consequences for Ursula. Unfortunately, they had already reached out to authorities, compromising their safety. On September 21, they received another note with ransom instructions but no clear location for payment. Despite this, Mrs. Herrmann confirmed her willingness to pay, but communication with the kidnappers ceased.

Weeks passed without any sign of Ursula, until police conducted a thorough search of the Weingarten forest, employing metal rods and sniffer dogs. Tragically, four days into the search, they discovered Ursula’s remains in a rectangular box hidden in the woods, only 800 meters from the path.

The box was no ordinary container; it was a wooden structure measuring 72 cm x 60 cm x 139 cm, designed to resemble a miniature jail cell. It was secured with seven sliding bolts, furnished with blankets, books, a radio tuned to Bayern 3, and snacks. Unfortunately, the ventilation system was inadequate, leading to Ursula's suffocation.

This incident made headlines across Germany, garnering significant media attention. The autopsy suggested Ursula had likely died shortly after being confined, possibly due to sedation.

The police discovered that the radio jingle used in ransom calls originated from Bayern 3. Investigators suspected multiple individuals were involved in the crime, given t