The Elisabeth missing persons case E-Book

Heinrich Gaube

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 329

Beschreibung

"Cold-case investigation": What generates ratings on television almost appears in this case to be an attempt to use force to assess facts and witness statements exclusively to the disadvantage of the accused instead of weighing them up objectively. Although there is still no body and the circumstances of the disappearance in The Elisabeth missing persons case are completely unexplained, suspicions by the family of the missing person and in some cases dubious witness statements were enough to have the accused remanded in custody again 15 years after the alleged crime. Only a courageous judge and jury put an end to the nightmare.

Leseprobe

Foreword

My name is Heinrich and I am writing this story based on true events. The names of the people involved are fictitious. If real people feel attacked, offended, misunderstood or otherwise discredited by my descriptions and interpretations, this is not my intention.

These can only be coincidentally similar experiences of those affected.

Paragraphs in bold and italics are original quotations that I have kindly removed spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, formulation errors and punctuation errors as best I can. The names are fictitious.

All pictures are drawn by myself and partly computerized. All but two of the photos are from my own collection and have also been partially computer-altered. For the two photos that are not my own, I have permission from the author to use them in my book.

Prologue

Dear readers, the story I am about to tell you is based on true facts. It is a story about a murder without a body, a pre-trial detention without justification, an investigation without results and a murder charge without facts.

This story came about because my ex-wife Elisabeth, mother of our daughter Katharina, disappeared one day without a trace and nothing has been seen or heard from her since.

My name is Heinrich and I am the only one who experienced this story first-hand, from meeting Elisabeth to the court ruling.

As I said, it's about an almost unbelievable story that happened to me. It's about the fate of Elisabeth and the resulting consequences for me and subsequently for our daughter Katharina.It's a true story!

I am writing this story to reject the unbelievability, the absurdities and the ridiculousness of it.

I write them to point out how close sadness and meanness, truth and lies, right and wrong are to each other.

I will try to put all the inconsistencies, half-truths, rumors and false statements contained in this story into perspective. Everyone who is interested in this story and who wants to read it should be able to get an idea of the strange behavior of those individuals who cannot or do not want to distinguish their own truth from the real truth.

I will try to draw a common thread through this story that only I know. I am the only one who has experienced all the facets and events surrounding this story from beginning to end. Who, if not me, can best describe this common thread.

The underlined passages show the way to the only possible solution.

I am telling you without claiming that everyone agrees with me.

But I can assure you that there will hardly be any valid arguments that could call the truth of this into question.

A fact is a fact, as they say. Nevertheless, readers are free to form their own opinion.

I wish all readers a few exciting hours reading my lines, a story in which an attempt was made to turn a missing persons case into a murder case.

Short form of our history

The last time I saw my then wife Elisabeth, mother of our daughter Katharina, was on December 7, 2005. She got into a dark-colored station wagon at about 8 a.m. and drove off with someone who never came forward. There has been no trace of her since then.

In almost 17 years, or to this day (end of 2023), there has not been a single sign of life from Elisabeth. Neither a body nor the slightest trace of a corpse or a violent crime has been found.

Allegedly there is also no farewell letter.

Nevertheless, I was not only suspected, but even heavily accused of murdering my wife Elisabeth and hiding her body in an unknown location. This is how the story of the murder without a body came about. Murder without a corpse sounds like the title of a new Agatha Christie novel. But it is not. It's a true story that apparently could only have happened to me. To me, a son of the mother who always said: "You really don't leave anything out in your life. A true story full of inconsistencies, conspiracy theories, assumptions, intentional and unintentional lies, deliberate false statements, grotesque theories and, above all, contradictions.

Grotesque - through exaggeration, comical and nonsensical.

Contradictions, as the tenor "murder without a corpse" itself is. Either there was a murder, in which case there would also be a corpse. Or there is no corpse, as in our story, in which case there was no murder. Of course, there could also be a corpse for reasons other than murder. But our story is about an alleged murder that didn't happen. Therefore, there is no corpse.

So there was no murder and there is no body. For this reason, the extensive investigation was closed at the end of 2005, beginning of 2006. Nevertheless, in 2007, one and a half years after Elisabeth's disappearance, a department of the criminal investigation department reopened the case. This reopening was obviously based on the investigative mistakes made in an equally unbelievable case. This case involved a girl who, after 10 years of "disappearing without a trace", suddenly found herself alive in front of a stunned society. Stunned because all the assumptions and speculation resulting from half-knowledge, investigative errors and stupidity did not come true. Nobody could have imagined it. In 2007, I was remanded in custody for just under two weeks. During this time, the investigations from the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 were carried out again in full and increased in intensity. The result was ZERO! No body, not the slightest trace of a body or a violent crime, no halfway comprehensible course of events and certainly no idea of how I could have hidden a body so perfectly that it couldn't be found for 16 years. Hence the result: ZERO. Back then, in 2007, people were apparently still able to do some math and therefore knew that ZERO (2005/2006) + ZERO (2007) remained exactly ZERO. That's why they had to release me from custody and stop the investigation a second time. Anyone who now believes that I could be sure after two such extensive investigations is not reckoning with these very special cold case investigators, a public prosecutor who denies reality, a bunch of strange witnesses and other clueless people. Anyway, on February 15, 2021, 14 years after the investigation was supposedly closed for good, the doorbell rang at 7 a.m. and I was arrested again. The reason: I had killed my then wife and mother of their daughter in a previously unknown way and hid her in an unknown place in the days that followed. I was only just allowed to lock up our two dogs in this situation. The investigators were afraid of them. I was allowed to take Katharina, who was still a minor at the time, out of her room in handcuffs to tell her that I had been arrested.

I couldn't even put on proper pants instead of my training pants. A shirt, a jacket, no sturdy shoes.

That was all I was allowed to take with me.

Oh yes, my glasses without a case, but only because I pointed out that I can't read or sign anything without them. A quick goodbye to my daughter Katharina and I was gone.

For more than 15 months! What happened on December 06, 07, 08 and 09, 2005? What happened in the days, weeks, months and years that followed? What was it like during the 15 months in custody? And what happened on the four trial days on May 9, 11, 16 and 19, 2022? I have divided this story into individual chapters.

Every single one is worth reading for those who like to read the unbelievable.

And if it doesn't interest you, it doesn't matter. I am writing this story for my battered psyche and rehabilitation. With this book, I now have the opportunity to set the record straight about those individuals who told lies and slander about me in my absence, also in their absence.

Chapter 1: Elisabeth

I met Elisabeth in the summer of 2002 at the Ellida rowing club. My rowing partner at the time, Thaddäus, and I were looking for a relatively light, confident and spirited person, male or female, it didn't matter. Someone who would be willing to steer us at the national championships (rowing) in the coxed pair (2+). 2+ meansthat two rowers (one on port and one on starboard) row and a relatively light, confident person steers. Confident because competitive athletes are not necessarily the easiest personalities to deal with and you need to be quite assertive. In our case, it ended up being Elisabeth. She did her job very well and we came second as the defending champions from 2001. I should mention here that Thaddäus and I had an average age of 42 at the time. The winners in this race were two squad rowers, around 25 years old. Elisabeth and I noticed that we had a certain attraction for each other at the subsequent victory celebrations and in the days and weeks that followed. This attraction turned into love relatively quickly and we became a couple. Well, and as the little devil of love would have it, Elisabeth became pregnant around the end of November. After she was sure sometime in January 2003 that we were going to have a child together, we were very happy. We got married in the summer of 2003 and Katharina was born healthy on August 29, 2003. Healthy, but after an emergency caesarean section.

Emergency caesarean section - that was not good for Elisabeth. She was so looking forward to the birth of her child, to a water birth. We drove to the maternity clinic in Korneuburg in the morning and everything was prepared for a beautiful birth. Unfortunately, everything turned out differently than we had hoped. There were only the beginnings of contractions throughout the day, but it didn't really want to start. So Elisabeth was given a drug to finally induce labor. After a routine check by the midwife, she noticed that something was obviously wrong. She called the doctor, who also carried out a check. I don't know if that's the right term. In any case, things went from bad to worse.

Contraction blockers administered, call to the operating room, immediate preparation for an emergency caesarean section, rush through the entire hospital to the operating room, cross-stitch with Elisabeth, it was too late for anesthesia, and off we went. Just ten minutes later, Katharina was born. She had the umbilical cord around her neck. The doctor, or was it the midwife or a nurse, said: "A beautiful baby girl. Katharina was briefly handed over to Elisabeth, then the wound from the caesarean section had to be stitched. So I was taken into a separate room with Katharina. I had to take off my T-shirt because of the skin contact and was placed in a hammock with Katharina. There we lay, this little person on my chest, she couldn't get down to my stomach, and waited for Elisabeth. After what felt like ten hours, it was probably an hour, she finally arrived. She was lying on a mobile bed, which was placed next to the hammock. Elisabeth looked really exhausted. I put Katharina on her chest and cuddled up as close as I could to the two of them. It wasn't a good night for the three of us. We couldn't sleep, we couldn't feed at the breast and Elisabeth was in pain. The dream of a beautiful birth, which Elisabeth had been so looking forward to, was shattered. Of course, the joy of our beautiful and healthy daughter prevailed.

After all the grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles had visited the new family member over the next few days, I was at home in between looking after the dogs, we drove home with Katharina after about a week. We lived in Vienna in a three-family house on the first floor. We had decided that Elisabeth would go on maternity leave for two years and I would take the remaining six months. Two and a half years that were supposed to lead us into a newly organized, positive rhythm of life. Unfortunately, things turned out anything but positive. Over time, more and more problems arose that we simply hadn't expected and perhaps couldn't have expected. Before I continue writing about the time leading up to Elisabeth's disappearance without a trace, I would like to point out once again that I am writing about my feelings and my view of these two and a half years. But as I said, readers can safely assume that I am the only one who experienced this time first-hand from beginning to end. I am the only one who knows the context and the background.

Everyone else only knows short or longer periods and fragments of this story, and sometimes only from stories.

I'll start again by saying that I met Elisabeth in 2002 as a very pretty, nature-loving and fun-loving young woman. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have fallen in love with her! Elisabeth loved to laugh, she was interested in almost everything and was really enthusiastic. Elisabeth was very well educated thanks to her architecture degree and always wanted to learn new things. She had a talent for sport, played the viola and was an enthusiastic motorcyclist. Naturally, I initially only saw all these positive sides to her. You don't look for less favorable character traits. Well, as I have already reported, Katharina was unfortunately born by emergency caesarean section. No problem for Katharina. She was and is healthy and strong from the very first second of her life. For Elisabeth, however, this experience was anything but pleasant. She lost this important first skin contact between child and mother. Instead, her wound from the caesarean section was stitched up and dressed. A wound that was not in a very favorable position due to the emergency situation. When she wore a bikini, the scar was partially visible. Elisabeth could easily have fed five children with breast milk during her pregnancy, that's how much she had. Presumably due to the shock of the emergency caesarean section, it didn't work with Katharina. Elisabeth was almost unable to give any milk. That really affected her. She gave me the impression that she was slowly losing the joy of motherhood. As I said, that was the impression I had in the first hours and days after the birth. Of course, Elisabeth loved her daughter more than anything. It was the difficult circumstances of the birth and the change in her life that caused her difficulties. Difficulties that were explained by clever and so-called clever people as breastfeeding psychosis or postpartum depression. I only knew that this happens to some women after giving birth. In most cases, it supposedly goes away quickly. As a man, I can't even begin to imagine what such a depression means for a woman, what she feels and experiences. In Elisabeth's case, I only observed that it really wasn't easy for her. Readers may already realize what I'm getting at. What I have written so far is already the beginning of the increasingly difficult problems that have come our way. Problems that led to Elisabeth and I moving more and more in the direction of separation. However, before we had any concrete talks about separation or divorce in 2005, we first tried to find solutions, peaceful solutions, of course. As I seemed to be coping better with this situation than Elisabeth, I tried to approach her gradually so that I could better address her problems and take the right steps. Unfortunately, I never found the ideal way or the right words to help her. On the contrary, I had the feeling that the more I said and the more I tried to talk to Elisabeth, the less she was able to cope with the new situation. I thought I understood that the step from student life (Elisabeth did her thesis not long before Katharina was born) into family life with the responsibility for a baby was not an easy one. In addition, this postpartum depression, in married life, in contrast to student life, no more going it alone with various decisions, etc.! As I said, I understood that she wasn't doing very well. But I also had to make sure and push for solutions to be found. However, the way Elisabeth reacted to some of my efforts, I simply didn't make any progress.

See chapter two - The divorce phase.

Chapter 2: The divorce phase

The situation increasingly developed in such a way that Elisabeth wasn't really happy at home with Katharina. I, on the other hand, was very happy in my new job and looked forward to coming home every day. It wasn't that I only wanted to blame Elisabeth for the difficult situation. I'm writing this because that's just the way it was. I never felt guilty about it. I coped better with the new life situation. That doesn't make Elisabeth guilty per se and it doesn't make me innocent. I couldn't find a way out of this dilemma either. It was like being in a spiral.

After my efforts to find solutions to all these problems failed to bear fruit, I suggested to Elisabeth that we could swap parental leave earlier than agreed. The agreement was that Elisabeth would stay on maternity leave for two years and then I would stay for another six months. So my suggestion was that Elisabeth should look for a job. After all, she had a degree in architecture and could certainly earn more than I could with my modest, or as I was told in the subsequent investigations, my inferior professions. For the time being, I hit the bull's eye with this idea. Elisabeth very happily accepted this suggestion and immediately started looking for a job. And lo and behold, she had one in no time at all. So we swapped maternity leave just six months after Katharina was born. I quit my job, which I hadn't had for long, and Elisabeth threw herself into her professional life full of energy and joy. And as I mentioned earlier, it was unfortunately only a temporary saving grace. We didn't take into account that I was now spending the whole day with Katharina and Elisabeth was at work. This inevitably meant that the good relationship between Katharina and me grew stronger and stronger. A particularly good father-daughter relationship developed, which had already begun at birth. I remember: because of the emergency caesarean section, there was long and intensive skin-to-skin contact between Katharina and me. I am firmly convinced that this early maternity swap was our crucial mistake!

Although this helped us to get Elisabeth's problems under control in the short term, the fact that the relationship between Katharina and I was now developing more and more positively meant that Elisabeth was soon even worse off than before. Even if all the people around Elisabeth didn't want to see it that way and still can't accept it today, it was and is the reality! A reality that is quite easy to understand. Remember: emergency caesarean section, before the birth Elisabeth had plenty of milk, afterwards breastfeeding just wouldn't work, after the birth Katharina lay with me instead of Elisabeth, etc.!

And six months later, the mistake with the early parental leave swap.

In any case, I was initially very understanding of Elisabeth's problems. The fact that Elisabeth's parents, siblings, friends and other people around her still don't believe it was and still isn't a big deal to me, to put it mildly. I've shown a strong will and perseverance in so many situations in my life that I was convinced that I would make it in this situation too. Even without support from Elisabeth's circle. After all, it was about my family, Elisabeth and Katharina! What I didn't expect, however, was the other side of Elisabeth's character. One side of her was, as I've already described: cheerful, positively spirited, funny, humorous, interested, loving, etc.! All characteristics that were understandably also described in this way by those around her, i.e. her father, siblings, friends and work colleagues. Almost embarrassing in the interrogations and court hearings.

Elisabeth's other face: unpleasantly ambitious, irascible, unreasonable, wrong, and much more. At this point, I want and have to mention that I naturally also have unpleasant sides that are very unpleasant for some people. I can be very insulting and belittling, I am stubborn, resentful and stubborn. In the context of this story, however, I would like to emphasize that I am not violent!

But now it's about the divorce phase. And as I've already mentioned, I was the more stable one. I coped better with the difficult situation. As I've already mentioned, that's not a criticism of Elisabeth, but it was the same. What Elisabeth found most difficult was that her work meant she couldn't spend much time with Katharina. She naturally felt that the mother-child relationship was therefore not as intense as it was in other families. She was in a situation that fathers usually find themselves in because they go out to work. With Elisabeth and me, the so-called classic distribution of roles was reversed.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by me. The good relationship between Katharina and me got better and better, which is still the case today, and the relationship with Elisabeth stagnated. Elisabeth's reactions to this showed the different side of her that I mentioned earlier. She began to tell her family, friends and work colleagues that I wanted to keep her from having contact with Katharina. These stories, or rather these lies, became more and more brazen and mean. I still can't understand what she was trying to achieve. What did she misjudge at the time, why didn't she see that my efforts were exactly the opposite? It was not at all in my interest to deny Elisabeth contact with her daughter. The opposite was the case. I kept looking for opportunities to give Elisabeth time with Katharina. Time that the two of them could spend without me. For example, I went to the rowing club for a drink or went for a long walk with the dogs. I kept making suggestions about what the three of us could do together, etc.!

I am fully aware that if Elisabeth's family ever gets to read these lines, their dislike and prejudice against me will be heightened. However, I cannot and will not take this into consideration. This problem is of their own making. They have to deal with it themselves. The solution would have been very simple anyway. All they would have had to do was realize that their suspicions or even accusations of murder were completely unfounded. My innocence, let me say this much in advance, was clearly proven. I will explain this in detail in a later chapter. But now back to the divorce phase. No matter what I tried and what conversations I wanted to have with Elisabeth, none of it helped. Quite the opposite. Elisabeth's lies about me got worse and worse and more and more unfair, if the stories of her siblings, friends and parents, especially those of her father, are to be believed. I would forbid her contact with Katharina, I didn't allow her to feed her, wrap her up, play with her, etc.! I had to put up with such absurd accusations for sixteen and a half years. But no one could even begin to give me a reason why I should have behaved like that. There was not the slightest explanation or at least an assumption. Apart from the "burp" that my ex-father-in-law once uttered: "You only needed her to have a child and now you want to send her to a psychiatric ward. Elisabeth apparently felt this way, passed it on, and it was believed. At least by those around her. But the situation was so easy to understand. I was on maternity leave, so I spent most of my time with Katharina, and Elisabeth was at work. Yes, exactly, it was that simple. As time went on, I slowly lost my patience. Every conversation or attempt to talk to Elisabeth about solutions ended more and more often in outbursts of anger on Elisabeth's part. My suggestion of talk therapy didn't go down well with her either.

In the end, I even tried to talk to her parents together, where I also suggested counseling and psychotherapy, but I was at the end of my tether and my patience. During this conversation, I had to listen to Elisabeth's father say the above-mentioned "burp": 'You only needed Elisabeth to have a daughter and now you want to send her to a psychiatric ward. At this point, I would like to reiterate that I still have no idea why Elisabeth developed in this extreme direction. In other words, I do have an idea, but it's just an idea. I want to stick largely to the facts here. I don't need to reproach myself for not doing everything in my power to make family life positive. I honestly wanted to help Elisabeth get out of this crisis. However, no one told her family and friends. And in retrospect, no one even acknowledges it to this day. Too bad, too bad, too bad! I first started talking about separating at the beginning of 2005. I saw no other option. As the person on maternity leave, I had to maintain a peaceful and intact family life for Katharina, or at least pretend to. As this was hardly possible due to Elisabeth's behavior and the lack of support from her parents, I wanted the separation. I was fully aware that this would certainly not help Elisabeth any more.

And if various people see this as culpable behavior on my part for what ultimately or presumably happened, then I can't change that either and have to accept it. However, that does NOT mean that I accept being seen as a murderer! This view is completely unacceptable and only serves as a protective claim for various people involved!

To understand this, you have to read the story to the end. In any case, I wanted a separation from Elisabeth. In this respect, too, I can tell you that I wanted a solution that was as peaceful as possible and certainly a fair one. I certainly didn't want sole custody of Katharina. I made countless suggestions as to how we could divide our time with Katharina fairly.

I was always in favor of us doing things together with our daughter even after a separation. I even helped Elisabeth look for an apartment. I suggested to her that we split the large apartment, which originally consisted of two small apartments, again. There would have been a passageway and Katharina could have stayed wherever she liked.

Unfortunately, Elisabeth didn't respond to any of my suggestions in this regard either. The difference now, however, was that I realized how Elisabeth was now being massively influenced by her father against me.

As a result, I became increasingly annoyed and unfriendly in my dealings with Elisabeth. I couldn't and wouldn't accept the fact that my suggestions were only ever rejected, but not a single counter-suggestion was made. I am sure that I would have quickly accepted fair counter-proposals, simply so that I could return to a calmer and more peaceful life. The only thing that was clear to me was that Katharina should keep her main residence with me. After all, I had already been on maternity leave for almost two years at that point. What's more, the law didn't allow it any other way. The child has to live with the parent who is on parental leave. Otherwise there is no parental leave allowance. This request, namely that Katharina should keep her main residence with me, took Elisabeth's unfair behavior to the next level. In addition, obviously influenced by her environment, Elisabeth's behavior became more and more unbearable and hostile. There was not the slightest sign of any willingness on her part to find a peaceful and amicable solution. Elisabeth obviously understood or only wanted to understand that I was of the opinion that Katharina should continue to live with me as her main residence, and that I wanted to take the child away from her for good. All her assurances that she should have Katharina at least 50 percent of the time didn't help. I was apparently powerless against this misjudgment of my behavior and my efforts. Elisabeth reached the pinnacle of meanness in September 2005 when she pretended to want to visit a friend with Katharina. In reality, it was a long-planned, sneaky move out of the apartment we shared and she simply took Katharina with her. However, I found out afterwards that the sneaky move was not necessarily planned by Elisabeth herself, but by her divorce lawyer, who she already had at the time. Furthermore, she was supported in this action by her family and friends. She was supported by people who only knew about my alleged behavior from Elisabeth's stories. These people hardly or never spent any time together with Elisabeth, Katharina and me. They had no idea how hard I tried to find peaceful solutions. They believed Elisabeth's stories without being asked and then put them on record in later police interviews. As if they had seen and experienced it all. In later police interviews, that is, one and a half or fifteen years later.

Why did I write Summit of Meanness? Elisabeth sent me a text message that evening informing me that she had now moved out with Katharina. She didn't mention where, only that I would be hearing from her lawyer in the next few days. In other words, I'm getting the divorce petition. And I won't see Katharina again until the divorce hearing. If you think this is the height of nastiness, just read on. Elisabeth has not only taken Katharina with her, but has also illegally re-registered her. Re-registered to a place of residence that I wasn't informed about. We haven't reached the summit yet. Elisabeth gave Katharina to a childminder all day during the week because she had to go to work herself. For the record, I was still on maternity leave at the time. And to this day, Elisabeth's people are still surprised that I stopped any communication about further steps.

So Elisabeth tried to spend time with Katharina by putting her with a childminder all day? Time that I supposedly withheld from her? The last words, sentences and paragraphs might lead you to conclude, aha, that would be a motive for murder for me after all. Wrong, as the next paragraph will show!

The first divorce hearing took place on October 24, 2005. In a nutshell: Elisabeth and I agreed that we would not get divorced yet, that we would both retain custody and that Katharina would spend 50% of her time with Elisabeth, and therefore 50% with me.

We should also make an effort to do things together with Katharina. And there goes the supposed motive that could be read from my previous words, sentences and paragraphs. Because now we had a court agreement that corresponded exactly to my proposals. Ideas and wishes for a peaceful separation. A solution that Elisabeth, under the influence of her environment and for completely incomprehensible reasons, had resisted. For me, there was not the slightest reason and not even close to a motive for murder. Apart from the fact that this solution worked very well and better and better over time, there was still this incomprehensible arrangement with the childminder. Katharina was still sent to a childminder while she was with Elisabeth, while I was still on maternity leave. Katharina remained registered with Elisabeth, wherever she was living. By court agreement, I continued to receive family allowance and maternity pay, even though this was against the law.

Excerpt from the legal regulations applicable in 2005:

"Maternity allowance - eligibility requirements

A joint permanent household with the child.

In addition, it is essential that the main residence of the recipient and the child are registered as the same. Entitlement to family allowance and actual receipt of family allowance.

In the case of separated parents, additional custody rights and receipt of family allowance."

This is one of the many remarkable inconsistencies that will occur in our story in heightened and dramatic form. This one was given a ridiculous twist in connection with the subsequent investigations. The fact that I continued to receive maternity pay and family allowance was seen as a motive. So that I wouldn't lose these benefits, I would have murdered Elisabeth. That was the accusation made by the police, the examining magistrate and the public prosecutor.

The dear readers may make up their own minds about this. But now back to the finale of the divorce phase. In my view, the agreed arrangement worked quite well, despite the strange room for interpretation. From my point of view, I emphasize this because there were also other points of view and Elisabeth in particular had an incomprehensible problem with this. There were always situations in which it was not possible to adhere to the visiting times to the letter for various reasons. The fact is, however, that too early or too late handovers from Katharina always balanced each other out. One time I benefited from this, another time Elisabeth. And her friends and family can say what they like. It was like that! These people only ever heard Elisabeth's stories. They were never there! Elisabeth's stories were still the same as before the divorce negotiations. I want to take the child away from her, I keep trying to extend my time with Katharina, or I want her earlier than agreed, etc. etc.! I'll leave it up to you, dear readers, to decide which category the childminder fell into while I was on maternity leave. The truth is that I didn't need to fight for more time with Katharina at all. Here is a list of my diary entries from March to November 2005:

Times that Elisabeth could have spent with Katharina, but didn't because various self-interests were apparently more important to her:

"Thu. March 10 to Sun. March 13, 2005: E. spent four days at the training course in Obertraun.

Fri. 25 to Mon. 28 March 2005: E. spent four days in Upper Austria with her parents without K. because K. was ill."

My comment: A loving mother, as Elisabeth was so emphatically described by her family and friends at the court hearings, stays at home with her sick child and does not give it to her unloved husband.

"Thu. April 12 to Fri. April 15, 2005: E. brought K. to me for four days because she had training, orchestra rehearsal, evening class and an appointment with Martina."

Martina is my psychologist.

"Sun. April 24 to Sat. April 30, 2005: E. spent seven days at the training course in Obertraun.

Fri. 03. to Sat. 04. June 2005: E. was at a rehearsal in Upper Austria, so I brought the K. to Ottensheim for the regatta

Tue. 07 to Sun. 19 June 2005: E. left home for thirteen days - without K. I didn't know where she was.

Fri. June 24 to Sat. June 25, 2005: E. was in Upper Austria for two days without K.

Fri. 01 to Sun. 03 July 2005: E. was in Carinthia with friends - without K."

It wasn't, as her family claimed, that I didn't give Elisabeth our daughter Katharina, but because Elisabeth wanted to spend a few relaxed days with her friends.

"Fri. July 15 to Sat. July 23, 2005: E. was on the road for nine days without K. - in Upper Austria, Vorarlberg, Upper Austria and Gmunden.

Sat. July 30, 2005: E. was with the Ellida rowing club on a rally to Stein.

Sat. 06. to Sun. 07. August 2005: E. was in Upper Austria at a concert rehearsal.

Tue. 09. August 2005: E. had concert rehearsal.

Mon. August 15, 2005: E. had a concert at the Indian Embassy.

Sat. August 20 to Sun. August 21, 2005: E. was (had to be?) at work.

Sat. August 27 to Sun. August 28, 2005: E. was (had to?) work.

Sat. 03. to Sun. 04. September 2005: E. was (had to?) work.

Fri. 09. to Sun. 11. September 2005 E. was three days without K. in Upper Austria

Sat. September 24 to Sun. September 25, 2005: E. was (had to?) work.

Thu. Sept. 29 to Sun. Oct. 02, 2005: E. spent four days at the training course.

Fri. 07. to Sun. 09. October 2005: E. was three days without K. in Upper Austria.

Sat. November 19, 2005: E. was at a training session in Südstadt."

As I said, these are diary entries that I always made every day, not just at some point afterwards.

I did this because my psychologist recommended it to me at the time. The entries above are definitely days when Katharina should have been with Elisabeth. But Elisabeth had other plans. It should be emphasized that, with the exception of the thirteen days off in June, these were positive activities that were obviously good for Elisabeth. She was very happy to do all of this and I was happy for her. Of course, I was very happy to take Katharina with me so that Elisabeth could pursue her interests. In this light, it is therefore extremely unfair to accuse me of wanting to withhold, deprive, alienate or even take the child away from Elisabeth. That is simply outrageous. I didn't need to do that! Elisabeth was often happy enough that I took Katharina off her hands so that she could pursue her interests! So once again, to accuse me of trying to take the child away from her, etc., is outrageous and completely inadmissible.

In October, after the divorce negotiations, Elisabeth looked hard for her own apartment and found one straight away. I don't know exactly when she moved in. Probably at the beginning of November. It's not so important that I know where my daughter is at home. Elisabeth came to my apartment from time to time to pick up various things. It didn't matter to her whether I was at home or not. She knew exactly when, how and where she could get into the house and into my apartment.

On December 6, 2005, a Tuesday, Elisabeth wanted to get a few last things from my apartment. She arranged this with me over the phone. We agreed on 4pm. Elisabeth arrived very punctually, around 4:05 p.m. She had Katharina with her in a sling and was carrying a rucksack.

Under her arm, she brought a folded moving box with her. The greeting was normally friendly. I took care of Katharina and Elisabeth began to put various things into her rucksack and the box she had brought with her. This included various half-empty and full bottles of vinegar, oil and the like. She packed a suction bell (for the toilet), a radio-controlled alarm clock, a blue victory prize, various socks and a stone wall clock. She also prepared a yellow and a wooden stool, a red play mat and various toys. I asked Elisabeth how she was going to get all these things home with Katharina in her sling on public transport. She said that someone would pick her up in a car. When she had packed everything up, she asked if she could leave Katharina with me for about two hours because she wanted to go training. Nothing unusual for me. We had been doing this all year 2005, as you can read in the notes listed above. Of course, I was happy to take Katharina for these two hours or so. While Elisabeth was at training, presumably at her home club at the Ellida rowing club, I went with Katharina to the Donauzentrum/Donauplex shopping center (about 15 minutes on foot). There I bought a snack in a fast food restaurant and Katharina played in the indoor playground there.

I am already writing in advance that I made an ATM withdrawal on this day, i.e. on December 6, 2005, at 5:30 p.m., which I did not mention during my first interrogation.