![]() That night, the 40-year-old photographer disappeared. On 14th August, 1989, Birgit Meier was supposed to meet her estranged husband to discuss the terms of their impending divorce. If Christmas romances and Black Fridays aren’t your post-turkey day entertainment preferences, then there’s always murder. You could set your watch to the regularity of these drops on the streaming service. ![]() A worthy addition to the Netflix true crime catalogue.Yup, it’s that time of month again: the new Netflix true-crime release-palooza. What keeps you hooked is the police’s ineptitude and disinterest that are equally shocking and frustrating, and her brother’s refusal to give up. What’s most heartbreaking for the family is that, if the police had done their job properly, Birgit’s disappearance and subsequent murder could have been solved within six months, rather than twenty-eight years.Īs I write this review there is neither a critic rating not an audience score on RT.Ĭould the story of Wolfgang’s investigation and subsequent solving of his sister’s disappearance have been told in fewer than four (almost hour-long) episodes, or maybe four, forty-five-minute episodes? Possibly. What is most evident is that if Birgit’s brother hadn’t been a former high ranking police officer with connections within the forensic, legal and psychology fields, Birgit’s case file would still be gathering dust along with other unclosed cases thirty-two years after her disappearance.Īnd that’s the important thing this docuseries highlights how so many disappearances remain unsolved because their families lack the finances and connections required to undertake their own investigation when the police fail them. However, another possible suspect became known to the police, but they failed to investigate him fully leaving him free to cover his tracks and his startling secrets to go undetected for decades.Īlthough, at the request of Birgit’s brother Wolfgang, her house was treated as a crime scene much of the evidence gathered was lost or destroyed so even when DNA profiling improved some twenty years later, there was little to test. Although there were possible motives for him to resort to murder rather than divorce, there was no evidence that he had any involvement in her disappearance. ![]() Naturally, Birgit’s husband became the prime suspect. With two double murders in the Göhrde State Forest the month before, the police’s full focus was on solving those, and as they considered Birgit to be nothing more than a missing person, her case was given low priority. Even so, the police still determined she was just missing rather than a kidnap or even murder victim. While there was no evidence of violence at Birgit’s home in Lüneburg, Germany, some things were amiss: her bedroom door was open, and her car was still parked in the drive. ![]() The police’s mishandling started from the moment they opened the case. Their incompetence at the time and disinterest in following up new leads presented years later is jaw dropping and infuriating to the dispassionate viewer, giving us some understanding of just how distressing this must have been for her family. For the Netflix blurb to describe the mistakes made by the police in their investigation into the disappearance of Birgit Meier as “missteps” is a gross understatement. When a loved one vanishes and things begin to point to foul play, you expect the police to do all they can to uncover the truth of what happened. When she went to her mother’s home, she found her gone. All seemed well until her daughter phoned her the next morning and got no answer. After he left, Birgit called her mother, telling her their talk was amicable. Netflix blurb: “After Birgit Meier vanishes in 1989, police missteps plague the case for years, but her brother never wavers in his tireless quest to find the truth.”īirgit’s husband Harald visited her to discuss the settlement in their upcoming divorce. This makes Birgit’s disappearance feel more personal and lends her story a greater significance. What is different though is that the four-part series is told from the perspective of the victim’s family and the professionals who assisted Birgit’s brother, Wolfgang in his search for the truth of what happened to her. Dig Deeper follows the usual format of talking head recollections and reconstructions. Another week, another true-crime docuseries on Netflix.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |