The Gist While we had lost track of him in Germany since 2004, a man who lived in Spain with his wife before that date was found alive in a quiet town in Switzerland.
To believe that he really wanted to leave his old life behind… Earlier this year a man was found and formally identified who has been missing in both Spain and Germany for 18 years. In Switzerland, in the canton of Schwyz, his trail was found by chance during an identity check.
Let’s go back: In 2004, this 56-year-old man was living with his wife in Spain, as reported by the German media Südkurier. They run a car shop there. One day, the man of German origin pretends to be on a business trip to Munich and says goodbye to his wife. He will never come back.
His wife, convinced that something had happened to her husband, informed the authorities. She suspects a crime, even if the investigation initially made it possible to follow the trail of the missing person to Constance on the Swiss border. Resigned, she is convinced that the man with whom she shared her life is dead. His body may never be found.
“It’s none of our business”
Except that one day the police in the canton of Schwyz ascertained the identity of a German during a check and made a connection with the disappearance reported in Spain. However, the Spanish authorities did not report the information to the German police and it was only many years later, after the establishment of a unit specializing in classified information, that the link between this controlled man and the search warrant could be clearly established.
The Swiss police were then instructed to ensure that the person concerned was still alive and still residing in the canton of Schwyz, which they were able to confirm. Eighteen years later, the disappeared man’s wife learned that her husband was still alive, even though he had decided to disappear from her life entirely.
Authorities have no plans to prosecute the 74-year-old. “If someone leaves their old life behind, it’s none of our business, it’s private and we don’t ask questions,” said the German investigator, but specified that the man allowed the police to inform his wife that he wasn’t dead .