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German Police Ask 900 Men for DNA Swab to Solve 1996 Murder of 11-Year-Old Girl

Police do not believe the actual murderer will come forward, but they hope a relative will who just might lead them to the killer.

German police invited 900 men on Saturday to come forward to have their DNA tested to try to find the person who killed 11-year-old Claudia Ruf, who was kidnapped, raped and choked to death in 1996, before her body was doused with gasoline and burned. Her remains were found in the German town of Euskirchen, about 70 miles from where she disappeared in Grevenbroich while walking her neighbor’s dog. The Associated Press reports that police do not expect the actual killer to come forward to offer his DNA, so they are petitioning all local men who were between the ages of 14 and 70 at the time of the murder in hopes that the DNA samples will lead them to the killer through a relative. An initial test of 350 men in 2010 did not produce a match and it is not clear if those men will be retested with newer technology.