A Series of Killings Was Pinned on a Mystery Woman. Then the Case Took a Shocking, 'Phantom' Turn

Mar. 15, 2025

Theresienwiese Fairground in Heilbronn.Photo:BERND WEISSBROD/DPA/AFP/Getty

BERND WEISSBROD/DPA/AFP/Getty

How many years does it take to track down a killer who doesn’t really exist?

Two years, police in Germany found out in 2009, after it was revealed that one of the country’s most untraceable killers was, in fact, non-existent.

The case of the “Phantom of Heilbronn” turned out to be one of history’s most embarrassing. German law enforcement, having spent two years and well over 16,000 overtime hours investigating dozens and dozens of crimes they thought to be connected, found out that the “culprit” they had in mind was a figment of faulty DNA samples.

Fifteen years later, PEOPLE is taking a look at how the bizarre case unfolded.

Theresienwiese Fairground crime scene.BERND WEISSBROD/DPA/AFP/Getty

The ‘Phantom of Heilbronn’

News of the “Phantom of Heilbronn” first spread across Germany – and throughout Europe – in 2007, when a 22-year-old police officer in the southern city of Heilbronn was murdered and DNA recovered at the scene matched a number of other crimes throughout Germany.

Police traced the suspect’s DNA to 40 crime scenes throughout the country, as well as Austria, leading the public to dub her the “Phantom of Heilbronn” and “The Woman Without a Face,” according to theBBC.

In what may have been a red flag in retrospect, police tied the “Phantom” to a wide range of crimes: six murders and a multitude of thefts and break-ins, ranging from schools to car dealerships. According toTime, the supposed “Phantom” killer had also collaborated with accomplices from Serbia, Slovakia, Albania, and Romania, among other people. In every instance, people already behind bars for those crimes denied they had a collaborator who matched the profile of the “Phantom.”

Years of Searching, But No Results

Timereported that German police’s two-year search for the “Phantom” stretched to Austria and France. According to the BBC, police also offered a €300,000 reward for information leading to her arrest.

In 2009, police finally began to suspect something far more embarrassing had been taking place, according toThe Timesof London. Investigators testing DNA on the charred remains of a male asylum-seeker in France found that, surprisingly, the DNA matched that of the “Phantom of Heilbronn.”

“Obviously that was impossible, as the asylum-seeker was a man and the Phantom’s DNA belonged to a woman,” Ernst Meiners, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Saarbrücken, Germany, toldThe Times. “That aroused suspicions that the materials were contaminated.”

What Really Happened

Now, with suspicions turned solely on themselves, police began to investigate what they could be doing wrong when taking DNA samples.According to the BBC, police soon realized that every DNA sample for the crimes in question dating back to 1993 matched a female factory worker in Bavaria. The factory where she worked produced cotton swabs that had been used for DNA collection.

A spokesperson for the police union in Baden-Württemberg called it “a very embarrassing story,” according toThe Times.

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The factory behind the cotton swabs clarified that their products were for medical purposes — and not qualified for DNA testing, according to the publication, which also reported that although cotton swabs are disinfected before leaving the factory, disinfecting them does not remove DNA.

“DNA analysis is a perfect tool for identifying traces,” Stefan König from the Berlin Association of Lawyers concluded in an interview withTimein 2009. “What we need to avoid is the assumption that the producer of the traces is automatically the culprit.”

source: people.com