Inga Gehricke, born August 18, 2009, in Schönebeck, Germany, was five years old when she vanished on May 2, 2015. She was the daughter of Jens-Uwe and Victoria Gehricke and had three siblings, Maxim, Julius, and Freya. The family had traveled to Wilhelmshof, a rural hamlet in Saxony-Anhalt roughly 30 kilometers west of Stendal, to attend a barbecue at the home of family friends. The property sat in a heavily wooded area, with a roughly 100-meter footpath connecting the house to the edge of the forest.
That evening, Inga helped the adults prepare for the barbecue. Her father saw her carrying two large water bottles along the footpath. Shortly after, around 6:30 p.m., two other children reported seeing her walking back toward the house along that same path. She never arrived. By 6:45 p.m., her mother realized she was missing, and the family and other guests began searching the property and the surrounding forest immediately.
The search escalated quickly. Police were notified that evening, and within days the effort grew to include hundreds of volunteers, police dogs, helicopters equipped with thermal imaging, divers, and ground teams covering thousands of hectares. In the following weeks, investigators expanded the search further, using drones and sonar equipment on nearby lakes and checking abandoned buildings and wells. Despite the scale of the operation, no trace of Inga, no clothing, footprints, or personal belongings, was ever found.
Police did not initially suspect foul play, treating it first as a case of a lost child. That changed by May 7, when investigators concluded a crime had likely occurred, given the thoroughness of the search and the total absence of any physical trace. Investigators have floated a range of theories over the years, from an accidental fall into a hidden shaft or waterway to abduction by a stranger, given the property’s proximity to a public path.
Inga’s disappearance drew national attention in Germany and earned her the nickname “Germany’s Madeleine McCann,” a comparison rooted in the striking similarities between the two cases: young blonde girls who vanished without a trace during family gatherings, just minutes out of sight of the adults present. Her case was featured on the German program Aktenzeichen XY… ungelöst, and a reward of up to €25,000 was offered for information. Despite more than 2,000 tips, none led anywhere, and German authorities officially closed active investigation into her case in 2019.
The case was reopened in some form in 2023, when Saxony-Anhalt’s state government announced a new dedicated investigative unit to revisit the file, following criticism that earlier efforts had missed leads. Around this time, German media reported that investigators had also looked into a separate convicted child sex offender with ties to the Stendal area, after searches of his property reportedly turned up disturbing material, though no connection to Inga’s disappearance was ever established, and this individual is distinct from Christian Brückner.
Brückner, the German national already known as the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, was also examined in connection with Inga’s case starting around 2020, due to his ties to property near Wilhelmshof and a reported traffic incident in the area shortly before she vanished. That link, however, never developed into anything concrete, and investigators formally ruled him out in October 2024.
As of this writing, Inga’s disappearance remains unsolved, and no arrests have ever been made in her case.