The New Leads (7 of 8)
In the last episode, we looked at the events and circumstances that put the architect, living near the crystal caves until 1984, in the center of investigations and made him the prime suspect. How he was finally arrested 4 years after the double murder, then living in the southern part of Switzerland. But unable to connect their main suspect to the double murder, And with no new evidence coming to light, the police largely ceased their efforts to solve the case by the end of 1986. But just because the police might have reduced their activities, a few things occurred in the following years. Things that were meticulously collected and filed away by a private investigator by the name of Thomas Bentz.
Narrator:A man that dedicated a big part of his life to the Crystal Cave Murders. Born in Saint Gullen, he was 8 years old when the murders happened and got drawn into it because he frequently spent the holidays near the crystal caves at his grandmother's. Already as a teenager, he collected all the newspaper clippings and later talked to police investigators, locals, and journalists, and visited the area probably more often than the murderer. By the turn of the century, he was the man to talk to if one wanted to know anything more than what was written in the newspapers. It is without a doubt due to his persistence that the case never went into oblivion.
Narrator:The police may have given up, but not so Thomas Bence. My name is Rudolf Eisler, and this is The New Leads, episode 7 of The Crystal Cave Murders, an investigative true crime podcast by Playground Media Productions. All interviews were recorded in German and translated into English. All voice overs were done by speakers that are not related to the case. All individuals mentioned in this podcast must be considered innocent and cannot be prosecuted or convicted as the 30 year statute of limitation for murder in Switzerland was reached in 2012.
Narrator:The presumption of innocence applies at all times. And, finally, this podcast was written without the assistance of Chet GPT or AI. In spring of 1980 7, a court ruling by the canton of Saint Columb convicted a police constable who was involved in were by sharing information with 1 or more friends who happened to be acquainted with the architect's wife. Subsequently, his and other telephones were tapped. Here is a short excerpt of a telephone conversation between an unknown informant and the architect's wife, recorded on May 20, 1986.
Narrator:And just for clarification, Muensingen is the location where the architect was transferred to immediately following his arrest.
Informant:Now you had better sit down for this one. Here's something that you guys don't know yet. Are you aware that your husband is no longer in Whimsigan?
Architects wife:No. I was not.
Informant:He has been transferred to Saint Colin last Friday.
Architects wife:Really?
Informant:In connection with suspicion of murder.
Architects wife:Oh my god.
Informant:Well, I think it's obvious that they won't get anywhere with that.
Narrator:And in a conversation with an unknown person a day later?
Informant:According to the information I have, it's now shifting to the other side. And if that's the case, if I get this confirmed, I want to know every detail.
Constable:What do you mean by other side?
Informant:Well, it's now going against Body and Soul, the double murder.
Narrator:Based on this and further evidence, the suspicion fell on the police constable, who was significantly involved in a murder investigation at the time. The outcome of the trial was that he was found guilty of breach of secrecy and sentenced to a conditional sentence of 2 months and sentenced to a conditional sentence of 2 months in prison. Naturally, he was also dismissed from the police force. His connection and relevance to the case is just one more thing that remains dubious. Could it be that he was trying to cover the architect in some way?
Narrator:And, more importantly, the architect's wife was quickly being suspected of having tried to actively gather information about the standings of the investigation against her husband while he was still in prison. This, however, could never be substantiated, and the wife denies any such intentions. True or not, the whole affair was clearly not to the Architect's favor and moved him once again to the Center Stage, even after having been found not guilty half a year earlier. In the meantime, the crystal cave murder served as a blueprint for 2 books. Both fiction, but both to a large extent based on the double murder.
Narrator:This, as such, would not be very significant were it not for a theory shared in both books that insinuated the perpetrator not being, like everyone assumed, a local person, but a teacher from the village of Goldach, the community where the 2 girls lived and started their bicycle tour. I will address this altogether different theory in the final
Constable:episode.
Narrator:Now before we get into the most baffling new evidence that came to light 35 years after the murder, let me briefly tell you about the unique 30 year statute of limitations for murder in Switzerland. It had and still has an impact on the case today. It basically means that murder is no longer subject to any official investigation by the prosecution once this time is over. But it would be incorrect to say that the public need for punishment diminishes over the same time, especially in the case of serious capital crimes. There have always been dramatic murder cases that capture the public's imagination more than others, even decades later.
Narrator:The crystal cave murders are certainly a prime example. In 2012, the statue of limitation for murder was reached. Meaning, it would not be possible to convict anyone, even if new evidence were to come to light or the murderer or murderers were to confess. And as we have already heard, the prosecution did not waste any time to bring the case to a closure. Most of the evidence was either destroyed and some of it returned to the parents.
Narrator:When it became known that the prosecution also destroyed most of the files, the press and certainly all private investigators were were destroyed and which they still have in their archives. Nevertheless, the following statement was given by a media spokesman man of the police in 2016 and confirmed to me when I talked to him on the phone just recently.
Prosecutors rep:The Saint Gallen Cantonal police have officially closed the case, but it remains unforgotten. Every new lead, every clue, and every indication will continue to be taken up, even if the statute of limitations has been reached. The statute of limitations is a matter for the public prosecutor's office. The police investigate independently.
Narrator:But in reality, the police never showed an interest in following up on the case. In 2016, the nephew of Karen Gatiker submitted a request to the public prosecutor's office, requesting access to the records that were still available. This, in short, is the official reply he received.
Architects wife:Dear sir, as you were not party of the proceedings concerning the homicide of your aunt and Bridgette Meyer, you do not qualify to be granted access to the criminal files. The reason being is that your concern with the case is of personal curiosity, and the fact that you would like to know what happened at the time is primarily out of self interest. However, you have the possibility to challenge this decision. In this case, we would have to obtain the consent of all parties involved. The resulting cost would be borne by you in the event of a negative decision.
Architects wife:Kind regards. The public prosecutor's office.
Narrator:This shows that the prosecution did not have an interest to share information and records that still are in their possession, justifying their decision by citing a legal resolution that entitles them from making criminal records public after the conclusion of an investigation. Not surprisingly, the nephew did not further pursue the matter, since it would have cost him a considerable amount of money if only one of the parties involved would have objected to his request. This also had an impact on all private investigations that followed, mine included. Because the Public Prosecutor's Office does not make their records available, in-depth investigations are limited. Luckily, there are police records available that were secured while the investigation was still under way.
Narrator:I am also thankful to the current public prosecutor that showed a keen interest in this podcast and made it possible for me to exclusively have access to documents not disclosed before. I then dared to locate and contact Charon's father, who still lives in Goldach. I heard that he was more than reluctant to talk about the case. To my surprise, he did not hang up the phone and agreed to answer one question. I was somewhat taken aback, but then asked him one question that I remembered not having been asked by anyone investigating the case before.
Narrator:If he could tell me where the girl's camera and film had gone He explained in one short sentence that some of the belongings were returned to him and Bridget's parents, but that he was not inclined to specify which items exactly. Why I was and still am curious about the camera, I will address in the final episode. But now, let us return to the Crystal Cave Murders. In 2016, in connection with the nationwide Swiss newspaper, 20 Minutes, the renowned German profiler, Axel Peterman, visited the area for the first time. He returned 2 more times to finally include his account and interpretation of the Crystal Cave Murders in his book, On Behalf of the Dead, featuring them as one of 3 cold cases he was personally involved in as a profiler.
Narrator:Himself an expert, he had led the 1st homicide unit in Germany. His analyses were based on the FBI profiling methods, the perpetrator of a violent crime by identifying the personality and behavioral characteristics of the offender, based on precise analysis of the crime committed. He spent weeks in the area, talked to investigators and locals, visited the caves, and even participated in reconstructions of throwing dummies over the ledge by the caves to see where they landed. The results of his efforts were collected in the second chapter of his book, the conclusion being sobering and basically supported what was already known. In his summary, he came to the conclusion that the perpetrator must have been between 25 and 35 years of age, that he was not a pedophile, nor a sadist, nor a repeated offender.
Narrator:He is convinced that the girls were in the wrong place at the wrong time and that extraordinary, unpredictable events led to the double murder. The perpetrator is no stranger to the people in the village, he wrote. In short, he basically confirmed what the tabloid Blick had written 2 days after the bodies were found. A mountain climber, strung as an ox, familiar with the area, and cold blooded. Supporting the German profiler was also Thomas Bentz, who had become hooked, if not obsessed with the case.
Narrator:Together with a former policeman, he founded an independent group of interest in 2017 with the goal to achieve what the police did not, to solve the case, to collect and follow-up on new evidence and leads. With the help of new instruments, like social media channels and the like, they set up a website, mail address, and connect it to social media platforms. But what started promising and without, of course, any support from the police soon ended because the 2 founders displayed major differences on how to proceed and collaborate. And yet, in the very same year, 2017, a woman living in the village of Bern Ek, about 2 kilometers from the Crystal Caves, contacted Thomas Bens with the most disturbing new evidence that you can imagine. And which, you may have guessed, once again incriminated the architect.
Narrator:She had already tried to talk to someone a couple of years earlier. But for some reason, there was no interest from any side, and she put the matter to rest. Not so this time. The woman explained that she would like to meet Benz because she had something important to say. Something she wanted off her chest.
Narrator:Something in relation to the Crystal Cave Murders. A week later, Thomas Bentz and a journalist visited the lady and her husband, who then owned the car repair shop when the murders occurred. He did the handiwork and she the administration. Upon their arrival, she explained that she had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had only a limited time to live. It was quite obvious to the visitors that there was something on her mind that still bothered her, even after all those years.
Narrator:And what she then said made the 2 men drop their jaws. The woman explained that 2 days after the disappearance of the girls, the architect showed up at their garage with his Mercedes 230E. He appeared nervous and arranged, asking her husband to repair a damage. The front right indicator on both sides showed scratches, as if the car had gone off the road landing in some shrubs. The architect insisted that the repair should be done without delay, because the car was only temporarily in his possession.
Narrator:He would settle the invoice, 1,980 Swiss francs in cash. A few days later, he picked up the car and left. And they had never heard of him since. The first thing the two visitors asked after gasping for air was, of course, why she had not reported this earlier, while the police investigation was still under way, and the architect was a prime suspect. We did not think it stood in any connection with the case.
Narrator:Everybody assumed it was a sexual offense. And for such a thing, the Architect would just not be capable, ever. Besides, we were acquainted with him and his wife. He had built our new garage, she stated. The 2 men left with crucial new evidence 35 years after the double murder.
Narrator:To verify the woman's observation, the journalist rang the architect the next day, asking if he could recall the incident. According to the journalist, the architect said that he didn't, but that 15 minutes later he returned his call, saying that after some reflection he could remember the incident now, but that the reason for bringing the car to the workshop had been a parking damage that had occurred on the parking lot in front of a restaurant. 2 days later, on November 29, 2017, the headlines of the tabloid 20 minutes read, the testimony of a garage owner couple sheds a new light on the unsolved crystal cave murders. Overnight, and 35 years after the double murder, the architect was in the crosshair again. I had to talk to the garage owners myself and found out that the wife had meanwhile passed, but that her husband still lived in Bernanke.
Narrator:I called and he agreed to meet me whenever I would be in the area. A week later, I telephoned him again and suggested a meeting for 2 o'clock the following day. I rang the doorbell, and it took a while until a white haired man in his early eighties opened the door, greeted me politely, and asked me to enter the house that once was part of his pride. A successful, well known repair workshop that his son did not want to continue after his retirement. He still regretted this profoundly and showed me some photographs of the day when they demolished the garage as a consequence of him having to sell a big part of his property to a joining industrial company.
Narrator:Now the son had moved away and he had lost the garage first and his wife after. We sat down upstairs in the spacious living room at the dinner table that was covered with documents and paperwork because he was doing his taxes, he explained. Following a brief introduction, he went through several drawers in the bookshelf, trying to find more photographs. He finally did, and I asked him what he remembered of the architect and the repair work on the car.
Constable:We ended up being friends with the architect and his wife because he had built our new garage. We were also invited to dinner at their place several times before he had bought the country house. I still remember the day when he brought the car to the workshop for the repair work. If my garage would still be standing, I could show you exactly where he parked it. It was a Mercedes 230 e station wagon, not a limousine.
Constable:He was in quite a hurry and said it had to be repaired as soon as possible. We immediately set about repairing him. The right side was dented all the way through. I know that for sure because I've been asked that so many times. He said he had hit some brickwork, probably on the narrow road to the horse stable.
Constable:In any case, it must have been something that did not give way. It could also have been a parking damage. I'm not quite sure anymore. It's even possible that he mentioned that. On the other hand, I remember him saying that the damage happened while he was driving.
Constable:We didn't notice anything suspicious during the repair work. There have been marks that pointed to a person having been hit, I would have noticed. He said it was urgent because he needed the car to pull the horse box trailer. I can no longer remember the registration number. No.
Constable:But he said that it was a rented car, whether it had a trailer coupling or not, I don't remember, but I think it did. The only thing I'm sure of is that the car was silver gray and that it was the right side that was damaged. At that time, we fixed about a 1000 cars a year, and of every single one, we took a photograph, which we attached to a file card. The amount my wife mentioned, CHF1,980, could be correct. She always did the invoices and had an excellent memory for numbers.
Constable:We still have some very old files and documents outside in a container. But be that as it may, the way I know the architect, I would never connect him with such a terrible murder, neither then nor now.
Narrator:His testimony was very much a blueprint of the statement his wife had given to Benson, the journalist, 5 years earlier. The only difference maybe being that he seemed convinced that the Mercedes was a station wagon. I called the architect to find out. It was definitely a limousine, he explained. He had never owned a station wagon.
Narrator:When I met him in Lugano for the interview, some weeks earlier, I also asked him about the incident with the Mercedes and the repair shop. Luckily, it was towards the end of our meeting when he permitted me to record the conversation.
Farmer:1st of all, I would like to ask what a car has to do with the murder. That's a basic question. It's a fact that we won the Mercedes 230 e in a sweepstakes and that it was given to us for 6 months by the general importer. We could specify which equipment and color we wanted, including the trailer coupling. I think the sweepstakes was advertised in the Automobile Review magazine.
Farmer:At the end of the 6 months, we could either return it or buy it at a discounted price. Since I had the riding accident, a purchase was no longer an option at the time, so we returned it. The car had our license plates. We picked it up in Zurich in the spring. Then one day someone smashed my door in the parking lot by the restaurant.
Farmer:I took it to my friend who owned a garage for repair. Whether he fixed the door or replaced it, I don't know. What exactly this was, I can't say. But I don't think it was on the Monday after the girls disappeared. I can't say for sure today.
Farmer:I would like to point out that only the door was damaged. What was claimed and written in the press that the whole side was damaged is not true. If the door was damaged, how can this be connected to a fatal accident? You can't drive into the girls from the side, so there would have had to have been damage to the front of the car. No.
Farmer:Afterwards, they wrote in the newspaper that I had run over the 2 girls and then hid them at my house before depositing them at the crystal caves. Believe me, if I cause an accident, whether guilty or not, I go to the police. I wasn't drunk either at 11 AM. None of this makes any sense.
Prosecutors rep:So you can
Farmer:see how vicious fantasies were developed to get me down. Anyone who can think normally must realize that.
Narrator:I then asked him the telephone conversation with the journalist. He vehemently disputed the version that was printed in the newspaper. He said that when the journalist rang him, he was striving. And that he did ring him back, not because he needed time for reflection, but simply because he did not want to have this conversation while driving his car. And as if this was not enough, out of the mist of the Rhine valley plains rose yet another puzzling observation shortly after.
Narrator:A man, then a teenager, reported to Thomas Bentz that on the day of the girl's disappearance, he had seen the architect and his wife stopping at the crossroads, busy loading 2 bicycles into the back of their gray Mercedes E Class with a horse trailer coupled to it. He asked if they needed help, but they nervously declined and he left on his motorbike. The reason for not having reported his observation during the investigation in 1982 being that he was not well disposed towards the police at the time because they had been keeping an eye on him driving a modified moped. To this day, many have reservations about the truth of this additional statement. Apart from the fact that it cannot be substantiated in any way, and was made shortly after the testimony of the garage owners was published, the integrity of the witness seemed more than questionable.
Narrator:Moreover, it does not seem very logical, wanting to put 2 bicycles in the back of a car, when, according to the witness' recollection, a horse trailer was attached to it, which, even if not completely empty, would have been a much more convenient means to transport 2 bicycles. And assuming the architect did indeed venture to the crossroads with the intention to collect the bikes, he would certainly have made sure it was empty. The witness, currently under psychological treatment, was not available for an interview, and even though his testimony was never followed up on, it was one more statement that was picked up by the press and reflected negatively on the architect, who, when I confronted him with this new unmotivated and unsubstantial. A statement that once again ruined his and his family's life. And with this new evidence, I conclude the investigative part of the series.
Narrator:Now, please tune in to the final episode, the conclusions, when I will finally present to you the most common of possible scenarios about what might have happened on that fateful Saturday in the summer of 1982, and when I will explain my altogether new and personal version. In the end, you will be the judge and hopefully be inclined to pick your own favorite or come up with your own theory. Please also do visit our website at thecrystalcavemurders.com for additional information, including maps, photographs, videos, and details on how to support the makers of this podcast. My name is Rudolf Eisler, and this was The New Leads, episode 7 of The Crystal Cave Murders, an investigative true crime podcast brought to you by Playground Media Productions. Available on Apple Podcasts or almost any platform of your preference.
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