“Murdered” Woman Found Alive 31 Years Later
A woman who sparked a large-scale murder investigation in 1981 following her disappearance, has been found alive and well, living in Dusseldorf.
As the BBC reports, German police have been baffled to discover that Petra Pazsitka, who at aged 24 went missing from her student accommodation and was presumed dead, is in fact alive.
Fingerprints. Image Credit: Vince Alongi (Flickr)
More baffling still is that a man had confessed to her murder, having already been convicted of murdering a teenager nearby.
The big reveal came when police were investigating a robbery, and came across a tenant who did not have ID. The woman, aged 55, admitted she had been living under a false identity and gave them her real name.
She claims she wanted to remain undiscovered.
Such an astonishing mystery would lend itself well to fiction. Who doesn’t love a murder mystery, right? Especially one with such a dramatic plot twist.
Speaking of which…
Thailand has long been a popular choice for mystery novels, with foreign investigator crime stories frequently being set here.
This story is also reminiscent to one of the greatest real-life Thai mysteries – that of legendary silk merchant Jim Thompson who went missing in 1967 after he went for a walk in Malaysia and was never seen again. He was declared dead in absentia in 1974 by the Thai courts.
There have been numerous theories as to his disappearance. That he was captured by spies (he was a former CIA agent); that a tiger attacked him and dragged him deep into the jungle. Perhaps most likely, but far less interesting, is that he was just run over by a Malaysian truck driver. In any case, speculation still continues decades later!
See the full story at the BBC here.
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