adminHanover — A 55-year-old German woman, who emerged alive and well 31 years after her mysterious disappearance, had planned her vanishing act in minute detail, police said yesterday. Petra P, whose full name cannot be given due to legal reasons, had disappeared without a trace in July 1984. Police at the time assumed the computer science student from Braunschweig, had become the victim of a violent crime after the murderer of another young woman confessed to killing Petra P too. She was officially declared dead in 1989. However, all the while Petra P had been alive and well.
Weeks before her disappearance the then 24-year old had rented a flat in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany, and secretly started to put money aside, police said.
The young woman deliberately did not take a suitcase on the day she disappeared to make it look as if something had happened to her.
The truth about Petra P’s whereabouts emerged after her flat in the western German city of Dusseldorf was broken into earlier this month and she had to give police her real name.
All those years she had never been asked to present any identity documents, the woman claimed, although she said she had been working.
Her mother and brother were struggling to believe their daughter and sister was still alive. According to the daily Braunschweiger Zeitung, they wrote to reassure her she would always be welcomed with open arms.
Petra P had earlier told police she did not want any contact with her family. — AFP
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