What happened to Katrice Lee?

Katrice Lee was 2 years old when she was abducted from Germany. She has been missing for 36 years. She went missing on 28th November 1981.

The Disappearance

On Katrice's 2nd birthday (28th November 1981) her family decided to go to the nearby NAAFI shopping centre in Schloß Neuhaus, to buy a few things for her birthday party. Katrice has an older sister (Natasha) who decided that she did not want to go with them to the shopping centre because their aunt Wendy and uncle Cliff had come over from Bielefeld for Katrice's birthday party. Wendy went with Katrice and her parents to the shopping centre while Cliff stayed home with Natasha. Katrice's dad drove them to the shopping centre but waited in the car park. Katrice did not want to sit in the shopping trolley so her mother Sharon carried her around and placed her down at the checkout. Sharon briefly left the checkout and when she returned she could not find Katrice anywhere. Wendy thought that Katrice had followed her mum down the aisle but she had disappeared.

Katrice's Description

Katrice had curly light brown hair, brown eyes and a pink birthmark slightly to the right at the base of her spine which looked like a rash. she also had strabismus (crossed eyed) in her left eye. At the time she disappeared she was wearing red wellington boots, a turquoise duffel coat, a green and blue tartan pinafore dress with frills around the shoulders and a white blouse underneath and white tights. Although she lived in Germany Katrice was only able to speak English.

The investigation

The military police were in charge of the investigation but had the negotiate with the German civil police because the NAAFI building was in a German town and not on military premises. Both the military and German police believed that Katrice had fallen into a nearby river (River Lippe) and drowned but no body was ever found. The German police refused to go to the press so it took 6 weeks before the disappearance appeared in the local newspapers. No trace of Katrice was found after doing house to house inquiries and checking the river.

The case was re-opened by police in 2000 after computer technology helped them to form an image of how she may look. People came forward who had never been interviewed before and a young man who had been standing the family at the checkout, even one of the checkout ladies came forward. There was 3 possible sightings of Katrice came about after her story appeared on the BBC show called Missing Live where a potential appearance of Katrice as a 29 year old women was shown.

Katrice's older sister Natasha went onto Crimewatch to highlight the appeal, afterwards an anonymous women phoned and left a message on the her fathers answer machine saying 'Look for your daughter in France'. The police took the answer machine tape away but there was nothing more to investigate. Police believe that Katrice was abducted from the shopping centre and has possibly been raised by another family living in Germany, the UK or somewhere else in Europe and is unaware of her true identity.

The Royal Military police have now revealed an eye witness saw a man carrying a small child in the area that Katrice was taken from before putting her into a green saloon vehicle. An e-fit was released of the man police are now hoping to find.

Sharon said: 'Today i could be sitting here being a grandmother and i know nothing about it. I've missed my daughter growing up, I've missed her teenage years. On Mother's Day I'm always a card short'.

A fresh probe into the case was launched in 2012 after police admitted that mistakes were made in the investigation into Katrice's disappearance. Katrice's family want the original case files from 1981 as they believe that had the case been conducted correctly, they have had Katrice back by now.

The Royal Military Police have appealed for anyone with information or who recognises the e-fit to contact them with the information.