On March 6, 1981, Marianne Bachmeier entered a courtroom in Lübeck, Germany with purpose in every step.
Marianne’s own youth was marked by misery and several traumas. Her father had been a member of the Waffen-SS, one of the most infamous organizations in Nazi Germany.
Growing up, she had been raped several times by different men. At just 16 years old, Marianne fell pregnant. As a teenager, she couldn’t raise the baby alone and decided to give the infant up for adoption. When she was 18, Marianne became pregnant a second time – and once again left her baby to an adoption agency.In 1973, Marianne gave birth to a third child, her daughter, Anna. Marianne was still a single mom, but raised Anna on her own.According to sources, Anna was a “happy, open-minded child”, but unfortunately she and her family would soon suffer a terrible event.
In May, 1980, Anna and Marianne had an argument. The little girl decided to skip school and walked to a friend’s house instead. On her way there, though, Anna was kidnapped by 35-year-old Klaus Grabowski, a local butcher.
Grabowski kept Anna trapped in his apartment for hours, and abused the little girl before finally strangling her to death. After murdering Anna, the perpetrator packed her body into a box, which he stored in a hidden place on the bank of a canal.
Grabowski later returned to the location to bury the body of his victim, only to be arrested that same evening at his favorite pub in Lübeck after his fiancé turned him in to the police.
