Girl, 13, from Berlin-Marzahn found dead in Brandenburg; 22-year-old suspect in critical condition

Lisa T., 13, left her home in Berlin-Marzahn on 3 November at about 7:20 a.m. to take a bus to school and never arrived. Police issued a missing-person notice the same day and searched for days. On Sunday her body was found in an unoccupied house in Altglietzen, part of Bad Freienwalde in Brandenburg, near the Polish border. According to prosecutors, investigators came to the house by chance after a report of a break-in.

A seriously injured man was also in the house. Prosecutors say he is a 22-year-old German citizen from Berlin, and he is suspected of abducting and killing the girl. He had life-threatening injuries and was still in critical condition in intensive care on Tuesday. Under the law he is presumed innocent unless a court finds otherwise.

An autopsy on Monday did not establish a clear cause of death, and further tests were ordered. The time and place of death are still unclear. Prosecutors currently assume she was a random victim and have no reliable evidence of a prior link between her and the suspect. On Tuesday evening they said a possible vehicle used in the crime had been found and secured. It is being examined, and whether it was actually used remains under investigation.

According to Tagesspiegel, the man had already been convicted: a Passau court gave him a one-year suspended sentence about three weeks earlier over offences linked to a flight from a police check in November 2025. The ruling became final last Thursday. A provisional placement in a psychiatric hospital ordered after that incident was lifted in mid-January 2026. Berlin prosecutors are also investigating him in two child pornography cases, which remain open. Many questions are still unanswered.