{"id":349884,"date":"2026-03-17T00:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349884\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T00:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:46:09","slug":"two-come-forward-with-information-on-1988-murder-of-german-backpacker-in-antrim-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/349884\/","title":{"rendered":"Two come forward with information on 1988 murder of German backpacker in Antrim \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people have come forward who may hold \u201crelevant information\u201d about the murder of German backpacker Inga Maria Hauser in Northern Ireland<\/a> almost 40 years ago, the Coroner\u2019s Court has been told. <\/p>\n

The 18-year-old\u2019s body was discovered dumped in a remote part of Ballypatrick Forest close to the seaside town of Ballycastle, Co Antrim, in April 1988. No one has ever been prosecuted for her murder. <\/p>\n

The teenager was last seen alive on a ferry from Scotland to Larne a fortnight before her disappearance. <\/p>\n

In her final postcard to her family in Munich, she wrote she was leaving England to travel to Ireland, with Dublin her next stop on an interrailing trip across Europe.<\/p>\n

The inquest into Hauser\u2019s death was announced in 2024, following a decades-long campaign by her family. <\/p>\n

Her sister Friederike Leibl (Hauser) attended a pre-inquest review hearing in Belfast on Monday via video link. <\/p>\n

Delivering an update on progress made towards the opening of the inquest, barrister for the coroner Philip Henry said a \u201cfurther witness statement\u201d was to be taken \u201cfrom a person who contacted the coroner\u2019s office\u201d.<\/p>\n

Material was also to be received \u201cfrom a member of the public who conducted research in this case\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

In total, the barrister said, \u201ctwo individuals … have contacted your office in relation to potentially holding relevant information\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sister of German backpacker murdered in North in 1988 has \u2018hope\u2019 fresh inquest will bring answersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He also updated the court on the documents received from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)<\/a>, which he said included \u201cabout 800 witness statements\u201d. <\/p>\n

A barrister for the PSNI said the materials provided already amounted to \u201capproximately 3,200 items\u201d and there were a further 6,000 documents to be examined for potential relevance. <\/p>\n

These were accompanied by a 189-page index to assist in this task, he said. <\/p>\n

The PSNI barrister said some materials \u201cwill attract sensitivity\u201d and it was \u201clikely\u201d a public interest immunity application would be made. <\/p>\n

Barrister Brenda Campbell, representing the Hauser family, said the forensic science service should be approached for any potentially relevant material. <\/p>\n

She made a request for \u201crolling disclosure\u201d of documents, saying that \u201cfrom the perspective of the next of kin, we haven\u2019t seen anything yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Proceedings were adjourned for a further review hearing on May 15th. <\/p>\n

Hauser\u2019s killing has become one of the North\u2019s highest-profile unsolved murders. <\/p>\n

In 2020 a decision was taken not to prosecute a 60-year-old man who had been arrested by the PSNI in connection with her murder. <\/p>\n

A decision was also made not to prosecute a 57-year-old woman for withholding information. <\/p>\n

In both cases the Public Prosecution Service said that following an \u201cextensive and detailed\u201d police investigation it was concluded that the evidence did not provide a reasonable prospect of conviction. <\/p>\n

. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people have come forward who may hold \u201crelevant information\u201d about the murder of German backpacker Inga Maria…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80306,61,60,43,21754],"class_list":["post-349884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-antrim","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}