German police asked about 900 men on Saturday to have their DNA tested to help solve the gruesome killing of an 11-year-old girl from the western city of Grevenbroich some 23 years ago.
The girl, Claudia Ruf, was kidnapped, raped and choked to death by an anonymous murderer in 1996 in a case that shocked the country and was highly publicized at the time. Her body was found in Euskirchen, 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Grevenbroich.
The 900 men, who were between 14 and 70 years old at the time of Ruf’s killing, have received invitations for a saliva swab test to have their DNA identified. Police officers earlier this month went from home to home to hand over invitations and to answer questions. They also had a stand on the church square in Grevenbroich’s Hemmerden district to inform residents about the mass DNA test.
In this Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 photo a picture of Claudia Ruf is seen on a video screen as jounalists wait for the start of a press conference in Grevenbroich, Germany. Police in the western German city of Grevenbroich have asked about 900 men to come forward and have their DNA tested to help solve the gruesome killing of an 11-year-old girl decades ago. The girl, Claudia Ruf, was kidnapped, raped and choked to death by an anonymous murderer in 1996. (Roland Weihrauchdpa via AP)
They explained that DNA traces of the perpetrator were found on the body of the girl and that they’re hoping the mass test will lead them to the murderer. Obviously not all 900 men are suspects, police said.
While it is unlikely that the actual murderer will come forward to offer DNA, investigators hope that a relative may come for testing and through those DNA results related to those found on the girl’s body lead them to the perpetrator, police explained to residents.
The men were invited to come to testing at a local elementary school this and next weekend. Police said after the tests have been taken, all DNA that doesn’t come up as a match in the genetic analysis will be deleted.
The Rheinische Post reported that at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, the first men were already lining up outside the elementary school to get tested.
The new push comes after investigators in 2010 already unsuccessfully tested some 350 men’s DNA in the area. They say since those tests in 2010, they have found new hints that could help them find the murderer by checking the 900 men.
Police did not say if any of the 350 men previously tested were part of the group of 900 they hoped to reach now, and they could not immediately be reached Saturday for clarification.
Ruf was kidnapped in May 1996 when she went for a walk with the neighbor’s dog. Her body was found two days later on a lonely path in the fields near Euskirchen. It had been doused with gasoline and burned.
For months, investigators asked the public for help in finding her murderer. Posters of the girl were put up on busses and trains and police distributed flyers. Over a year after her killing, the case was shown on public TV, again asking the public to come forward with tips. A reward was offered and Ruf’s case was the first in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia to get its own homepage at the time.
Earlier this month, Claudia’s father addressed the public in a video and asked them to help solve the death of his daughter.
“After more than 23 years, there’s a big possibility to solve the sad fate of my daughter,” Friedhelm Ruf said. “The perpetrator has been able for too long to hide behind all of us.”
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.
The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmark's foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “ fundamental disagreement ” remains with Trump over the island.
The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and "people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.
Here's a look at what Greenlanders have been saying:
Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”
By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen told AP.
Laursen said she used to work on a fishing trawler but is now studying law. She approached AP to say she thought previous examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans are “often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds.”
She said during World War II, Greenlandic hunters on their dog sleds worked in conjunction with the U.S. military to detect Nazi German forces on the island.
“The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go,” Laursen said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are swarming the seas around Greenland. Plenty of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that claim.
“I think he (Trump) should mind his own business,” said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.
“What's he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland,” he said.
Down at Nuuk's small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he attached small fish as bait to his lines. He said, “I don't see them (the ships)” and said he had only seen “a Russian fishing boat ten years ago.”
Maya Martinsen, 21, a shop worker, told AP she doesn't believe Trump wants Greenland to enhance America's security.
“I know it’s not national security. I think it’s for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched,” she said, suggesting the Americans are treating her home like a “business trade.”
She said she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officials met in the White House Wednesday and said she believes that “the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side,” despite some Greenlanders wanting independence.
“It is nerve-wrecking, that the Americans aren’t changing their mind,” she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would be sending troops to Greenland because “it’s important that the people we work closest with, that they send support.”
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told AP that she hopes the U.S. got the message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to “back off.”
She said she didn't want to join the United States because in Greenland “there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses ... we don’t have to pay anything,” she said adding "I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us.”
In Greenland's parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament told AP that he has done multiple media interviews every day for the last two weeks.
When asked by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the chance, Berthelsen said:
“I would tell them, of course, that — as we’ve seen — a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation.”
“It is our country,” he said. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report.
FILE - A woman pushes a stroller with her children in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament poses for photo at his office in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fisherman Gerth Josefsen prepares fishing lines at the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A woman walks on a street past a Greenlandic national flag in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
