The influencer attended a Christmas party on Saturday and wrote to a friend on Sunday morning that she had arrived home safely. On Sunday afternoon, the young woman, who according to the police is 31 years old, had a professional appointment in downtown Graz, but she did not show up.
The missing woman was last seen on Sunday morning in the Geidorf district on Hochsteingasse near her apartment. This emerges from a search call by the non-profit association “Austria finds you”.
Car found by ex-boyfriend in Slovenia
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The subsequent police investigation raised suspicions that the woman’s 31-year-old ex-boyfriend might have had something to do with her disappearance, but he too could not be reached by the officers. On Monday evening, the Slovenian police finally announced that a car had caught fire in the parking lot of a casino in Slovenia near the Styrian border. As it turned out, it was the suspect 31-year-old’s car.
Fritz Grundnig from the Styria State Police Department described why the 31-year-old came into the investigators’ sights: “Apparently the relationship ended just a few days ago. And since the ex-boyfriend’s name came up several times during the investigation, the investigation against this person has begun. The suspect is a Slovenian citizen, but lives in Graz.”
No further sign of a woman
The man was found in the immediate vicinity of the burning car and arrested by the Slovenian police. During the first questioning he is said to have contradicted himself. The man is currently still in Slovenia, said Grundnig: “As far as I know, Austria has submitted an extradition request to Slovenia. It is still questionable whether Slovenia will then carry out this.”
The woman’s whereabouts remain unknown. The interviews with the suspected ex-boyfriend have not yet revealed any information about the whereabouts of the young woman.
Coordinated search operations
The online portal of the Slovenian daily newspaper “Vecer” reported, citing information from the Slovenian police, that Austrian and Slovenian police units carried out coordinated search operations in the forests on both sides of the border. The search is based primarily on recordings from surveillance cameras and movement data from the missing woman’s cell phone. According to the Styria State Police Directorate, the search operations on Wednesday were unsuccessful. They will resume on Thursday.
The Styrian police expressly emphasized on Wednesday evening that rumors circulating could not be confirmed. “Rumors are circulating in various media and platforms that the abductor was found in Slovenia. The Styrian police cannot confirm this rumor,” it said.
Two more arrests
As a spokesman for the Graz public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday afternoon, two more men from the family circle of the woman’s ex-boyfriend were arrested. The arrests took place in Austria. They are strongly suspected of having something to do with the disappearance of the young woman from Graz. Those arrested are in police custody and their interrogations are underway.
