Sad: Anneli Marie
A 17-year-old girl kidnapped by ransomers was murdered by her captors after she saw their faces, it has emerged.
Annelie-Marie R., the daughter of a wealthy businessman in the city of Meissen in Gemany, was taken from a street near her home last week.
The 17-year-old was out walking her dog when she vanished. Police searching for her found her dog alive nearby but there was no sign of her.
Her kidnappers soon made contact with her parents and authorities and demanded a ransom of over €1 million. The girl's distraught parents said they'd pay any amount the ransomers wanted for the safe return of their daughter.
Police said her father received a phone call from her abductors a short time later.
"In this telephone conversation, one of the perpetrators said Anneli was kidnapped by them and that he demanded a €1.2m ransom," regional police chief Dieter Kroll said
"In the background, one could hear screams and this is presumably the last sign of life of Anneli and the telephone conversation, which was very short, was then finished and interrupted."
However, negotiations ceased suddenly and four days after she vanished her body was discovered at an abandoned farmhouse near Dresden, in the east of Germany.
Police said she appeared to have been strangled with her own belt. Her body was found in a shallow grave.
It is reported she saw the faces of her kidnappers when they snatched her from the street last week.
Police have arrested two men on suspicion of murder. One is a 61-year-old precious metal dealer from Dresden, the other is a 39-year-old unemployed chef from Bavaria.
Jobless cook Markus B., 39, and gold dealer Norbert K., 61, are said to have confessed to the kidnap and murder since their arrests on Monday, Bild has reported
Police allegedly discovered DNA on the young girl's bicycle and were able to get a match. He was traced to the Bavarian town of Bamberg and arrested on Monday, and a close associate of his was taken into custody in Dresden.
The second man allegedly led police to the body of the teenager, the Daily Telegraph reported.