Discovery in Brandenburg
A missing 13-year-old Berlin girl was found dead in an abandoned building in the village of Altglietzen, nos.nl reported. Lisa Tạ disappeared on November 3, 2026, after leaving her home in the Marzahn district for school, according to Moordplekken.nl.
Police discovered her body on Sunday, November 8, 2026, alongside a critically injured man.
Lisa Tạ lived with her family in the Berlin district of Marzahn and left her parental home on Golliner Straße around 07.17 AM on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, to head to her school on Sella-Hasse-Straße. She planned to take a short walk of about 400 meters to the Barnimplatz bus stop to catch bus 197, intending to take the bus from Barnimplatz, while home security camera footage captured her final moments wearing black clothing with her hood pulled deep over her head.
According to her sister, she was texting with a female friend on her way after leaving the house, but contact abruptly stopped three minutes after she left her home, and her mobile phone went permanently silent following that final phone call with a friend shortly after her departure.
The tragic disappearance case in Germany has culminated in a murder investigation, as reported by Moordplekken.nl, with the case gripping Germany for days. The body was found in a vacant single-family house in Altglietzen, located in the municipality of Bad Freienwalde close to the Polish border, where the police also encountered a critically wounded 22-year-old man.
Berlin Police Deploy Officers and Drones to Find Lisa
The Berlin police force deployed hundreds of officers, search dogs, and a helicopter across the Marzahn-Hellersdorf neighborhoods during the days following the disappearance, nos.nl reported. The massive search operation in Berlin-Marzahn and Hellersdorf also deployed a special underwater drone to comb through forest areas, parks, and the surroundings of the Kaufpark Eiche shopping center, while neighborhoods distributed flyers about the disappearance in the following days. On the same afternoon she vanished, police released a missing persons report featuring a photograph of Lisa, and her mother made an appeal to look out for her daughter, writing on social media: Mama hopes you come home safe and sound. Mama misses you so much.
More than 220 officers went door-to-door on Saturday in the neighborhood where Lisa lived, and a police chief stated on Sunday that authorities were factoring in a crime.
Officers found the victim by chance after the property owner reported unauthorized intruders inside the vacant structure, according to nos.nl, with agents heading to the residence around midday following a report that someone had entered without permission.
The search for Lisa had yielded no trail leading to the Brandenburg house until then, and police had no indication that she would be there. It was ultimately pure chance that this break-in led to her discovery,
a Berlin prosecution spokesperson told German media, as cited by nos.nl.
Police Suspect Man with Prior Investigations of Kidnapping and Murder
Investigators suspect the man of kidnapping and murdering the teenager, nos.nl reported. The man attempted suicide with a firearm as police entered the building and is currently under heavy guard in intensive care with a life-threatening wound, according to nos.nl, and he was taken to the hospital in critical condition under strict police guard where he remained in critical condition on Monday, November 9.
Judicial records show the man has no criminal record, but prosecutors opened two investigations against him in August 2025 regarding the acquisition and possession of child abuse imagery, nos.nl reported.
Investigators seized 900 incriminating files from his residence during a March 2025 search, followed by the discovery of numerous additional files on his mobile phone, according to nos.nl. The suspect, whose identity, exact age, and possible relationship to the victim are investigated by detectives and the public prosecutor’s office, is from the same Berlin neighborhood of Marzahn-Hellersdorf as the girl Lisa, according to the public prosecutor’s office.
Autopsy Seeks to Determine Cause and Time of Death
Authorities performed an autopsy on Lisa Tạ’s body, but prosecutors stated that the exact cause and time of death remain undetermined, nos.nl reported, with a judicial autopsy performed on Lisa’s body on Monday, November 9, to determine the exact cause of death, time of death, and potential sexual violence. Forensic teams are investigating whether the vacant building served as the primary crime scene or if she was killed elsewhere, according to Moordplekken.nl, with investigators considering the possibility that Lisa was killed days before she was found and that the vacant house is not necessarily the crime scene.
Police found no prior connection between the victim and the suspect, treating her as a random target while forensic searches continue at both the Brandenburg property and the suspect’s Berlin residence, nos.nl reported. Investigators found no evidence that she had run away, and they continue to investigate the abandoned home and the man's home in Berlin.