Backpacker Murder Case Revisited

After a weekend of violence in Belfast - which left a foreign tourist struggling to come to terms with her rape and an Irish rugby fan fighting for life in intensive care after a vicious assault - the search for the murderer of a teenage German backpacker in Northern Ireland 20 years ago has been renewed.

Police have now narrowed the hunt down to a small group of people who had detailed knowledge of the remote forest area where her body was found.

Inga Maria Hauser, 18, was discovered at Ballypatrick Forest in County Antrim on April 1988, a fortnight after she travelled to the country from Scotland by ferry, arriving in Larne.

She was subjected to a vicious and ruthless attack and police believe she died soon after arriving in Northern Ireland.

Police have announced new developments in the case and renewed their appeal for assistance.

The officer in charge of the murder investigation, Detective Superintendent Raymond Murray, said a significant line of inquiry was now directed at people who had a particular knowledge of the part of the forest where the girl's body was discovered.

At the same time it was revealed hundreds of people have voluntarily supplied DNA samples for testing - after police said the data obtained would be confined to the specific investigation.

Detective Superintendent Murray said: "On the 20th anniversary of Inga Maria's murder, police are publishing a map of the precise location where her body was found and a photograph of this location.

"Our inquiries lead us to believe that whoever killed Inga Maria and left her body in Ballypatrick Forest was familiar with that particular remote part of the forest."

See: 'Call Police' Over Rape Says SF

(BMcC)