No clue on missing German woman; Kerala Police seek help from abroad

With the investigation into the case of Liza Weiss, a German citizen who mysteriously disappeared after arriving in Kerala, reaching nowhere the state’s Director General of Police (DGP) Loknath Behera has written to the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) seeking their intervention to involve foreign agencies to trace the woman.

UK citizen holds the key

According to the DGP, Mohammed Ali, a UK citizen who accompanied Liza to the state, had to be located and interrogated to make any headway in the case. Kerala Police had found that Ali had left Kerala on March 15, a few days after he had arrived in the state along with Liza. Efforts by the Kerala Police to contact Ali with the help of the British embassy in India had failed.

Shangumugham ACP Elango, who is in charge of the probe, had also made an attempt to collect information related to the case through the External Affairs Ministry. However, this attempt too produced no results.

The DGP had expressed his displeasure over the slow progress of the case. In addition, the pressure was mounting from the German embassy in India. The investigating officials subsequently apprised the DGP of the challenges they faced. 

Liza had maintained little contact with her mother. Moreover, as Liza’s mother spoke only German, the Kerala Police could not learn anything from her. Now the state police have sought permission from the Central government to travel abroad to pursue the case and are hopeful of a positive response.

The only fact unearthed by the police so far was that Liza had stayed in Varkala, a beach destination in Thiruvananthapuram district.

The probe so far

Liza had left Germany on March 5 this year. In June, her mother filed a complaint with the German consulate saying that she was missing.

The police had checked the possibility of a terror angle to the case but had soon dismissed the possibility. Another lead was a phone call claiming to have seen the German woman at a shopping centre in Thrissur. However, CCTV images from there showed no images of Liza.

The Kerala Police had analysed information from airports and also alerted their counterparts in other states about Liza, but nothing turned up. Later, a ‘Yellow notice’ was issued with the help of Interpol but again there was no positive development.

On March 5 this year Liza had made a video call with her daughter in the USA. The last time she contacted her relatives was on March 10 this year. Liza told her sister Carolene that she was travelling to India along with a UK citizen. Liza wanted to spend some days alone, Carolene was informed. Liza was apparently depressed, her sister felt. Later, the sister of the Latvian woman who was killed in Kovalam some time ago had spoken to Carolene and shared these details on social media.

Incidentally, Liza had been attracted to Islam and converted to that faith eight years ago. She also met a man at Cairo in Egypt and married him. They then settled in the USA and had two children. However, Liza later developed differences with her husband and left him. She subsequently returned to Germany.