Police say there is no sign of a criminal act in the case of an eight-year-old boy who was discovered in a sewer by a typhoon more than a week after he disappeared in northern Germany.
The boy, known only as Joe, disappeared on June 17 in the city of Oldenburg. Search groups spent days searching for him in vain until someone heard moans under a manhole cover about three hundred yards from the boy’s home on June 25. Rescuers discovered the boy naked, refrigerated and dehydrated inside the sewers, but otherwise unharmed. Their garments were later discovered in other parts of the sewers.
On Tuesday, Oldenburg police said their investigation concluded the boy likely climbed into a drainage pipe near his home and then got lost in the narrow tunnels. Witnesses who claimed to have seen the child outside the tunnels or inside an adult’s corporate were wrong.
The boy, who remains in hospital, has still been questioned by police, police said.
Police said the search included “a wide range of police departments across the country,” as well as firefighters and “countless citizens who participated in the search for Joe. “
“I am very inspired by the wonderful commitment of the past few days,” Oldenburg Police Chief Johann Kühme said in a statement. non-public effort, until late afternoon, to locate the missing child. “