The 17-year-old daughter of a wealthy German businessman has been found dead, police said Tuesday. Her abductors had demanded the equivalent of $1.3 million in ransom money.
The victim, identified by police only as Anneli-Marie R., went missing Thursday. She was kidnapped while she walked her dog in the city of Meissen, according to the Daily Mirror.
Police lifted a blackout on the reports of Anneli-Marie's capture Monday, when her body was found in an abandoned farmyard in the village of Klipphausen, the New York Daily News reports.
"We are working on the assumption it is Anneli," Dresden police spokesman Thomas Knaup said Tuesday, according to the paper.
Police said that the two suspected kidnappers used Annneli's cell phone to speak to her father on Thursday, demanding a ransom of 1.2 million euro, or $1.3 million, NBC News reported. The father told police he heard screams in the background, which are believed to have been Anneli shortly before her death.
On Friday at noon local time, the father spoke to the kidnappers again, but they reportedly refused to give him proof that his daughter was alive. Anneli-Marie's parents pleaded with her abductors and promised to give them the money.
Two men, ages 39 and 61, were reportedly arrested for Anneli's kidnapping. Police used DNA evidence from the girl's bike, which was recovered from where she went missing, as well as cell phone tracking technology to link the suspects to the crime, according to NBC.
The victim's parents penned an emotional statement Monday, saying, "Anneli, we miss you. We are with you."
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