Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
The murder of 24-year-old American tourist Amy Lopez from Texas, which remains unsolved to this day, took place in Koblenz in late summer 1994. Her father, Robert Rimbau, had given her a trip to Europe as a gift for graduating from college. One stop on this trip was the German city of Koblenz, where Amy was eager to visit the Prussian fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. Although she was traveling with a group, she set off alone on foot from her hotel at around 8 a.m. on September 26, 1994, to visit the fortress. Her route took her past the Aster Tower on the southern slope, where she entered the so-called “General von Aster’s study,” named after the fortress’s designer. It was in this remote location that Amy encountered her killer. Her body was found a few hours later at around 10:15 a.m. The last time witnesses had seen Amy alive was at the turnoff from the rocky path that led to the fortress. The police assumed it was a sex crime and suspected that Amy was a random victim. She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The search was on for a slim, young man with blond hair who had been seen at the foot of the Ehrenbreitstein fortress. But despite a poster search with a composite sketch, he could not be located. The Koblenz police followed over 300 leads, but none led to Amy’s killer. The case was shelved. But after a quarter of a century, the police reopened the Amy case, because murder never expires. However, despite advances in forensic science and the examination of DNA-compatible material, this cold case could not be solved. Who killed Amy Lopez in September 1994? This question remains unanswered to this day.
