Das Mädchen aus dem Bergsee (2020)

A woman’s body is recovered from a mountain lake in Tyrol. At first, suicide is suspected, but an autopsy by Dr. Gabi reveals that the young woman, Frieda Goldbacher, was murdered. She was strangled. Captain Lisa Kuen, who is already on her way to start her vacation, cuts it short to investigate. This annoys her colleague Alex, who would have preferred to solve the case without his superior. Kuen is determined to take charge of the investigation because she grew up in the area and knows the people there. The victim had worked as a prostitute at Carla’s brothel in Innsbruck for three years, was close friends with Tamara, and had been searching for her biological parents. According to her foster father, a necklace with a green emerald was her only clue in the search. Her papers contain a DNA test suggesting that she may already have found her biological father. Tamara tells Kuen that Frieda had never mentioned this to her. Among the suspects is Hary Hainl, the victim’s boyfriend, who may have killed her out of jealousy because he wanted her all to himself. When Hary flees, the police issue a search notice for him. Tamara initially gives him shelter, but later tells the police where he is. He manages to escape again, however. Frieda’s list of clients and calls includes the who’s who of Innsbruck. It also lists Lisa Kuen’s father, Franz Kindl, a soccer coach who left the family twenty years ago and has now returned to Tyrol. Lisa had not seen him since her sister Anna died by suicide as a teenager in 1987. Their relationship has been strained ever since. Franz Kindl initially says he did not know Frieda. Later, he claims he may have introduced her to someone else. A mango quark strudel is found in Frieda’s locker. Kuen’s colleague Alina manages to find the café it came from. The café owner says Tamara and Frieda used to visit often. There is also a photo of Franz Kindl on a café wall; he had been seen there with Frieda. Frieda’s social media videos include footage from a living room that looks like Lisa Kuen’s mother Herta’s. Uncle Willi, however, says there are rooms like that everywhere. Franz Kindl tells Lisa, who had changed her surname to Kuen, that he and Herta had agreed at the time that he would have no further contact with Lisa. According to the priest, Frieda had been in Kuen’s hometown and had spoken with him too. At Hary’s mother’s house, Lisa finds a cannabis plantation and comes across Hary himself. He denies killing Frieda. Meanwhile, Tamara has disappeared. She was last seen at the café with her ex-boyfriend Tom. After a large sum of money is found in Tamara’s accommodation, Alex suspects that Frieda and Tamara had been blackmailing the Hainls over the plantation. Tamara is soon found strangled in a dumpster. The necklace with the green emerald also appears in a photo of Lisa’s mother. Among Tamara’s belongings, Lisa finds Frieda’s diary. From it, Lisa discovers that Frieda was her sister Anna’s child. Frieda’s father was also Lisa’s father, Franz Kindl, who had repeatedly abused Anna. Lisa’s mother Herta and Uncle Willi had known about it all these years. Alex learns from Hary that Tamara had secretly taken a DNA sample from Franz Kindl, after which Tamara and Frieda blackmailed Kindl. Lisa finally confronts her father, telling him that he killed Anna, Frieda, and Tamara, and he is arrested by the police.