Die Toten von Salzburg - Schattenspiel (2023)

While Major Peter Palfinger is away at a health resort, Chief Inspector Hubert Mur of Traunstein has to investigate this time with District Inspector Irene Russmeyer and Hofrat Seywald. An archaeological excavation at the Capuchin monastery in Salzburg is due to uncover the burial place of a Bavarian princess, along with valuable grave goods, and the excavation is reported on in the media. During the dig, the skeleton of a Royal Air Force pilot who was killed in the Second World War is discovered. His identity tag identifies him as Ian Wells. The skeleton has no broken bones, so Wells may have had a parachute after his aircraft was shot down. However, there is a bullet hole in his skull. The next day, Mitsch Balzer, a seminar participant at the monastery who works for the vice squad, finds the body of Brother Gereon in the excavation trench. Gereon had opposed the dig. The investigators must solve Brother Gereon’s murder as well as the possible war crime. At first, no murder weapon is found. The excavation is led by Magister Gerlinde Schöfferl, who is assisted by Dr. Livia Kronsdorfer of the Celtic Museum. In a flashback, we learn that after Ian Wells was shot down with his aircraft, Brother Elias gave him food and hid him from the Nazis. Brother Martin tells Russmeyer that Elias, now an emeritus monk, had also opposed the excavations, just as Brother Gereon had. Sebastian Palfinger, who now works as the monastery’s PR manager, blames himself, thinking that Brother Gereon might still be alive if he had not supported the dig. Another seminar participant at the monastery is Paula Opitz. She confirms the alibi of Lüthold Engelmann, chairman of a Bavarian association devoted to the Bavarians, who is very interested in the Bavarian treasure. Opitz also says that on the night of the crime she saw two people in monks’ robes, though Brother Martin doubts that they belonged to their monastery. Mur suspects Lukas Fröhlich, a member of Engelmann’s association, of looting the grave and murdering Brother Gereon. Traffic surveillance footage shows that Fröhlich was in Salzburg at the time of the crime. Russmeyer asks Hofrat Seywald to obtain Mitsch Balzer’s personnel file from Vienna. It turns out that Balzer has been suspended and is facing disciplinary proceedings. A historical button is found at the crime scene. Russmeyer suspects Sebastian Palfinger bought it online and planted it at the excavation site to make the story more sensational for the media. A little later, excavation leader Schöfferl admits that she buried the button. Brother Gereon caught her doing it, and she confesses to having beaten him to death with a shovel. Mur finds soil in Engelmann’s shoe sole that matches soil from the excavation. Lukas Fröhlich was at the excavation site with Engelmann on the night of the crime. The victim’s blood was found on one of their robes, and soil from the excavation site on the other. Engelmann and Fröhlich had planned to steal the Bavarian treasure together. According to Fröhlich, Brother Gereon was injured but still alive when Fröhlich left the excavation site. Russmeyer discovers that Paula Opitz’s alarm clock is set an hour off, which destroys Engelmann’s alibi. Mur arrests Engelmann for Brother Gereon’s murder. Through isotope analysis, Kronsdorfer discovers that the skeleton they found did not originally come from England; it is Brother Elias’s skeleton. Elias, now an emeritus monk, is the British soldier Ian Wells, who assumed Elias’s identity after the real Elias was shot by the Nazis in his place.