Erzgebirgskrimi - Der Tote im Stollen (2019)

Forester Saskia Bergelt finds the body of Professor Dr. Hellmann in an old mine tunnel near Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains. Hellmann was responsible for the mining department at the University of Freiberg. He was often away conducting research and had most recently been investigating lithium deposits in the Ore Mountains. Chief Inspector Ralf Adam and his new assistant, Inspector Karina Szabo, are called to the scene and begin their investigation by looking into the victim’s circle. Professionally, Hellmann did not get along well with his colleague Dr. Winkler, who accused him of passing off ideas and research findings that Winkler claimed were his own. Hellmann’s wife is also under suspicion, as she may have known that he had a mistress—a very classic motive for murder. After the pathologist revises the estimated time of death, taking the temperatures in the tunnel into account, the supposedly solid alibis of Winkler and Hellmann’s wife fall apart. Inspector Adam, who works closely with forester Saskia Bergelt and her father during the investigation, may have a witness in the poacher Johannes Borchert. He was in the woods on the day of the murder and may have encountered the killer, as Bergelt saw him near the tunnel. Unfortunately, Borchert remains silent about this, apparently because he has been intimidated. Adam and Szabo also learn nothing relevant to the case from Hellmann’s mistress, Jennifer Lenitz, since she claims that the two of them were only having fun together. Szabo senses, however, that the young woman is still hiding something. She is not only a student at the University of Freiberg, but also works for shopkeeper Erich Fichtner. During the GDR era, Fichtner worked as a miner for “Wismut,” where deadly uranium ore was mined at the time. Unexpectedly, Jennifer herself is then killed in a car accident, and the investigators wonder whether it is connected to Hellmann’s murder. Adam soon finds evidence that the accident was no mere coincidence. Adam and Szabo discover that Hellmann had planned to sell highly valuable documents about mineral deposits to the successor company of the “Wismut” mining operation. The documents have been missing from the archive at the University of Freiberg for some time. Since Erich Fichtner worked there after his time as a miner, the investigators suspect that he may have stolen them. Hellmann had found out and may have used his girlfriend Jennifer to get the treasure map back from Fichtner. Adam and Szabo set a trap for Fichtner to confirm their theory. Fichtner admits that he took the map, supposedly to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. But unlike Hellmann, he did not intend to cash in on it; he wanted to protect his home from another round of plundering the natural environment. After 30 years, the people and the environment had only just recovered from the damage caused by mining, and he did not want to see that undone. During an argument about it, he struck Hellmann dead in the heat of the moment. Jennifer Lenitz, who knew about his meeting with Hellmann, had tried to blackmail him. That was why he killed her too. Fichtner is arrested, and Adam hands the “treasure map” over to the mining archive.