Marie Brand und die falsche Wahrheit (2023)

After a wild night of partying for her 18th birthday, Isabell Lauterbach finds her ex-boyfriend, Ben Thiele, dead. She has no memory of the night. Did she kill him? Along with cocaine, Rohypnol—the so-called date-rape drug—is found in Isabell’s blood. Is her memory loss caused by the knockout drops, or is she trying to avoid incriminating herself? Marie Brand and Jürgen Simmel question the party guests, including the sprint relay team that both Isabell and Ben trained with. Isabell’s best friend, Ella Wittmer, comes under the investigators’ scrutiny. She withholds important information to protect herself: she had procured the drugs for Isabell so that she could “finally fit in properly.” Everyone involved seems to have a secret and a motive. Marie Brand and Jürgen Simmel try to reconstruct the night of the crime, and much points to a crime of jealousy. According to witness statements, Jan Frehse, a member of the sprint relay team, had a loud argument with the victim on the night of the crime. Coach Victor Holtmann was also at the party, and a review of his past raises suspicions of sexual misconduct. Years earlier, he had left his teaching job and taken up coaching after facing similar allegations. Now a witness comes forward who describes such an assault and apparently told Ben about it. With this crucial clue pointing to the perpetrator, a race against time begins, as the murderer already has his next victim in his clutches: Isabell. She, too, had learned about Holtmann’s activities and wants to find out whether it is really true and whether he could be Ben’s killer. She tries to question him, and he admits that he put the drops in her glass at the party. He says he would have come back once everyone was gone. But Ben unexpectedly interrupted him there. In the scuffle, Ben fell in the bathroom, and when Holtmann realized Ben was dead, he left the house. Brand and Simmel arrive just in time to save Isabell from Holtmann.