Searching for people

What happens when someone disappears without a trace

Equipped with maps and four-legged friends, the dog handlers have already helped in many search operations - usually with success!(Bild: Rettungshundestaffel Samariterbund)

Few things are more agonizing than the uncertainty of whether a loved one who has suddenly disappeared is still alive. Relatives in particular often suffer from this situation. But the disappearance is not always unintentional. The "Krone" newspaper takes a missing person case in Hermagor (Carinthia) as an opportunity to find out how the search for missing persons works.

The 23-year-old Michaela Grabner has been missing since 2006; her e-card was only recently found by children near the Glan river. She is one of 19 people who have been searched for in Carinthia for years. There is also no trace of an 82-year-old man from Gailtal after he disappeared during a hiking tour more than two months ago. "The uncertainty is particularly agonizing for relatives," Chief Inspector Elke Altenmarkter, head of the search team at the Carinthian State Criminal Police Office, told the Krone newspaper.