Discovered by chance:

Missing friends lay dead in reservoir for ten years

The search for Maximilian Baumgartner and Andreas Leitner came to an end ten years later. They were found in their car in the Lipno reservoir(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Landeskriminalamt OÖ (3), Vazlav Pancer, Krone KREATIV)

One of the most sensational missing persons cases in Upper Austria has been solved. The two 26-year-old friends from Mühlviertel, who had been missing in their car for ten years, have now been discovered by chance in the Vltava reservoir in the Czech Republic. The wreck has already been salvaged, now the identities still have to be established beyond doubt.

The mysterious disappearance of Andreas Leitner and Maximilian Baumgartner has been solved after ten years! And with it one of the best-known and most mysterious criminal cases in Upper Austria. The car of the two Mühlviertel residents, who drove towards the Czech Republic on September 12, 2015 after a card evening in Zwettl an der Rodl and then never reappeared, was discovered in the Lipno reservoir in the Czech Republic on Wednesday. Military divers had been practising at the ferry landing stage of "Unter-Moldau" (Dolní Vltavice) and came across a wrecked car.

Number plate still attached to the wreck
The divers immediately alerted the police, who, after recovering the old Citroën, discovered that the license plate UU-883 DP was the same vehicle that had been searched for over a decade. Human remains of two people were found inside the wreck, which had been lying on the bottom about twenty meters from the landing stage. "There is still no confirmation based on DNA comparisons, but we have to assume that these are the two missing persons," confirmed Gottfried Mitterlehner, Head of the Upper Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation, on Wednesday evening, referring to the cooperation already initiated with the police authorities in the Czech Republic.

The Citroën belonging to Maximilian Baumgartner from Zwettl and Andreas Leitner from Waxenberg, which had been missing for ten years, was found at this ferry landing in the Vltava reservoir.(Bild: Pachner Jürgen)

Low water level was decisive
The vehicle has been secured and, like the human remains, is being forensically examined as far as possible. After the disappearance of the two 26-year-old friends, there were wild rumors about their fate. Even a fortune teller was consulted in times of need.

There were repeated large-scale searches, including in the Vltava reservoir and even at the exact spot where the car was discovered. "The water level is lower than it has been for 30 years," say the Czech authorities, explaining why the divers "stumbled across" the wreck by chance.

The wreck is being salvaged here(Bild: Policie CZ)

Speed camera photo was the last trace
It remains unclear why the duo had driven the more than 50 kilometers from Zwettl to Untermoldau. The last trace secured was a speed camera photo taken at 2.53 a.m. at the traffic circle in Bad Leonfelden in the direction of the Czech Republic. Six months after the disappearance of Andreas and Maximilian, a witness came forward who claimed to have seen the Citroën in Vyssi Brod, a town just over the border.