Hit-and-run mystery solved 40 yrs later

It took more than 40 years, but the truth about a mysterious hit and run killing in 1971 of a Dutch man in the German village Rütenbrock has finally been unearthed.

Literally unearthed that is. Radio Westerwolde reports that authorities have dug up the blue VW 1600 that had for all those years been the missing piece of evidence linking their main suspect to the death of Jurjen Potze from Ter Apel in Groningen. Potze had been found critically injured by a bus driver and died a few hours later in a hospital. Witnesses spoke of seeing a pale blue VW 1600 with a dented fender and busted headlights and Dutch police were sure this was their car. A search for the vehicle led to a resident of Zwartemeer, a village in Drenthe, but he was released because his blue VW, the most important evidence could not be found. The victim’s son told police their suspect was friends with the owners of a farm in Rütenbrock in Germany and that there were suspicions that the car was buried there. When the farm was sold a few years ago, a neighbor jokingly told the new owner that he had also purchased a car; intrigued, the new owner searched his new property, but found nothing at first. Then, while carrying out earth removal works recently, he stumbled onto the entombed VW, rusting away peacefully in the soil of his property, its blue color undeniable proof that this was the car no one could find for 40 years. It seems however Dutch nor German are still interested in the case; the statute of limitations has expired and both the suspect and the former owner of the property have meanwhile passed away. German police have said they want to close the case and will have the car dug up at the cost of the state.