Police yesterday rejected allegations they had dragged their feet in searching for Ralf Klausnitzer, a German professor who went missing in late March after arriving in Taiwan earlier that month as part of an academic exchange program.
The Hualien Police Bureau has conducted seven search-and-rescue operations since Tamkang University first reported Klausnitzer missing on April 2, but has not yet located him, bureau official Chen Yi-wen (陳奕?) told reporters.
The 57-year-old literature professor, who was invited by the university in New Taipei City to give a lecture in late March, traveled to Hualien after completing the assignment and spent the night of March 25 in a local hotel, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Sincheng Police Precinct via CNA
Klausnitzer’s last sighting was recorded by surveillance footage on March 26, showing him exiting a bus at Taroko Gorge’s Tiansiang Village (天祥) at 9:04am, entering Siangde Temple at 9:27am and leaving 20 minutes later, Chen said.
Although the police organized a search-and-rescue mission on April 2, it was suspended the following day after the region was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, which killed at least 18 people and injured more than 1,100, Chen added.
Rescue efforts resumed after power was restored and rockfalls removed, with multiple visits to local residents conducted in April and May, he said.
Each mission lasted five to six hours, including searches along the riverbed using drones, but no trace of Klausnitzer was found, Chen said.
The police also released Klausnitzer’s image in May, calling for any tips from the public to restart the search, but no new information has been received so far, Chen said.
The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung on Monday published a letter by Klausnitzer’s parents, who said they were upset with the Taiwanese and German authorities’ handling of the case.
Klausnitzer’s parents questioned why the search did not begin earlier, given that the hotel their son stayed at must have become aware of his disappearance on March 27.
Another complication hindering the search is the lack of formal diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Germany, Klausnitzer’s parents said, criticizing the lukewarm response by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Klausnitzer’s two sons arrived in Hualien on June 9 to survey the area and provide DNA samples to the police, but were left with troubling questions that led them to wonder “whether any information was being withheld,” they said.
Yesterday, Hualien police reiterated that anyone with information on Klausnitzer’s whereabouts should contact them.
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