warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
milke mansholt was born on august 205th 1998 in oldenburg , a city in germany with a population of over 160, 000 people.
mike’s parents were financial stable which alowed him to have a comfortable childhood. he was described as a very active child who loved adeventure.
when he was still young,his parents who were facing some marital issues decided to get a divorce,after the separation mike stayed with his mother. susanne.
later then,mike’s mother started a new relationship and had a daughter named maria.
bernd,mike’s father , also found a new partner and had a son named daniel.
it is said that mike got along very well with both maria and daniel,in fact he had always wanted siblings to play with so he wouldn’t feel lonely.just like most children.
from a very young age mike developed a passion for traveling,he inherited this from his father who took him on trips to various places including Iceland,scottland and the caribian .
they even crossed the atlantic ocean a sailboat a journey that lasted over 700 days and became an unforgettable adventure for them.
mike’s father described him as a kind and a polite boy,who despite his adventurous spirit was a very calm person.
in july 2016,mike decided to take a trip to Malta. this was his first traveling alone without his parents ,siblings or even friends.
mike went to malta to meet his girlfriend who was taking a language course in the country.since he was on vacation he wanted to take the opportunity to spend some time with her.
for those who don’t know, Malta is an archipelago in the mediterranean sea located 58 miles south of the Island of sicily ,Italy.
the country has a population of around 500,000 and a territory of 122 square miles. it is a beautiful destination that attracts thousands of tourtists every year.
summer is the peak tourist season as temperatures considered high by european standards often reaching around 90 degree,this makes the country’s stunning beaches incredibly crowded.
crime rates are very low and the island is also known as a major tax heaven.
some might find it unusual that mike’s parents alowed him to travel alone at just 16,however according to his family,he had already traveled to almost every corner of the world and had gained a lot of experience.
he knew how to handle situations that most people wouldn’t and he was also a very responsible young man.
mike arrived in Malta on july 8th ,2016,specifically in valetta the country’s capital where he met up with his girlfriend.the two spent th next few days together,enjoying themselves and exporing the country.
however as the date to return to germany approached, mike decided he wanted to stay a few more days in Malta.so mike’s girlfriend returned to germany alone and informed his parents that he would styay a bit longer to explore the island.
susanne,mike’s mother was at home in Germany and Bernd is on vacation with his family in croatia.neither parent minded that mike wanted to stay a few more days in Malta so they approved his request.
mike stayed at hotel in the city of sliema,sliema is located on Malta’s northeast coast in the northern harbor district.it is an important residential and commercial area.as well as a shopping hub with bars,resturants, and cafes.
it is also the most densely populated city on the island.
the hotell where mike stayed is called Astra. security camera footage from the hotel shows mike leaving on the morning of july 18th.
he left his room , room 105 , around 8:39 AM at 0:9:10 AM , he went to the hotel reception to ask for some information .
after that mike returned to his room where he stayed for almost an hour.
he left his room in the hotel around 9:55 AM,in the hotel security footage you can see mike wearing a blue t-shirt carrying a black backpack over his shoulder and holding a cell phone.
inside his backpack,mike had packet a GoPro camera,a portable charger, documents, a credit card and money.
the day was hot and sunny and mike wanted to make the most of it.
after leaving the hotel ,mike walked to a nearby port where he rented a mountain bike for a day. the bike he rented was a lombardo in blue and black.
at 10:11 AM, mike sent a voice message to his father on WhatsApp ,in the message mike told his father that he had rented a bike and would be cycling around Malta that day but the roads were quite steep in some areas. so he would have to walk. pushing the bike.
he also mentioned that he would send a photo soon but he never sent the photo and that was the last time Bernd heard from his son.
allthoug mike didn’t get in touch with his family afterward,they didn’t suspect that something might have happened.to them ,mike was simply busy exploring the island that had captivated him.
on julu 22nd,suzann and maria,mike’s mother and sister went to the airport and waited for him there.mike was supposed to have landed at that airport on that day,but he didn’t show up.
at first mike’s mother and sister thought he might have landed in frankfurt where he would have had layover.suzanne then tried calling her son’s phone but it was turned off,she tried to reach him several times but all her attempts failed.
she then decided to contact the airline responsible for the flight mike was supposed to take to germany.that’s when she discovered that mike had never boarded the plane.
after this discovery suzanne went straight to the police and reported her son’s disappearance around 2 AM on july 23rd.
the german police treated the case as high priority and the officers quickly contacted tha Maltes police.
one of the german detectives received information that the Maltes police had already been searching for mike for at least 2 days.
mike had not been seen on the island since the morning of july 18th when he rented the mountain bike that he was supposed to return the following day but never did.
it was the manager of the Astra hotel who reported mike’s disappearance to the Maltes authorities on july 20th.
mike was supposed to return to the hotel to collect his belonings and check out but he never showed up.
it had been 4 days since mike was last seen by anyone and the Maltes police were already searching for him in the area.
in the meantime,no one from Malta contacted mike’s family in Germany to inform them about the situation.
some sources say it was because the authoritites didn’t have the contact details of mike’s family.while other sources claim it was due to negligence.
in any case when bernd,mike’s father found out about his son’s disappearance he paused his vacation and took the first available flight to Malta with daniel,mike’s brothers.despite the situation bernd tried to remain calm.
he kept trying to think of all the possible reasons why his son hadn’t caught the flight he was supposed to take.
he thought that perhaps mike had missed the flight,maybe lost his phone or perhaps his phone had been stolen.
the family tried to stay optimistic throughout and believed that mike would show up at any moment. what worried bernd the most was the fact that mike’s phone was turned off ,bernd stayed in constant contact with the Maltes authorities and actively assisted in the search for his son.
the police checked all the islands of Malta and loked into whether mike had taken any local ferry or small aircraft,thousands of flyers were distributed across various locations in the country and all tips from informants were followed up on mike’s mother stayed in germany but was kept informed about the progress of the search for her son.
on july 24th 2016 ,interpol joined the case and the investigation became international with germany and malta cooperating in the effort to find the boy.
on july 26th ,8 days after his disappearance the maltes police received an anonymous tip about mike.
the source of this tip was never made public and it is also unknown if the police ever discovered the identity of the person who made the call.
the caller said that mike was in an area with cliffs on the island’s west coast.
these cliffs known as dingli cliffs reach a height of approximately 820 ft.
the place is quite popular with tourists as it is the highest point on the island and offers a stunning view of the mediterranean sea.
these cliffs are located near the catacombs of rabat,another very popular toursit site on the island.the men who rented the bike to mike told the police that they had a brief conversation in which the teenager mentioned wanting to visit these catacombs.
it was therefore highly likely that mike passed through this area.
a police team with sniffer dogs, firefighters and paramedics was sent to the cliff area to conduct the search.
mike’s father and brother made their way to the site and when they arrived some journalists were already there waiting to ask them questions.
shortly after ,emergency team’s and even an ambulance arrived at the location after a few hours of searching the sniffer dogs detected something nearby .
but the authorities asked bernd and daniel to stay back and wait so they wouldn’t interfere with the professionals.
and soon came the news no one wanted to hear.mike was found but was lifeless, mike’s body was found at the bottom of the cliffs hidden under some bushes and a rock outcrop.
the location was not easy to access and could not tbe seen from the cliffs,this explained why no one had seen mike there.despite the area been frequented by many tourists.
the bike that mike had rented was found hanging about 98 ft abov his body.it was severly damaged. with a flat tire and a handlebars combletely bent.
the police removed mike’s body from the site and sent it for an autopsy.the officers also collected some of the victim’s items found at the location and sent them for an analysis.
mike’s sneakers and sunglasses were found near his body.for some reason he was barefoot.
the backpack that mike had taken from the hotel containing several of his belongings such as his phone,laptop.GoPro camera, money and credit card was no where to be found.
something strange found near the body was a fresh hay which hadn’t yet been affected by the sun.
it appeared as though omeone had stepped on the hay and it had detached from the sole of their shoe leaving it on the ground.it couldn’t have been mike as he was barefoot and his sneakers were found several feet away from his body.
the police spoke with the a farmer who owned property near the area where mike’s body was found.asking him if he knew anything about the hay.
the farmer simply replied that he knew nothing.
bernd ,mike’s father, also spoke with the farmer and asked if he had seen mike nearby or if he knew where the boy’s backpack might be.
according to bernd ,the farmer acted strangely as if he didn’t want to cooperate or answer the questions.it seemed like he was uncomfortable and kept insisting that he knew nothing.
bernd was devastated after discovering what had happened to his son but he tried to stay strong in order to undcover what had truly happened.
daniel was deeply affected by the loss of his brother ,they were very close and they had plans to travel the world together when they grew older but that would no longer be possible.
when suzanne received the news about her son,she couldn’t believe it.it was something she had never imagined,maria too was devastated by the loss of her brother,they had been together their whole lives.
and now she would never see him again.
mike’s girlfriend, who had already arrived in germany a few earlier was deeply shaken by the news. she had been with him recently and couldn’t wait for him to return home so they could see each other again.
the case caused a huge uproar in Malta as such an event was highly unusual for the island, it also gained significant attention in germany as the etire family was from there.
during the investigation many strange things began to happen.
mike used to film and take photos of almost every part of his trip to Malta, so finding his GoPro would have given the police a solid starting point of their investigation.
assuming mike had filmed his entire journey that day having the GoPro could have halped solve the case quickly,when mike’s body was found the police in Malta cataloged and collected three items that belonged to him and were found near his body.his pair of sneakers,his sunglasses and the GoPro case that mike had been carrying.
this case was attached to mike’s belt but it ‘s unclear whether he had the camera with him or if it was empty as it mysteriously dissapeared during the investigation.
when the police were collecting mike’s body bernd asked them about the GoPro. the lead investigator allegedly told him that she had seen the GoPro cased attached to mike’s belt and it had been cataloged and collected by the other officers.
this same lead investigator was the one who stood guard over mike’s body until everything was collected.one of the first things bernd did upon arriving in Malta was to go to the Astro hotel where mike had stayed.
at the hotel, room 105,mike’s room had already been emptied and cleaned by the staff, all of mike’s belongings in the room were handed over to baren but the GoPro case was not among them.
mike had likely taken the case with him and the camera was probably inside the case that had been attached to mike’s belt when his body was found.
bernd knew how valuable the GoPro was as mike had filmed almost everything and the footage on the camera could probably shed light on what had happened to him .
however ,the day after the body and items were collected, all the police officers involved in the investigatin denied that had been a camera case attached to the victim’s belt.
they claimed that nothing of the sort had been cataloged or collected.
bernd find this hard to believe especially since the lead investigator herself had mentioned seeing the case on mike’s belt.
bernd then spoke to the lead investigator who liked the other officers involved in the case denied ever seeing the case or having collected it.
that same day the police declared that mike had fallen from the cliff while riding his bike,however the way mike’s body was found made it difficult to imagine that he had simply fallen as the police suggested.
if mike had truly fallen while riding his bike, he would have fallen straight down.
the location where mike’s body was found suggested that he had fallen backward which would be highly unlikely in a natural fall.
however,the police quickly declared that mike’s death was an accident .stating that he had fallen from more than 30 meters high – 100 feet high .
and then rolled to the spot where the body was found.
thecoroner in charge of mike’s body analysis told bernd that mike hadn’t suffered as he had broken his neck in two places during the fall resulting in nearly instant death.however at that point an x-ray had not yet been done on mike’s body.
so, it remains unclear if the coroner was able to make this assessment just by looking at and touching mike’s body or if this was simply a lie.
the autopsy report was finalized only a month later ,confirming through DNA testing that the body was indeed mike mansholt. according to the report,mike had been dead for about 8 days when his body was discovered.
this suggested that he died the same day he left the hotel to explore the island on his bike. the autopsy.also concluded that mike had no broken bone,which was extremely strange.
if he had truly fallen from a height of more than 98 ft and struck the rocks of the cliff he would have least broken an arm, this finding contradicted with what the coroner had told bernd, claiming that mike had broken his neck in two places and didn’t suffer.
mike had no broken bones, which meant the coroner statement was a lie.
a forensic examination was conducted on the bike mike had rented and the conclusion was that its condition didn’t match what one would expect from a fall of 98 ft or more from a cliff.
a few days before the official autopsy report was finalized and released to the family, an employee from the morgue who had been resposible for mike’s body approached bernd to talk.
she told bernd that everything seemed very strange,mike had no broken bones which contradicted the official version of the police that mike had fallen from the cliff while riding his bike.
she suggested that bernd think about what to do next as it appeared that the police had no interest in pursuing the case further.
after hearing this, bernd went to speak with the head of the investigation,the same person who had claimed to have seen the GoPro case and later denied it.
this time she refused to speak and dodged bernd’s questions which only made him more suspecious.
bernd continued pressed the authorities about his son’s GoPro
and few days later the forensic departement of Malta handed him a digital camera claiming it was mike’s.
the camera they handed bernd was a cannon model from the early days of digital photography ,a far cry from the GoPro hero 2 mike had been using.
along with the camera ,bernd was also given a memory card that was completely destroyed and the authorities claimed it had been inside the camera when it was found next to the body .
bernd knew right away that this was not his son’s camera.
he believed the authorities had handed it to him,hoping he would stop asking about the real GoPro.
by this point ,mike’s family had grown very suspicious of the Malta police and were trying to understand why they seemed completely uninterested in the case.
it was beghinning to look like the Maltes authorities were trying to hide .
something bernd questioned some of the police officers about who might have stolen his son’s belonings, some officers responded by saying that no one from Malta would steal items from a body .
suggesting that perhaps a tourist had taken them instead.
police also claimed to have tried pulling location records from mike’s phone carrier but stated that they found nothing.
no records at all, frustrated with the inconsistencies and lack of interest from the Maltes authorities in pursuing the investigation bernd was ready to make serious accusations.however ,he had to return to Germany first to arrange his son’s funural and deal with other matters.
mike’s body arrived in Germany on August 17 th, 2016. and it was at this point that new discoveries were made.
adding to the mystery of the case.the funural home staff responsible for preparing mike’s body for burial, noticed some strange things.
mike’s body seemed completely deflated, as if it were empty.
futher more, he hadn’t been embalmed or prepared for burial which was problematic as the investigation into his death was still ongoing.
the fact that the Maltes authorities had not embalmed mike’s body created a serious issue for the German authorities who couldn’t properly conduct a second autopsy.
the body smelled of decomposition ,not from malahide or othe preservation chemicals as it should have.upon noticing this , the funural home staff immediately reported the issue to the German authorities.
a police officer mentioned to the staff that the agents responsible for handling mike’s coffin when it arrived at the airport had noticed that the coffin seemed too light…
due to al lthese suspicions ,mike’s body was sent to the medical university of hanover for further analysis.there , it was found that the body weighed only 16 kg and upon opening it,it was discovered that all of his organs had been removed.
the brain, the heart,lungs ,liver,pancreas,adrenal glands,right kidney , bladder, prostate, stumach,intestines and other organs were missing.
only small fragments remained of the left kidney,diaphragm, splee and colin.this explained why mike’s body was so deflated and weight only 35 lbs.
it is normal for the main organs to be removed during an autopsy for further investigation, when this happens,the body is filled with other materials such a saw dust or cotton.alternatively the organs that were removed are placed back once the autopsy is finished.
if the organs are not returned a report must be made to explain the reason,which was not done here and of course the body is never left in a vacuum like mike’s was
mike’s family was shocked when they learned that nearly all of his organs were missing from his body.
bernd even wrote a letter to the authorities in Malta pleading for them to send his son’s organs back so he could bury them with his child.
a coroner from Malta responded to bernd,claiming that mike’s organs had been eaten by animals before his body was found.
this made no sense at all, since the initial autopsy report from Malta did not show any injuries that could be attributed to animals.mike’s body showed no visible wounds or bite marks from animals ,for example.
the public prosecutor’s office of oldenberg ,the city where the family lived in Germany ,decided to seize the body.
what had initially been a case of a missing person found dead became a case of potential crime.
as a result, the German authoritis launched an investigation into mike mansholt death.the forensic doctors at the university of Hanover who were responsible for analyzing mike’s body and discovered the absence of almost all his organs requested a copy of the autopsy report carried out by the Maltese authorities.
but they never received it.
the forensic doctos stated that due to the lack of organs in the body a second autopsy would provide very limited results that could not be compared with the results of the first autopsy.
later mike’s parents filed a formal complaint against the Maltese authorities through their lawyers.
in their comunication the victims parents stated that during an email exchange with the coroner from Malta who performed the first autopsy on mike , the man claimed that their son’s organs had been eaten by rodents and that his brain had liquefied.
bernd and suzanne decided to take the matter to court,requesting an investigation into how mike’s organs had disappeared.
the German public prosecutors began working on the case and started to suspect that mike may have been murdered.
they also concluded that the maltese coroners had done a very poor job,it was ordered that a new autopsy be performed on mike’s body. even though the body’s condition was no longer the same as when it was first found.
which would impair the report.
this time ,the maltese coroners had to be present during the new autopsy to ensure legal security.no bite marks were found on he body
and there were no evidence of rodent activity.exept for a small bite on the neck and an abrasion on the forearm.
mike’s organs was completely ruled out,it was also reconfirmed that his body was intact when it was taken from the beach under the cliffs to the maltese’s morgue with no wounds or bite marks.
but the most important findings from this autopsy were that the body had not been embalmed in Malta and as a result it was too decomposed to determine the cause of death.
there had been no proper embalming performed by the maltese’s coroner thus the last traces that could have help determine the cause of death were lost forever.
another significant conclusion from the german authorities was that there was no evidence suggesting that mike died from the 30 m fall or more from the cliffs.
the germans also discovered that there were no major wounds found on mike’s skin,he had no broken bones,no broken ribs,no damage to soft tissues and no bruises ,mike’s spine was intact.
internal bleeding couldn’t be ruled out or confirmed because there were no organs to investigate.
in any case the german authorities considered this possibility to low as internal bleeding would have been accompanied by bruising or external damage which was not found on mike.
a fall from more than 98 ft was considered virtually impossible especially since the victim had no broken bones.due to the advanced state of decomposition the possibility of murder was not ruled out.
despite these conclusions by the German authorities, tha Maltese’s authoritites maitnained their version that mike died in a tragic accident from falling off a cliff
in the first autopsy performed on mike’s body at the beginning of the investigation by the maltese,three people were present.
including the country’s chief forensic doctor ,professor mário serri’. he is a highly respected man in Malta,having received several awards for his work.
Dr mário was present at the site where the body was found and also conducted the autopsy,however when bernd and journalists asked for additional information,he refused to provide further details.
he only responded to one email fro m bernd,stating that the organs were already missing before the autopsy and had been eaten by rodents and that the brain had dissolved in the sun.he also mentioned that he had shared this information with the head of the investigation in Malta.
the German forensic team contradicted Dr mário’s report stating in writing that no bite marks were found on mike’s body.
regarding the claim that the brain liquefied due to the sun,they called it absurd, noting that in many countries temperatures can exceed 40 degree CES in the summer the same temperature as in Malta that day.
and there are no reports of anything like this happening elswehere.
officially , Dr Mário documented that mike’s body was found lying on his back, however the German authorities did not believe that mike had died in the exact spot where the body was found.
they theorized that if he had really fallen,he could still have been alive when he hit the beach and then managed to crawl to a shaded area under the cliff.
asphixiation could also not be ruled out as the cause of death by the German authorities because mike’s hyoid bone was also missing.
in november 2017 bernd returned to Malta.
he tried to speak with the police and detectives who worked on his son’s case but they refused to talk.
bernd then filed a legal request to access all the case files but he was informed that the judge was ill and furthermore the judge had a reputation for being slow in approving judicial decisions.
bernd only gained access to these files thanks to a German diplomat in Malta who managed to obtain the documents.however ,the official file was missing several important documents that the maltese authorities claimed to have lost….
such as the autopsy results and the photos of the location where mike was found. in january 2018 the Maltese government caved to the pressure from the German authorities and repoened mike’s case.
finally all the efforts of the German ministry of foreign affairs bore fruite, shortly after this, the first documents regarding mike’s case arrived in Germany.
The German media began to cover the entire story again and the parliament started to debate the issue.however the new judge assigned into the case also determined that mike’s death was due to him falling from a cliff.
meaning there were no updates in the case.on the other hand,the German authorities concluded that there were many inconsistencies in the case.
but with the limited material they had to investigate, they found themselves at a dead end and could do nothing.
almost everyone who analyzes this case full of gaps and with such careless files from diplomats to investigators to journalists has doubts about the official verdict of the Maltese’s authorities.
bernd manshold hrew tired and discouraged by all the negligence, he decided to stop pushing for more answers about mike’s death and now focuses on his family
he believes that we will never know what realy happened to his son.a German newspaper that had covered this case from the beginning tried to do a new story about it.
but when they contacted the Maltese’s authorities they refused to comment on the case.it seems that no one who worked on mike mansholt’s case is interested in talking about it. as if they were trying to cover it all up.
thi case is full of mysteries and theories surrounding it.
among the most famous theories is the one suggesting that mike may have been a victim of organ trafficking.
mike was a very healthy boy and the absence of all of his main organs make some people suspect he was a victim of organ theft.
according to this theory,mike might have been approached by organ traffickers while cycling trough a remote area of Malta.
the traffickers would have taken him to a place where they removed his organs, then stitche his body back up and threw him off the cliff along with his bike to make it look like an accident.Maltese’s authoritites might have dicovered everything but decided to cover it up.
as the country heavily relies on tourism.and such an event would undoubtedly scares tourists away causing significant economic loss.
people who believe in this theory,think the farmer who owns the property near where mike’s body was found might be involved in the case.
his evasiveness when quetioned by the victim’s father as if hiding something was very suspicious.
another widley ciruclated theory is that mike was a victim of thieves who took his belongings and then threw him off the cliff.in this theory mike would have been strangled and then his body was placed in the location where it was found.
to cover up the case and prevent damage to the island’s toursim,the authoroties decided to remove the hyoid bone,the brain and several other organs from mike.
if mile had indeed been strangled thiscould only be determined by examinging the state of the hyoid bone in the brain.
since the maltese authorities wanted to supress the case,they simply decided to make all this evidence disapear.
there ‘s also the theory that mike fell off the cliff on his own and some people who passed by and saw the body took the opportunity to steal his backpack which contained several of his belongings.
the last theory i found ,though less accepted,is that mike may have taken his own life,this theory was discarded early in the investigation as there were no signs from mike that would suggest he was planning something like that.
everything points to mike being happy ,full of plans,in love, and showing no signs of mental illness or depression.
the case of mike mansholt is one of the most mysterious and gapfilled cases ever documented.to this day the authorities in Malta maintained their official version that mike fell off the cliff on his own and claimed that any version beyond that is simply a conspiracy theory…….