Woman found after 12 years

A GERMAN woman missing for 12 years has been found living in the woods on the outskirts of the Swiss capital with nothing more than an umbrella and tarpaulin for shelter, police said yesterday.

The 52-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed, appeared to be healthy after living in the simple shelter near the community of Bolligen for the past year.

Even the ranger who makes regular checks of the woods had failed to notice her before a hiker told police this month that he had seen a woman living there, said Juerg Mosimann, spokesman for the Bern police.

Bolligen’s Mayor Rudolf Burger said he was told about the woman last Thursday and found her the next day in the makeshift tent she had constructed.

“She answered our questions and told us she didn’t want any contact with her family,” he said.

She conversed normally, but she also spoke of a mission that she had to fulfil, Burger added.

He declined to elaborate.

She was still living there, but the Bolligen Citizens Community that owns the woods would soon tell her to leave, said community clerk Andreas Kohli.

“We are looking for an appropriate place for the woman in co-operation with the social services of Bolligen and the government of Bern,” said Kohli.

The woman was reported missing in 1997 in a village near Potsdam, Germany, outside Berlin.