The mysterious Cologne salad bar murder

One of the most mysterious murders in Cologne’s criminal history was the salad bar murder. It took place on July 22, 2007, at the Supasalad restaurant on Gertrudenstraße in Cologne’s Neumarkt district. That evening, 24-year-old Anke Schäfer was brutally murdered in her restaurant. Anke Schäfer was a young entrepreneur who ran the salad bar in Cologne together with her brother Ralf. The idea for such a shop came from a vacation in Australia. On the evening of July 22, Anke Schäfer had finished placing an order for goods. She had left the door open, allowing her killer to enter the shop. He stabbed Anke eleven times in the chest, cheek, hands, and knees. The next day, Anke was found dead in the cold storage room. She had bled to death there. Since there were no signs of a break-in and no money was missing from the cash register, the police ruled out robbery and murder. The police focused on Anke’s circle of acquaintances. But more than eight years passed without any clues as to Anke’s murderer. Then, by chance, a 35-year-old man imprisoned in Hamburg provided a DNA sample. This matched a sample in the Federal Criminal Police Office’s database. The saliva sample matched the DNA that had been found on a cigarette butt at the scene of the crime in the salad bar, not far from the cold storage room. The man was Enes A., who had already come into conflict with the law on several occasions for fare evasion and theft. Enes A. confessed to the murder of Anke. Enes, who is addicted to gambling, needed money. When he passed the salad bar on that summer day, he decided to rob it. He demanded that Anke, who was alone in the restaurant, give him the money from the cash register. To emphasize his command, he pulled out a knife. But he had no way of knowing that Anke had a phobia of sharp objects and immediately panicked and screamed. Enes was afraid that someone might hear the screams, so he stabbed Anke and then locked her in the cold storage room, where she bled to death in agony. Enes fled with €20 from Anke’s wallet. During his escape, he threw the murder weapon into a trash can, which has not been found to this day. Since then, the police have been feverishly searching for Anke’s murderer, whose case was also featured on the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY … ungelöst” (File Number XY … Unsolved). The police followed up on over 3,500 leads, checked over 6,000 people, and compared 1,800 DNA samples, but to no avail, until chance came to their aid. The defendant, Enes A., had made a statement through his defense attorney in the courtroom during his first hearing. “My client admits to the crime,” said his lawyer, and it was immediately apparent that the tragedy of these words had moved everyone present. Enes A. apologized for the wrong he had done. He emphasized that he understood what had happened to the victim and could no longer hold back his emotions. Tears ran down his face as his lawyer read out the grim truth to the judges. The trial lasted eight days before the verdict was reached. Enes A. never looked the judges in the face during the entire trial. He sat motionless with his head bowed as the presiding judge announced the sentence of life imprisonment for murder and attempted aggravated robbery. The Anke Schäfer case is a sad chapter in Cologne’s history. It is to be hoped that such acts will not be forgotten and that people will learn from these terrible events. The memory of Anke Schäfer will not fade, and the city will continue to fight for justice.