Death of a girl 1 and 2

Repeat of the audience success. The two-parter was one of the best-watched fictional programs in 2015, with 8 million viewers. Barbara Auer was nominated for the GOLDENE CAMERA 2016 in the category “Best German Actress” for her role in “Tod eines Mädchens.”

Content

A tranquil place on the Baltic Sea: a dead girl is found on the beach. Inspector Hella Christensen (Barbara Auer) recognizes the dead woman; it is 14-year-old Jenni, daughter of her neighbor’s family. Hella is visibly shaken, as she is close friends with the victim’s parents, Silke and Hauke Broder (Anja Kling, Jörg Schüttauf). But her new supervisor Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch) goes about his work soberly and sets up the SOKO “Jenni” on the scene. The question quickly arises as to whether the perpetrator is a stranger or whether he knew his victim. The whole place seems suspicious, friendships among the families are put to a hard test and coexistence is shaken to its foundations for a long time to come.

Part 1

A town on the Baltic coast: After the local police station has been dissolved, Chief Inspector Hella Christensen (Barbara Auer) wants to set off for her new workplace in Kiel. But she doesn’t get far, as a dead girl has been found on a pier. Hella’s new supervisor Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch) has already traveled from Kiel and is waiting for her at the site of the discovery. Hella recognizes the dead woman immediately: the victim is 14-year-old Jenni, daughter of her neighbors, with whom she is good friends. Hella is visibly shaken. Kessler orders to use the disbanded local office to solve the murder case from here, while he keeps his recently suffered gunshot wound as a secret.

The question quickly arises whether the perpetrator is a stranger who had met his victim by chance the night before – or whether the murderer knew his victim. Hella finds it very difficult to advance the investigation at Kessler’s side because of the family connection. Not only is she friends with the victim’s family, but she is also acquainted with everyone in the village. It is hard for her to imagine that someone from her immediate environment should be a suspect: Hauke (Jörg Schüttauf), Jenni’s father, is at the top of the list, however, along with hotel owner Uwe Hahn (Gustav Peter Wöhler). Neither has a valid alibi for the night of the murder.

The marriage of the orphaned parents is put to the test: Silke (Anja Kling) not only mourns the loss of her daughter, but is also disappointed in her husband, who withdraws more and more into his shell. She feels left alone, something is not right here. During this time she is very grateful for the help of Torben (Hinnerk Schönemann), Hauke’s brother. He seems to understand her grief and supports her in every way. None of the investigators allow themselves a break anymore, so much does the girl’s death affect everyone involved. Kessler pushes his team – another success in checking the computer provides clues: The murder victim must have had a secret admirer from the village.

Part 2

The horrific murder of 14-year-old Jenni has deeply shaken the small town on the Baltic coast. The investigation has come to a dramatic head when the son of inspector Hella Christensen (Barbara Auer) becomes the prime suspect. While she still firmly believes that the accusations will be cleared up as a misunderstanding and that Martin (Chris Veres) is innocent, her husband Johannes (Rainer Bock) is already seeking legal support. He has concealed a piece of evidence that could incriminate his son: a bloody sweater. After Jenni’s parents, Silke (Anja Kling) and Hauke (Jörg Schüttauf), learn of the suspicions against Hella’s son, they want to talk to her. But how can she face them now, when Martin is persistently silent and she has been temporarily taken off the case by her superior Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch)?

When anonymous clues point to a similar case that happened 14 years ago in the small town, the investigation takes another turn. At that time, the 15-year-old girl Anita Bossen disappeared and has not been found to this day. Kessler also interviews the mother of the missing girl and realizes that the theory of Anita’s disappearance must have been wrong at the time. Are the two cases perhaps connected? Anita Bossen, like Jenni, had worked at Uwe Hahn’s (Gustav Peter Wöhler) hotel. A coincidence?

The hotel owner again becomes the focus of the investigation. Hella can’t rest, she is still firmly convinced of Martin’s innocence. She manages to find a witness who saw Jenni again after her son was with the girl – in a car with a broken taillight. This information puts Kessler on the trail of Lars von Ahnefeld (Johann von Bülow), an estate owner whose car also has a defective taillight, and exonerates Martin. Hella is allowed to rejoin the investigation, which now focuses entirely on Uwe and Lars. But what are they hiding with regard to Jenni and Anita? Events come to a head when Kessler and Lars exchange gunfire and the owner of the estate is fatally injured. An investigation is opened against Kessler and he is threatened with being taken off the case. As Hella and Kessler begin to understand the background to Jenni’s murder, the full horrific scope of the tragedy surrounding the dead girl is revealed to them.

“Death of a Girl” is a production of Network Movie, Jutta Lieck-Klenke. Producers are Jutta Lieck-Klenke and Dietrich Kluge. Junior producer is Polli Elsner. Elke Müller is the editor in charge at ZDF.