Two arrested in 1988 murder of German backpacker Inga Maria Hauser in Norther Ireland
In a major breakthrough in one of the most high-profile cases in Northern Ireland, detectives have arrested two men in connection with the 30-year-old murder of an 18-year-old backpacker.
The corpse of Inga Maria Hauser, was found dumped unceremoniously in a remote area in the Balltpatrick Forest which is outside Ballycastle, County Antrim in April 1988.
Hauser was last seen alive almost 14 days before her body was discovered. The girl, who was from Munich, was last seen on a ferry that she had taken from Scotland.
The two suspects who were arrested, one 61-year-old and the other 58-years-old, are in the process of being interrogated by the detectives. They were not identified.
They were taken to the area of Loughguile in the county early on May 21 morning.
This years marks the 30th anniversary of the tragic murder and the arrests happened just a few weeks after appeals to mark the significant year.
Last month, the detectives investigating the case announced that many people were probably involved in the murder in some capacity and to a greater extent, in the cover-up that followed.
They also announced that they only need fragments of evidence at this point to arrest the prime suspects. The cops have, in their possession, one male genetic profile that was collected at the crime scene.
Many years ago, 2,000 samples were taken from men in what was considered one of the largest DNA screenings that was conducted in the UK. The samples did not provide a definitive match to the DNA they found at the crime scene.
Just before Hauser's tragic death, she had travelled through England and Scotland and was supposed to travel south to Dublin. She had stopped on the way to Larne, Co Antrim. The detectives found out about this by going through her diary entries.
However, something happened and the girl had gone in the opposite direction to Dublin. Her body was then found in the woods two weeks after she was last seen. It is also known that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had conducted their own investigation when the murder took place 30 years ago.
It is also thought that the paramilitary group had thought of giving the information they collected in the case about the alleged murderer to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) but that did not happen.
Shortly after the arrests that took place on May 21, the lead officer in the investigation, Detective Chief Superintendent Raymond Murray of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, renewed the appeal for information into the case.
He told the Daily Mail: "If there are any witnesses still out there with any further information which might help police then I would ask them to come forward now and speak to detectives".
"Even if there are people who know what happened but have stayed silent out of friendship or family loyalty, it is still not too late to come forward and tell us what you know."
"Failure to do so can be a criminal offence in itself and surely it would be better to come to police and discuss what happened rather than take the risk we will come to you."
The two men who have been arrested are currently being interrogated.