It was a warm summer morning in Pechbusque, France, on the 10th of July, 1982
It was a warm summer morning in Pechbusque, France, on the 10th of July, 1982. André Bamberski was in his home when his phone began to ring. André was a successful accountant. On the other end of the line was Daniele, his ex-wife, who lived in Lindau, Germany. She informed André that their only daughter, 14-year-old Kalinka, was dead.
André couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing. How could his daughter be dead? She was a happy and healthy teenager and was active in numerous sports. According to Daniele, Kalinka had died in the middle of the night. She said that an autopsy had not yet been conducted but that one could be carried out shortly.
Daniele knew all about the autopsy protocol because her husband, Dieter Krombach, was a well-known doctor and former diplomat with friends in very high places. In 1975, Daniele had left André for Krombach and she and Kalinka and Kalinka’s brother had moved in with Krombach.
André soon discovered that it was Krombach who had discovered the body of Kalinka and called for the doctor. When Dr. Jobst arrived at the scene, Krombach had told him that at around 7:30PM the previous evening, he had injected Kalinka with a “compound” which he refused to name. According to Krombach, the compound was to help Kalinka tan more easily. He said that at around midnight, he then gave her a sleeping tablet when she could not sleep.
The autopsy was conducted by Dr. Hohmann and Dr. Dohmann. Krombach was present during the examination. The autopsy found that Kalinka’s vagina had been torn and blood was found in her underwear. There were also several injection marks on her arms, legs and throat. An internal examination turned up a white substance in her vagina and undigested food inside her stomach.
No toxicology tests were conducted and the estimated time of death was between 3AM and 4AM. However, this doesn’t explain the undigested food – Kalinka had last eaten at 7PM and her food would have been digested by that time. Furthermore, the white substance was never analysed.
Despite these suspicious findings, Krombach was not formally interviewed. Commissioner Gebath of the Lindau police, however, did speak with him over the phone. During this conversation, Krombach offered a different version of events to the one he told Dr. Jobst. He told Gebath that he had injected Kalinka with iron and cobalt to treat anaemia at around dinner time. He also said that when he found her unconscious, he injected her with dopamine and dilaudid in a bid to wake her up.
The doctors concluded that there was no foul play. They couldn’t determine her cause of death but “experts” suggested that Kalikna had died from heart failure after having sunstroke from windsurfing the previous day.
Around three months later, André finally received a copy of his daughter’s autopsy report. By this time, the case had already been long closed. A wave of dread washed over André as he read the findings. To him, it read as though his daughter had been drugged, raped and then murdered and then her killer allowed to go free.
André devoted his life to pursuing Krombach.

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