A German woman who was thought to be a murder victim after a man confessed to killing her decades ago appears to have turned up alive and well, police in Germany said.
Petra Pazsitka was a 24-year-old college student when she vanished without a trace, NBC News reported, citing multiple German police officials.
She was living in the city of Braunschweig when she disappeared on July 26, 1984.
According to The Telegraph, who quoted an unnamed friend, Pazsitka was studying computer science and had just finished her thesis paper.
She had gone to the dentist the last day she was seen, and had planned on going to visit her parents afterward. But she never made it there, sparking a huge manhunt, The Telegraph said.
Pazsitka's disappearance initially stumped investigators, and her case was featured on a German true-crime show called Aktenzeichen XY.
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Police suspected that her disappearance was connected to the case of a 14-year-old girl who had been raped and murdered near where Pazsitka vanished, NBC News reported, citing Joachim Grande, a spokesman for the police in Braunschweig.
However, a few years later there was a breakthrough in the case.
But now, police said, Pazsitka's "disappearance" appears to have been a carefully orchestrated plot to start a new life.
Erstes Foto von "Mordopfer" Petra Pazsitka: http://t.co/0JOso0eYUG
Pazsitka had been saving money for months before she vanished, and spent the next few decades living in different German cities, police said. She eventually settled in Düsseldorf, where she has been living for 11 years, according to The Telegraph, citing police.
She was able to evade notice because she never opened a bank account or had a social security card, a driver's license, or a passport.
An official told NBC News the now–55-year-old paid for everything in cash and made money doing "illicit work."
A woman claimed to be Pazsitka when she reported a burglary at her home and police arrived, according to NBC News.
