Prosecutors investigate parents of drowned three-year-old Bella in Preetz

Investigation launched

On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, police and the prosecutor's office in Kiel jointly announced that the Staatsanwaltschaft Kiel had opened criminal proceedings against both parents of three-year-old Bella S. The investigation targets suspected negligent homicide by omission (fahrlässige Tötung durch Unterlassen) as well as alleged violations of supervision and further duty-of-care obligations. The Amtsgericht, at the request of the prosecutor's office, issued a search warrant for the family home in Preetz, which officers from the Kiel police directorate began executing on Wednesday. Senior prosecutor Michael Bimler confirmed to Bild that an investigation for negligent homicide had been initiated against both parents of the deceased child. The search of the residence was described as ongoing through Wednesday, with one report placing its start in the morning and others at midday. The measures served to secure potential evidence and to further document the surroundings and the location where the body was found.

The authorities' statement

The joint statement from police and prosecutors in Kiel established the basis for the investigation.

There is initial suspicion that a breach of supervision and other duty-of-care obligations may have led to the child's drowning death.

The statement was issued jointly by police and the prosecutor's office on Wednesday in Kiel. The authorities described the search of the family home as aimed at finding and securing evidence and at further documenting the environment around the location where the body was discovered.

The search and discovery

Bella, described in reports as autistic, was reported missing from the family home in Preetz, a town in the district of Plön in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, early last week. The three-year-old was found dead in a pool behind the family's house after what one article described as a "long search" by police. According to one report, the body was discovered a day after the missing-person report was filed; another account states the body was found two days later. Police located the girl on the preceding Thursday. After the body was recovered, investigators initially did not suspect a crime. How and at what time the girl entered the pool remains unclear. The question of how Bella could leave the house and get into the pool has occupied investigators since the start of August, according to one report.

Police reviewing own response

Die Welt reported that police are also examining their own potential failures during the search for Bella. The review runs parallel to the criminal investigation against the parents. The article did not specify what those failures might have been, but the dual track means both the circumstances of the drowning and the conduct of the search operation are now under official scrutiny. The internal police review was disclosed as part of the same Wednesday announcement from Kiel that revealed the criminal proceedings against the parents.