Slovenian Police Discover Body During Search For Johannes Strassmann
The search for missing German professional poker player Johannes Strassmann intensified on Thursday when Slovenia police were contacted by an anonymous caller who claimed they heard the voice of a young man speaking English with a German accent coming from a forest in the outskirts of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital city.
Speaking to PokerNews, Slovenian police officer Vinko Stojnsek said that the search efforts had been extended to the length and breadth of the country after a number of tip offs.
“We didn’t find him yet, and we are still looking for him. After the visibility we have given to the case, we have finally been contacted by someone we think may have given some useful information for our work. Someone actually reported having seen him in Nova Gorica, so now we are intensifying our researches there also.”
Nova Gorica is a town in western Slovenia, near the border with Italy and a popular place for poker players. A number of high profile poker tournaments have taken place there including the PokerStars sponsored Italian Poker Tour (IPT).
On Friday 27 June, Slovenian police made the grim discovery of the body of a dead man on the banks of Ljubljanica River.
According to early reports on Slovenian television, the authorities cannot confirm that the body is that of Strassmann.
“We are doing the DNA test now and then we will need to wait for the results. It may take 24 to 48 hours, so all we can do is wait.”
Strassmann’s mother and sister have arrived in Slovenia, but have not been to identify the body of a “young male.” Ngo Duc, who seems to be the admin on the Facebook page Missing Johannes Strassmann wrote on June 27:
To all friends …I am since this morning in Ljubljana and have met with the mother and the two sister. unfortunately there was today, when I arrived, not good news. it was in the morning found a male corpse, but this is so swollen and disfigured that no one could make statement, whether this is John. we now have to wait 24-48h on a dna analysis. However, as long as there is no clear indication, we will continue with the search. course, we hope that the Note of yesterday, that someone should have called in the forest, is true, then these swollen corpse would not be John. Please let us all pray for John and his family.
Twenty-nine year old Strassmann went missing during a night out with friends on June 21 and has not been heard or seen since.
Lead image courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.
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