Editing Fritz Haarmann (section)

==Discoveries==
On 17 May 1924,<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 17">Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 17</ref> two children playing near the Leine River discovered a human skull. Determined to be that of a young male aged between 18 and 20 and bearing evidence of knife wounds, police were sceptical as to whether a murder had been committed or whether the skull had either been discarded in this location by grave robbers, or placed there in a tasteless prank by medical students. Furthermore, police theorized the skull may have been discarded in the river at [[Alfeld]], which had recently experienced an outbreak of [[Typhoid fever|typhoid]].<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 17"/> Two weeks later, on 29 May, a second skull was found behind a [[mill race]] located close to the scene of the earlier discovery. This skull was also identified as having been that of a young male aged between 18 and 20. Shortly thereafter, two boys playing in a field close to the village of [[Döhren]] discovered a sack containing numerous human bones.<ref name="ReferenceK">Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 18</ref>

Two more skulls would be found on 13 June: one upon the banks of the Leine River, and another located close to a mill in western Hanover. Each of the skulls had been removed from the [[vertebra]]e with a sharp instrument. One skull belonged to a male in his late teens, whereas the other belonged to a boy estimated to have been aged between 11 and 13 years old. In addition, one of these skulls also bore evidence of having been [[Scalping|scalped]].<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 17"/>

For more than a year prior to these discoveries, rumours had circulated in Hanover about the fate of the sheer number of children and teenagers who had been reported missing in the city. The discoveries sparked fresh rumours regarding missing and murdered children. In addition, various newspapers responded to these discoveries and the resulting rumours by harking to the disproportionate number of young people who had been reported missing in Hanover between 1918 and 1924.{{refn|group=n|In 1923 alone, almost 600 teenage boys and young men had been reported missing in Hanover.<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 18"/>}}

On 8 June, several hundred Hanover residents converged close to the Leine River and searched both the banks of the river and the surrounding areas, discovering a number of human bones, which were handed to the police. In response to these latest discoveries, police decided to [[Dredging|drag]] the entire section of the river which ran through the centre of the city. In doing so, they discovered more than 500 further human bones<ref>Cannibalism: The Last Taboo! {{ISBN|978-1-859-58495-8}} p. 116</ref> and sections of bodies, many bearing knife striations, which were later confirmed by a court doctor as having belonged to at least 22 separate human individuals. Approximately half of the remains had been in the river for some time, whereas other bones and body parts had been discarded in the river more recently. Many of the recent and aged discoveries bore evidence of having been [[dissection|dissected]]—particularly at the [[joint]]s. Over 30 per cent of the remains were judged to have belonged to young males aged between 15 and 20.<ref name="ReferenceK"/>

Suspicion for the discoveries quickly fell upon Haarmann, who was known to both the police and the criminal investigation department as a homosexual who had amassed fifteen previous convictions dating from 1896 for various offences including child molestation and the sexual assault and battery of a minor.<ref name="Monsters of Weimar p. 37"/> Moreover, he had been connected to the 1918 disappearances of Friedel Rothe and a 14-year-old named Hermann Koch (who had disappeared weeks prior to Rothe). Haarmann was placed under surveillance.<ref>Cannibalism: The Last Taboo! {{ISBN|1-859-58495-0}} p. 116</ref> Being a trusted police informant, Haarmann was known to frequent Hanover Central Station. As he was well known to many officers from Hanover, two young policemen were drafted from Berlin to pose as undercover officers and discreetly observe his movements. The surveillance of Haarmann began on 18 June 1924.<ref>Monsters of Weimar {{ISBN|1-897743-10-6}} p. 61</ref>