In October 1984, a German food engineer named Günther Stoll died in circumstances that have never been fully explained. Before his death, Stoll had reportedly become increasingly convinced that people were following him or trying to harm him, although exactly who he feared was never established.
On the evening of 25 October, Stoll was at home with his wife when he suddenly said something along the lines of “Now I’ve got it!” He then wrote the word YOGTZE on a piece of paper before crossing it out. Nobody has ever been able to determine exactly what the word meant, or even whether some of the letters may have been numbers instead.
Later that night, Stoll visited a pub but left after suddenly falling from his chair. He then apparently travelled to see an elderly woman he knew, telling her that something terrible was going to happen. She reportedly advised him to go home.
Several hours later, two lorry drivers discovered Stoll’s Volkswagen crashed in a ditch beside a motorway. Stoll was found badly injured and naked inside the vehicle. He was still alive and reportedly told the men that four people had been travelling with him and had run away. He died on the way to hospital.
The strangest part of the case came from the medical examination. Investigators concluded that Stoll’s serious injuries had not been caused by the crash itself. He appeared to have been struck or run over by another vehicle somewhere else before being placed into his own car.
That raised an obvious question: where had Stoll been before his car was found, and who had been with him?
Investigators were never able to identify the alleged four people he mentioned. Nor was the meaning of “YOGTZE” ever satisfactorily explained. Theories have ranged from a secret code or vehicle registration to something connected with Stoll’s work, while others believe it may have had no connection to his death at all.
There is also the possibility that Stoll’s earlier fears of being followed were connected to whatever happened that night. But without knowing where he had been during the missing hours, it is impossible to know whether he was deliberately targeted or became involved in something unexpected.
More than four decades later, the case remains one of Germany’s strangest unsolved mysteries.
What do you think “YOGTZE” meant? Do you believe Günther Stoll really was being followed, and who were the four people he claimed had been in the car with him?
On the evening of 25 October, Stoll was at home with his wife when he suddenly said something along the lines of “Now I’ve got it!” He then wrote the word YOGTZE on a piece of paper before crossing it out. Nobody has ever been able to determine exactly what the word meant, or even whether some of the letters may have been numbers instead.
Later that night, Stoll visited a pub but left after suddenly falling from his chair. He then apparently travelled to see an elderly woman he knew, telling her that something terrible was going to happen. She reportedly advised him to go home.
Several hours later, two lorry drivers discovered Stoll’s Volkswagen crashed in a ditch beside a motorway. Stoll was found badly injured and naked inside the vehicle. He was still alive and reportedly told the men that four people had been travelling with him and had run away. He died on the way to hospital.
The strangest part of the case came from the medical examination. Investigators concluded that Stoll’s serious injuries had not been caused by the crash itself. He appeared to have been struck or run over by another vehicle somewhere else before being placed into his own car.
That raised an obvious question: where had Stoll been before his car was found, and who had been with him?
Investigators were never able to identify the alleged four people he mentioned. Nor was the meaning of “YOGTZE” ever satisfactorily explained. Theories have ranged from a secret code or vehicle registration to something connected with Stoll’s work, while others believe it may have had no connection to his death at all.
There is also the possibility that Stoll’s earlier fears of being followed were connected to whatever happened that night. But without knowing where he had been during the missing hours, it is impossible to know whether he was deliberately targeted or became involved in something unexpected.
More than four decades later, the case remains one of Germany’s strangest unsolved mysteries.
What do you think “YOGTZE” meant? Do you believe Günther Stoll really was being followed, and who were the four people he claimed had been in the car with him?