Army reopens 1981 child sexual assault case from since-closed housing in Germany

WIESBADEN, Germany — Army criminal investigators are seeking the public’s help to solve a decades-old attack and child sexual assault in a former housing area near Stuttgart. 

The case dates to September 1981, when a 12-year-old Black girl reported being followed in the Pattonville military housing area by a white man. The man tackled her, pinned her down, strangled and sexually assaulted her, according to the Army. 

A separate investigation was linked to the Germany cold case, resulting in a request for information, Army Criminal Investigation Division spokesman Thomas Hamilton said Wednesday in response to questions.

Pattonville housing has been closed since 1992, but Hamilton said many people affiliated with the military who still live in Germany may have been in the vicinity of the crime at the time. 

The man was described as being 5-foot-10 and 18 to 20 years old, with short hair and two distinctive moles on the left side of his face.  

Anyone with information can call the Army CID Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall Resident Agency at (571) 456-6060, email usarmy.jbmhh.usacidc.mbx.washington-field-office@army.mil or submit an anonymous tip online at www.cid.army.mil/tips. 

Investigators have recently solved at least one other military cold case in Germany.

In 2024, Army veteran Shannon Wilkerson, 44, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Pfc. Amanda Gonzales, who was found beaten and strangled in 2001 inside her barracks at Fliegerhorst Kaserne in Hanau, Germany. 

(Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division)