The Fabian Case: Hobby Hunter Led to Child's Body with Thermal Imaging Camera

Before the Rostock Regional Court, the trial is under way over the violent death of eight-year-old Fabian from Güstrow.

The accused is 30-year-old Gina H., the former partner of Fabian's father. The public prosecutor is convinced that she killed the boy in October 2025 with several stab wounds in order to clear a conflict in the relationship out of the way. The defendant remains silent on the allegations, and her lawyers deny any involvement. The presumption of innocence applies to her.

On the eleventh day of the trial, 13 June 2026, a statement came to the fore that concerns a hobby hunter and his hunting equipment.

A nocturnal “search” with the thermal imaging camera

Summoned was a 37-year-old acquaintance of the defendant, Christian D., who lives in the same town and pursues hobby hunting in his free time. Through this activity, he owns a thermal imaging camera of the kind hobby hunters use to locate wild animals at night.

According to his account, Gina H. is said to have suggested to him on 13 October 2025 that they search together for Fabian, who was missing at the time, namely in the remote area near Klein Upahl. She is said to have stated that she did not want to call the police and send them there. The witness packed up his thermal imaging camera and set off with her in the dark.

Nothing could be made out on the field with the camera. The witness was about to drive on when the defendant suggested going to a nearby pond. She is said to have walked ahead purposefully, finally stopping at the bank and shining her torch. The hobby hunter made out something black, which he initially took to be discarded pipes. The defendant is then said to have stated that it was Fabian.

“Hard to understand”: no report to the police

Particularly explosive is the fact that this nocturnal encounter at the site occurred one day before the official discovery of the body. The witness stated that afterwards he had simply wanted to leave and not be drawn into the matter. He did not alert the police. He rejected the accusation that he had forbidden the defendant to report it immediately.

The presiding judge described it as hard to understand that the witness did not call the police himself after the discovery. According to his own statement, he could no longer say for certain whether he had touched the find.

For the prosecution, the testimony is significant for another reason. The mother's lawyer pointed out that conclusions about possible perpetrator knowledge on the part of the defendant could be drawn from the events, since she apparently knew the exact location of the find before the body was officially discovered. The trial will continue on 16 June 2026 with another witness who is also said to have been led to the pond.

Assessment: When hunting technology falls into the wrong hands

It must be stated clearly that this case is not a hunting crime. The alleged act has nothing to do with hobby hunting, the witness is not charged, and the question of guilt is for the court alone to decide. Anyone drawing a direct parallel to hobby hunting here overstretches the facts.

Nevertheless, a sober look at one peripheral aspect is worthwhile. The thermal imaging camera, a device widely used in hobby hunting circles, became the tool of a nocturnal operation far removed from any official search. And a person familiar with hunting routines in the dark terrain found himself at the site where a body lay, without the obvious reflex of immediately calling the police.

This places the case within an observation we have already documented in another context: it recently emerged that a hobby hunter in Styria concealed a body for ten years, so as not to disturb the wild animals in his hunting ground. The motives are entirely different, yet both cases illustrate that the threshold for reporting a dead body found in the field to the police is not equally high everywhere.

What responsibility is required by an activity associated with weapons, nocturnal technology and great autonomy in the hunting ground remains a legitimate question. In-depth analyses of this can be found in our dossier on the Psychology of hobby hunting as well as in our section Crime & Hunting.