Hitchhiking into Murder | The Chilling Case of Sophia Lösche

we are often warned of the risks of hitchhiking with strangers but what happened to sophia lucia when she did this very same thing and with the police not interested in her disappearance what would her friends and family do to retrace her path my name is adrian and welcome back to another video by coffee house crime today we're looking at the case of sophia lucia and with over 2 500 requests for me to cover this case it's coffee house crime's most requested case to date the case of sophia loscher bought pain and civil unrest across the country of germany for several reasons today you will find out why but just to let you know before today's video i post solved unsolved in strange cases here on a weekly basis so if that sounds like your kind of thing please consider subscribing to coffeehouse crime so pull up a seat grab a coffee and sit back this is the case of sophia lusher [Music] today we're adding a new country to the map of coffeehouse crime welcome to germany known for its bratwurst pretzels and of course beer and more specifically welcome to leipzig the most popular city in the eastern german state of saxony leipzig is best described as a vibrant and exciting city with a population just shy of 600 000 residents it holds an abundance of bars restaurants and shops which attracts many students looking to develop their education leipzig is rich in diversity too with many cultures and ways of life co-existing within the city's borders in fact it is the fastest growing city in germany and its growth in the past 10 years has mostly been with thanks to its inward migration and a final interesting fact but leipzig also contains europe's oldest coffeehouse adam heinrich schutzer officially opening coffee balm in 1694 which is located on kleiner fleischker sofia so it turns out that coffee and leipzig do indeed go hand in hand but unfortunately that is not what brings us here in today's case if you remember my comments on students and diversity those two characteristics are much more relevant to our story one of leipzig's residents went by the name of sophia lucia and she was 28 years old in the year of 2018. sophia was a reliable and honest student seeking to obtain her master's degree in german studies also known as germanistic being a late addition to the family sophia's siblings were a lot older than she was and in response she was very mature for her age graduating from max reagan gymnasium in 2010 sophia obtained an abater germany's most prestigious pre-university accolade and while at school sophia found her voice in politics obtaining her own desire to fight racism after graduating from school sophia then moved to bamberg to study german and during her time here she became a student representative for the university senate even appearing in video interviews for the occasion sophia was a very diligent young woman in 2014 she stood up as a candidate in the bamba city council where she demanded more affordable living conditions cheaper rents and much more friends often wondered how sophia managed to keep her life together she had a degree university senate role jobs hobbies friends her boyfriend and other usual engagements to look after yet she would consistently manage to do them all it was in the year of 2015 that sophia graduated from the university of bamberg and moved over to leipzig to begin her master's degree and while there she would often visit her family back at home and volunteer in various charity projects one of these projects was called the kitchen with no borders where sofia would often visit the greek island of lesbos to create meals for those less fortunate usually from a refugee background a lot of these refugees were from morocco and through her various visits she would learn the basics of the arabic language on the 14th of june 2018 sophia made plans to travel back to her parents home to celebrate her dad's birthday which was the very next day the family home was in amberg roughly 180 miles from her student apartment in leipzig and so the journey wasn't a simple a to b but it was the middle of summertime in germany and the weather was warm and sunny that afternoon roughly 71 degrees fahrenheit to be exact sophia left her apartment at around 4pm saying goodbye to her flatmates before taking the s-bahn train from leipzig to squid its west the journey was only around 10 minutes long and afterwards she walked away to the aerial gas station taking another 10 minutes to get there there's not much to note about this gas station it has a mcdonald's a car wash a place to buy gas and apparently its schnitzel and fries aren't too bad either another benefit particularly to sofia was the vast amount of traffic that came through this gas station and it even had a resting bay for a dozen truck drivers this was important to sofia as she had intended to complete the remaining 160 miles back home through hitchhiking understandably hitchhiking is perceived to be quite dangerous allowing a total stranger to be in full control of your physical location is a significant step in randomized trust but even hitchhiking in particular holds a negative stigma statistically speaking it's not as bad as people make it out to be in fact over 99 percent of all hitchhiking goes by without any problem whatsoever and when we're talking about the more severe types of crime that likelihood is significantly smaller than one percent sophia trusted these figures in fact she had hitchhiked to this route many times before with her close friend eva sofia understood the marginal risks but she felt the benefits of saving money meeting new people and living an adventurous lifestyle far outweighed the likelihood of anything bad happening the plan was to hitchhike from this gas station to a place named hersbrook where she could then complete the remaining 23 miles by train before her father could pick her up from the train station [Music] and that was the plan at least but sofia she never showed up [Music] sophia told her parents that she believed she would be home around 11 pm but as the hour came and went her parents johannes and liz immediately knew something was wrong in fact their worries had been growing since around 10 pm as sophia had never answered her mother's text message which had asked her what time she would arrive at the train station at 105 in the morning johannes drove to the train station to see if sofia had made the last train if she didn't make this one this really was her last chance for the night and unfortunately she was nowhere to be seen sophia's family were obviously worried and in a great amount of fear they had no idea where she could have gone to and they were aware that she had hitchhiked to make her way home but luckily they had an early lead as a safety precaution sophia had shared some of the driver's details to family and friends at an earlier stage in a telegram message she wrote i am currently hitchhiking with bob a moroccan truck driver from leipzig to nuremberg he even gave me a moroccan pipe as a present sofia had made several attempts to catch a ride from the arrow gas station but to begin with she had no luck some had refused to take her and some simply couldn't due to the lack of space in their car this kind of thing takes time and patience but while observing the situation and realizing she wasn't getting very far bob decided to approach sofia and offer her a ride bob was a 41 year old truck driver on shift from morocco working for a company named ben trans and he and his blue t-460 truck were on the way back home when he encountered sophia and coincidentally they were both heading in the same direction using a combination of english german and simple body language the two were able to understand each other enough to make simple conversation and so with that said bob understood sofia's requirements sophia seemed to trust bob or at least enough to be able to accept a ride from him as witnesses confirmed that they saw the two walk towards his truck before catching the southbound on the autobahn 9. but that is all family and friends knew about bob and his involvement with sophia many questions still remained where is sofia who is bob is he aware of her disappearance or even worse is he directly involved with all of these questions burning in the back of their skulls the race to track bob down began [Music] at 6 45 the next morning sophia's parents called the police to report their daughter as missing but the answer they received was less than reassuring the operator responding with your daughter is probably out getting drunk somewhere which is why she isn't responding the police did nothing by 10 45 am another phone call had been made to the police in sheer desperation and worry but this time the operator suggested sophia's father should head down to the local police station to initiate a missing persons report he complied but police were still sluggish in beginning their investigation in fact only two discoveries would be made by police that day to begin with police namburg contacted the police in leipzig and after visiting sofia's apartment they realized that she wasn't there so next they attempted to call sofia and track her down but no dice her phone appeared to be switched off sofia's friends were growing more restless and after requesting the police to check all surveillance footage from the gas station the answer was no and this resistance further motivated her friends to begin their own investigation not even 24 hours since sofia's disappearance they had printed missing persons posters distributed them at several gas stations along the a9 garnered a total of 50 volunteers and even found their first unofficial witness this witness being a polish truck driver who had noticed sofia entering a blue truck that held a moroccan license plate this truck belonging to bob [Music] sofia's friends also requested arrow services to share the local surveillance footage but due to data protection acts this could only be examined by police and again police officers played down the situation telling sophia's friends to stop being hysterical an officer would eventually look at this footage the next day where he did confirm that sofia had entered a truck with a moroccan license plate it also confirmed the description of bob but investigations would stall for an additional two days as police couldn't decide if this case belonged to the state that she was resident of or the state that she went missing from by monday the 18th of june three days since sophia's disappearance a moroccan friend of sophia's cousin called to the company which bob and his truck worked for the operator on the line was very helpful as he confirmed that the truck was on its usual route back to morocco and he even promised that he would try to put bob in contact with sophia's friend eva and at 3 pm that very same day eva received a phone call it was bob the two spoke for around 15 minutes bob even admitting to eva that he had given sophia a ride he said that sophia seemed fine as she departed but she actually got out of his truck as planned in laos and he would even send a picture of his id to eva as soon as the phone call was over bob followed up as promised with an additional picture of him his wife and his kids eva felt horrible after speaking to bob it seemed as if her suspicions over him were entirely false but i mean let's face it even from the very beginning it seemed as if bob was the prime suspect or at least he may know where sophia had disappeared too throughout all this panic eva had made so much of bob's details public and now through all this disarray that seemed unnecessary she was now afraid for her safety and putting it bluntly that was all her fault however eva should have trusted her gut instinct because although bob had successfully persuaded her she was in fact right following a rather lazy weekend it was on monday when police had finally decided which state was responsible for sofia's case it was saxony the police of leipzig started building momentum in sofia's case using the details that sofia's friends had so diligently discovered on their own accord they reached out to ben trans requesting for the truck's gps data to be sent over for official examination and by that very same evening this data was in the hands of police this truck data made the rounds going from saxony police to lk saxon the state criminal investigation office to bundes criminalempt the federal criminal police office to interpol the international criminal police organization and finally to the north spanish police department at long last spanish police would finally begin their search for bob and although he wasn't necessarily a suspect he was their best shot at understanding what exactly had happened to sofia but in a sudden turn of events they would find him without even trying and approximately 4 30 on tuesday the 19th of june a fire was reported outside the spanish city of yeon the cab of a semi-trailer truck was burning heavily and that truck belonged to bob spanish police would eventually find him where they would then learn that bob was a fake nickname his real name was bojima lamribat bojima claimed that his truck's engine had been damaged and that this is why it had suddenly burst into flames but either way investigators were interested in speaking to bojima mainly for sofia's sake but now also due to the truck they took him down to the local police station for questioning pajima told investigators the same story that he had told eva but during this same interview officers couldn't help but notice the faint blood stains on his shirt so out of curiosity they took this shirt in for forensic analysis but before results even had the chance to come back a very sudden and stark discovery was made in the municipality of asparano which was 450 miles north from beejima and body had just been discovered in a ditch next to the motorway the body was of a young woman and tragically this body belonged to sophia lucha on the 21st of june 2018 exactly one week since sophia's disappearance she had finally been found sophia's family and friends were beyond devastated all of the effort they had put in to find sophia safe and well was unfortunately in vain gps data from the truck would eventually confirm that bojima had in fact driven through asparena and that blood which was found on his shirt unfortunately that was sophia's despite bluffing to eva bojima was sophia's killer all along not much is known about bojima born in 1977 he grew up in morocco with his grandparents under poor circumstances and neglect he never had the opportunity to receive proper education as a child but moving into adulthood he obtained work as a painter quarry operator and eventually a truck driver in the late 1990s he eventually met his wife while touring in his truck and together they would have four children who were three 11 14 and 17 years old at the time of sophia's disappearance but even after leaving a troubled home in his childhood his own home as a husband and father would also come with some issues bojima described himself as someone who is short fused and who would freak out easily which actually seems to be an understatement as allegedly he had beat his wife on multiple occasions one incident involving him cutting his wife's chest with a knife which ended up requiring four stitches to heal but what exactly happened to sofia with the gps data surveillance footage and mobile data it would paint a rather damning story the story begins one day before sophia even arrived at her owl when bojima was at another gas station in leipzig it was noted that while here he snapped multiple images of two young women leaving the bathroom in short clothing and not even two hours before meeting sophia the next day bojima was busy in his truck taking pictures of well let's just save himself inappropriately at 6 14 pm shortly after meeting each other a surveillance camera captured bojima and sophia walking towards his blue trunk and by 7 47 pm the two had stopped in berg located in upper franconia bojima and sofia are seen entering the shell gas station where they then bought coffee and sophia's body language through surveillance footage indicates that she is comfortable the drive continued for around an hour before bojima stopped his truck at a dark and lonely rest stop in chebes vest something serious and unexpected must have happened here the truck remained static for three hours the truck then made its way to a shell pit stop in lauf hersbrook pajuma then bought multiple cans of beer which were eventually found by investigators and analysis confirmed that sofia's dna was found on one of these cans burjima then spent his night in the parking lot of abl an electronics manufacturer located in laoth just outside nuremberg and as part of his work schedule 18 pallets of electronic accessories were loaded into his truck in the morning he got rid of two beer cans and sophia's headphones before leaving at 10 52 am by now friends and family had already enjoyed their first nights of fear and worry without sofia and unknown to the rest of the world she was still with bojima in his truck it is very likely that she was tied up in the foot well and if at all conscious she would undoubtedly be in immense fear bojima then drove four hours to augsburg for his next pickup stopping six times at various rest stops undisclosed surveillance footage reported that he appeared to be nervous and restless and sophia was nowhere to be seen by friday evening bojima had crossed the border from germany into france he stopped a further six times in the next day before eventually stopping at a rest stop in claude bonier of southern france due to the sunday driving ban bojima remained at this rest stop for 24 hours if only the police had taken sofia's case seriously in the first 72 hours as undoubtedly they would have had a good chance to locate him during this period there was even still a probability that sofia was still alive at 10 59 pm on the 17th of june a surveillance camera captured bojima entering a french gas station he added 119 litres of diesel to his truck before also purchasing four liters of petrol which was filled into canisters and purchased on a separate receipt i wonder why sadly we don't know when exactly sofia passed away but at around 6 a.m on the 18th of june which was four days and 1200 miles since sofia disappeared bojima arrived in asparena located in northern spain he then placed her body in a ditch before fleeing the area only to return later in the day to set on fire and as you already know he was found beside his burning truck the very next day with all of this accumulating evidence it is no surprise that pajima lamribat was officially arrested under suspicion of murdering sophia losha and bojima's trial would begin exactly one year later in july of 2019 according to bujima and at least to begin with both he and sophia had got along very well making great conversation but after reaching shibuya best fest everything changed while he was cleaning the truck's mirrors he looked through the window to see sofia searching through his belongings this enraged bojima and in response he hit her in the head with a nut wheel wrench and in a panic he left the truck while the court could agree that some sort of physical attack happened at speed best fest they couldn't agree on his motive or his manner to begin with they believed that his motive was that he accepted the right of sophia because he wanted to have with her and after she rejected his advances the situation turned violent but bajima firmly rejected these claims and there was also no evidence to suggest that any assault had occurred there were several complications into agreeing the time of sophia's death too one autopsy report suggesting that she died in spibes first but the other report highlighted the can of beer which was confirmed to have sophia's dna on it and this can of beer wasn't purchased until the next day and pajima's clothes were still clean during his visit to abl which didn't happen until the next day either and this indicates that the crime scene must have happened at a later stage but one thing that everyone could agree on is that bojima had in fact killed sophia lusher and on the 18th of september 2019 bhaji malamrabat was officially found guilty for her murder he was therefore sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years neither autopsy report found any evidence to suggest any form of assault so bajima was only found guilty for murder and for grievous bodily harm the judge described ibegima as an aggressive and emotionally unstable loner with no friends not content with his life and proven to react with violence the judge also highlighted that he was a man with less than average intelligence scoring an iq test of only savage but the judge wasn't the only one to deliver serious shade that day bojima accepted his sentence in silence he then added that as soon as he is a free man again he won't ever go back to his family and when asked what about his children he shook his head and said they have a mum following sophia's death and due to the progressive mindset that she had for migrants far-right supporters and anti-immigration campaigners began to use her name in protests to reveal the irony of her death this was against the wish of her family and her friends and caused great frustration to those who knew and loved sophia who would then react with equal force back the police would also take a hit to their reputation and both police states would admit partial failure for not taking sophia's disappearance serious from the outset and taking too long to begin a thorough investigation the sad thing is doing better in either of these things could have resulted in saving sophia's life but through all of this discourse it is easy to forget the one thing that truly matters and that is sophia lusher sophia was a diligent young woman she had a bright future ahead of her with so many goals that she was yet to achieve she was positive tolerant progressive and she loved life with her heartfelt honesty tireless passion and her openness her social circle was huge she met many like-minded people along her journey many of them who would shift from an acquaintance to a friend she put her trust in many and unfortunately that trust would be betrayed let's not forget the incredible tenacity strong will and determination of sophia's friends who throughout the days of worry and terror made every single attempt that they could to find their loved one they faced this challenge alone tracking down bojima without the help of police was the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack yet regardless without falter they would achieve this [Music] hey again and thank you so much for watching another video today by coffee house crime and thank you to raza velta for suggesting this case a huge thank you to jana for helping with translations honestly you helped bring so much depth to this story and also a thank you to all of you who helped suggest this case sophia lusha had so much to bring to the world and despite hitchhiking being relatively safe she was very unlucky to find bojima so what are your thoughts on hitchhiking do you trust its randomized luck or do you believe that it's never worth the risk please share your thoughts in the comments section down below that just about wraps up today's case so i will be back again next monday but until that moment arrives look after each other goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Coffeehouse Crime

Views: 1,391,711

Keywords: coffeehouse crime, Sophia Lösche, sophia losche, boujemaa lamrabat, true crime, hitchhiking

Id: xymEg2cm6xk

Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 11 2022