My Daughter's Killer

Early in the morning of July 10, 1982, emergency services in Lindau, Germany, respond to a call regarding an unconscious girl at the residence of Dr. Dieter Krombach. Krombach meets the responders outside and says, "I think it's too late." Inside, his fourteen-year-old French stepdaughter, Kalinka Bamberski, lies dead in bed with rigor mortis already established. latestnetflix.com's read is that Asked about a cannula in her arm, Krombach states he injected her with "Calcium" because she had been out in the sun all day.

Kalinka’s mother, Danielle, telephones Kalinka's father, André Bamberski, in France to tell him their daughter went into shock from sunstroke. Bamberski travels to Germany, where his young son Nicolas tells him that the previous day had been normal and Kalinka had shown no signs of unusual fatigue. Kalinka is buried in Pechbusque, France, amid local rumors that she died following an injection from her stepfather.

In October 1982, Bamberski translates the German autopsy report. The documentation notes that 400 cl of undigested food had entered Kalinka’s trachea and lungs, causing death by choking, alongside an injury to the right labium of her vulva. Although the report states, "WE CANNOT DETERMINE A CLEAR CAUSE OF DEATH", Bamberski concludes the death resulted from regurgitation rather than heatstroke. German police allow Krombach to answer questions in writing from home, and the prosecutor closes the case in June 1983 as a death from natural causes.

Refusing to accept the findings, Bamberski prints 5,000 leaflets and distributes them on the streets during the Lindau beer festival. The flyers proclaim, "You should know that there's a criminal living in Lindau." Krombach’s daughter Diana arrives with the police, who arrest Bamberski, question him, and release him without charges.

In 1985, Toulouse journalist Philippe Motta covers the case, and French authorities exhume Kalinka’s body. The exhumation reveals that her internal organs and genitalia were not replaced in the coffin following the original autopsy in Germany, leaving forensic examiners unable to verify sexual assault. Because Kalinka was a French national, Bamberski petitions the French legal system, where medical experts determine that her fatal regurgitation was triggered by Krombach’s medical interventions.

Krombach refuses summonses to appear in France. On March 9, 1995, the Paris Assize Court tries Krombach in absentia, convicting him of intentional violence leading to unintentional death and handing down a fifteen-year prison sentence. German authorities refuse to execute the French arrest warrant on grounds that Krombach had been cleared by German prosecutors, leading French officials to suspend enforcement.

In 1997, Krombach is tried in Lindau for drugging and sexually assaulting a sixteen-year-old patient in his clinic; he receives a two-year suspended sentence and loses his medical license. In a television interview with journalist Barbara Völkel, Krombach displays no remorse, invoking an ancient Latin saying regarding his victim: "Those who remain silent seem to agree." He confirms he avoids traveling to France to escape incarceration.

In 2006, Rödental librarian Petra Stephan discovers that Krombach is practicing medicine locally using forged credentials. She alerts health authorities and Bamberski. Coburg police arrest Krombach before he can leave the country, finding cash and medical paraphernalia in his possession. Following testimonies from additional female victims regarding ongoing sexual misconduct, a German court sentences Krombach in July 2007 to twenty-eight months in prison for practicing medicine without a license, granting him early release in June 2008.

Bamberski tails Krombach to Scheidegg in 2009 and discovers a for-sale sign outside his home. Fearing Krombach will flee justice, Bamberski visits cafés and hotels in neighboring Bregenz, Austria, seeking individuals willing to transport Krombach to France. He meets Anton Krasniqi, who agrees to assist. Krasniqi tells Bamberski, "The less you know, the better," and enlists two men to help execute the transfer.

On the evening of October 17, 2009, Krasniqi’s team intercepts Krombach outside his Scheidegg home, binds his hands and feet, tapes his mouth, and drives him across the border. Krasniqi leaves the bound Krombach on the pavement of Rue du Tilleul in Mulhouse, near the customs office. At 3:20 a.m., an anonymous caller tells Bamberski where Krombach has been placed, and Bamberski phones the Mulhouse police station to report the fugitive's location.

Mulhouse police locate Krombach and dispatch an ambulance. Bamberski travels to Mulhouse later that day, where police arrest him at his hotel on charges of kidnapping and criminal association. When officers escort Bamberski through the station lobby to see the prosecutor, the stationed officers stand and applaud him. Bamberski is released on bail while Krombach remains detained on the outstanding French conviction.

In 2011, the Paris Assize Court opens a retrial for Krombach. After an interruption caused by Krombach's reported cardiac symptoms, hearings resume six months later. Multiple women testify under oath about being sedated with injections and raped by Krombach in his office during lunch breaks. Kalinka's mother, Danielle Gonnin, discovers that Krombach had regularly administered sedatives to her so he could sexually abuse an adolescent neighbor, remarking, "I lived with a pervert for years without realizing it."

The court finds Krombach guilty of bodily harm leading to unintentional death, sentencing him to fifteen years of imprisonment. Bamberski receives a one-year suspended sentence for his role in the kidnapping, while Krasniqi serves a one-year prison term. Reflecting on the prolonged pursuit, Bamberski saw his decades of resistance as a solitary battle against immovable systems, akin to Don Quixote fighting windmills. Krombach is granted medical release in February 2020 and dies in Germany in September 2020.