Case 310: Kalinka Bamberski
Added 2025-03-08 08:22:25 +0000 UTCAfter 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski is found dead in her own bed in the German town of Lindau, her French father André Bamberski refuses to accept that she died of natural causes. The further he digs, he starts to suspect that foul play was involved, and that the person responsible was none other than Kalinka’s stepfather, Doctor Dieter Krombach. Will André’s suspicions be taken seriously, or will he be forced to take matters into his own hands?
Team:
Anonymous Host - narration
Elsha McGill - research, writing
Milly Raso - creative direction
Mike Migas - production, music
Anthony Telfer - audio editing
Comments
This case made me mad. It took way too long for a paltry amount of justice :(
Shannon Perez (shaslove1)
2025-04-02 16:51:00 +0000 UTCWeird comment.
Camilla Dyre Frank
2025-03-14 23:33:28 +0000 UTCOne of the most twisted and well told cases. Good job team!
Patrick Gadoury
2025-03-14 16:39:05 +0000 UTCAlso - noteworthy, two cases on Casefile are about seedy doctors who rape women/teen girls, who use injections at their own leisure - and in both cases, women left their own husbands for these creeps!
Zac
2025-03-14 06:38:44 +0000 UTCI’ve listened to this episode twice since its release on Saturday last week. Wow. This is like old-school Casefile. Not only was the story telling phenomenal, the detail, the story it’s self and the true emotion this case made me feel was just next level. What an amazing father. I would’ve loved to of heard more how it may have impacted his relationship with his son.
Zac
2025-03-14 06:37:53 +0000 UTChttps://magazine.atavist.com/the-kalinka-affair/
Ashley Fadden
2025-03-14 01:17:14 +0000 UTCDieter or
Green Thumb
2025-03-13 16:45:13 +0000 UTCSo rough, but this was exactly the story I needed today. I hope those men can live dignified, quiet lives with the satisfaction of knowing they fought incredible odds for what is right.
Cat Warren
2025-03-11 12:04:48 +0000 UTCKnew in the 1st 5 minutes it was the stepfather. How it took 30 years is astonishing. The mother only got worried when she found out she had been drugged herself. What an amazing father. May she Rest In Peace
Marie Gough
2025-03-10 10:36:22 +0000 UTCI teared up when I listened to the bit about the kidnapping, and the police officers giving him a standing ovation. Andre tried to do things the “right” way for 20 years. What else could he do but take the law into his own hands? A damn hero. I hope I can be half the mother to my son as he was father to his daughter.
Kate Coen
2025-03-10 03:16:00 +0000 UTCWhat a father, what a man.
Bluechurch77
2025-03-09 18:51:52 +0000 UTCYeah, it was interesting to hear the German government complain about anti-German sentiment whilst they also defended the most abhorrent crimes of its citizens...
Renae Bartlett
2025-03-09 11:34:26 +0000 UTCAndre is an amazing dad, and I think Kalinka was murdered because she was about to go live with him, and would have exposed her stepfather's abuse. The mother is so frustrating, and to be honest, is almost a narcissist herself. She didn't even bother reading about the circumstances of her own daughter's death until she heard about her own SA. Only once she was a victim herself did she care. I know about coercive control, FDV etc, but she turned a blind eye because she liked the lifestyle.
Renae Bartlett
2025-03-09 11:32:26 +0000 UTCAnother favorite was "Je suis tres farté" (I am very 'farty') to indicate I felt gassy. My mom, who was born in San Bernadino but often pretended she was French, absolutely hated it when I was vulgar. Every time I think about how she died in that dildo factory explosion I-- I'm sorry, I can't go on, it makes me fukken emotional
Suicide Sauce
2025-03-09 09:09:19 +0000 UTCI’m using this phrase now for sure
Ashley Batton
2025-03-09 08:52:06 +0000 UTCI wish every child had a father as devoted as André Bamberski. I could feel his love for his daughter through his determination and, clearly, so did the Kosovans.
Demi
2025-03-09 02:11:24 +0000 UTCLove you Casey. Always.
Green Thumb
2025-03-09 01:32:44 +0000 UTCYeah it's hard to feel like justice was served at all here. The double jeopardy claim was ludicrous.
AR
2025-03-09 01:25:41 +0000 UTCGreat story and great story telling.
Sidney Davies
2025-03-09 00:40:53 +0000 UTCWhen I was a tadpole my mom would impatiently snap at me "Depeche toi!" To which my sassy tween self would reply "I'm depeching!"
Suicide Sauce
2025-03-08 20:14:27 +0000 UTC‘The latest’ is ‘la depeche’ in this context. And - yes - it is based!
Rosie Overell
2025-03-08 18:04:05 +0000 UTCGreat case, casefile! The similarities between this case and the one in canada (Dr. Schneeberger, that you guys already covered) are so disturbing. They're nearly identical in every respect, from the chosen careers of the perpetrators, to the sedatives administered as injections in the guise of medical care, to the gaslighting their wives while preying on their stepdaughters, to the serial sexual assaults of their own patients, down to trying to escape to South Africa. And including the same narrative of a victim being shut down at any turn refusing to give up until they've not only gotten justice but exposed a whole web of lies and serial predation along the way. Really the *only* difference is that at least in Canada, authorities were actually *trying* to investigate the perp. It's interesting to contemplate how Dieter Krombach might have tried to fake his way out of the evidence (like Schneeberger famously did) if the authorities had only been doing any iota of their job in this case.
AR
2025-03-08 17:39:02 +0000 UTCthe "double jeopardy" claim was so infuriating. He was NEVER tried in Germany for her murder. Losing in a civil suit is absolutely not the same thing! The way his lawyers kept claiming that he'd already been "found not guilty" i felt like I was just going round the twist.
AR
2025-03-08 17:32:03 +0000 UTCAm I missing something here? How did they manage to classify his French prosecution as double jeopardy? Double jeopardy is the principle that a person cannot be tried or punished more than once for the same offense. He was never tried or punished in Germany. It's not double jeopardy at all. One country didn't find enough evidence to prosecute, so he did not go to trial and he was not acquitted or punished. Another country found enough evidence and prosecuted in absentia. It's a jurisdiction issue, similar to Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. As for the claims that France violated his human rights by proceeding without him or his defense counsel, that should be on him. He had over two years notice to attend and chose not to. This is a sad and incredibly frustrating case.
Vanessa Allen
2025-03-08 17:22:51 +0000 UTCAnd people try to complain about the "inconvenience" and "invasion of privacy" of a working with children check. As though it's all about them.
Bob Trenwith
2025-03-08 13:07:04 +0000 UTCWhen Andre said wanted to take matters into his own hands I immediately thought of Jean Marie Vilmein…. I thought the abduction was pretty wild and the theme of double jeapardy is interesting to think about
William Chui
2025-03-08 11:51:12 +0000 UTCFirst of all, Based. Second, "la depeche" means "the hurry/faster" and I thought that was a funny name for a newspaper. Edit: "anti-german sentiment"??? Piss OOOOFFFFFFF
Suicide Sauce
2025-03-08 09:40:51 +0000 UTC
