It鈥檚 one of the most puzzling cold cases in modern history: How did the Gestapo find Anne Frank and her family鈥檚 secret hiding place in Amsterdam in 1944?
Despite two in-depth investigations and plenty of disputed theories, no one has ever come up with a conclusive answer.
But a new investigation led by a retired FBI agent is harnessing modern tools, including artificial intelligence, in hopes of solving the 73-year-old mystery.
Vince Pankoke, lead investigator with the , said his team will use behavioral science, tips from the public and sophisticated A.I. technology in hopes of uncovering new shreds of information.
鈥淭his is not a prosecution. It鈥檚 a fact-finding mission. We have a motto on the team that there are no statutes of limitation on the truth,鈥� Pankoke told 麻豆传媒 Channel on Tuesday.
Frank was arrested with her parents and sister on August 4, 1944. They had been hiding in a hidden annex above a warehouse. She was then sent to the Westerbork transit camp, and later to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She eventually died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp of typhus at the age of 15.
Two previous investigations in 1947 and 1963 looked into who may have betrayed the family and tipped off their location to Nazi police. But both probes were 鈥渘ot very complete,鈥� Pankoke said, and suffered from a lack of witnesses and gaps in methodology. They were also held back by the technology available at the time.
The new investigation will employ techniques used by psychologists, data analysts, forensic scientists and criminologists.
The centerpiece of the modern methodology is high-tech A.I. software that will study millions of tiny pieces of information fed to it by investigators and synthesize the data.
鈥淎nd it鈥檚 going to be able to spit out relationships and connections that would take a human investigator 10 years or even longer to try to put together,鈥� Pankoke said.
The 20-person investigative team has already earned the backing of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which opened up its archives to help the initiative.
The investigation remains in its early days, but Pankoke said the team has already found 鈥減lenty of great connections.鈥�
鈥淏ecause we鈥檙e casting such a wide net over the information, we鈥檝e actually been able to solve another betrayal that happened to a Jewish family that was hiding nearby.鈥�
