The Murder of Anne Stine Geisler

Anne Stine Geisler was an 18-year-old secondary-school student in Copenhagen. In early June 1990, during the city's Pentecost carnival, she left friends and headed home. She was later found dead at the Teglgårdsstræde property where she lived. The killing became one of Denmark's most prominent unresolved murder cases.

An investigation without a convicted offender

Copenhagen police devoted substantial resources to the case, but the original investigation did not produce evidence sufficient to charge and convict an offender. Public discussion over the decades has included theories and people who were examined by police. None of those theories is presented here as a finding of guilt.

The case is particularly important in Denmark's cold-case history because evidence from the scene was preserved long enough for later forensic techniques to become relevant.

DNA gives the cold case new life

In 2012, Copenhagen police reviewed a group of old unsolved homicides using improved forensic methods. Danish parliamentary records later cited Geisler's case as one of three old Copenhagen murders in which investigators succeeded in developing a DNA profile from material connected to the crime.

Contemporary reporting described the profile as belonging to a possible perpetrator, but investigators still did not have a named suspect who could be matched to it. The existence of a DNA profile therefore represented an investigative opportunity, not a solution.

Why the case remains active in public debate

Forensic DNA methods in Denmark have advanced significantly since the 2012 review. In 2024, familial searching contributed to the arrest in the separate Hanne With cold case, another 1990 Copenhagen murder. That breakthrough renewed public attention on whether similar approaches could help other unresolved cases.

In May 2025, Danish justice minister Peter Hummelgaard publicly described the Geisler case as an obvious candidate for the use of forensic genetic genealogy once police received the legal authority to use the method. His statement was an expression of investigative policy and hope, not an announcement that a suspect had been identified.

Timeline

1. June 1990
   Anne Stine Geisler is murdered

   The 18-year-old is killed in central Copenhagen during the period of the Pentecost carnival.

2. 1990s–2000s
   The case remains unresolved

   Extensive investigation does not produce a conviction, and the murder becomes a long-running Danish cold case.

3. November 2012
   New forensic review

   Copenhagen police re-examine old homicide evidence and obtain a DNA profile relevant to the Geisler investigation.

4. 2024
   Another 1990 cold case advances through familial DNA

   The Hanne With investigation demonstrates how newer DNA searching can revive decades-old Copenhagen cases.

5. May 2025
   Forensic genealogy discussed for Geisler case

   Denmark's justice minister identifies the unresolved murder as an obvious case in which the newly proposed method could be useful.

Current status

The murder of Anne Stine Geisler remains unsolved. No person has been convicted of killing her. A DNA profile obtained through later forensic work has kept open the possibility of future comparison or genealogy-based investigation, but no reliable public source reviewed for this file establishes that the profile has yet identified the killer.