The suspect was identified by DNA as Urs Hans von Aesch (11 November 1940 – 31 July 2007), a Swiss man living in Benimantell, Spain.

[2][12] Urs Hans von Aesch completed a pen-making apprenticeship in 1959 and subsequently started a business selling pens using loans from his family.

He began to neglect his business and, in an attempt to bring in money, von Aesch sent an anonymous ransom note to a Swiss coal tycoon threatening to kidnap his son.

The businessman hired a private investigator and involved the police, and von Aesch was brought in front of the Zurich High Court in 1961 and sentenced to 15 months in jail.

In the weeks leading up to the abduction, von Aesch traveled back to Switzerland by bus, reportedly looking to rent or buy a flat or house.

[25][23] The search for Lenhard included at least 50 St. Gallen police officers, 30 local firefighters, dog handlers, divers, and an army helicopter, in addition to citizens.

[citation needed] Her body was eventually found in Bürerwald on 17 September, six weeks after her abduction, by Simon Kuhn, a local computer scientist.

[28] In October 2007, Lenhard's mother founded the Ylenia Foundation, which in its first ten years had raised money for projects in the Philippines to aid disadvantaged families.

[6][29] For years after the case was closed, media, including Blick, speculated that von Aesch had an accomplice, as many believed he would not have been able to carry out the abduction and murder on his own.

St. Gallen police refused to reopen the case since no DNA from a third person was found on the van, gun, or any of Lenhard's items, and no credible leads had been reported.

[30][31] Circumstantial evidence created suspicion that von Aesch may have been tied to 10 missing children during his 14 years living in Iselisberg, particularly as the abductions reportedly stopped after he and his wife moved to Spain.

"[8] In 2013, Scotland Yard officers travelled to St. Gallen to investigate possible links between the two crimes and were told by local police that no connection had been made between the two cases.