Rex Resolution 73: Kinder auf der Flucht

Bacher, a security guard, has a serious alcohol problem and when he is sent home from work for drinking on the job, the outcome is disastrous. He becomes angry because his wife has thrown out all the alcohol and angrier still when his son Klaus is not home to celebrate his own birthday. It all ends in a physical fight with his wife, during which his daughter Kathie takes the opportunity to flee. The mother is not so lucky. She shuts herself in the bathroom but is shot by Bacher through the door.


When Bacher discovers that Kathie is gone, Bacher races out of the house to find her. The neighbours having heard the shots call the police and try to stop his escape, one getting shot in the process. Brandtner and team are aware the children are missing and set about locating them, as well as finding the Bacher. No one seems to know where they might have gone, although someone suggests they regularly visited a lady with a red Persian cat. Kunz starts checking out vets.

Meanwhile, Kathie locates Klaus and has to persuade him not to go home. She manages to distract him by playing at a local park but, when she sights her father looking for them, she has to sneak her brother away. Her father then takes up position outside the house of the woman with the cat, often visited by Klaus on his way home. He feels confident that, sooner or later, the kids will show up.


Kathie buys her brother a drink from a kiosk and overhears on the radio that police are looking for her father in connection to the murder of her mother. It's clear they can't return home and so they're on the move again, eventually finding a hideout in a shed. The kiosk owner realises, from police descriptions, that he has served the missing kids and contacts police. This gives the police a specific area for their search. Unfortunately, they report this on the radio and alert Bacher to their possible whereabouts.

The kids are disturbed in the shed by a junkie looking for money for his next hit. He takes the kids belongings which proves to be his undoing. The kids' rucksacks alert the police and he is taken in for questioning.

Brandtner and team end up following a few false leads - a publican in the process of getting alcohol from his own guesthouse, an erroneous cat link. The junkie at least provides some idea of where the kids have been. Then a school friend of Kathie finally provides details of where the woman with the cat can be found.

Thrown out of their hiding place by the junkie, they're headed towards the cat woman. Unfortunately, their father is waiting there and grabs them before Brandtner can get there. The woman witnesses them being snatched and can give details of the vehicle to Brandtner and, before long, the vehicle is traced and tracked. When an armed Bacher steps out to force police to retreat, Brandtner shots him in the leg. However, the drama doesn't end there. Bacher seems to have forgotten to engage the handbrake on his vehicle and it takes off downhill with the kids onboard.

Brandtner sprints to leap into the front seat while Rex races ahead to open gates blocking the vehicle's path. Catastrophe averted!

Other players include Simone Heher above as wife Sophie Bacher, Nikolaus Blum, not credited with IMDB for this episode, Wilhelm Manske, above, not credited with IMDB for this episode,

Manuel Loeffler, not credited either, although appearing in 'Baby Rex' (not strictly a Recycled Rexer).

Recycled Rexers Harald Posch, above, here as Horst Bacher, as Fritz Urban in 'Wofuer Kinder leiden muessen' and also appearing in 'Tod im Museum', and Nicola Etzelstorfer, above, here as daughter Kathie Bacher, but also appearing as Lisa in 'Ein Toter und ein Baby'