Peggy Knobloch murder: Man arrested over mysterious killing of schoolgirl in Germany 17 years ago

The nine-year-old, referred to as the 'German Madeleine McCann', disappeared on her way from school on 7 May, 2001

Police in Bavaria have confirmed the remains of Peggy Knobloch have been found (AFP/Getty Images)

The arrest of a man in Germany could finally bring the 17-year investigation into a schoolgirl’s death to an end.

A 41-year-old man appeared in court on Tuesday after he was arrested over the murder of Peggy Knobloch, Deutsche Welle (DW) reports.

The nine-year-old schoolgirl, who has been referred to as the ‘German Madeleine McCann’ in the past, went missing on her way home from school in Lichtenberg on 7 May, 2001.

She was last seen just 50 metres from her home and was feared to have been kidnapped and murdered at the time.

Her remains were found by chance by a mushroom forager in 2016 in woodland between Nordhalben and Rodacherbrunn, less than 10 miles from where she lived.

The man arrested over Peggy’s death is believed to be the same person who in September admitted to transporting her body to the woods where she was found, according to DW.

He has denied killing the schoolgirl.

It is understood police found traces of the same type of peat found on Peggy’s body at the man’s home, as well as matching flecks of paint.

Picture taken on 6 July, 2016 shows a police cordon at a forest near Rodacherbrunn, eastern Germany, where remains of alleged murder victim Peggy Knobloch were found. (AFP/Getty Images)

A man with learning difficulties was wrongly jailed for her murder in 2004 but was released after his lawyers had his conviction successfully overturned a decade later.

It was revealed he had been questioned up to 40 times without a lawyer present and only confessed to the crimes under duress, spending his imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital.

Peggy’s case has been compared to that of British three-year-old Madeleine McCann who went missing while on holiday with family in Portugal in 2007.

It has baffled detectives over the years, including in 2016 when DNA belonging to Uwe Böhnhardt, who died five years earlier, was found near Peggy’s remains.

Böhnhardt, who died in 2011, was part of the neo-Nazi terror cell National Socialist Underground (NSU).

A connection between the DNA was never proven.