All they could do under the laws of the time was arrest Haarmann for indecency with a minor.
Haarmann later pointed out that the police couldn’t have searched too thoroughly. Friedel Rohe’s severed head had been tucked away behind the stove the whole time they were there.

Fritz Haarmann’s Killing Spree

Fritz Haarmann had already gained a reputation as an illicit butcher, well-liked by the locals for his friendly demeanor and remarkably affordable meat. By 1919, Germany was facing severe economic difficulties, and numerous families struggled to put food on their tables.

During the early 1920s, Haarmann would frequently linger around Hanover's train station, searching for young boys to entice back to his place with promises of food and comfort. This period saw a significant increase in the number of children running away from home due to the hardships following the war, providing him with a plentiful pool of potential victims.

Once he had fed his victims, Haarmann would brutally kill them by biting through their windpipes, a grotesque act he referred to as his "love bite," before engaging in sexual abuse with their lifeless bodies. Subsequently, he would dismember them, grinding their flesh into sausage meat or cutting them into cutlets to be deceitfully sold as "beef" or "pork."