Germany linked to Rilz’s nationality

Germany linked to Rilz’s nationality enters the case as both a fact about Johan Rilz and a test of how thoroughly investigators pursued his background. Although the homicide inquiry placed him at the center of the investigation, Detective John Kinder acknowledged that the team had not gone to his country of origin or approached police in Berlin directly.

Rilz’s Background

In describing the investigation’s initial findings, Kinder said that Johan Rilz was a German national who appeared to have no criminal record and owned no weapons. Those details emerged alongside the team’s checks on the Elliot household and Walter Elliot’s position as a successful studio head. Rilz’s nationality thus formed part of the basic background investigators assembled about the second victim.

The Inquiry into Berlin

During cross-examination, Mickey Haller connected the claim that Rilz had been “front and center” in the homicide investigation to whether Kinder had gone to investigate his background. Kinder denied going to Germany. Asked whether investigators had dealt directly with police in Berlin, where Rilz was from, he confirmed that they had not.

Kinder described Interpol as an organization linking police in more than a hundred countries and facilitating cross-border cooperation, with offices in Europe and access to cooperation from host countries. Haller then contrasted that indirect channel with going straight to Berlin’s police. The testimony establishes that the investigators had not made that direct contact; it does not establish what information, if any, they obtained through Interpol.

Investigative Significance

The exchange turns Rilz’s nationality into a measure of investigative follow-through. Identifying him as German was not the same as checking his history with the police in Berlin, and Haller’s questions exposed that distinction before the jury. The testimony does not by itself prove that the investigation’s conclusions were wrong, but it gives concrete form to the gap between describing a victim as central and pursuing his background at its point of origin.