The couple was divorcing when the woman was found dead in the water in 2015.
During the ten years, the husband has lived on as usual – until he was arrested this week on suspicion of murder.
– Finally, now I hope we find out the truth, says a friend of the woman.
The woman was found dead over ten years ago.
Photo: ANNA-KARIN NILSSON / ANNA-KARIN NILSSON EXPRESSEN
Ten years have passed since the woman in her 40s was found dead in a wake in Sigtuna on a Saturday in January.
Since the murder investigation was closed in 2016, the case has been cold and nothing has been communicated – until this week.
In a press release, the case’s new prosecutor Vida Paridad wrote that a man was arrested on suspicion of the ten-year-old murder.
The victim and the suspect were married at the time of the murder but were divorced. The joint application appeared in the district court’s mailbox on Monday, two days after she was found dead.
Still living in the same house
The court has previously told that the divorce application was probably put in the mailbox late on Friday, October 23, the same day the woman died. The couple had then been separated for a period.
The husband was arrested quickly after the murder and spent a little over a month in custody on suspicion of murdering his future ex-wife, but was then released and the preliminary investigation was dropped.
After the death, he has apparently lived a normal life, had a normal income and updated on social media. He has been living in the couple’s former shared house, close to where the body was found.
In the estate register, which was made months after the death, it appears that he was entitled to several hundred thousand kroner linked to the woman’s life insurance.
The police’s cold case department has been working on the murder investigation.
Photo: Anna-Karin Nilsson
The friends: Straight and happy
The murdered woman was involved politically and was a strong voice in the cat breeding community. Several friends Expressen spoke to describe her as a straightforward and honest person.
– She was happy, very knowledgeable and liked to discuss. She helped me a lot, says a friend from the cat breeding world.
In the ten years that have passed since the unsolved murder, thoughts about what really happened have continued.
– When you have heard about other cold cases like this where charges have been brought, I have thought about it. Will someone pick up her case? Can we do anything to bring her attention? says another friend, describing it as a relief that the investigation has been started.
– I saw a headline that a man had been arrested, then I was told that it was him again. I think there are many of us who have always had that feeling, but then he was released last time. Then of course you started to wonder, was it someone else?
Denies the charge
A friend says she has looked back through messages and social media since the investigation started again.
– She wrote at the end of 2014 that it had been a tough year and that she was looking forward to 2015, and so she only got to live 23 days in that year. That I was very taken by now that I looked back.
During Friday, the man was arrested on probable cause on suspicion of murder, that is the higher level of suspicion. He denied the charge during the hearing.
The prosecutor Vida Paridad has not wanted to go into what it is that has led to the reopening of the investigation.
– The case has been handled by the police’s cold case department, and investigative measures that have been taken have led to the resumption of the preliminary investigation against him, she says in a press release.
