Facts: Suspect of crimes against three girls
The 32-year-old man is suspected of crimes against three different girls:
A 13-year-old girl who disappeared on Saturday 15 April 2023 while she was out handing out newspapers in Kirkerup at Sørbymagle in Zealand, south-west of Copenhagen. The following day, she was found captured at the home of the 32-year-old in Korsør. He is suspected of illegal detention and rape and has made certain concessions. In a first round, he is in custody until May 11.
A 15-year-old girl who was assaulted at a school in Sorø on November 8, 2022. She was threatened with a knife and forced to the ground. She fought back and finally the perpetrator gave up and ran away.
A 17-year-old girl, Emilie Meng, who went missing from Korsør in the early morning of 10 July 2016. Her remains were found in a lake at Borup by a private person walking their dog on Christmas Eve 2016.
“It is a great relief that there is now a suspect in the investigation into Emilie Meng,” says lawyer Mai-Brit Storm Thygesen to Danish TV2.
— It is clear that it is a relief, it must be for the whole of Denmark, that they have reached a step further.
She is the prosecuting attorney for the murdered teenager’s mother and has previously directed scathing criticism at the police investigation.
Emilie Meng had been out partying with friends in nearby Slagelse. They took the train back to Korsør and at four o’clock on Sunday morning 10 July 2016 they parted at the station. The friends would take a taxi, but Emilie Meng would walk home, a distance of about two kilometers.
The following morning, she was supposed to sing with the church choir in Korsør’s church, but then Emilie Meng had disappeared without a trace.
Mistakes in chaos phase
Six months later, on Christmas Eve 2016, her remains were found in a lake at Borup six miles away. The police believe that she had been dumped there shortly after the disappearance from the station in Korsør, but have groped blindly in the hunt for the killer.
In retrospect, the police have admitted that it took too long before the right measures were taken in the initial phase. There was uncertainty as to whether the 17-year-old had an accident, was the victim of a crime or disappeared voluntarily.
Emilie Meng disappeared in 2016 from Korsør, the same town where the 13-year-old girl was found after being abducted from Kirkerup on April 15 this year. In Borup, the remains of Emlie Meng were found six months after the disappearance.
Police Inspector Kim Kliver said in an interview with BT newspaper in 2017 that it was initially a “chaotic phase”.
— It would be wrong to say that the police in such a chaotic phase do not make mistakes. We do, he said.
The mother’s plaintiff’s counsel has claimed in interviews that the police work was characterized by holiday staffing and pointed to several mistakes.
When the 13-year-old girl disappeared on April 15 in Kirkerup and the following day was found in captivity at the home of a 32-year-old man in Korsør, Mai-Britt Storm Thygesen was quick to demand that the police must investigate connections to the murder of Emilie Meng.
DNA tested and interrogated
It turned out that the 32-year-old had long before been of interest to the homicide investigators. He was one of a total of 1,450 people who were DNA tested and heard in the investigation, because in 2016 he owned just such a car that was caught on surveillance camera near Korsør station at the time of Emilie Meng’s disappearance.
On April 17, he was arrested on suspicion of abducting and raping the 13-year-old girl, and on April 25, the 32-year-old’s old car, which was now owned by a family in Slovakia, was seized. The police admit that any traces in the car may have been lost after so many years, but Emilie Meng’s relatives have given up hope that the murder will be solved.
The grandmother tells TV2 that the years after the murder have been like a nightmare.
— It would mean so much to the whole family if we could put an end to it.