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The police are frantically looking for the answer to how the family in Söderhamn was poisoned by phosphine.
Now the eyes are directed towards other apartments in the area.
Just three weeks before the four-year-old girl’s death, Anticimex carried out measures at a neighbor who was affected by pests in the kitchen, Aftonbladet can reveal.
– I do not say which apartments or living spaces we are looking at, says prosecutor Christer Sammens.
The four-year-old girl in Söderhamn died from the highly toxic gas phosphine, which is formed when a specific pesticide reacts with moisture or liquid. But how it happened is
still a mystery.
A preliminary investigation into murder is underway, but without a suspect. Phosphine is formed when the dangerous pesticides aluminum phosphide or zinc phosphide react with, for example, water, acid or moist air.
Aluminum phosphide is used, among other things, to avoid pest attacks when food and dry goods are transported in containers over longer distances. Zinc phosphide can be used as a pesticide against rats and mice.
Inspecting apartments
Four months after the death of the Söderhamn girl, the investigation will look at other apartments in
the area.
– I am not going to say which apartments and living spaces we work with,
says prosecutor Christer Sammens.
How many apartments will you go through?
– I’m not saying. We will look at what we consider relevant.
Aftonbladet can now reveal that an adjacent neighbor of the poisoned family contacted the landlord Faxeholmen as recently as last September because of pest infestation in the kitchen.
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full screen More homes will be searched next to the affected family’s. Photo: Pernilla Wahlman
On September 20 – three weeks before the four-year-old girl’s death – Anticimex was on site and carried out measures in the neighbor’s apartment, documents from the landlord Faxeholmen that Aftonbladet requested show.
“Insects in the kitchen”
When Aftonbladet reaches the neighbor, she confirms that there were insects in the kitchen, and sends over a picture of what the insects look like.
– We just did as he said, says the neighbor with the pests in the kitchen.
The neighbor has lived in the apartment since 2020. At the same address, so next door to it
poisoned the family, there is a company that works with food imports from the Middle East and North Africa.
According to Håkan Kjellberg, pest expert at Anticimex, the pests were in the neighbour’s kitchen
silverfish that can take up to nine months to get rid of.
– I don’t know how big the problem was. We have placed three traps.
But you haven’t used any chemicals?
– We have not used any pesticides. This is a mechanical trap, he says.
Bed bugs in apartment
The same problem with pests has been reported to Faxeholmen from two other apartments on the same street. In one, from mid-October last year, the problem is said to be “huge”.
On the same street, there is also a long-term problem with bedbugs in an apartment.
There are a few international cases of phosphine poisoning that have resulted in death. In a recent noted case in the UK, a person used too high a dose of aluminum phosphide to control bed bugs. The tablets formed phosphine, which spread throughout the property and led to the death of an 11-year-old girl in the apartment above. Charges have been filed against a woman who lived in the property.
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full screen The police technician on an earlier occasion. Photo: Pernilla Wahlman
When Aftonbladet reaches prosecutor Christer Sammens, he initially does not know the information about the pests and the import company in the neighboring apartment. A few hours later, he announces that further measures are to be expected.
– We are not completely unaware of the questions you have, because that would be sad.
Have you previously blocked off and checked the neighbour’s apartment?
– We have implemented measures and will take further measures in the area, he says.
The poisoned family moved to the apartment in Söderhamn ten days after Anticimex carried out the measures in the apartment next door. The father of the family has seen the picture of the pests from the neighbor’s apartment and says that they did not have any in their apartment, where they only had time to live for two weeks before they were poisoned.