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On the ultrasound film, Elena smiles inside her stomach.
But her mother Josefine will never see her smile for real.
Because the expectant father made sure that Josefine never got to become a mother.
It is a gray and cold Friday morning in Åkarp in Skåne December 2021.
The first snow has already melted away in some places.
Susanna is at home when her phone rings.
It’s an unknown number so she doesn’t answer. The cell phone rings. She listens to the voicemail.
It’s a policeman telling her to contact her mother. Instead, Susanna calls her little sister Josefine to ask if she knows what happened.
But Josefine doesn’t answer.
Soon Susanna will find out why.
32-year-old Josefine will be together with Mirza, who is ten years older, just eight months before she dies.
She longs for love and someone to share her life with.
Mirza assures her that he wants the same.
They move in together in the terraced house in Åkarp and Josefine quickly falls in love with his child from a previous marriage.
– She dreamed of having children of her own and becoming a mother, says sister Natalia.
After only a few months together, Josefine becomes pregnant.
The fact that it goes so quickly is something that her two sisters react to.
Josefine is the youngest in the group of siblings and they look after her. They see Mirza as withdrawn but think he might just be shy.
And Josefine assures them that she is happy.
– Apart from the fact that they advanced so quickly, we saw no warning signs. But we have no experience of bad conditions, so we didn’t know what to look for either, says Susanna.
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Josefine as a child.
1 of 2 Photo: Private
The 3rd of December Mirza takes a knife from their shared kitchen and goes into the bedroom where Josefine is in bed.
Maybe she is extra tired right now, after all she is six months pregnant with the girl she has already decided to name Elena.
Mirza stabs her repeatedly, later the forensic examination will show how she has repulsive injuries from trying to protect herself from her partner.
After murdering Josefine, Mirza washes himself off and leaves the bloody knife in the kitchen sink before leaving to buy cigarettes and Coca cola.
Only then does he call SOS and tell them what happened.
– Yes, I have… had the life of my partner.
Hours later, Susanna receives that voicemail from the police.
Nothing will ever be the same.
– In the evening, I took my children’s big teddy bear and just hugged it. I was waiting for someone to come and say it wasn’t true, says Susanna.
At first they are not told what Josefine has been subjected to, only that she is dead and Mirza arrested.
When, a few weeks after Josefine was murdered, they visit the funeral home to say goodbye to Josefine, they begin to suspect that her last moments were violent.
– We saw an injury on her forehead and understood that maybe she didn’t just fall down a flight of stairs, that it wasn’t an accident, says Natalia.
In the film, a smiling Josefine sits in a car and sings. She loved driving and playing rave music and techno really loud.
Susanna and Josefine were not only sisters, they also worked together at Lidl and in the mornings before work Josefine used to pick Susanna up at the train station.
– It wasn’t even six in the morning but the music was just pounding. If I tried to turn it down, she just turned up the volume instead.
They describe Josefine as a person without enemies, who loved animals and cared for the vulnerable and the elderly.
– At work, she paused what she was doing to help the older customers pick up goods and she did it without stressing, says Susanna.
In the sisters’ phones, there are loads of videos on Josefine.
– Sometimes we play them to hear Josefine’s laugh. It was so contagious, says Natalia.
Among the pictures on the phones are also photos of Josefine from her baby shower.
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1 of 2 Photo: The sisters’ Instagram account “saknadlovedjosefinepersson”
On the day of the celebration, Josefine has made a sandwich cake for the guests and the sisters have put a ribbon on her with the text “Mom to be”.
When she bursts the balloon and pink glitter falls out, Josefine rejoices that she is having a girl.
But the guests react to the fact that Mirza seems restrained.
– She said that she felt that he was not as happy for the child as she was, say the sisters.
When Mirza murders Josefine, he is previously unpunished.
However, two months earlier he had been reported for abuse of one of his children and he is worried about losing custody of the children.
Mirza has previously felt mentally ill in his life, and in connection with the police report, his condition worsens again.
He calls himself sick from work and turns to healthcare. He also starts seeing a psychologist.
The day before the murder, he googles “psychiatric intensive care unit Malmö”.
But it stops at a search.
Aftonbladet has reviewed violence against pregnant women and seen how several of the men were suspected of violence against children at the same time, or in close proximity, that they were expecting another one.
There have also been alarms about the poor mental state of several of the perpetrators.
Josefine’s sisters wonder if Mirza could not have been stopped before it was too late.
– How could the care not perceive that he was not feeling well, that he might need more help. And when he was suspected of having hit one of the children, why was he released immediately and why was there no more digging when he was simultaneously expecting a child with a new one, they say.
It is not known whether Mirza was ever physically violent towards Josefine before the murder. There are no reports, no one has seen Josefine with injuries and the messages between her and Mirza are down to the last loving.
The only concerns Josefine expresses come five days before the murder. Then she writes to her sister Natalia:
But what she means, she never elaborates.
In Arlöv’s cemetery, Josefine is now buried next to her father.
In the beginning, when both Susanna and Natalia were on sick leave due to grief, they sat here by the grave almost every day.
They still visit the grave several times a week. There they can sit for hours and talk about the fond memories they have of Josefine.
– The lights at her grave will never go out as long as we live, says Susanna.
On the stone is written “An angel smiled and turned around” because Elena smiled at the 3D ultrasound film that Josefine so proudly displayed.
– She talked so much about Elena. We miss seeing Josefine as a mother because she had become so good at it. And how had Elena been? Had she looked like Josefine? Had she had her smile, Natalia wonders.
The sisters feel that Elena was forgotten both in the legal process and in the grief work.
But even though Elena was never born, she was already loved and longed for.
Not only by Josefine and the sisters.
When Josefine became pregnant, the co-workers collected baby things in a box for her.
It’s still there.
Inviolate.
FACT WOMAN: Here you can get help and support
Are you or someone close to you exposed to violence in a close relationship? Here is a selection of places you can turn to for help and support.
Important: Always call 112 in case of emergency. You can also reach the social service or the social emergency service in your municipality via the emergency number.
A national helpline for those who have been exposed to physical, psychological and sexual violence. Relatives and friends are also welcome to call.
Offers temporary sheltered housing for people who have been victims of intimate partner violence and honour-related violence. Accepts women, men, their children and accompanying animals with placement via social services.
The national organization for women’s shelters and girls’ shelters in Sweden collects shelters throughout Sweden, some of which offer sheltered accommodation. Find an on-call nearest you via Rok’s website. Click on “find an on-call”.
Collects over 130 women’s shelters, girls’ shelters and other support activities. On the website there are contact details for emergency services throughout Sweden, some of which offer sheltered accommodation. Click on “find on duty”.
Network for women’s rights against men’s violence. Emergency phone: 020-52 10 10. Advice in 70 different languages, including legal advice.
Provides support to criminal suspects, witnesses and relatives.
A women’s shelter for abused women with experiences of abuse and prostitution.
Support for LGBTQI people who have been exposed to abuse, threats and violence. RFSL support reception also runs a sheltered accommodation in the Stockholm area.
If you want to talk to someone who works at social services, you can call the switchboard in your municipality and ask to be connected to social services.
All children can get help via Bris, Children’s rights in society.
Can help with emergency call and crisis support: Call 112 and ask to be connected to the priest on duty.
A support platform for young people (15–20 year olds) who are exposed to violence in their partner relationships, offers chat every evening at 8–10 pm.
Choose to stop is a national telephone line for those who want help to change controlling or violent behaviour. The telephone line is run by the National Board of Health and Welfare in collaboration with Manscentrum Stockholm.
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