One of the main questions when the murder of Tove, 21, was tried in the Göta Court of Appeal was what role the younger accused woman played in the death. She herself stated that she was asleep when Tove died – while the older defendant stated that the 19-year-old participated by holding Tove’s hands while she was strangled.
The 19-year-old’s defender, Peter Gillberg, sharply criticized the fact that the police did not reconstruct the sequence of events in the bathroom where Tove died, something he believed could have clarified the sequence of events.
Could have clarified
In the Court of Appeal, the younger woman was acquitted of murder, but in the verdict, the Göta Court of Appeal also highlights several shortcomings in the police investigation.
– There was no reconstruction. We do not know what it is because of that, it is the investigating police authority and the prosecutor who decide that. It might not have been possible to do it, but it might have been possible to try, said judge Andréa Erliden at a press conference after the verdict was announced.
– It is clear that it might have been able to clarify whether the information was even compatible with how it looked in this bathroom, she added.
The court’s chairman, Niklas Rundberg, says that it is difficult to know whether the lack of a reconstruction affected the Court of Appeal’s ability to rule on the case.
– But we always want to have the best decision-making basis possible, he says.
“Flaws in the investigation”
The Court of Appeal also highlights the fact that there was no forensic examination of the two suspected women in connection with their detention as “a deficiency in the investigation”.
That Tove did not have someone else’s DNA under her fingernails and that the 20-year-old had no visible repulsive injuries was raised by the district court as something that spoke for the 19-year-old holding Tove’s hands so that she could not defend herself.
But the assessment that there were no repulsive injuries is made solely from pictures taken of the suspects.
– Pictures were taken, but no proper forensic examination was done, as is often done. Therefore, one must be careful in drawing conclusions from the fact that they do not appear to have any injuries, says Andréa Erliden.