1 of 3Photo: Johan Hallnäs / TT
In 1996, Malin Lindström went to Husum, never to come home again.
Now – 25 years and many legal trips later – the murder of the 16-year-old girl will be tried again.
But it is not excluded that the suspected perpetrator can be released again and if he is convicted, the punishment can be short.
“Mom, I’m with Jenny who lives in Husum. I do not know when I will get home. At least I’ll eat at home. Greetings Malin ”.
This is what 16-year-old Malin Lindström wrote on a note at home in Örnsköldsvik before she took the bus to Husum on 23 November 1996 to meet a school friend. The next morning, her father calls the police and reports the daughter missing because she has not returned home. Only six months later, at a bald chain in a forest area near Husum, is Malin Lindström found dead. Stabbed and tied to arms and legs with tape.
Now the case will – once again – be taken up by the Court of Appeal for lower Norrland after a series of more or less unlikely tours that ended in the Supreme Court a month ago granting a stay in the case, to the detriment of a previously free man.
– It is very unusual. Rising to the detriment of someone has taken place a few times in recent decades, you can count on one hand how many they are, says Moa Lidén, doctor of general jurisprudence who researches the rising process.
– You can compare with rising in favor of someone, which is probably so unusual in itself, but most people can probably think of a case, like Sture Bergwall or Kaj Linna, that you have heard about. But I do not think there are very many who can mention anything to the detriment, Lidén continues.
Multiple versions
The now 44-year-old man who is again suspected was first questioned a month after Malin Lindström disappeared, when a person mentioned his name to the police. In the coming interrogations, his story changed several times and more and more strange information emerged. One version was that he suffered a memory lump, the last thing he remembered was that he was walking along a road near the site when everything turned black. A memory researcher at the time was called in and tried in various ways to bring out the man’s memories, among other things, he was herded in the area.
Despite the lack of direct or technical evidence that could link the man to Malin Lindström, he was convicted in the district court for the murder. The decision was based, among other things, on the fact that the same kind of tapes that the girl was bound with were found at the man’s home, as well as blue fibers that matched the fibers in her rather unusual sweater. The police had also found pictures and drawings that were linked to what happened to the girl.
But when the case was taken up in the Court of Appeal, the man was acquitted. There, the assessment was made that even if several circumstances were troublesome for the man, it was not enough for a conviction. Above all, the court pointed precisely to the lack of technical evidence.
“Despair”
Although there was a sperm stain on the girl’s trousers, the analysis methods of the time could not obtain a DNA profile. A new attempt was made last year and succeeded. But the profile must be comparable to something, and there it stopped. The former suspect did not want to be topped and it turned out that there was no legal support to force him.
– It was a surprise but also despair, in the sense that they had given hope to relatives, says police Ola Ehrenberg at the Cold Case group in the North region, where the Malin case was located.
Ola Ehrenberg, however, would find a way forward. He went through all the old investigation material again and found saved hairs from the man. In addition, there was a document describing that a blood sample taken when the man was still a suspect had been sent to Uppsala University. A check with the university showed that the test was still there and when compared, it was a hit. The sperm comes from the 44-year-old.
“High threshold”
– The Supreme Court says in its decision to raise that if this new evidence had already existed in the original process, he would probably have been convicted, says Chief Prosecutor Mats Svensson who was responsible for the raising process.
TT: At the same time, it says nothing about when he and Malin met, or can prove that he murdered her. Is that a problem?
– I can only say that with the attitude he has now, that he has never been close to Malin, never met her, then it is not a major problem. Not in combination with other evidence.
However, there is room for the Court of Appeal to free the man again if it considers that the evidence is not sufficient now either.
From a legal point of view, and logically speaking, the decision to grant a stay and the new trial are different assessments. But in practice – once you have granted a raise to the detriment of someone, you have already reached a fairly high threshold. This means that the prosecutor has wind in his back here and what the outcome will be is very much about whether the defense will be able to present any alternative explanation for the DNA being there, says Moa Lidén.
The man denies the crime and his lawyer Ulf Holst has indicated that they want to see new investigative measures, what this would be is unclear. TT has tried to reach Holst, without success.
During a year
If he is convicted, however, the punishment will not be very long, the lawyer stated at an arrest hearing against the man in early June. There, Holst argued that the escape risk prosecutor pointed out that there were no grounds for detention, partly because a possible punishment would not give reason to try to escape. The Court of Appeal will be based on eight years’ imprisonment, which was the punishment in the district court, and then deduct from this due to the long time that has passed.
– What NN risks in a conviction in the Court of Appeal is not a long sentence. It is less than a year. So how big is the risk, from that perspective, that he might want to escape? said Holst.
Prosecutor Mats Svensson shares the view that one should count down from eight years in prison.
– But how much reduction should be made, I do not want to comment on. There are other cases where ten years have been taken into account and a small reduction has been made. I do not think there will be such a big reduction as he hopes.