It was on September 18, 2015, at around 9:40 p.m., that a woman named Isabel Eriksson walked into a police station in central Stockholm.
She had then been locked in a specially built bunker, located on a farm outside Kristianstad in Scania, for six days. Eriksson tells the police that she has been kidnapped and that the perpetrator – the then 38-year-old doctor Martin Trenneborg – is the same man sitting in the waiting room.
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Isabel Eriksson has previously told her story in “Skavlan”. Photo: SVT
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Trenneborg had previously tried to enter Eriksson’s apartment in Stockholm, to retrieve some of her belongings, but had then seen a note on the door saying that she had been reported missing and that the police had changed the lock on the door.
He then went back to the bunker and picked up Eriksson, to go to the police together.
– He wanted us to go to the police in Stockholm so that I could certify that I voluntarily stayed away. If he managed to get into my apartment, I might still be in that bunker, she has told DN previous.
Because the police sensed confusion and when they took Eriksson aside, she told them that she had been the victim of a kidnapping.
Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TTMartin Trenneborg’s bunker – this is what it looked like
Martin Trenneborg was arrested and the story that would later be revealed caused the doctor to be described worldwide as “Sweden’s Josef Fritzl“. In Sweden, however, he became better known as the “bunker doctor”.
It turned out that Trenneborg, who trained at the Karolinska Institute and who at the time of the kidnapping worked as a relay doctor, had spent several years building a bunker next to the house in eastern Scania.
The bunker was hidden inside an engine room (left) next to the house in the yard. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
He lives alone, but wants a relationship, while according to the statement he is afraid of being left. The solution, as he sees it, is to kidnap a woman and hold her prisoner in the bunker.
– It may seem a bit macabre, but that is how I have reasoned. That’s when I come up with the idea of kidnapping someone and keeping someone locked up as, well, girlfriend I guess, said Trenneborg during the trial, according to The Express.
The bunker, which consists of prison rooms and a rest yard, is equipped with door locks, multiple locks and both water and electricity are drawn. The only thing missing when the building is completed is a woman.
A bed was placed in the bunker. Photo: Police/TT The door to the bunker on the left. Photo: Police/TTMask that was found in bunker doctor Martin Trenneborg’s home. Isabel Eriksson woke up in the bunker
On September 10, 2015, Martin Trenneborg and Isabel Eriksson, who at the time worked as an escort, meet in Stockholm. They have come into contact with each other through an online ad.
At the meeting, which ends with them having sex with each other, Trenneborg speaks English and claims to be American.
Two days later, on September 12, they meet again. Trenneborg has champagne and strawberries with him. What Eriksson doesn’t know is that several of the berries are marked, so that the doctor can distinguish which ones he injected with sleeping pills and which ones he didn’t.
Photo: Police/TT
Once Eriksson is unconscious, Trenneborg drives her to Skåne and locks her in the bunker.
– When I woke up, I found myself in a dusty and messy room without windows, it looked like a construction site or a garage. The first thing I saw was a tin roof with wooden beams – and a man staring at me, Eriksson told DN earlier, and then went on:
– I was in a daze, but soon noticed that it was the “businessman” who was sitting there on the chair. But now he spoke perfect Swedish. He told me that from now on I would be his girlfriend – and that he might let me go in a couple of years.
The bunker doctor’s punishment – was sentenced to prison
But it was six days in captivity, rather than “a couple of years”. According to the district court, however, it was “a very well-planned abduction”.
“Martin Trenneborg has taken advantage of the fact that he is a doctor at the same time that he has shown great indifference to A’s (Isabel Eriksson, ed. note) person and exposed her to serious danger during the anesthesia and when he left her locked in the bunker without anyone knowing where she was”, can be read in the judgment as News24 took part in.
In the district court, Trenneborg was therefore sentenced to ten years in prison for kidnapping, while he was acquitted of aggravated rape.
“The recklessness and recklessness that he showed towards A and the serious attack on her person that it entailed means that the district court considers that the punishment amounts to ten years in prison,” reads the verdict, which was handed down on February 28, 2016.
Barricades at the farm in eastern Skåne. Photo: Emil Langvad/TT
But the prosecutor, who wanted the sentence to be tougher, appealed the sentence. In the Svea Court of Appeal, however, the sentence was reduced to eight years, citing that there were “mitigating circumstances” such as that Trenneborg committed the act under the influence of a mental disorder – albeit not a serious one.
It was also pointed out that he would lose his medical license and that he would have to pay damages of SEK 180,000.
Trenneborg later appealed the Court of Appeal judgment to the Supreme Court, but was rejected.
Photo: Jessica Gow/TTMartin Trenneborg’s time in prison
Martin Trenneborg served his sentence at the Tidaholm prison, which has the highest security class. There he was placed in a special protection department, called the RO2 department. This is, according to The Expressintended for inmates who live under threat from fellow prisoners and has, in addition to Trenneborg, housed the double murderer Anders Eklund.
Anders Eklund, like Martin Trenneborg, has been placed in the RO2 department. Photo: Police/TT
During his time in prison, Trenneborg is said to have devoted himself to yoga and expressed a desire to study. Since August 2023, ha is, according to Viaplay, a free man.
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Bunker doctor Martin Trenneborg today – has changed his name
Martin Trenneborg is today a free man. He has changed his name and lives in an unknown place.
In October 2024, TV3 and Viaplay will broadcast the documentary series “Bunkerkvinnan”, where Trenneborg’s crimes are depicted and Isabel Eriksson tells her story.
“The Bunker Woman” premieres on October 24. Photo: Viaplay
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