The man put his partner’s body in a freezer and for five years kept the death a secret from the woman’s family. According to the prosecutor, the purpose was to be able to take part in her pension.
Today, the verdict against the man will be announced in the Värmland district court.
The woman probably died already in 2018, but the death was not discovered until five years later. According to NWT, the police were alerted by the man’s brother, after he had confronted him about the woman’s whereabouts in March this year.
The woman’s body was later found in a freezer box full of food.
The man, who like the woman comes from Norway, immediately admitted that he had put his partner’s body in the freezer, but denied that he had killed her. Later, the autopsy also showed that the suspicion of murder could be dismissed.
Conceal the death
The man himself has stated that the woman died of an illness and that according to her wish he would bury her on the farm, but that it “ran into the sand”.
But according to the prosecutor, the man’s aim was to hide the fact that she was dead – and thus be able to gain access to her pension and accounts. It must have been around SEK 1.3 million.
In July, the man was charged with grave breach of privacy and serious fraud. He was also charged with forgery, suspected of having forged his partner’s signature on a series of forms from the Swedish Transport Agency for buying and selling cars.
Fake messages
According to prosecutor Lisa Karlsson, the man has pretended to be the woman in messages to her relatives. Among other things, he is said to have written that the woman does not want to have any contact and that she has suffered from illnesses that have caused her to lose the ability to speak.
– He has given different information to different people. It is of course very stressful for the family to find out that this information is not correct and that she was actually lying dead the whole time, Lisa Karlsson told TT in connection with the prosecution being brought.
Just before the trial was to begin, the man withdrew his confessions and announced that he denies all suspicions.
Four years in prison
Both a major forensic psychiatric examination, as well as an opinion from the National Board of Health and Welfare’s legal council which was obtained at the request of the lawyer, have shown that the man does not suffer from a serious mental disorder. The prosecutor has accordingly demanded that the man be sentenced to four years in prison.
After the conclusion of the hearing, the district court decided that the man should remain in custody pending a verdict. The man’s lawyer Stefan Liliebäck now expects that there will be a prison sentence.
– I would think that he will be sentenced to prison, Liliebäck told NWT in connection with the announcement of the court’s decision on detention.
The verdict will be announced at 2 p.m.