At around 10pm last Thursday, the Ölmeborg family released their daughter’s assistance dog, the labrador Essie, into the garden in Enköping.
A few minutes later she was gone.
The father of the family has hired private search companies and is convinced that she has been stolen.
– I’m about to crash. I have slept for a total of 17 hours since Thursday, he says.
A year ago, the Ölmeborg family received an assistance dog that specializes in mental health – after paying 300,000 kroner and waiting for three years.
– My daughter has a disability and needs a lot of closeness, security and stability. Essie senses when she needs to be close to her. I haven’t dared to tell her she’s gone, she thinks she’s in hospital. It is so heartbreaking that it can hardly be described, says Patrik Ölmeborg.
The disappearance has received a lot of attention in social media as well as in newspapers and news sites, among others Enköpings-Posten who was the first to report the incident.
Hired private search companies
Patrik Ölmeborg is sure that someone has taken Essie. He tells her that she has never left either her daughter or Santa on her own and that she only listens to those she knows.
On the family’s motion-activated surveillance cameras, she is seen walking around the garden before she lies down and the cameras are turned off. The next time they are activated is when Patrik’s wife is out to pick her up. Then Essie has disappeared.
The incident was reported to the police the same night, but the case was first closed and the family therefore hired a private search company.
– We have been out with thermal camera drones and search dogs. Two search dogs have marked the same path over the fence and to wheel tracks on the common outside of us.
Police are appealing for tips
He says that the wheel tracks appeared the night Essie disappeared and that despite these details, the police initially said they could not proceed with the investigation.
But on Monday, new hope was lit.
– I went into the police station with new information that I do not want to share here. I got to talk to really nice staff who promised to look into it, says Patrik Ölmeborg.
In an email to TV4 Nyheterna, the police write that they reopened the case so that “some investigative measures can be taken”. They also urge the public to call the police on 114 14, alternatively 112 if the situation is urgent, if you have seen anything that could be linked to Essie’s disappearance.
Finding salary of SEK 50,000
The family early on promised a finder’s reward of SEK 20,000 to the person or persons who may have information that leads to Essie being found. But since the interest has been so great and since no trace has yet led to anything, they have now raised the bet to SEK 50,000.