The 26-year-old taxi driver from Stockholm was reported missing and his snow-covered car was found at a nature reserve in Enköping on March 26.
The taxi was unlocked, the car key was still there and the taximeter was ticking.
The police sensed confusion and began a preliminary investigation into suspected kidnapping. Almost a week later, on April 1, they searched with dog patrols and found the 26-year-old hanging from a tree a few hundred meters from the car park.
The investigators did not think it was a suicide – but the suspicions were directed at four brothers and a girl, between 15 and 18 years old. Earlier this week, all five were charged with murder.
“Brothers to meet my rapist”
In the police’s preliminary investigation, it appears that earlier last winter the girl had reported the victim for rape, which according to her took place in 2022. Something that is also believed to be the motive behind the murder.
A few days before the hanging, the girl wrote to a friend on Snapchat:
“brothers are going to meet my rapist”
“Thihihi”
The investigation then shows how several of the suspected killers’ mobile phones are connected at the nature reserve.
On the evening of March 25, the girl sends a new message on Snapchat:
“MY RAPIST HUSBAND IS DEAD”
Two of the suspected brothers caught on a surveillance camera.
Two of the suspected brothers caught on a surveillance camera.
Girl: Felt like a movie – scary
When the girl is later confronted with what was found in her mobile phone during a police interrogation, she says that it “is an expression she usually uses when someone is abused.”
She also explains to the police that she was there with the brothers so that the taxi driver would be beaten.
– Would beat him down, but not beat him to death. But beat him.
The girl denies that they killed and hanged him.
– If I had a tabbe (gun) I would shoot someone dead, she says and adds that she would not hang someone as it is “a damn strange way to kill someone”.
In questioning, the girl continues to say that she lured the man to the scene, that she got into his car and that the brothers then showed up. According to her, the boys then pulled the 26-year-old out of the taxi.
– It felt like a movie when they pulled him out. Because it was so dark I couldn’t see them coming so it was scary.
Went on the attack in interrogation: “A bitch”
According to the girl, they spoke to the taxi driver and she then went home after a few minutes. The motive was the rape report, and the brothers are said to have said that they “have to do something about this because the police are not doing anything”.
– They would beat him. They had already decided on the 20th that they would beat him.
People close to the girl say that she told them about the murder, that she and the brothers tried to make it look like a suicide and that the background was the alleged abuse.
When asked how she views the people’s testimonies, the girl replies that she “jokes all the time”:
– NN is a bitch. I didn’t say I would kill anyone. It wasn’t even my idea to hit anyone.
During the trial, which will be held in October, the persons must testify about what they have been told. In addition, there is technical evidence, including the suspect’s DNA on the rope used in the hanging.
All defendants deny any wrongdoing.