The 15th of March, a 38-year-old woman is found dead in an apartment in central Borlänge. She lies on the kitchen floor. She has injuries to her neck and is estimated to have been lying there for a while.
A 53-year-old man she had a relationship with has alerted the authorities himself.
The man claims to have slept the whole night after the couple had a fight, and that he found her dead in the morning. However, several neighbors testify to a disturbance from the apartment during the night, and the man has scratches on his face. He is arrested on the spot.
Sought help
About two weeks earlier, the woman had sought help at a protected residence. To the staff, she describes the relationship as "turbulent" but does not seem to see herself as a victim of violence, despite testifying to physical and psychological abuse. Something that is common, according to the staff: a normalization process.
When the staff at the protected residence find out who the woman's partner is, they become immediately worried. Other women have previously needed protection from him, noted in the staff's records. He is "very well-known for his violent behavior".
"Very vulnerable situation"
The staff believes the woman is in a very vulnerable situation and thinks she should be given protection elsewhere. She wants help with her addiction, but is not perceived as fully ready to take that step yet. In the records, it is described that the woman has several vulnerability factors.
Such factors can be the lack of a social network, ongoing addiction, lack of income, and previous exposure to violence.
These women are extra vulnerable, and that's where society needs to be even more attentive, says Camilla Andersson, chairperson of the National Organization for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters in Sweden (Roks).
Difficult to leave
The staff has "an extremely bad gut feeling" and advises her to stay. But after just one day, she leaves the residence.
Leaving a violent relationship is a complicated process that cannot be rushed by outsiders, emphasizes Camilla Andersson.
Then we might rather push her. It requires that we support her until the day she is ready or has enough strength to leave the relationship.
In the residence's records, the staff's resignation and worry are visible: "One of us says that this is a woman who could be murdered soon."
Eleven days later, she is dead.
The 53-year-old is now charged with murder, suspected of having killed her through strangulation. He denies the crime. The trial in Falu District Court begins on Thursday.
The man was previously sentenced to forensic psychiatric care for a torture-like assault on a woman in 2003.
In 2023, he was also sentenced to nine months in prison for assaulting his former girlfriend with a baseball bat and for repeatedly violating the restraining order against her.
In late 2023, the 53-year-old was also investigated for aggravated assault of the now murdered woman. The investigation was dropped a month before she died.
