On a winter night in 1996, hotel receptionist Christina Olofsson was brutally murdered at her workplace in Visby. 28 years later, hope still lives on to find her killer.
I think about it a bit too often, says prosecutor Susanne Wihlborg, who has lived with the case for several decades.
On the evening of December 11, 1996, 46-year-old Christina Olofsson goes on duty as night porter at Wisby hotel, the old town hotel in central Visby.
She's not in a good mood. The hotel is hosting a Christmas party with dancing to the local orchestra Gotlänningarna, and Christina Olofsson is sensitive to noise and mess, a former colleague tells Aftonbladet much later.
It becomes quiet first towards the small hours when the last partygoers go home.
Just before three in the morning, one of the hotel guests slips in and says hello to Olofsson. Before he goes into the elevator, he hears a metallic sound coming from a closed corridor. He is probably the last one, except for the perpetrator, to see her alive.
At quarter past six, an employee who is to prepare the hotel breakfast discovers that the reception is unmanned. He finds his colleague Christina on the floor outside an office, murdered. Next to her lies the murder weapon: a bolt cutter from the hotel's own toolbox.
The cash register containing around 7,000 kronor is gone.
Traces from an unusual shoe
According to the police, the perpetrators – likely at least two – entered through a room on the hotel's backside. When they broke into the office, they were probably caught by Olofsson.
The police find some promising leads. There is a print from the unusual shoe model Reebok Ex-o-fit high. Several witnesses tell of a car, likely a Volvo, with a broken exhaust pipe, which started nearby and then drove towards the harbor.
But no killer is found.
Prosecutor Susanne Wihlborg has been leading the investigation since 2001 and sighs a little when the case comes up.
I think about it a bit too often, she says.
Things happen all the time. We top and hold interrogations. Despite it being almost 30 years, we still get tips. But it's tricky when it's been so many years.
A few years ago, she was more optimistic. The police's cold case group was brought in in 2017, at the same time as new breakthroughs were made in DNA technology.
DNA trace too small
There is a DNA trace from an unidentified man in the case. Hope was kindled that the murder could be solved with the help of genealogy databases, as in the double murder in Linköping. But it turned out that the DNA trace from the hotel is too small.
We don't have such a clear profile. The problem is that the methods used in 1996 probably destroyed evidence. Some things may have been lost due to the technology available today, says Susanne Wihlborg.
Hope lies in a direct hit from a tip. Susanne Wihlborg has lost count of how many people have been tipped off by now.
Ugh, I have no idea, it's many.
Early in the investigation, the theory was that the murder was committed by a relatively well-adjusted person who had a lot to lose by being identified and therefore decided to get rid of Olofsson.
I took over four years after it happened, and then that perception was very cemented. Including with Leif GW Persson. He was even in my office and told me that this was about "social fall height", says Wihlborg.
Rumors of large sums of money
At the time, a rumor circulated that an old cruise ship was to be sold at auction and that guests had deposited large amounts of cash at the hotel. This could explain why someone would risk a break-in, despite their social fall height.
Both Susanne Wihlborg and the cold case group believe rather that it's about a ordinary break-in that went wrong and that the perpetrators came from Visby's drug circles.
That night, a large shipment of amphetamine was to be delivered to Gotland, and our drug addicts were out and about because of it. It's common for thefts to be committed to get money for drugs, and when there's addiction, it can lead to things going wrong.
Do you think these people are still alive and living on Gotland?
The feeling is a bit varied in me.
I would have loved to have been able to present some kind of explanation for why this happened and who did it, for everyone's sake and especially for the victim's family. My hope is that I'll be able to present something one day.
