SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Police drop murder probe into graveyard body

Police have dropped a murder investigation after a body first thought to be that of recently deceased child found in a Stockholm cemetery turned out to be a 39-year-old woman buried over 40 years ago.

Police drop murder probe into graveyard body

Workers at a Solna graveyard were convinced on Wednesday they had discovered a child buried in an “unused” section of the Norra Kyrkogården cemetery.

Police confirmed on Friday, however, that the body was not that of a child but of a 39-year-old woman buried in 1969.

Forensic teams and medical experts made the revelation, something that took Lars Wetterlund, head of the cemetery, by surprise.

“This is unbelievable. I saw the hand and the arm. This must have been a unique case for the body to have been so well preserved. It could be that the ground was airtight, but this was just sand,” he told the TT news agency.

Wetterlund was stumped by the fact that the body was found just 130 centimetres underground, when the cemetery usually buries people a further 20 centimetres deeper.

“But we don’t think something like this will happen again,” he said, adding that it would be up to the Catholic congregation to decide whether the woman’s family should be contacted over the matter.

TT/The Local/og

Follow The Local on Twitter

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

LANDSLIDE

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

Swedish authorities said on Thursday that worker negligence at a construction site was believed to be behind a landslide that tore apart a motorway in western Sweden in September.

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

The landslide, which struck the E6 highway in Stenungsund, 50 kilometres north of Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg, ripped up a petrol station car park, overturned lorries and caved in the roof of a fast food restaurant.

READ ALSO:

Prosecutor Daniel Veivo Pettersson said on Thursday he believed “human factors” were behind the landslide as “no natural cause” had been found during the investigation.

He told a press conference the landslide had been triggered by a nearby construction site where too much excavated material had been piled up, putting excessive strain on the ground below. 

“At this stage, we consider it negligent, in this case grossly negligent, to have placed so much excavated material on the site,” Pettersson said.

Pettersson added that three people were suspected of among other things gross negligence and causing bodily harm, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.

The worst-hit area covered around 100 metres by 150 metres, but the landslide affected an area of around 700 metres by 200 metres in total, according to emergency services.

Three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the collapse, according to authorities.

SHOW COMMENTS