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Woman ‘murdered’ while out jogging in Stockholm

A 21-year-old woman who was reported missing after going out for a jog in Stockholm on Wednesday, has been found dead near a running track.

Published: 6 August 2015 08:26 CEST

Woman 'murdered' while out jogging in Stockholm

Police have now cordoned off the running track where the woman's body was found. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

The woman was found dead at 2.05am on Thursday morning in the Runby area of the Stockholm suburb of Upplands Väsby by dog handlers.

“According to the patrol that found her everything indicates that she has been murdered. It does not look like a normal death,” Anna Kling from Stockholm police told Swedish news agency TT.

Police have now cordoned off the area.

“We are speaking to those who come to the site and have information to offer,” Towe Hägg, a spokesperson for Stockholm police told TT.

The woman’s family reported her missing at 9.30pm on Wednesday night when she didn’t come home after a short jog.

The running track in Upplands Väsby where the woman was found. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

A large number of dogs and police patrols were then sent out to look for her. The woman's family also joined the search.

The 21-year-old’s car was still parked at the exercise facility.

Two cars have now been seized, but police would not comment on whether any of the cars belonged to the deceased woman.

The place where the woman was found is just a few hundred metres into the forest near a disused nursery, according to Ingvar Fasén, who lives in the area.

He was out walking on Thursday morning when he saw the police cordons.

“I found out that a woman had been murdered there. It has not sunk in just yet,” he said.

Police launched an immediate investigation into the murder. No arrests have been made and there are no suspects.

Swedish rail derailments could be linked to 'Russian-backed sabotage'

The report comes just days after prosecutors arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany to undermine military support for Ukraine. There have been similar alleged incidents in several other European countries.

FT also claims that security services in Sweden suspect that a series of recent railway derailments may be acts of state-backed sabotage.

It doesn’t mention any specific incidents, but late last year, a fully-loaded freight train derailed on the Malmbanan near Vassijaure in northern Sweden, damaging around 15 kilometres of the line.

Repairs began quickly, but state-owned Swedish mining company LKAB, which uses the line to transport iron ore was greatly affected, with losses of around 100 million kronor per day while the line was closed and a 3.8 million drop in operating profits for the last quarter of 2024.

It reopened on February 20th, but just five days later it derailed again in Vassijaure, this time along a shorter stretch.

Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at the Swedish Security Services (Säpo), reiterated to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) what’s previously been said, that Säpo is collaborating with police on the Malmbanan investigation.

“Säpo has an ongoing, routine collaboration with the police force on a number of cases, primarily when it cannot be ruled out that a foreign power is involved. One of those collaborations is on the investigation around Malmbanan,” he said.

Hultgren-Friberg declined to comment on the FT’s reports that Russia is planning attacks on European infrastructure.

“What I can confirm is that Russia is the largest single threat to Sweden,” he told SvD. “We’ve said that for a while. What we can see is more aggressive, risky behaviour from Russia in their illegal actions and spying in Sweden.”

Swedish police and Säpo have previously confirmed that they are investigating the Malmbanan incidents as possible sabotage, which doesn’t automatically mean that they actively suspect sabotage, but is also a routine procedure to facilitate the probe.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT that the reports in FT did not come as a surprise to him.

“Russia is prepared to go further and carry out operations and sabotage on other countries’ territory,” he said.

But when asked whether such acts of sabotage had taken place in Sweden, he said that wasn’t the case.

“We haven’t seen any such signs for now, but we are on our toes. Other countries have seen things where they know or believe that there are such connections,” Kristersson said.

In late April, LKAB said it was so badly affected by the derailments that it may need to close temporarily as it’s not able to get stock to customers quickly enough, so its warehouses are nearing capacity.

“It’s a real worry,” LKAB’s CEO Jan Moström told TT. “If we can’t lower our stock then we’re going to have to start dialling down production capacity.”

Moström believes that this could affect up to 600 people – half being LKAB employees and the other half being independent contractors.

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