Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Boyfriend confesses to killing missing man

A 37-year old man said to be the boyfriend Jens Janzon, who has been missing for more than two weeks, has confessed to the killing after Janzon's body was discovered in the storage room of an apartment complex in Skoghall, west central Sweden on Thursday.

Published: 10 August 2013 17:11 CEST

“He has admitted the crime. He has admitted to murder,” said the man’s lawyer Lennart Jemtelius.

It is understood that Janzon and the man who confessed were known to each other. Newspaper Aftonbladet described the man who confessed as Janzon’s ‘boyfriend.’

Janzon, 27, was due to go on holiday to Cyprus with a friend. He was last seen at home in Forshaga, west Sweden with his mother on July 26th.

He was reported missing on Monday and following a nationwide alert was found dead three days later.

Now police suspect that Janzon never left Sweden and that Facebook posts supposedly made by him were done by his killer.

A post on his profile on July 27th read; “Now it’s Stockholm in the afternoon to stay in a hotel and then Cyprus on Monday.”

Janzon’s family became suspicious when he failed to answer his phone and were told by his travel companion that his mobile was missing. In fact the Facebook posts supposedly done by Janzon were uploaded on a phone which heightened concern for the missing man’s family.

Upon hearing the news that a man has confessed to the murder, Janzon’s brother Mikael Myringby told Expressen; “I’ve been sure from the start that it was him the whole time. Confessing it doesn’t make much difference, I know that it’s him.”

“He should get his punishment quicker. It’s not going to bring Jens back but the time is now,” he added.

Friends and family have continued to leave flowers and messages outside the apartment building where his body was found.

Jenny Harmati, a friend of the deceased, told Aftonbladet that Janzon “was head over heels in love. He had met the love of his life,” she said.

Police have yet to disclose how Janzon was murdered or how long the body was in the storage room.

The lawyer representing the man who confessed said; “He has admitted to the crime but I cannot say more due to disclosure prohibition (yppandeförbud).”

A hearing will take place in Värmland district court on Sunday.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

Url copied to clipboard!