A 20-year-old is in tears as she recounts the death of her 21-year-old friend Tove. Tove had come to speak with her at her apartment after a fight at the Nöjet pub in Vetlanda on 15 October last year. A fight breaks out between the 20-year-old, her 18-year-old friend, and Tove while they are showing her around the apartment. The 20-year-old holds Tove in a brief stranglehold, but Tove dies soon after. Both women deny murder. The trial is ongoing.
When she starts to tell about 21-year-old Tove’s death, the 20-year-old bursts into tears.
Tove had accompanied her to her apartment to speak out after a fight at the Nöjet pub in Vetlanda earlier in the evening, on October 15 last fall.
But in connection with the 20-year-old and her 18-year-old friend showing Tove around the apartment, a new fight occurs in the bathroom.
– Tove would go out and then it’s like she pushes me into the wall and then… I knock Tove to the floor and then Tove kicks me. Then I set my sights on Tove, says the 20-year-old in the hearing in Eksjö district court.
So far, she has narrated with a coherent and clear voice. But when she has to describe how Tove dies, she finds it harder to speak.
– Tove kicks someone in the wall, so we change position and she says “what the hell are you doing”. And then she puts her hands around my neck, she says, her voice stuttering.
– I say “what are you doing yourself” and put my hands around Tove’s neck and push. Then she flinches and coughs so then I let go and kneel down.
According to the 20-year-old, she only held the stranglehold for a few seconds.
The 18-year-old denies
Tove’s relatives sit opposite the suspects and sometimes hold hands, deeply affected by the story.
According to the 20-year-old, the younger friend helped by holding Tove’s hands during the fight.
The 18-year-old woman silently shakes her head during parts of the story.
She repeats when she herself is interrogated that she drank too much and was therefore asleep when Tove died.
– I didn’t see Tove anywhere and ask (the 20-year-old) if she went home, and she says yes. After that I go to bed again. Then she wakes me up later… She needs help, says the 18-year-old, fighting back the tears.
She has difficulty getting the words out and takes long pauses between sentences.
– I get out of bed and… go out into the living room and see… Tove lying wrapped in a sheet.
“Hit back”
Prosecutor Adam Rullman began Wednesday by asking background questions about the night out at Nöjet, on October 15 last year.
The 20-year-old woman says that after the fight with Tove at the pub, she wanted to file a police report, but that the police patrol she is talking to outside thinks she should sleep on the matter first.
Instead, she and the 18-year-old friend decide to take revenge.
– We thought we would beat her back and then just walk away, says the 20-year-old.
The 18-year-old denies that too.
However, the walk towards her apartment took place in the end in a good mood, says the 20-year-old. Once at the residence, however, everything goes very quickly.
Tried to burn the body
The two women have admitted in the police interrogation that after the death they wrapped the body in, among other things, a sheet and then transported and dumped it in a forest area outside Vetlanda. In connection with that, the 20-year-old also tried to burn the remains and other evidence.
The 18-year-old says that she felt compelled to help.
– (The 20-year-old) says that I have to help get Tove down to the car, and I… I don’t dare to contradict.
Both women deny murder. The 20-year-old’s defenders have also brought forward an alternative cause of death, that Tove was suffocated by stomach contents entering her lungs.
The realization that Tove is dead makes it “completely blank in the head”, says the 20-year-old.
She goes back to the bathroom several times to look at Tove.
– I expected that she would have left, but she never did. So after a while I understood… That she was no longer alive.
Saturday 15 October: 21-year-old Tove is at a restaurant in central Vetlanda and leaves it at midnight.
Sunday 16 October: At 02 in the morning she calls her boyfriend and at 04 her phone is connected to a cell tower north of Vetlanda. Neighbors say they heard bangs from the apartment of one of the now-suspect women.
Monday 17 October: Two women, 18 and 20 years old, are taken in for questioning and then arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
Thursday 20 October: Suspicions have been strengthened against the women, who are detained on probable grounds suspected of kidnapping.
Friday October 21: The regional special event and the large search effort for Tove ends.
Wednesday November 2: The police find Tove dead in a wooded area southeast of Vetlanda. Earlier the same day, the suspected women were re-arrested.
Monday 7 November: The classification of crimes is expanded to also include murder and breach of privacy. Later, the suspicions of kidnapping are dropped.
Friday March 17: Charges are brought against the two women for murder and grave breach of peace.
Monday March 27: The trial begins. Court dates are also March 29 and 30, with a fallback on March 31.