Ulf Olsson

Ulf Olsson (born 1951), also known as Helénmannen ("the Helén man") in Sweden, was convicted for the murders of 10-year old Helén Nilsson and 26-year old Jannica Ekblad in 1989. Found after a DNA test in 2004 (a test series including 28 other men), Olsson was convicted and sentenced to psychiatric care in 2005. Although he was first brought to the attention of the police in 2002, he had been in contact with two different police officers through anonymous letters and phone calls since only a couple of months after the murders.cite book
last = Åkesson
first = Per-Åke
editor = (ed. Dackén, Per)
title = Nordisk kriminalkrönika 2006
publisher = Nordiska polisidrottsförbundet
date = 2006
language = Swedish
id = ISSN|0347-2493
pages = pp. 26-42]

The investigation is the second-largest in Swedish history, only surpassed by the investigation of the 1986 assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme.

The murders

Helén Nilsson

Helén Nilsson was abducted on the night of March 20, 1989 and her body was found six days later. She had been alive for a couple of days after the abduction and had been raped. A number of leads were followed over the years but Olsson was not of any interest to the police until in 2002, when a police investigator involved with a recent re-opening of the case was informed of a man (Olsson) who had been suspected by the locals around the time of the murder. A tips was filed for him and in 2004 he was one of 29 men that were asked for a voluntary DNA sample. The test result indicated Olsson as the murderer with an error probability of one in 43 million.

Jannica Ekblad

Jannica Ekblad was a prostitute in Malmö. She was found dead on August 4, 1989, and since Olsson, who has been convicted of killing her, claims he has never met her, the known details about her last hours in life are scarce. She did talk to a female prostitute friend through her house phone trying to have her follow Jannica and a man to a location outside of Malmö, but the friend was unable to. No names were used, but it is believed that the man was Olsson. Jannica also visited a male friend of hers, who would occasionally provide her with heroin. Jannica made a short visit and appeared worried. She was seen leaving together with a man and no later observations were made of her. In 2004, large amounts of Jannica's blood were found in the summer cabin that belonged to Olsson at the time of the murder and together with other evidence, including his semen being found in her vagina, his enabled his conviction.

Connection between the murders

A police technician investigating the two murders was in an early stage convinced that the same killer was responsible for both murders. Although there were clear differences in the two victims (a young girl and a prostitute), other parameters such as the type of location in which the bodies were discovered, the combination of strangulation and massive force against their heads as well as the presence of dog hairs on both bodies, made the investigators suspect there was a connection. Before the evidence against Olsson had been collected in 2004, however, there was no established connection between the murders.

References