Henry Jansén solved the double murder in Linköping: he never gave up

Published: 02 September 2020 kl. 16.18
Updated: 02 September 2020 kl. 16.43

The lights on the television camera have gone out.

And Henry Jansén, the policeman who could not achieve peace before the two murders in Linköping were solved, may finally retire.

He simply sat on a podium and read a finished script – “it took a few minutes to write” – and answered journalists’ questions about motives, timing and procedures.

Now we are sitting and talking on a bench outside the police station in an area called Garrison, whose buildings are reminiscent of a time that no longer exists. Here was the old Life Grenadier Regiment and the Svea Artillery Regiment.

“How does it feel?” It is a question that journalists often ask and that many scoff at. It is said to be nonsense.

In fact, it is usually an excellent question. He’s open, curious, and gives the interviewee a chance to vent his emotions and get out of prison where standard answers and clichés raise their walls.

– It feels good. This is a great day. I can go home with my head held high, says Jansén in the way old cops often talk, interrupted and pregnant like a character in a Hemingway novel.

He turned 67 this spring and should have retired last year.

– But then me and a colleague who was also born in 1953 heard about a new law that sounded interesting. We decided to drive one more year.

The change of law you speak of It was an update to the Police Data Act that went into effect on January 1, 2019. It allowed police to conduct family searches of DNA profiles in felony investigations and provides an opportunity to drill down into business genealogical records.

Thanks to this, an old rape for assault on a girl has been solved. And now the double murder in Linköping has been solved, sparking what would prove to be the second largest investigation in Swedish police history, only the shootings in Sveavägen are more extensive.

Yes, the fact that there is no verdict does not prevent me from affirming that the murderer has been arrested.

Press ethics rules stipulate that journalists must be aware that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, this is a good and wise principle, but in this case recognition is backed by extremely strong technical evidence.

I have failed to suppress when we journalists got into much-needed nonsense about the “alleged mass murderer Breivik”, even though we all knew that there was no talk that the terrorist was guilty in the ears.

Of course, Jansén does not doubt it either.

– I’d be very surprised if it weren’t for the man we’ve arrested.

Blue jacket, light shirt, dressed as a middle-aged copywriter at Stureplan, friendly eyes, dark voice. A watch that looks expensive, but turns out to be a less valuable gift from Saab than the one the wife received.

Responds to questions quickly, formulates well. He has a self-confidence of the understated kind that only a long professional life with all that goes with its successes and failures can bring.

I note that the murder of the eight-year-old boy and the middle-aged woman is somewhat reminiscent of the assault on Anna Lindh. Crimes are like train accidents. The aggressor and the victim meet by chance. DNA found in discarded hats.

– I agree with. But there are also differences.

You remember that day very well 16 years ago. I was talking to a uniformed colleague when an alarm was heard about an assault on a child.

– We criminals meet in a conference room. We were told that the child was dead and that a seriously injured woman had been taken to hospital.

The Murder Bible, the manual for The way crimes of this type should be handled was so named at the time, it was selected. Instructions were distributed. Jansén received instructions to question the daughter of the attacked woman.

I did not know then that the investigation would span 40,000 pages before the crimes were solved. That would require questioning more than 10,000 people. That some 6,000 men would be exceeded.

It was probably better that he didn’t understand. Such an uphill climb would make even the most optimistic climber of Mount Everest despair.

– But we never gave up. Unlike other recon killings, we had DNA. We think that the perpetrator could strike elsewhere in Sweden or Europe and then be caught.

Daniel Nyqvist fit with an almost disturbing precision into the perpetrator profile that was made at the beginning. Young, just over 20, lonely, few friends, anxiety, mental problems. Still, it took you a long time to find it. Can you understand if people think it’s weird, even bad?

– Yes. But he didn’t have a job, he didn’t interact with people, he didn’t generate suspicions.

Nyqvist was found with the help of a genealogist. But he had gone there anyway. A tip had arrived, Jansén had sent him a letter with a summons for topping.

He has been sitting with the killer for hours under questioning. I tried to attract responses of more than one syllable from him. It has not been easy.

However, a story has taken shape. There is no motive in the conventional sense, but there is something.

It has been speculated on right-wing extremism and racism, but unless Daniel Nyqvist is a very good actor and manipulator, the truth is different. The inner voices and demons had explained to him for some time that he had to murder two people.

One morning in October 2004, she woke up feeling it was time.

The forensic psychiatric examination has revealed that the man suffers from a serious mental disorder and that he already suffered from it when the crimes were committed. A not entirely sensational result.

Considering what the law looked like when it entered, there is a prison ban. Daniel Nyqvist will be sentenced to care. It will be some time before they release him. It’s just as good, for him and for everyone else.

And Henry Jansén will end a race that began in 1975, the year the new form of government came into force and the role of the king was reduced to symbolism, Sweden introduced a law that everyone in the front seat must wear the seat belt, Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party in Britain and Lars Werner took over VPK.

At the time, the police were driving Valiant, a car that no longer exists.

Did you have a saber?

– Now you’re rude. I am not that old.

We are sitting next to some wooden benches that do not appear to have been painted since the Battle of Stångebro outside Linköping in 1598. A woman I vaguely recognize walks by. It turns out to be Leif’s researcher GW Persson.

Jansén has accomplished a lot over the years. Mentions a Czech ice hockey player who killed a woman. I’ve never heard of that case, but I remember the double murder in Mantorp this year.

Soon after, as soon as the verdict takes on legal force, he retires to the house in the field and the plot, his wife and the three extra children and their children.

– I have a great interest in art. He will start painting again. You know, I’ve had a gallery next door. Also, I read a lot.

What are you reading right now?

– Jakobsböckerna by Olga Tokarcuks. It starts on page 1057 and goes down to 0.

It sounds like a murder investigation, but on the contrary, I get involved.

Henry Jansén laughs.

– Yes, you’re right about that.

Of: Oisin Cantwell

Published: 02 September 2020 kl. 16.18