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Friday, September 25.
A woman introduces herself as a policeman and asks if she is Anton’s mother.
– Then I got it, says Lena.
The news of the death is shocking, but not yet. No one in the family has heard from Anton for over a year and he is now in the Forensic Medicine Agency unit in Stockholm, where the body has been stored since he was found dead next to a garbage room in Enskede. September 14 of last year – 41 years.
Here, next to a garbage room in Enskede, south of Stockholm, Anton was found dead in September 2019.
Photo: Lotta Härdelin
Wrapped in plastic and covered with a white sheet, he shares a room with dozens of other bodies waiting to be autopsied or identified. The medium blue room is completely empty except for a fan in one corner that carries moisture away from bodies. It’s as cold here as in a refrigerator.
But how did Anton end up in the morgue? And why did he stay there so long?
Anton grew up in a “common middle class family” in the Stockholm area. Lena and his older sister Ida describe him as funny, cute, sensitive, social, interested in languages, smart, and good at school.
– He made a big impression on people. He was incredibly popular and fun, he was “the life of the party.” All the girls were in love with him, says Ida.
But when it went up In her teens, she found it difficult to concentrate in school.
– At that time, people did not have the same control over diagnoses, but today I think he had ADD, says Lena and refers to the neuropsychiatric condition with attention problems and impulsivity.
When Anton was 18 years old, he was arrested by the police for drug offenses and ordered to contact a youth clinic for drug addicts. Grades plummeted: having had the highest marks in almost every subject, it didn’t even pass in Swedish.
I was afraid of him, you shouldn’t be afraid of your own son
After high school, Anton worked as a chef, but he never stayed in the same workplace for long. Mostly he lived in Lena’s house while abusing everything from amphetamines to heroin. When he was around 30 years old, she could no longer bear it. He could hallucinate and scream at night, take his things and sell them to finance his addiction.
– So I issued an ultimatum. If he didn’t do something about his situation, he couldn’t stay, because we were going under both of them. It is terrible to live with someone who is abusive. I was afraid of him, you shouldn’t be afraid of your own child, says Lena.
Lena says she applied helps in various places. He contacted the addiction care of the municipality, but they told him that Anton had to seek help himself because he was of legal age. He contacted the health center, who sent a doctor home with the family, but Anton thought he did not need help. He also called psychiatry, who after many conversations sent the police and an ambulance to the house, but Anton did not want to come and they could not force him.
A short time later, Anton began living as a homeless person and slept in shelters. The family couldn’t get in touch with him because he changed phones all the time and wasn’t active on social media, but he used to call every three to four months and Lena helped him with money.
– I was very embarrassed. I saw him begging on the subway. It was the worst, seeing his own little brother begging there. You do everything in your power to help, you give all your love…, says Ida and her voice cuts out.
When they cleaned their room They found 25 syringes at Lena’s house.
– He was so devastated, says Ida.
Lena and Ida want to remain anonymous, but believe it is important to talk about Anton to make a difference and improve substance abuse care in Sweden.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
But in early June 2017, Anton suddenly called from a treatment center.
– Was so happy. He was back to normal, probably the first time he was drug free, says Ida.
According to Lena, Anton had bothered to enter the treatment house, but only stayed there for two months. Then the social services office arranged a place in assisted living.
The last time Lena spoke with Anton was Christmas 2018. He was in the hospital with blood poisoning and had been on the brink of death.
– Then I told him that it was the best Christmas present I had ever received, that it was alive. Knowing that he was safe, he had food, a bed and people who looked after him, says Lena.
Anton was discharged and moved to a new supported home. Two weeks later he disappeared and after that he only heard sporadically from his brothers.
Then it became completely silent.
The family had called him before, without giving anything and he didn’t think it made sense to do it again. They felt a bit reassured that a friend of Ida’s thought she had seen him at Sergels Torg in Stockholm.
But when Christmas came, they became more and more thoughtful, they had never celebrated it without Anton before. Lena told Ida that she thought they had lost him, that he might not want to be with his family anymore.
Just over a year after Anton was found dead, the family received the death notice. He was then kept in a refrigerated room in the morgue of the Forensic Medicine Agency unit in Stockholm.
Photo: Lotta Härdelin
In September this year, they planned to call him, but the police had time before the death notice. Anton had died of a heroin overdose.
– We have felt it in our hearts, when it has been so long since we have heard from him. It has been so bad that they have prepared for it to happen, says Ida.
Mother and daughter are infinite grateful to police investigators for finding out what happened to Anton. At the same time, they criticize the fact that the identification lasted more than a year, but point out that they do not believe that it is the fault of the police but that the legislation limits their methods.
– It’s a big pity. The police must have access to all available help to find a person, says Lena, thinking, for example, that the police should be able to send photographs of unidentified people to all social offices in the country.
Anton was identified through a DNA test. DN has contacted the police for more information, but they chose to respond briefly by email.
The leader of the preliminary investigation, Peter Lindgren, writes that they are analyzing if they could have done things differently or if it is necessary to change the routines, since the identification took a year.
“The Law on Public Access to Information and Secrecy can prevent the sending of a photo to all social services offices, but the legal situation is not entirely clear. On the other hand, I think that sending a photo of a deceased person would be impossible as I cannot guarantee that the photo will not spread further, the recipient should also be able to see a photo of a deceased person. In this case, my researcher showed a photo of various accommodations, syringe exchange programs, and contacts that he had on his phone. But then we had printed photographs that we did not deliver, ”he writes.
Forensic pathologist Petra Almqvist, unit chief at the Forensic Medicine Agency in Stockholm, is relieved that Anton has been identified. But he says it’s strange and sad that it took so long.
Photo: Lotta Härdelin
For forensic pathologist Petra AlmqvistHead of the Forensic Medicine Agency Unit in Stockholm, it’s good that Anton has finally been identified. For her, corpses are not just physical remains. He also wonders who people were when they were alive, because part of his job is to find out how they died.
– Of course, we think it feels great that the poor bodies lying here finally get an identity. We’ve had only one person this year who was buried as a stranger, so you think about who he was and what happened.
He is moved by the fact that some people can stay in the morgue for so long without being identified.
– It is sad and strange, but I know that there are people who distance themselves from family and friends, and who do not report themselves as missing. Then nobody understands that they have disappeared.
When DN meets Anton’s sister and the mother awaits the funeral.
Ida and Lena show the image that will be in front of the ceremony in the church. Anton is young and not yet marked by drugs. He smiles cheerfully and looks directly at the camera. A thick layer of curly red hair rests on the scalp.
– It is sad to die when you are 41 years old, it is half of life. He could have had a normal life, says Lena.
Footnote: Family wants to be anonymous. Anton, Lena, and Ida actually have different names.
Read DN’s previous report on Anton: Nobody asks about the man in the cold room.
