"We believe that it is established that the woman did not take her own life. However, a conviction requires that the court can rule out all other reasonable explanations for the woman's death than that she was drowned by the man. The court cannot rule that out in this case," says councilor Ola Jonshammar in a press release.
The acquittal was expected because the man was released from custody after the main hearing in the district court concluded in May. However, the court was divided, with two jurors believed the man should be convicted of murder.
"If the judges are tied in a vote on whether a defendant should be convicted, he or she should be acquitted," says Jonshammar.
Suspected already in 2015
It was in January 2015 that the 39-year-old mother of two was found dead in a ditch in Sigtunafjärden after she had been reported missing by a worried friend just a few hours earlier.
Shortly after she was found dead, her husband was arrested, but after a month he was released because the evidence was insufficient to prosecute and the preliminary investigation was closed.
In 2024, it was reopened after a relative of the woman requested the coroner's report. The following year, the man was re-arrested on probable-cause suspicion of murder.
The woman and the man were divorced at the time of the incident. They had separated, and the woman had met a new boyfriend.
The man's explanation
The man, who is now in his 50s, has always denied any wrongdoing. He said they went together to a pier at Sigtunafjärden and talked for a while. According to him, she wanted to call off the divorce. He opposed it and went home after a while. The woman was alive at the time, he says.
The man was sentenced to 10 months in prison for drug offenses.
