It's a warm morning in Stockholm on June 19, 1995. A plane from Kallax Airport lands at Arlanda at 8:30 a.m. On board is 33-year-old Peter Engström.
He has dressed up.
The black leather jacket is on, the silk shirt with a zipper underneath. The trousers are also black, and the cowboy boots are on his feet as well. The long hair at the back of his neck is dyed, with contemporary blonde streaks.
At 8:35 a.m. he calls his partner at home in Boden. The call lasts five minutes. Everything has gone well, Peter says. Now he is to be picked up and taken to the Svea Court of Appeal.
The hearing in the Court of Appeal is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. But when the bell rings, one chair is empty.
Peter Engström never appears.
Somewhere along the road between Arlanda and central Stockholm, he disappears.
More than 30 years have passed - and to this day, Peter's family still lacks answers about what happened.
"It's been so long, but of course you want to know what happened. Above all, you want answers for mom's sake. This has been really hard for her. She thought he would come back. For several years she had Christmas presents under the tree for him," says Mikael Garding, Peter's brother.
Caught in a web of theft
Peter Engström was drawn into crime at an early age. Mikael remembers how Peter, already in his late teens, was sometimes awash in money. Other times he had nothing at all. Peter didn't say much, but Mikael understood.
"As a child he wasn't a troublemaker, but I thought he was lazy. He always wanted to take the easy way out, and the easy way out was to become a criminal," says Mikael.
He was in and out of prison, and we fought like crazy. I was so pissed off at him and thought his life choices were completely fucked. I really tried to encourage him to get a regular job and quit that shit, but it was hard. It didn't work.
In the mid-1990s, inflation in Sweden was skyrocketing. Wealthy people were having financial problems - at the same time, criminals like Peter saw a chance to make quick money. Plans for various forms of fraud emerged and Peter got caught up in the mix.
In 1994, a gang was sentenced to prison in a case that simply involved the theft and resale of expensive boats. Peter was arrested with an accomplice in Korsör, Denmark, in October 1993, when they were about to take a 17-metre luxury cruiser from Helsingborg to Kiel, Germany.
In total, the gang stole about ten boats worth around five million kronor. The boat in Korsör cost three million.
In the district court, Peter was sentenced to three years in prison. In the court of appeal, he hoped to have the sentence reduced. That did not happen. Instead, he disappeared.
No tips
Cathrine Löfgren is the head of the preliminary investigation at the police's cold case group, which is handling Peter's case.
"It is clear that one of the theories the police have been working on has to do with the boat thefts. But they looked at other parameters as well. They questioned people close to him, but they couldn't figure out what caused him to disappear," she says.
In 1997, the case was closed due to lack of evidence. In 2009, it was reopened, and since 2019, the police have classified the case as a suspected murder.
Initially, it was suspected that Peter was missing and that it was a case of kidnapping. We have really done what we can so far, but in this case there have been very few tips, says Cathrine Löfgren.
The more years go by, the more difficult it becomes. Of course it would be possible to solve it, but we would need some technical clues. And then we would need to find a body. It sounds terrible, but that's actually how it is, she continues.
The case has received remarkably little attention over the years. The local newspaper Norrbottens-Kuriren has reported on the case in a couple of articles, but apart from that, it is sparse. A text in Svenska Dagbladet, a few features in TV3's "Efterlyst" more than 20 years ago. Not much more than that.
Generally, tips are usually received, but that is not the case in this case, says Cathrine Löfgren.
Mikael Garding believes his brother was murdered shortly after he landed at Arlanda that June morning in 1995.
I think this is about money, or drugs. Someone probably lured him from Arlanda. When everything happened... it was a difficult time. It was kind of mixed feelings, in a way it was a bit nice to get away from it all. Because you were always so worried about him. But at the same time, it's my brother we're talking about.
Neither the police nor Mikael believe that Peter disappeared voluntarily.
"When it happened, I know I thought maybe he had gone to Australia and that he would be back soon. Mom thought that a lot, but no. When the police closed the case the first time, I realized that he was gone forever," says Mikael.
The wish: A grave
Gone forever.
Mikael has come to terms with that idea, after all, so many years have passed. But he wants answers about what really happened to Peter.
If the police found him, we could bury him, my mother would have a grave to go to. That would help a lot. Both for her and for me, so I hope so. I actually want to know what happened. It's something too damn bad, but getting an answer would still be closure, he says.
Do you have information about Peter Engström's disappearance? Contact the police on 114 14. You will receive a voice response. Say "tip" to proceed.
