During the trial, the man told that he had boarded the same bus as the 28-year-old woman who was on her way home from work, on Sunday evening, December 15 last year.
When she got off at Valsta in Märsta, north of Stockholm, he followed her and attacked her. The woman was talking to a relative on the phone at the same time as she was assaulted, which led to the police being alerted and the woman was later found dead in a bush.
Stopped taking medication
Shortly before the incident, the man, who had suffered from mental health problems for several years, had stopped taking his medication. The day before the murder, he had also taken narcotics since he "had received signs that he needed to kill at least eleven people to achieve success in life", according to the verdict.
He had been out looking for a "suitable victim" for a longer period on Sunday, December 15, and chose the 28-year-old because she was a lone woman, the man stated during the trial.
The day after, he planned to commit another murder. He went to the department store NK in Stockholm and bought a knife and then headed to Hallunda in southern Stockholm, looking for a new victim. However, he did not find a "suitable person" and instead went home.
Tracked with bus card
By then, the police were already at his residence and could arrest him. The police had found the 39-year-old through his bus card, as they could see on surveillance cameras that he had boarded the bus at the same time as the woman at Märsta station.
When he was arrested, he told the police that they might find something "interesting that was not good for him" in his storage room. When the police searched the storage room, they found a bag and the knife used in the murder, where the woman's DNA was later found.
The man has previously been forcibly institutionalized on several occasions. As recently as mid-February 2023, a decision was made to discontinue his forced institutionalization.
