“We had no idea that the Trial had made a section on the worst day of our lives. You become very exposed, without having anything to say about ”.

That's how Annika and Roger Moberg say. Their daughter Tova was murdered in 2017, 19 years old, by a former boyfriend. Today, two years after they lost their daughter, the sections about Tova's death are among the trial's most listened to.

Sweden's largest true crime podcast

The trial podcast was launched in 2017 and in a short time has become Sweden's fifth most popular podcast. With its 173,000 listeners a week and 57 episodes, it is the largest of all in true crime. In addition to the trial court's success, the podiatrist Nils Bergman has also made the true crime documentaries Arboga Woman and the Dawn Pyramid on behalf of SVT.

The trial podium is done by using the principle of publicity to request audio files from trials, police interrogations, intercepts of suspects and alarm calls to 112. The material is then clipped to radio documentaries, where listeners can hear relatives and perpetrators' own stories about their stories.

In the section on Tova, mother Annika's testimony is played. How she drove out early in the morning to the yard where the perpetrator lived, to look for the missing daughter. Her voice is soaked with tears as she tells how she sat in the car, honking and shouting at Tova.

None of the parents knew then that their testimony would turn into a commercial success - against their will.

- It is good tone to at least hear from them and tell them that now this is coming, they say to the Culture News.

The 90-minute double episode also contains a detailed description of the murder and how Tova's body was dumped.

- When we are not prepared we cannot defend ourselves, we fall back down into the black hole that we are constantly trying to get away from. We will not listen to the pods, because we know how damn it was. It will only eat us up.

Compounds crying parents

Anna, who is really called something else, is the protagonist in one of the most important sections of the Trial Pillow. In the fall of 2016, her daughter was thrown from a power plant pond in Jämtland by her then partner. The girl, who was only an infant, miraculously survived the 15-meter high fall into concrete. The man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder, serious abuse and illegal threats.

In this section, Anna's account of the incident for the police is played for almost an entire hour. At times, Nils Bergman has cut string music, sound effects and a crying infant for dramatic effect. He also reports what the people involved are called in reality, approximate information about where they live and the criminal code number needed to request more public documents from authorities.

- I was shocked, I wasn't mentally prepared for that at all. It was like a repetition of the trauma, says Anna about the episode.

Now she wants the issue of the family perspective in the popular true crime genre to receive more attention. At the same time, she wants answers from Nils Bergman, who does the trial podium:

- I want to know how he thinks purely ethically and morally about what he does. What is it he wants to achieve? Because I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt another human being this way.

Nils Bergman tells the Culture News that the purpose of the trial is to "give the whole picture" of notable cases using the principle of publicity, and that the reactions to the pod were largely positive. But when we report Anna, Roger, Annika and the other relatives' criticism, Nils says that he never intended to harm anyone.

- Of course I feel a responsibility, if I have diluted the trauma afterwards it is regrettable and a shame. But I also feel that I have contributed to a deeper understanding of what has happened, and I know that has also helped many.

If you understand that pain, why not engage in dialogue with the relatives?

- That's one step that I now realize is the least I can do: to at least notify people before I publish. I will definitely start doing that.

After taking part in the criticism, Nils Bergman now says that he will review how he works with the trial pod. You can read a longer interview with him here.

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