- An unreal feeling but very wonderful, the genealogist Peter Sjölund describes the feeling when he understood that he solved one of Sweden's most difficult criminal mysteries in just a few weeks.
To his aid he had modern DNA technology.
Serial killers were arrested in the United States
In 2018, the infamous "Golden State killer" was arrested by American police and pleaded guilty to 13 murders.
The hunt for the killer lasted for forty years, but the breakthrough came when DNA traces were posted on DNA-oriented genealogy sites.
It was the first time this technology was used in police contexts.
Long investigation
Härnösand resident Peter Sjölund is one of the pioneers in Swedish DNA genealogy.
In 2020, he was involved in the hunt for a murderer in Sweden.
The police had then hunted the man who stabbed 56-year-old Anna Lena Svensson and 8-year-old Mohamad Ammouri to death on Åsgatan in central Linköping since 2004.
The police investigation was the second largest in Swedish history, only the Palme investigation was larger.
Despite this, results were lacking.
But Sjölund managed to identify the killer through a commercial database for DNA genealogy combined with family search.
He had to do research 200 years back in time and build a family network where the killer was called in.
It took him five weeks.
The killer was arrested and after a 100 percent match with the perpetrator's DNA, he admitted the act.
Then it also dawned on Sjölund how much his discovery meant to the relatives affected by the crime.
- It's almost what touched me the most.
It has been understood how much they have suffered during these sixteen years, says Peter Sjölund.
Guest at Bergfeldt
Peter participates as a guest in Friday night's talk show with Carina Bergfeldt and there you can hear more about how the double murder was solved and what you can use the new technology for.
You can watch the program on SVT1 21:00 and on SVT Play from 17:00.