Two women aged 18 and 20 have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Tove (21) last year.
The two young women, aged 18 and 20, are both accused of murder and desecrationdesecrationTo mistreat a corpse..
Now writing, the Eksjö tingsrätt has sentenced both women to life in prison.
Prosecutor Adam Rullman believes that the 20-year-old strangled Tove, while the 18-year-old held Tove down, before they together allegedly moved, hid and tried to set fire to the body twice.
The court has relied on the coroner’s explanation, which clearly explains how Tove was suffocated – and emphasizes that the autopsy was gross.
The prosecution asked for the law’s strictest punishment, life in prison, for the 20-year-old woman, and for life or 18 years in prison for the youngest.
According to the Swedish news agency TT, the verdict is historic. It is the first time that two women under the age of 21 have been sentenced to life in prison.
Jenny Yourstone, PhD in psychology at Södertörn University, told TT before the verdict that the case is unique.
– Partly because it concerns two women who are very young and previously unpunished. Partly because of the procedure, especially how they handled the body afterwards, she says.
Various explanations
The two women convicted of murder explained in different ways about the course of events in court:
- The 20-year-old woman claims that Tove’s death was an accident, but: She admits that she choked her – and claims that her friend helped by holding her arms.
- The 18-year-old woman, for her part, claims that she was lying down asleep – and did not realize what had happened until her friend asked for help to dump the body.
The court did not believe the latter’s explanation.
Conflict at nightclub
Tove was missing for over two weeks in October last year, before she was finally found in a forest clearing just outside Vetlanda after a large-scale search operation. She was last seen at the Nöjet nightclub, together with the two women who were later arrested and charged with the murder.
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A conflict must have arisen between the three women at the nightclub. They agreed to resolve the conflict at the 20-year-old’s home.
There must have been a good atmosphere on the road, but it must have all changed after a basket roof in the bathroom in the apartment.
The accused 20-year-old has explained that Tove hit the floor. She further claims that Tove tried to strangle her, and that she then sat on top of Tove – and held her neck while her friend held her arms.
