The case summarized A 42-year-old woman is charged with the murder of Heidi Flood, who was found dead in her own house in Skien in 2022. The woman confessed to the murder a few days after her arrest, but later withdrew the confession and placed all the blame on her then-boyfriend. The public prosecutor has dropped the case against the former lover. The accused woman’s defender says she was prepared for the murder charge, but denies guilt. The case will be heard by the Telemark district court from 3 to 18 December this year. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. The public prosecutor has issued murder charges against a 42-year-old woman after the murder of Heidi Flood. The 58-year-old was found murdered in her house in Skien on 4 October 2022. Two days after the murder, the woman was arrested together with her then-boyfriend in his late 20s. Both were charged with having taken Flood’s life, but the public prosecutor dropped the case against the man on the basis of the evidence. Crime scene technicians carried out investigations both outside and inside the house where Flood was found. Photo: Theo Aasland Valen Confession The 42-year-old confessed to the murder shortly after his arrest, while the man has denied guilt all along. When the woman was interviewed again by the police eight months after her arrest, she retracted her confession. In the interrogation, she put all the blame on the man. However, the public prosecutor who brought the indictment has dropped the entire case against the man. State Attorney Helene Holtvedt has taken out the murder charge against the woman by order of the Attorney General. Photo: Tom Erik Haugland / news – The Attorney General has decided to drop the charges against the man due to the state of the evidence. The public prosecutor has also found no grounds to prosecute the man for any other criminal charges related to the murder, writes public prosecutor Helene Holtvedt in an e-mail to news. Critical of the investigation The ex-boyfriend’s lawyer, Gøran Møller Christiansen believes the man should never have been charged. He points out that the woman took all the blame for eight months before withdrawing her confession. Gøran Møller Christiansen defends the ex-boyfriend who has had the charge dropped. He is critical of the police’s handling of the case. Photo: news Sorlandet – Not once did she tell me that my client had anything to do with this. Not until the police came to her eight months and gave her a way out. And that was to blame on my client, says Christiansen. According to the lawyer, both the police and the public prosecutor wanted to prosecute the man, but the Attorney General put his foot down. – I am exceptionally critical of the investigation, says Christiansen. He believes it is obvious that the accused woman rushed to get a reduced sentence. Prepared for indictment The defendant’s defender, Tollef Skobba, says the woman is not surprised by the decision to indict. Photo: Kurt Inge Dale The 42-year-old’s defender, lawyer Tollef Skobba at the law firm Hasle, says the woman is not surprised by the prosecution decision. – She has been prepared all along to take whatever comes her way. She didn’t want this, but now it’s up to the court to judge, says Skobba to news. The defender says the 42-year-old denies criminal guilt, but that she is looking forward to explaining herself when the trial starts. – Why did she retract her confession after eight months? – There are several reasons why it has turned out the way it has, but we will have to come back to that when the trial starts, says Skobba. – What do you think about the case being dropped for the co-accused? – We will not hide the fact that it is disappointing. But on the other hand, there are several lawyers from the prosecution who have been involved in the case. And they have all reached different conclusions, says the 42-year-old’s defender. No further comments The public prosecutor will not answer questions about what evidence the prosecution has against the 42-year-old woman accused of murder. She also has no comment on the woman withdrawing her confession. She says that such questions relate to the assessment of evidence, which the prosecution cannot comment on until the case has been dealt with in court. – Neither from here nor from police prosecutor Henriksen, will any further comments be made on the case. The case is scheduled in advance in the Telemark district court from 3 to 18 December this year. Published 16.08.2024, at 17.08
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Indicted for the murder of Heidi Flood – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
