The case is expected to start in Uppsala District Court on 3 October. Here, four teenagers must meet, accused of having killed a man by hanging. The case has received wide coverage in the Swedish media as the “Taxi murder”. The prosecution calls the murder “very special” on the basis of the defendant’s young age and because it has no connection to gang crime, writes SVT. Found hanged from a tree The defendants are four brothers aged 15–18 and a girl aged 16. The deceased is a 26-year-old man who worked as a taxi driver. At the end of March this year, the man’s taxi was found in a forest area outside Enköping in Sweden. The taxi meter had then run for three days, and the man was reported missing. On 1 April, a week later, he was found hanging from a tree in the forest in Hjälstaviken. Through the investigation, the police discovered that the man had a connection to one of the now accused teenagers. Possible revenge motive The girl who is now being prosecuted reported the man for rape in February this year. The rape must have happened last summer, writes Aftonbladet. According to the police, the report was vague, and the man was only named with a nickname. The case was therefore quickly dropped. – The incident occurred a long time before, there were no witnesses and she could only give a nickname to the person, says head of investigation Andreas Pallinder in the Uppsala police at a press conference on Monday. The reported rape is pointed to as a possible motive for the murder. In the past, the five are said to have told their friends that they “were going to kill a rapist”, writes Aftonbladet. The police acknowledge that the murder could have been avoided if the rape report had been prioritized. – If you take it too far, we could theoretically prevent one murder, says Pallinder. Alleged to have transferred money The prosecutor’s office has more evidence that they believe links the teenagers to the murder: The police found that the mobile phones of the five teenagers had hit a telephone mast that covers the crime scene. One of the defendants is said to have bought blue rope and tape at a hardware store shortly before the murder. The rope matches the one the man was found hanging with. One of the defendants is said to have transferred money from the murdered man’s bank account to himself. The taxi driver’s license was found at the home of one of the defendants. DNA from some of the defendants has been found in the deceased’s car and on the rope with which he was hanged. – There is also a possible financial motive, as money and assets have been taken from him, says prosecutor Moa Blomqvist. Denies criminal responsibility The police believe the teenagers tricked the taxi driver out to the forest area. There he is said to have met the girl, who kept him until the four brothers arrived. They then allegedly stripped him and hanged him. All five deny criminal guilt for murder. The girl has nevertheless admitted to tricking the man into the area, in the belief that the brothers would “only” hurt him, according to SVT. The prosecution believes the death was very painful and bears the stamp of being an execution.
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