Murder of Alexandra Fossmo

On 10 January 2004, two shootings occurred within hours of each other in the village of Knutby, east of Uppsala, Sweden. At around 04:40, Daniel Linde, a 30-year-old IT entrepreneur, was shot in the head and chest and seriously wounded. About two hours later, his neighbor and employee Alexandra Fossmo was found shot dead in her bed. Alexandra Fossmo was married to Helge Fossmo, a pastor in a local Pentecostal church, who had accompanied Linde to the hospital in the ambulance.

The following day, 26-year-old Sara Svensson, who had worked as a nanny for the Fossmo family, confessed to both shootings. Two weeks later, Helge Fossmo and Daniel Linde's wife were also arrested. Police wiretapping had indicated that Svensson and Helge Fossmo were in a relationship, and Helge Fossmo and Linde's wife were suspected of instigating the murder of Alexandra Fossmo and the attempted murder of Daniel Linde. Linde's wife was released after two weeks and was never charged.

The investigation led authorities to reopen the 1999 death of Helge Fossmo's first wife, Helene Fossmo, who had been found dead in her bathtub. She had a hole in her skull, and toxicology reports had indicated a toxic concentration of dextropropoxyphene in her blood, but her death had originally been ruled an accident. After the case was reinvestigated, Helge Fossmo was charged with her murder but was ultimately acquitted.

At the trial, Sara Svensson gave a detailed confession, telling the court she had been influenced by anonymous text messages that were forwarded to her by Helge Fossmo. Her account was supported by erased messages recovered from her mobile phone. On 30 July 2004, Helge Fossmo was sentenced to life in prison for instigated murder and instigated attempted murder, while Svensson was sentenced to institutional psychiatric care. Fossmo denied the charges until 2006, when he stated in an interview that he had been involved.

The case drew extensive media attention in Sweden and abroad, in part because those involved belonged to the same congregation, which was led by Alexandra Fossmo's sister. In the years that followed, Svensson was granted progressively broader leave from psychiatric care and, by 2010, permission to live independently during a transition period; Swedish law restricts the disclosure of details about her release. Helge Fossmo remained imprisoned. In October 2014 a court set a determined release date, but in January 2015 the Gota Court of Appeal repealed that decision, citing a penalty requirement reflecting the severity of the crime. The crimes later inspired a fictionalized Swedish miniseries and an HBO documentary, both released in 2021.