Ulf Olsson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ulf Olsson - AKA "The Man With The Dog". Convicted in 2004 for two accounts of murder in the first degree.
Olsson's first victim was 10-year old Helén Nilsson from the small southern community of Hörby. Helén disappeared from outside a convenience store, the 20th of March 1989. Six days later her body was found a couple of miles from the place of abduction, in Tollarp. The forensic evidence showed that she'd been held captive for several days, being severally beaten and raped multiple times. Finally she'd been killed, put in a garbage bag and dumped in the woods.
Later the same year, the 2nd of August 1989, the 26-year old prostitute Jannica Ekblad disappears. She'd come home to her grandmother's house in Malmö to fix herself up for a date with a customer. This is the last time Jannica is seen alive. The next day police found her naked body close to a rest stop outside of Vedema. Her death is soon thereafter linked to the death of Helén Nilsson.
Even though the major police effort the killer of Helén and Jannica eludes capture. Forensics hadn't revealed anything helpful other than a sample of badly degraded DNA, which at the time was impossible to trace. Two years after the murders, the 6th of April 1991, detective Alf Andersson receives a telephone call traced to a pay phone in Malmö. The information given by the caller leads police to believe that this is the killer calling, since some of the details from the classified autopsy reports are told. The caller says: "I'm so lonely. That's why I did it. It just happened to be Helén. She was just there. And Jannica, I got so angry that I killed her. I strangled them and beat them to death." The caller promises the detective to call again the next day, which he never does.
More than 13 years later, the 1st of June 2004, detective Alf Andersson receives a CD-ROM with a letter of confession. It reads: "Hadn't I been bullied while in Hörby Elementary School this would never had happened. I killed Heléne & Jannica. I did it alone." The last statement that the killer acted alone was a direct response to the capture of two suspects the year before. In 2003 two pedophiles with prior convictions for sexual advances towards underage girls had been arrested and interrogated for several weeks. When they later were cleared of suspicion it didn't take many months before the killer once again contacted the police.
The police continued their efforts, now working from a list of 29 suspects who were rounded up and had DNA-samples taken. The forensic sciences had evolved considerably since the first investigation so the samples could now be matched to the one taken from the original crime scene. The killer, Ulf Olsson, was on this list as number 28. He'd been put on the list as a lucky fluke. An investigator who had worked on the case back in 1989 was on a dinner party when people got to talk about the murder. One of guests said that she'd been distraught with the murder of Helén and that she'd always suspected one of her former colleagues, Ulf Olsson, for the murder. The investigator took the tip seriously and Olsson was placed on the list of possible suspects. The results of Olsson's DNA-sample came back from the forensic lab the 23rd of June 2004. The same evening Olsson was arrested for the murders.
A dark picture started to form with Olsson's testimony. Olsson was born in the small rural town of Höör, about 13 kilometers from Hörby where he later moved. His upbringing was strict and filled with violence. While his brothers managed to put the actions of their abusive parents behind them, Ulf couldn't. He became the local "odd-ball", often seen in the woods surrounding Hörby where he spent the most of his time, afraid of being beaten if he came home. When Ulf and his brothers got a baby sister the abuse lessened and he managed to pull his life together somewhat. He finished school with mediocre grades in all classes but art class in which he excelled. During his school years he had a hard time connecting with children his own age and was often found playing cowboys & indians with the younger children. After graduating he got a job as an errand boy for a local business. The employment lasted for a year but was terminated when he didn't show up for work for several weeks. After being fired he started drifting around, taking odd-jobs where he could find them, but soon suffered a complete mental breakdown and was sent to an asylum. After two months of treatment he was deamed fit to return to society. He held jobs at a slaughter house and a tool manufacturer for about two years until his mental condition started to assert itself again. He wanted to get away and joined the crew of a merchant ship. His condition only worsened and when he returned to Sweden he tried to go back to the asylum but was denied treatment. During his years as a sailor he claims he killed a man in Thailand who looked at him the wrong way (which has yet to be confirmed or denied), that he joined and later escaped the French Foreign Legion & made a trip in a rubber dingy tied to a passenger ship between Sweden and Germany. These strange claims have since the day of his capture been made every now and then.
Sometime after his return to Sweden, Olsson married but the marriage soon ended in divorce. Also his second marriage ended shortly after it began. He now lived in a small cabin outside of Höör. The cabin has later been confirmed as the killing site of both Helén and Jannica. The year after the murders Olsson sold the cabin and moved to the small town of Vimmerby. There he became known as "The Man With The Dog", since he never was seen without his companion, a black dog. People thought he was kind of unsetteling to be around but no one could say why they thought so. Everyone knew who he was, but no one knew him personally. In 1994 he was suspected of several accounts of arson in Vimmerby but was later cleared. He was however convicted of vandalism when he put sharp screws on the road causing a lot of cars to blow their tires. During his years in Vimmerby it's also been suggested that Olsson is behind the disappearance and murder of a local 6-year old girl called Jasmina. He has hinted this himself several times but seems to be using the possibility of this crime as a way to get more media attention - i.e. it's believed he won't confess to it. He further claims he has a spotty memory of what happened to Helén and Jannica and denied any involvement in their murders for a long time after arrest.
So why did Olsson kill his victims? We know that he was abused as a child. Nothing has been said about him being abused sexually, but eye witness reports from his siblings tell that Ulf was severely beaten on a regular basis. His mother, later claiming that she wanted to protect her son from his father, carried out the beatings since she claims she knew when to stop. Analysts think this was the start of his hate/dependency relationships towards women. He also showed antisocial tendencies as well as cruelty to what he said was his best friends, animals. He's said himself that he has executed two of his dogs with a long-bladed knife. Olsson was convicted to lifetime imprisonment in a hospital for the criminally insane. He's currently serving his time in media hiatus, refusing to speak to the press.
