01x01 - Where Truth Lies

[bunniefuu]

- Where should I sit?

- You can sit here.

Yes.

- Clapperboard.

- Great.

- All set?

- Yes.

Go ahead.

You've spent 17 years in prison.

You agreed to this interview because

you say the truth hasn't come out.

Why serve 17 years

instead of telling the truth?

Partly because I was naive enough

to assume

that I wouldn't be convicted

of something I didn't do.

I did not instigate m*rder.

Why would I be convicted?

I believed, like so many

ordinary Swedes do,

that here you can't be

wrongly convicted.

In other countries perhaps,

but not Sweden.

- Emergency 112. How may I help you?

- I don't know.

I just came in here.

There's blood everywhere.

In Knutby.

Shock and despair spread

throughout the little town of Knutby.

The m*rder of a young woman and

the attempted m*rder of her neighbor

is in stark contrast

to this quiet, peaceful community.

This is one of the most bizarre criminal

cases in Sweden in modern time.

A web of religion, sex

and cruel, callous m*rder,

unprecedented

in the judicial history of Sweden.

Who was the driving force behind this?

This is an important piece of evidence

that has been manipulated.

It plants seeds of doubt

among the public.

Is this what actually happened?

This is a difficult time,

but we believe in God.

We're not giving up.

PRAY OBEY k*ll

EPISODE ONE:

WHERE TRUTH LIES

I've seen some pretty strange things

in my time. Nasty stuff.

As a police officer,

I've seen just about everything.

But what went on in Knutby is

undoubtedly one of the strangest things

that I've ever encountered.

- I'll just adjust this.

- Now, let's see.

Can we please have more sun over here?

This one must go.

Get ready for a take.

- Camera.

- Clapperboard.

- Camera set.

- Go ahead.

- Emergency 112. How may I help you?

- I've been shot!

- Where are you?

- Gränsta, Knutby.

I can't I'm bleeding heavily.

- Is there anyone else there?

- My name is Daniel Linde.

- Is there anyone else there?

- Yes, Samuel Frankner.

- Can I speak to him?

- Yes. Samuel here!

- Hello.

- Hello.

- Who is this?

- The emergency services.

- How is your friend doing?

- I don't know.

I just came in. I heard something.

There's blood all over the place.

I have no idea what happened.

Who did this? Was it self-inflicted?

Or did someone else do it?

I don't know. I have no idea.

Did you see anything, Daniel?

- A masked man.

- Okay.

A masked man.

This was the middle of winter.

The weather was quite cold.

It was a Friday night.

We went back to the police station

to leave our reports.

While I was there I received a call

from our communication center.

A person had called 112.

This person had been shot.

My boss called me and said

there's been a sh**ting in Knutby.

To be honest,

I didn't really believe it.

That someone would get shot here,

I thought that highly unlikely.

I expected to be back in bed

in 15 minutes.

I hadn't gotten very far when I saw

the emergency services

and I thought this must be serious.

We can see that there are people

in the house.

There are people at the entrance

as well.

We rush inside and see a man

lying on a stretcher.

He's trying to talk,

but his mouth is injured.

However, he was able to describe

a man of large physical stature.

The patio door was open. Someone

had entered from the back of the house.

So I sent out the dog handler with

police officers from the task force.

They found tracks straightaway.

The officer-in-charge ordered them

to follow the tracks from the house.

I sat in my car, switched on the police

radio to listen to their conversation.

2114, come in.

They found tire tracks a distance away.

A car had driven off.

They were cordoning off the area

and waiting for daylight.

And I thought,

there isn't much more I can do here.

I can go home now

and report back to the office.

While I was standing outside

the house, a man came up to me.

Can I go over to Helge's wife

and tell her he went to the hospital?

And I thought, Helge? Who's Helge?

A neighbor. He lives up there.

He pointed.

It can't have been more

than 100 meters away.

He went in the ambulance.

And then it suddenly struck me.

sh*t, a person just left

the crime scene.

He was the man standing behind

the stretcher holding the IV drip.

At that exact moment,

a woman came running out.

She was screaming

and waving her arms.

"There's blood everywhere!

Alexandra is not responding! Help!"

At that point I see a police officer

enter the house from a side door.

And then nothing happens.

It's totally quiet and dark.

And I'm thinking, what's going on here?'

We prepared to enter the house.

I reacted when I saw

how many people were in there.

I was a little surprised.

We entered the house

and searched the ground floor.

We went upstairs.

All the doors were closed except one.

The two officers that went in first

approached the open door

and they could see

that there was a person on the bed.

They immediately radioed back to say

that there was a women in the bed,

who was likely dead.

SANNA & HELGE FOSSMO MARRIED 2000

I already felt that this seemed like

a strange commune.

When I informed them

that the woman was dead,

the only response I got was,

"Oh, is she dead?"

No one is upset. No one is crying.

No one seems shocked.

You would expect hysteria.

You would expect chaos.

I got this Twin Peaks feeling

about the place.

Emergency 112. How may I help you?

I've been shot

- Where are you?

- Gränsta, Knutby.

I have a printout

of the emergency call here.

Samuel comes in there.

The operator asks him,

"But who did it? Was it self-inflicted?

Did someone else do it?"

Samuel, "I don't know.

I have no idea. A masked man.

"The ambulance is here."

According to the emergency call,

it was Samuel Frankner

that said it was a man.

- But when we listened to this before

- Mm.

Who did this? Was it self-inflicted?

Or did someone else do it?

- I don't know. I have no idea.

- Look here

Go back again.

A masked man.

- Okay

- A masked man.

- It's not the same voice.

- No, it's not.

This doesn't tally

with the police report,

which states that Samuel says

it's a masked man.

- But we just heard Daniel say it first.

- Precisely.

From the very start

of the investigation,

in the emergency call,

a mistake has been made.

It's very confusing

for the police from the start.

Daniel Linde is found shot here.

They find him first.

Then the police find Alexandra

shot in her home.

The opposite happened actually.

Alexandra is shot first.

Then Daniel Linde.

The place where this happened

is interesting.

This area is called The Hill,

a congregation of about 100 members.

Most of the leaders live here

and this is where the events unfold.

In a sh**ting in Knutby

early this morning,

a woman was k*lled and a man injured.

A major search operation for the suspect

is underway reports Radio Uppland.

I'm Kenneth Åhgren,

Uppsala Police Department.

In 2004, I led the investigation

into the Knutby case

from the very first hour.

First I want to present

We were aware from the start that

they'd had a party the night before.

Was jealousy a factor?

Had something gone wrong?

We also found out that the person

who was shot first, the man,

he owned a computer company

with links to the Baltic States.

So we turned our attention

to all ferries departing from Sweden.

We sent out an all-ports warning

to ensure that the suspect

couldn't leave the country.

I was in an exclusive interview

when this news broke.

At that stage we knew this concerned

a pastor and a young woman.

No, a pastor and a pastor's wife,

that was what we knew then.

This was the very first information

that was released.

I remember it so well.

I found it difficult to focus.

I found it fascinating

from the start actually.

The web of mystery tightens around

events here in Knutby this weekend.

One of the pastors, Peter Gembäck,

agrees to give an interview

on condition that there are

no follow-up questions.

Someone close to us

has died suddenly.

A close friend's wife

is no longer with us.

Another close friend is lying wounded

in the hospital.

This was all so sudden.

Obviously, we're in shock.

We're heartbroken. We're grieving.

In the beginning, it seemed like any

other m*rder. No one knew very much.

Initially,

it seemed to be domestic-related.

A crime of jealousy perhaps.

And it was, in a way.

But there was much more to it

than that.

Personnel attending the scene

got a feeling

that the pastor had acted strangely.

He went in the first ambulance

to the hospital.

Something is not quite right here.

While Helge is in

Daniel Linde's house,

his wife has been m*rder*d.

The whole thing was very strange

from the start.

I immediately felt

that this didn't add up,

so I decided to have

Helge arrested at the hospital.

We decided to bring him in

for questioning instead,

because you just can't

arrest people

without a clear picture

of what happened.

It was better to wait and see.

Helge was interviewed

like everyone else.

He didn't know anything.

The interview lasted for 30-60 minutes.

Helge didn't know

that his wife was dead.

We hadn't informed him yet.

While this was going on

I heard from the dog handler.

They had found footprints

leading from the house,

to a road some distance away.

These were very small footprints.

They were more like footprints

from a woman or child.

After we took a break

we decided to inform him

that his wife was dead.

He became very upset.

He cried, for a few minutes.

Then he calmed down again.

At this point we asked

if he knew of anyone

that might have anything against

his wife and the man who was shot.

Did you see anything, Daniel?

A masked man.

An alert was issued

for a perpetrator.

A perpetrator in a m*rder case

is easy to imagine as a big man.

Not a slight young girl.

And then he mentions Sara Svensson.

That last year she had hit

his wife over the head

with a hammer.

A woman has been arrested

in connection with a sh**ting yesterday

in a village outside Uppsala,

where a 23-year-old woman died

and a man was shot and injured.

She was arrested at her home

in Småland.

She had previously lived

in the m*rder*d woman's home.

Following questioning

yesterday and today,

we found out about

this aggravated as*ault.

That's how she came to our attention.

Those involved are all members

of the small congregation in Knutby.

Almost a week ago a 30-year-old man

was shot and injured.

The 23-year-old sister of the so-called

Bride of Christ was shot and k*lled.

- Why did she do this?

- The motive is not clear yet.

Nor am I at liberty to comment

on her statement.

Spoken interrogation.

Reference number, 774-04.

Date, 30 January 2004.

Interrogator, Jan Halling.

Type of interrogation, 23:6.

Suspect, Sara Svensson

She tells us what she did

with her shoes.

We found them in a dumpster

in Småland.

They are the perpetrator's shoes.

She tells us what she did

with the g*n. We search for it.

We found it off the Öland Bridge.

We found the sil*ncer

in a bag in Småland

exactly where she said

that she had disposed of it.

The 26-year-old woman

was interviewed again today,

but there's still no explanation as to

why she k*lled a 23-year-old woman

and shot and injured

the 30-year-old man.

Is this what happened?

Is this possible?

We must work with what we have

despite the lack of solid evidence.

What I want to say is the truth

and this is exactly the way I saw it.

I

I was feeling really awful

And it is something that

I talked to Helge about

and it was something

And he understood how I felt.

- Do you mean Helge Fossmo?

- Yes, precisely.

And then, around that time,

when I was feeling so

I felt so far away from God.

This feeling came over me,

a feeling that I myself didn't

I could never come to this conclusion

myself. How can I put it?

And it was

Alexandra, she was going to

She had

finished her time living here on Earth.

And she would

She would go to heaven.

Even though she was young,

there was nothing wrong with that.

And it was like

this strong compelling feeling

that forced me to think that

Alexandra should go home to heaven,

as we say.

And that would happen through me.

SARA SVENSSON SUSPECTED

OF AIDING AND ABETTING m*rder

Jan Halling was

the interrogating officer.

A short so-called 24:8 interview,

confession or denial.

But it continued late into the night.

When it was over,

she had admitted to Janne

that she had done it,

but that she alone was responsible.

No one else was involved.

When asked directly

if she had done it,

she bent over

and put her head on her knees.

She raised her head slowly

and said yes

and then, "But I was alone."

She stresses this several times,

that she was alone,

no one else was involved.

And this made us suspicious.

When someone says that

in a confession interview,

the police immediately suspect

that they were not alone.

The District Court detention hearing

with Sara Svensson

will commence now in Courtroom 1.

Perhaps it wasn't a big deal

for us journalists,

but it generated huge interest

for the public,

when it became clear

that this concerned religion.

The fact that it was

a small congregation.

That she had been kicked out

of the congregation.

And then it was easy to assume,

she acted out of revenge.

But that was when

we still didn't know much.

- Skandia Liv.

- Hi. My name is Helge Fossmo.

- Hi.

- Hi. I'm calling you regarding

my wife's life insurance policy.

She has passed away.

I'll check that for you.

Do you have her date of birth?

Yes. It is, 27-05-80.

- And she has passed away?

- Yes.

Oh, she was so young.

The police suspect

Pastor Helge Fossmo pretty quickly.

He's married to Alexandra

who was found dead in bed.

In their bed.

Indeed, that puts the spotlight

on him, statistically.

And you wonder what his alibi was

on that particular night.

A rather poor alibi.

Alexandra is sleeping there.

Helge doesn't sleep there that night.

He says that he slept

in the children's room that night.

Alexandra was shot three times here.

Helge says he was asleep there

and was not awoken by the g*nshots.

The police measured the sound level.

It was 100 dB.

There's a small room in between.

How far, ten meters?

- It's no more than that.

- Not far between.

It's not, yet Helge says

that the text message alert

on his mobile phone woke him.

And then he shows up

at Daniel's place.

We know

that he was at Daniel's early on.

But we don't know exactly where he was

when Alexandra was shot.

No one can confirm that, actually.

He was suspected early on.

That's why he was arrested.

His phone was tapped

and they heard certain details.

- Hi, it's Helge.

- Hi.

Hi. I was just thinking, all of this

What the police are doing now is,

they're trying to find an instigator.

In which case Sara won't be guilty,

she'll be a victim.

And that's so typical of the devil,

because then it's God's fault.

There was a telephone call that came

to the attention of the police.

Helge is telling a member

of the congregation

that he is going to tell everyone

that Sara acted alone.

Everyone should do likewise.

There should be nothing

to implicate Helge or anyone

in the congregation.

What I feel now is,

we have to do our best every day

and pray to fight the Spirit

that wants to turn this on us.

It's an accusation against me

and the congregation.

Ensure there's nothing that leads back

to the congregation or to me.

Sara alone is the guilty one

and we must pray for that.

We must fight for that.

We have to do this!

And we have to do it forcefully

to end this once and for all.

Yes, fine. Bye.

The telephone tapping provided us

with one important detail

and a few small details too.

It became clear to us

that the victims' spouses

were having a romantic relationship.

Text message from Helge to Anette:

I really need YOU close.

Our love is the greatest love of all.

I'll be quiet until after the police.

Your Man.

From Anette to Helge:

The police are coming out to me too.

From Helge to Anette:

How do you feel?

Nothing strange about that?

Don't worry.

I'm with you all the way. I love you.

We are one! We'll keep tight.

Kisses!

She arrived this afternoon at Uppsala

District Court, using the back entrance.

A 26-year-old woman

is suspected of m*rder,

alternatively conspiracy

to commit m*rder.

The dead woman's husband,

a pastor in the congregation,

is suspected of m*rder

alternatively attempted m*rder

and aiding and abetting

the said crimes.

The injured man's wife is,

on the basis of probable cause,

suspected of conspiracy to commit

m*rder and attempted m*rder,

alternatively, aiding and abetting

these crimes.

The investigation has shown

that the suspects

are in a romantic relationship.

If the motive was that

Helge and his mistress

wanted to get rid of Helge's wife

and her husband

then it was best

to get rid of those two.

So a possible motive became clear.

You can call me naive.

You can call me stupid.

You can say, you should know better.

From what I know,

I believe he is innocent.

Our congregation is full of love

for one another.

So you're saying their relationship

is no different from any other

in the congregation?

In our congregation we love each other

more than some see as normal.

- You have full faith in the pastor?

- Yes.

We're actually closer than ever,

but the atmosphere is obviously

This is a difficult time, but we believe

in God and we're not giving up.

- Hi there!

- Hi!

You were right about

Pentecostal congregations.

A pastor cannot divorce.

"Every divorce is a deviation

from God's divine plan."

- So there are rules?

- Yes, this seems to be the standard.

So I can understand why

the police suspected Helge.

A wife dying avoids divorce.

You can continue being a pastor

if your wife dies.

- But not if you have divorced her.

- Check this out.

- Oh! The interrogation?

- With Helge Fossmo.

- Mm.

- Sent by the police.

Yes.

Helge gave us written permission

so I sent it in.

- And it worked. Is that everything?

- Check it out.

17, 18, 19. That's all, right?

Why does he want us to see these?

He told us on the phone

that he has nothing to hide.

This means

we can examine everything.

Yes, we'll see how it went.

These contain stuff that's to

his advantage and stuff that is not.

Exciting. The police are the only

ones who have seen this material.

Well, his lawyer possibly.

We've got almost 40 hours here.

- We'll divide them between us.

- 20 each.

A fun weekend for us.

Do you have a DVD player?

I think I have one at home.

Case number, K774-04.

Date, 04-02-06. The time is 13:14.

Interrogating officers, Inspectors

Leif Spånbo and PO Sandström.

Interrogation location,

Uppsala Police Station.

Type of interrogation, 23:6.

Name of interrogated individual,

Helge Fossmo.

He is a suspect.

He has been informed of this.

His defense lawyer, Ola Nordström,

is present.

Account of events.

I traveled around

the whole country almost

in order to find out as much

as possible about Helge.

What was he like as a kid

and at school?

How did he behave in his youth group

and in the parish?

I wanted to find out everything

about Helge.

I even read the book

about the Pentecostal Church

to understand what it all meant.

At 16:36 on January 21 this year,

you sent a text message to Anette.

"Mine, mine, mine. You truly are

and that makes me very happy.

I love everything you are

and with everything I have.

We need to keep really tight now.

We are one."

What does "keep tight" mean?

To stay close in our hearts.

It has to do with unity.

It has nothing to do with leaks.

To stay tight, close to one another.

For each other, dependently.

To stay really tight,

I can understand that.

- But keep really tight?

- Yes.

Well, that was in fact what I meant.

The woman who was detained

two weeks ago was released today.

- Why was Anette released?

- She was no longer a suspect.

There was no reason to detain her.

She was involved in the sense

that she was Helge's mistress.

But she wasn't a part of this.

It never entered her mind.

I'd like to begin by telling you

that Anette was released.

She was released yesterday.

How do you feel about that?

Of course I'm very relieved

to hear that.

For several weeks after the m*rder,

the congregation showed unwavering

support for their friends in custody.

They refused to believe

that the pastor and nanny

could m*rder one of their own. But

the revelation that the pastor had lied

about his relationship with the woman

next door has devastated them.

He was responsible for

so many people's lives.

He took advantage of his position

and we're paying for that now.

And it's just so disgusting.

That's what we believed

in our hearts

that there was

no romantic relationship

involving Helge.

And now it turns out

that's not true

so he can't be a pastor any longer.

Because of what I said earlier,

today, I feel so naive and stupid,

but I did say what I believed

to be true. I trust the police.

Today, I thank God for the police.

It's

I'm glad that they brought this

to light, that he was exposed.

He was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

That's the truth.

Dearest friends.

What we must go through!

I love you so much.

You are all truly wonderful.

I'm glad that we're all here.

That we're gathered here together.

The situation is difficult.

It has been for some time now.

We know that.

People from the congregation

phoned me.

They want to come in

and tell us what they know.

Ten people showed up.

We were very interested to hear

what they had to say,

when ten of them came in.

But we were not so impressed

when they each had a note

with the same thing written on it.

And then the tide turned.

He used to be a saint in their eyes

and now he was the devil himself.

We assumed

he was somewhere in between.

P4 Uppland, Swedish Radio.

After 97 years the Philadelphia

congregation in Knutby has dissolved.

The decision was made

by the remaining members,

according to the newspaper, Dagen.

The congregation attracted media

attention at home and abroad

in connection

with the 2004 Knutby case,

when one person was m*rder*d

and another wounded.

How are you getting on there?

I think we should try to find a way

to persuade them to talk to us.

I'm trying to find a way

to approach the subject.

Now that the congregation

has been dissolved,

maybe they have a different story

than the one they could in 2004.

This is what I wrote,

"We feel that we now have

a unique opportunity

to provide an informed, detailed,

more balanced and honest account"

We can omit a word there,

how it changed gradually over time.

I don't want to put this in writing,

but there's no leader

stopping them now.

I drive to Knutby.

I take a right turn

onto a narrow forest road.

As I drove along the road I turned off

my headlights and drive slowly.

I turned the car,

stopped and put on my

my disguise.

I put on my shoe covers, my gloves

and I loaded the g*n.

I put the b*ll*ts, the remaining four,

in my pocket.

And then I go.

I walked towards

the utility room door.

I very quietly open the door

walk through the kitchen

Then I check my phone to see

if I had received any more

anonymous text messages.

And I'm hoping that I will see

that there's a text message

telling me

that I don't have to do this.

But there isn't.

Now I know what I have to do.

She told us in great detail

about text messages

that she had been receiving for months

prior to January 2004,

through which

she had been indoctrinated.

She received instructions via

text messages from an unknown person.

She believed they're from God,

or someone up there.

Then I received an anonymous

text message. When I opened it,

first it said sender.

I think it said unknown number.

When I opened it, the message said,

"What you know you must do,

you must do.

If you don't,

then it will be too late for you."

First I thought I had no idea

where this came from.

But of course I associated it

with the anxiety

and how I had felt,

that compelling feeling.

I also felt that I somehow

had to carry this out.

So, I told Helge.

Which I found very difficult.

But in any case

He didn't dismiss it,

but he thought that it sounded very

He considered it for a long time.

In some way I think that he thought,

"Well, maybe this is how it should be."

Sara says in several interrogations

that you received

anonymous text messages

that you then forwarded to her phone.

Well, I've sent text messages

to Sara's phone,

but I have neither received nor sent

anonymous text messages.

- And you're sticking to that?

- Yes, I am.

Helge was working closely

with the Lord God Father in Heaven.

He had everything he wanted.

He had money, women.

Everyone in Knutby

loved and supported him.

He had everything

he could possibly ask for.

He couldn't reach any higher.

I'm not sure if it was

from the phone tapping,

or if it was during a police interview

that he said

that the police would never manage

to crack him.

That was what he thought.

He was convinced that the police

would never get to the bottom of it.

It's not only the fault

of the police and prosecutor

that this wasn't properly investigated.

If I had told the truth in 2004,

then perhaps they would have

investigated this, but I didn't.

Even if I understood

after a while in prison

that what went on in Knutby

was wrong,

I was still very afraid

of the consequences

of betraying my leader.

She made me promise before God

that I would never reveal

that she was the one

behind the text messages.

And she went on to say

that if I ever broke that promise

I would lose my daughter.

So I didn't dare.

If this story ends in the way that

I believe and I hope that it will

Then?

Can I take you out to dinner

one evening?

It would be nice to meet

under different circumstances.

- If that happens, would you accept?

- Of course.

Of course! Who says no to a free meal?

Even if it doesn't turn out that way,

Helge, I'll accept anyway

and I'll pay for the meal.