An unidentified man, suspected of murdering Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, in the NK department store in central Stockholm.(AFP/Pressensbild)
Posted on 09/15/2003 1:11:31 PM PDT by Shermy
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish police said that the hunt for the killer of the country's foreign minister Anna Lindh was now focused on a man whose face was caught on video near the crime scene.
This development came amid media reports that investigators had actually identified him a day after his photos were released to the public. The police, however, said they had not yet made a positive identification.
"We haven't identified him. We are getting closer," police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP, adding the man's identification was "a priority" and would be a breakthrough in the case.
"Interrogations strengthen the focus of the investigation, which is to talk to this man," Stockholm criminal police chief Leif Jennekvist said, urging anyone with information to come forward.
A report in the tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet on Monday quoted police as saying the man was a known 30-year-old Stockholm resident with a record of violent behaviour.
"We will have him within two days," the report quoted an unidentified police source as saying.
Lindh died on Thursday from stab wounds inflicted by an attacker in an upmarket Stockholm department store a day earlier.
"The murderer knew who he was targetting," Jennekvist said, ruling out the possibility of a random attack.
Press reports have indicated that the killer had expertise with knives and knew how to inflict the most damage.
He not only stabbed Lindh in the abdominal area, he also twisted the knife repeatedly, causing severe damage to her liver. She died of massive internal bleeding.
Police said they had conducted DNA testing on blood samples found near the crime scene that were believed to be from the murderer. The results were run through the Swedish police's DNA databanks but turned up "nothing", the head of the investigation, Agneta Blidberg, said.
Blood samples were now being sent to the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Britain for advanced testing and those results were expected next week.
Swedes have been poring over pictures clearly showing the face of the man since Sunday, when police released video stills taken from surveillance cameras in the NK department store.
"We have received about a hundred different possible names, but we have not identified him," police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told TT news agency early Monday.
Investigators have also been showing the man's picture to shopkeepers, security guards, social workers in Stockholm and prison officials to try to identify him.
"The stream of leads has increased a little, but not as much as we had hoped," another police spokesman said earlier.
Investigators said they had received more than 2,000 leads since the brutal stabbing.
The pictures showed a youngish clean-shaven Caucasian man with longish dark hair and sideburns walking in the leisurewear and sport section of the NK store.
This section is on the second floor of the department store. Lindh was stabbed on the first floor.
The man was shown apparently strolling leisurely, wearing olive-coloured trousers and a grey sweatshirt with a Nike logo with the sleeves rolled up. He appeared to be slim and athletically built.
He wore a blue baseball cap with a logo. His hands were shown to be empty and no weapon was visible.
Both the sweatshirt and the trousers featured large pockets.
Media reports said witnesses to the crime recognized the man on the picture, but police has not confirmed this.
Two of the pictures show the man walking towards the camera while another shows him walking away from it.
As they were all taken in exactly the same spot by the same camera, they could indicate that he had been pacing near the lifts which are visible in the background.
Gell, all you have to do is Adobe Photoshop that guy in the bottom photo looking at the newspaper extra edition. Just give him a blue baseball cap and lengthen his back hair.
Might as well speculate...Doesn't look like a crazy, at least the dissheveled sort.
Nike - first Kobe, now this...hmmmm.....
"Tack." I was about to post the same story and pics over here on today's main Swedish thread:
Swedes snub Europe with defiant euro vote (and related Sweden stories)
Now I don't have to.
Oh Great! Fanta is on Sale!
2st 15:- isn’t much of a sale.
I can get it for half that at my local supermarket.
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