Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
On May 26, 2007, as it does every year, the Danish port city of Aalborg—also known as the Paris of the North—turned into one giant party. That’s because Denmark’s largest carnival takes place there over Pentecost, when schnapps and beer flow freely and the whole city dances and celebrates to the rhythms of samba. It was during this joyful event, of all times, that one of the city’s most brutal crimes took place. The victim was 85-year-old Gerda Møller, who was raped and murdered in her apartment. As he did every year, her son had come to pick up his mother for lunch, along with his wife and mother-in-law. Normally, his mother would already be waiting downstairs in the parking lot in front of her apartment. Since she wasn’t there and he couldn’t reach her by phone, he ran to her apartment, where he found the door open. With a sinking feeling, he entered his mother’s first-floor apartment and found her lying dead in a pool of blood and half-naked in the living room. Her body showed a total of 13 stab wounds. According to the autopsy, she had been struck violently on the head, kicked, raped, and ultimately strangled. Who could have been capable of such a heinous act, one that only a monster could have committed—the police were certain of that? Although the North Jutland Police had found DNA traces and fingerprints, these were not on file in the police database. Witnesses had seen a dark-haired man between the ages of 15 and 25. A composite sketch was created based on the witness statements. Additionally, the killer had left a shoeprint. It came from an Adidas sneaker, the Superstar G 2 model, of which around 1,000 pairs had been sold at the Danish Bilka store. Of these, 55 pairs were sold in Skalborg, a suburb of Aalborg. Thirty-three pairs were paid for in cash and 22 pairs by credit card. Based on the composite sketch, the police were searching for a man from Greenland. Therefore, in their search for the shoe buyer, the police focused on a credit card linked to Greenland. In fact, early that year, a young man had purchased this pair of Adidas shoes and paid for them with a credit card from Sparbank Vest in the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk. This hot lead actually led to Gerda’s killer, who, however, bore no resemblance to a monster at first glance, but was instead a 15-year-old, shy boy. The young man was from Greenland and had been sent to a youth facility in Denmark for shoplifting. He was supposed to not only come to terms with his parents’ divorce there, but also be set back on the right path in society. Over the Pentecost weekend, he wanted to hit the town with a friend during the carnival in Denmark. But they argued so much that they went their separate ways. Then he saw the two elderly ladies. He followed them because he wanted to use their phone. He couldn’t call Greenland with his own cell phone, and he desperately wanted to call his mother. First he went to Erna’s apartment, but she screamed, so he ran to Gerda’s apartment to call his mother. When Gerda noticed him, she threatened to call the police. A scuffle ensued, during which Gerda grabbed him by the testicles. According to his own account, he then completely lost control and raped, assaulted, and killed Gerda. After the murder, he calmly returned to the juvenile detention center. At the Aalborg District Court, the minor was sentenced to 8 years in prison—the maximum sentence for a juvenile under 18—because the murder was so brutal. The young man appealed. However, the Western High Court upheld the verdict. Thus, the monster, who was now 16 years old, ended up behind bars.
