Stig Engström (suspect)

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Stig Folke Wilhelm Engström (born February 26, 1934 in Bombay , British India , † June 26, 2000 in Täby , Sweden ) was a Swedish graphic designer . Engström was a prime suspect in the Olof Palme murder case . He himself insisted on being at the scene by chance. In June 2020, the chief Swedish public prosecutor, Krister Petersson, stated that the existing evidence suggested Engström as the perpetrator. Due to his death, the police investigation was stopped 34 years after the murder.

Life

Engström's parents were from Småland ; the family had moved to British India in 1926 because Engström's father had been commissioned by his employer, the industrialist Ivar Kreuger , to set up a production line there. Back in Sweden, Engström trained as a graphic designer. In this role he worked for the Swedish Armed Forces and Sveriges Radio before moving to the Skandia insurance company in the late 1960s . Therefore, he was also known in the Swedish media reports as the "Skandia man" (Swedish: Skandiamannen ) - coming from the nearby headquarters of the Skandia insurance company, he said he was the first person at the crime scene.

Engström was married twice. After his first marriage failed in 1967, he remarried the following year. This marriage ended in divorce in 1999. He died of suicide in 2000 at the age of 66 . Engström's mother only died in 2013 at the age of 111.

Witness and suspect in the Palme murder case

The Skandiahaus , Engström's workplace. The murder of Palme took place at the intersection on the right corner of the building.

Engström stated that on the evening of the murder on February 28, 1986, he spent a long time at work in the Skandiahaus and witnessed the murder on the way home. Since the details of his descriptions were not always conclusive and Engström contradicted himself in part, he was soon classified by the police as a potential suspect. The investigators encountered alcohol and money problems with the politically right-wing and very critical of the Social Democrat Palme, Engström, who as a marksman also had the skills necessary for the assassination. Regardless of this, Engström actively approached the police and interested media several times in the following years and willingly gave information about his view of things. When the investigators did not invite him to participate in an attempt to reconstruct the events, Engström contacted acquaintances from his time with the Swedish radio. With their help, he staged his own reconstruction of the incident and expressed criticism that he, who only wanted to help Palme, was now being treated as a suspect.

For many years, the investigators saw Engström more as a busybody who forced himself on the media. Accordingly, the inconsistencies in his reports were not given undue attention. In 2018, the journalists Thomas Pettersson and Mattias Göransson found in a report in the magazine “Filter” investigative errors that had diverted the suspicion from Engström. In addition, they created a chain of circumstantial evidence based on the available police files, which suggested Engström's perpetration. In the same year, the public prosecutor confirmed a new investigation against Engström. Although it was not possible to substantiate the suspicion with final evidence, the public prosecutor announced on June 10, 2020 that the available evidence made it very likely that the deceased Engström was guilty, and thus closed the investigation.

literature

  • Thomas Pettersson: The osannolika murderer. Skandiamannen och murders på Olof Palme. Offside Press, 2018, ISBN 978-91-85279-58-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kai Strittmatter: Olof Palme - alleged murderer Stig Engström. In: sueddeutsche.de. Retrieved June 11, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Åklagaren: ”Skandiamannen” mördade Olof Palme. In: Aftonbladet . Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Investigators name Olof Palme's murderer - and close the case. In: welt.de. June 10, 2020, accessed June 10, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Vem var Skandiamannen? In: allas.se. June 10, 2020, accessed June 11, 2020 (Swedish).
  5. ↑ Skandiamannen talade om Palmemordet under sitt sista samtal. In: expressen.se. Retrieved June 11, 2020 (Swedish).
  6. ↑ Skandiamannen: Jag skulle personal ha använt ett smidigare vapen. June 10, 2020, accessed June 11, 2020 (Swedish).
  7. ↑ Se Stig Engström egna reconstruction of Palmemordet. Retrieved June 11, 2020 (Swedish).
  8. ↑ Karin Thunberg: Fördel ha en fot i varje Königsläger. Retrieved June 12, 2020 (Swedish).
  9. ↑ Max Schüllerqvist: Se Skandiamannen Stig Engström tala om Palmemordet i Rapport - intervju från 1986 . In: SVT Nyheter . June 10, 2020 ( svt.se [accessed June 11, 2020]).
  10. ↑ Niels Anner: Swedish reporters cleared up the Palme murder. In: NZZ am Sonntag . June 13, 2020, accessed June 15, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Engström, Stig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engström, Stig Folke Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish graphic designer, prime suspect in the Olof Palme murder case
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Bombay , British India
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2000
Place of death Täby , Sweden