Teenagers charged with Stureby murder

Two Stockholm teenagers have been charged with the murder of a 15-year-old girl who was found in a wooded area in the Stockholm suburb of Stureby in June.

• Holidays delay 16-year- olds' murder trial (4 Jul 09)
• 16-year-old murder suspect confesses (20 Jun 09)
• Teen murder suspect taken to mental clinic (12 Jun 09)

On Friday, a 16-year-old boy was charged with the murder of another teenage girl at the beginning of the summer. Another 16-year-old girl was charged with incitement to murder.

According to the suit, the boy allegedly killed the girl by pressing his hands, one arm, a knee and tree branch against her throat until she lost consciousness and stopped breathing. He is also accused of kicking her body.

The female defendant was engaged to the boy. On several occasions, she gave him an ultimatum that she would break up with him if he didn't murder the 15-year-old. She sent him several text messages to that effect.

The boy described how he went out into the forest with the victim to talk about their relationship. He was angry at her because she had told friends that they were together.

According to the boy, the victim was sitting on a stone when she revealed she had told several people about their relationship. Then he picked up a stick and hit her in the back of the head. When she asked him what he was doing, he attacked her and got a stranglehold around her neck.

He testified that when he let go and started to leave the scene, the girl made a sound. He picked up a larger branch and pressed it against her throat, then kicked her twice in the stomach.

The boy has pleaded guilty to manslaughter while the girl denies the charges. She testified that the text messages encouraging the boy to murder the 15-year-old were a “game” and that she never believed he would actually do it.

“I told him that we would be together again if he did it, but I only said it because I never thought he would actually do it,” the girl stated during the preliminary investigation, which has now been made public.

In her account of the events, she repeated several times that she didn't think murder was realistic because she didn't think the boy was capable of killing the other girl.

She said that the boy called her and said “now I've done it.” She asked him what he meant, and he said he had killed the 15-year-old.

When asked how she felt then, the girl said she was in shock. “I didn't know what to say. He was out of breath because he had been running. He also sounded kind of scared.”

In June, the 15-year-old girl was found in a wooded area in Stureby by two friends shortly before 1am on a Saturday night. Seriously wounded at the time, the girl was taken to hospital where she later died from her injuries. She had been at a party with friends celebrating her ninth grade graduation.

Several hours later, the two 16-year-old were arrested on suspicions of murder.