Woman danced naked as rotting corpse lay on sofa

A 52-year-old Swedish woman is believed to have lived with a dead body on her sofa for months, after police found the body of a dead man, reported missing in September, decomposing in her living room. ”She was dancing around naked in the flat,” a source close to the investigation revealed. The 67-year-old man had been reported missing in September this year and early on in the investigation police had contacted the woman who denied knowing the man's whereabouts.

The man and the woman knew each other and were known to spend time together. Upon contacting the woman for a second round of questioning recently, however, police came across a macabre find in the woman's living room. Police found the man tucked up on the woman's sofa. Forensic analysis subsequently revealed that he had likely been dead for several months and his body was in an advanced stage of putrefaction.


Photo from here.

Despite there being no indications at this point that the woman was responsible for the man's death, she was arrested on account of being in the flat with the corpse. An autopsy to determine the cause of death was performed on Tuesday and after the preliminary results came in from the National Board of Forensic Medicine (Rättsmedicinalverket, RMV), the woman was released. ”This is probably not a murder. The woman is sick and it is just very tragic,” said Lars Lundin of the South Stockholm police.

A neighbour also said that the woman has mental problems. ”She can't really take care of herself. Sometimes she puts on the war paint and then you know she is really bad. Then I tend to make a call, so she gets brought in and gets help,” the neighbour said. According to the woman's lawyer, she denies any responisbility for the man's death. "She has nothing to do with the death," said lawyer Anton Strand. Neighbours had been complaining about a lingering smell in the stairwell of the house, but had not known what the source was.