Casefile True Crime - Case 214: Kevin Hjalmarsson

Episode Date: June 4, 2022

*** Warning: This case involves a child victim *** When the body of four-year-old Kevin Hjalmarsson was found floating on a wooden pallet in Sweden’s Kyrkviken bay, police determined that it wasn’t a tragic drowning, but a cold-blooded murder. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn This episode's sponsors: Peloton – Learn more about Peloton Calm – Get 40% off Calm Premium subscription Best Fiends – Download Best Fiends for free For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-214-kevin-hjalmarsson

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For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners. Four-year-old Kevin Yolmeson loved his bicycle more than anything. The little boy was a familiar face around Dottavik, the small Swedish suburb he lived in with his mother Therese and half-sister Isabella. He was often seen riding happily around the neighbourhood, waving to those he knew as he cycled by.

The residential area was located on the shores of the Sjirkeviken Bay, just three kilometres outside Central Arvika. It was a close-knit community and residents mostly trusted one another. Therefore, it was common practice for the local children to play around town without supervision, provided they steer clear of the main roads and lake. They never veered too far and a familiar adult was never too far away. Sunday, August 16, 1998 was the last day of holidays before school returned for the year and the sun made a much welcome appearance.

It was the perfect opportunity for Kevin Yolmeson to play outside on his bike. After breakfast, he rode over to meet his friend Robin and the two played all morning before Kevin went to his grandparents' house for lunch. Afterwards, he ducked home where his mother Therese was busy preparing for Isabella's return to school the following day. She agreed to let Kevin go out again as long as he didn't stay out too late. By 6.30pm, Kevin hadn't returned home and Therese was starting to worry. Hoping he'd just lost track of time and was busy playing somewhere, she enlisted Kevin's

grandparents to help her look around town. They searched Kevin's usual haunts, including the playgrounds, local school and football field, but there was no sign of him anywhere. The football field backed on to Sheikveek and Bay, a large lake dotted with trees and walking paths. They followed the path towards the lake where his grandmother noticed something propped up against a grassy mound behind a small wooden shed. It was Kevin's bicycle, his prized possession which he took with him everywhere.

Dred washed over Kevin's family. They called Kevin's name, but there was no response. Something must be horribly wrong. There was no way Kevin would stray too far from his beloved bike. Like the other children in the neighborhood, Kevin was strictly forbidden from playing near the lake, a rule he happily obeyed as he couldn't swim and was afraid of the water. However, a sailboat was bobbing in the water and his family wondered if Kevin might have been interested enough to get a closer look.

They trepidatiously headed towards the lake, calling Kevin's name repeatedly as they walked. At the shore, Kevin's grandfather glanced over towards an area of reeds and slumped over in shock. There, lying face down on a wooden pallet amongst the reeds, was Kevin. Kevin's grandfather carried Kevin's lifeless body to shore and his grandmother administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while waiting for the paramedics. Kevin was rushed to hospital, but all attempts to revive him were fruitless. At 11pm, he was officially pronounced deceased with the cause of death determined to be drowning.

It was standard protocol for local law enforcement to look into drowning incidents and as soon as investigators saw Kevin's body, they knew this wasn't a typical drowning case. For starters, Kevin's shoes and one of his socks were missing. There were also visible injuries to the front of his neck and abdomen. While it was possible that these injuries were caused by his body rubbing against the wooden pallet as it moved in the water, this was unlikely. The pallet Kevin had been found lying on was in water approximately 20cm deep. When his grandparents found him, only his left hand had been trailing in the water while

the rest of his body was afloat on the pallet. Even though Kevin couldn't swim, it didn't make sense that he could have drowned in such shallow water. An official autopsy confirmed investigators' suspicions. The whites of Kevin's eyes showed clear signs of bleeding which is a telltale indication of strangulation. There were also bruises to his genitals and signs of sexual assault as well as sand in his underwear.

This wasn't a tragic drowning accident at all, but a cold blooded murder. The area where Kevin's body was found was cordoned off, although authorities kept it under wraps that they were investigating the boy's death as anything other than an accident. The local school was right next door, so parents and children arrived to a dramatic scene when they returned for the school year on Monday morning. As officers assessed the area, two students approached and handed over a pair of black of velcro strapped sandals and a single purple sock. They belonged to Kevin, and the children had found them behind the small shed where his

bike had been abandoned. The shed was approximately 30 metres from where Kevin's body was found, and the path leading up to it contained similar sand to that which was found in Kevin's underwear. This led investigators to theorise that he could have been killed near the shed before being moved to the pallet. Fluorescent clothing fibres were found on the path, although none were detected on the pallet or on Kevin's body. A seven-centimetre-long bruise on Kevin's neck indicated that he'd been killed by someone

pressing a hard, sharp object against his throat. Investigators were particularly interested in a stick that was found near the shed. It was around one-centimetre thick and broken in the middle. Testing revealed a child-sized handprint in the bark, as well as several hairs attached, leading to the conclusion that this was the murder weapon. Given the proximity of the crime scene to the school, the rumour mill soon went into overdrive. Police had been canvassing the neighbourhood to question people about what they'd seen

on Sunday afternoon, making it obvious that this was no open-and-shut accidental drowning. On Thursday, August 20, local suspicions that something more sinister was at play were confirmed when a press conference was held to announce that the police were now treating Kevin's death as a sexual assault and murder. Kevin's parents were grief-stricken. They had separated before he was born, but his father, Portric, had recently moved closer to Dr Vic to focus on his relationship with his son. The two had been growing closer, and to have Kevin suddenly snatched away left Portric

so overcome with sorrow that he was unable to leave the house. Kevin's mother, Therese, shied away from the media to focus on her grief and take care of her daughter, while also trying to process unfounded accusations of neglect. Though much of the community were supportive, some parents were openly questioning how Therese could have left Kevin unsupervised. She was accused of partying instead of taking care of her children. Others cruelly labelled Kevin's grandparents as drunks, and some went as far as to comment. It was no wonder that he died.

This cruel gossip exacerbated Therese's already overwhelming grief. As most child murders are committed by someone known to the victim, protocol dictated that Kevin's family were looked into. Not only did they all have verified alibis, but police found nothing to suggest that they were anything other than loving and supportive, and they were quickly ruled out of the investigation. Police had been trying to piece together Kevin's last known movements, but this was no easy task. Drvik was a relatively lower socioeconomic area, and many residents didn't trust the

police as they felt they'd been overlooked when making reports in the past. Eventually, investigators found some who were willing to talk, and a timeline was established. After Kevin left his mother's house on Sunday afternoon, he met up with a friend named Robert. Just before 4pm, the pair rode their bikes to the home of Kevin's best friend, Robin, and asked if he wanted to come out and play. Robin wasn't allowed to, so Kevin told Robin he'd come by the next day instead. He and Robert then ran into a 13-year-old they knew named Felix, not his real name. The boys looked up to Felix because he owned an impressive BMX bike with Spider-Man handlebars.

When Robert left to go home, Kevin was still with Felix. He then played in the school yard with a group of other local teens and children, none of whom recalled seeing any strangers or anything suspicious in the area. Several local residents had heard screaming at around 6pm, but hadn't been able to figure out where the noise was coming from. One person had gotten into their car and driven around trying to locate the source, to no avail. The injuries to Kevin's genital area indicated the crime may have been sexually motivated. There were three known pedophiles who resided around Dr Vic, one of whom lived just 100

metres from Kevin's home. According to witnesses, this individual was seen at around midday on Sunday, holding Kevin's hand and helping him cross the street. However, he had a verified alibi for that evening, as did the other two known child sex offenders. Plus, there was no evidence linking any of them to the murder weapon. Daily press conferences were held to keep the public and media up to date with the latest developments in what came to be known as the Kevin case, but the details of how Kevin

died were withheld. Given the sensitive nature of the crime, lead investigator Rolf Sundberry decided that a restrained approach was best, to prevent hysteria and keep speculation to a minimum. Police appealed for anyone with information to come forward, but all they got was a series of false leads. One woman implicated her partner in the crime, while another claimed a hitman had been hired to kill Kevin. There was no evidence to support either of these claims.

Questions were soon raised as to whether Kevin had been sexually assaulted at all. The pathologist who'd initially examined Kevin's body had detected white liquid around the four-year-old's rectum, and had partly based the sexual assault diagnosis on this evidence. Upon closer inspection, he realized the liquid was actually from the thermometer that had been used to determine Kevin's approximate time of death. Police were under immense pressure to make an arrest. Not only was Kevin's death starting to make national headlines, the community had become cloaked in fear.

Children were no longer allowed to play or walk to school unsupervised, with their parents on edge that a child killer was on the loose. Adding fuel to the fire were rumors and tip-offs that immigrants were responsible. Several of the children last seen playing with Kevin were refugees, including 13-year-old Felix. Theories arose that one of the foreign children had murdered Kevin, but were refusing to admit to it because their parents had threatened to kill them if they owned up. These children had fled from war-torn countries where they'd witnessed all kinds of atrocities,

and some believed this could have influenced their behavior. Although police were eager to dispel these rumors to quell any growing xenophobia, interviewing these children proved difficult. Not only were there cultural differences, but given the children's experiences with war, some of them had learned not to trust authorities. It was clear to police that some of them weren't telling the truth. They just couldn't tell if this was because they genuinely had something to hide, or because they simply didn't want to get into trouble.

It soon came to light that the children who'd handed in Kevin's shoes to police only knew they were behind the shed because Felix had told them so. His knowledge about the shoes, along with the fact that he was one of the last people seen with Kevin, led to rumors that Felix had something to do with Kevin's death. However, Felix told police he didn't hang out with Kevin at all. If witnesses claimed they saw the two of them together, they were mistaken. He had indeed been riding his BMX bike around town, but he had gone to the library at around 6pm before heading home.

Having successfully eliminated Kevin's family and known sex offenders from the investigation, police focused on the children who had been seen playing with or near Kevin on the night of his death. However, questioning young children regarding criminal matters is challenging at the best of times. Not only did the children's limited vocabulary make it difficult to have straightforward conversations, but police also had to avoid asking any leading questions. Complicating matters further was the fact that many of the children weren't allowed to play

near the lake, so they lied and told police they weren't in the area. They changed their stories constantly, sometimes implicating other children, then later taking it back. With some parents flatly refusing to let their children speak to the police, they were urged to speak with their children themselves and report anything that could be of interest to the investigation. The police weren't used to questioning children regarding such serious matters, and they didn't know how to interpret their constantly changing answers.

Unsure what to think or how best to proceed, they enlisted the help of professionals who were trained in dealing with children, including those with different cultural backgrounds. They brought child and family psychologists on board, as well as social workers and representatives from charity organization Save the Children. Ingrid Horeson was a child psychologist trained in dealing with victims of sexual assault, and she was tasked to assist police with the interrogations. It was important that she built rapport with the children, so they felt safe and comfortable enough to talk.

Horeson, along with some of the others on the interrogation team, spent time playing with the children and chatting with them over barbecues, fishing excursions and soccer games. Toys, video games and sweet treats were brought into the station to help put the children at ease. Once the children felt comfortable, Horeson and another detective would interview them in a private room, while others in the team watched on via a covert TV screen. Horeson wore an earpiece so that another child psychologist named Bent Joran Jornson could guide her on how she should behave, what questions she should focus on, and how far she could

push the children. For many of the children, Kevin's death was difficult to comprehend, although they understood that he would no longer be around. Kevin's murder was a hot topic around the neighborhood, and Kevin's best friend, five-year-old Robin Dalyan had heard plenty of the stories that were floating around. His seven-year-old brother Christian had just started school and came home every day rehashing everything that he'd heard in the schoolyard. Police had stopped by to question Robin and Christian several times, as Kevin visited

their home on the afternoon he was killed. Robin hadn't been allowed to go out and play, as his family had guests over for dinner. Robin and Christian's father, Vyna Dalyan, told police that after dinner the boys had played outside with the children of their guests. They then all left to go on a fishing trip. While they couldn't provide any information about the night in question, Vyna agreed to make note of anything his sons might mention that could be of any interest to police. Like some of his neighbors, he trusted law enforcement and wanted to help in any way

possible. According to the book The Story of the Kevin Case by Andreas Slatt, on Saturday, August 22, six days after Kevin's death, Vyna was driving the boys to buy some sweets when he overheard Christian say, I saw Kevin standing and talking to some big guys on the day that he died. Realising this was exactly the kind of information that could be helpful to the police, Vyna immediately rerouted the car towards the police station. Just before they arrived, Robin suddenly announced,

I saw the murder Kevin. Vyna was taken aback. He didn't think his sons had been playing down by the lake on the night Kevin was killed, but Robin insisted he was telling the truth. Vyna didn't want to take any chances. Perhaps the boys had ridden to the lake while they were playing in front of the house after dinner. He figured the boys could tell the police what they knew, and the police could then figure

out if any of the information was useful. At the station, Robin and Christian were taken into separate rooms to tell police what they knew. Robin was accompanied by his stepmother Eva. She and Vyna had recently married, and they had main custody of the two boys, who also split their time with their mother, Annika. The police probed Robin to tell them everything he knew about who killed Kevin, but Robin was reluctant.

Eva reassured him he wouldn't get in trouble if he admitted he had rode his bike down to the lake. Robin denied doing so, but then said, They didn't listen. Who didn't listen, the officer asked. Robin responded, The one who murdered Kevin. He said there were two boys, one wore all black while the other wore grey pants and a black jumper. Robin had watched as they stabbed Kevin in the stomach.

Given that Kevin had died by strangulation, this was obviously incorrect, but police weren't prepared to rule Robin's account out. Due to his age, it was possible that he was simply getting the details of his story mixed up. Meanwhile, in the other room, Christian told police that on the night of Sunday, August 16, Robin had told him that he watched Kevin's murder. It became clear to police that the brothers could be the key witnesses they'd been waiting for.

The news that Robin had witnessed Kevin's murder came as such a shock to his stepmother Eva that she had a panic attack and had to be administered to a psychiatric ward. She was overcome with fear that whoever had killed Kevin would target Robin next to ensure his silence. She was heavily sedated and held in the hospital for nine days. Police visited Eva in hospital and asked if she remembered the boys saying anything about seeing Kevin's murder on the night that he died. She recalled that Christian might have said something about Kevin's murder on the night

it happened. When pushed, she also conceded that Christian's clothing might have been wet. For the police, this was a major breakthrough that proved the brothers really had witnessed the murder. Police took Robin to visit the scene of the crime, hoping it would jog his memory, but his story changed constantly, leaving more questions than answers. They took him to Kevin's neighborhood and asked if he could identify the killer, but Robin simply knocked on doors at random.

They showed Robin the yearbook from the local school and asked if he could identify the person who had killed Kevin. He first pointed to one boy, but then changed his mind and pointed to another. One of the perpetrators he singled out shared any physical characteristics, making it clear that Robin was just pointing to pictures at random. Robin then changed his mind completely and said the killer wasn't in the yearbook at all. With the very little physical evidence to go on, police knew their best chance of solving

the case was to find reliable witnesses. Robin began telling the police that his brother Christian had also seen Kevin's murder. Christian initially denied seeing anything, but finally admitted that he had been with Robin on the night Kevin died. They had seen him get into a fight with a group of other local kids. Police narrowed their focus onto eight young individuals who had been spotted playing in the area on the night of the crime. They picked the children up from school and took them to the station so they could interview

them without parental influence, a decision that was harshly criticized. The spotlight was soon placed on two 13-year-old boys named Marios and Matias, who had been seen near the lake around the time Kevin went missing. When questioned by police, they gave evasive answers and constantly changed their stories. Police became increasingly convinced that the two friends were lying to cover something up, but they had no evidence to prove it. They searched the boys' homes and confiscated several items of clothing for forensic testing. Nothing of interest was found.

The handprint on the stick that was believed to be the murder weapon was compared to several of the children last seen with Kevin, but there were no matches. Instead, it was theorized that Kevin himself might have held onto the stick while trying to fight off the attack. As Kevin's prints weren't ever taken, this couldn't be determined with certainty. One month into the investigation, police remained convinced that Matias and Marios knew more than they were letting on. So they applied extra pressure during their interrogations in a bid to extract the truth.

The pressure became so overwhelming that at one point Marios broke down in tears, but at no point did either of the teenagers come any closer to making a confession. Police then took an unorthodox approach. Although it was illegal to place a wiretap on the home phones of minors, they did so anyway, covertly listening in on conversations between the two friends in the hopes of finding the evidence they needed. However, if Matias and Marios had any information, they were remaining tight-lipped. With no evidence, physical or otherwise, police reluctantly turned their focus away from the

teens. They were still convinced that Robin and Christian knew something about Kevin's murder. They just couldn't figure out exactly what. As requested by police, their father, Vyner, had been taking note of anything the boys said about Kevin's death at home and reporting it back to the authorities. The brothers gave various accounts about how Kevin died and who was responsible. They switched between him being stabbed, kicked and pushed into the water. Sometimes the perpetrator was old, other times he was just a kid.

Their stories changed so constantly that police started to suspect they hadn't witnessed the murder at all. Instead, they believed the brothers had actually been involved with it. In all their changing stories, one detail remained consistent. Each telling centered around a floating jetty which was located just a couple of hundred metres from the boys' home. This seemed significant, however, the jetty was roughly 30 metres from the pallet where Kevin's body was found.

The two locations were separated by rough terrain, dense shrubbery and a stone wall. Kevin's body had no injuries consistent with being dragged across such an area. So if he really had been killed on the jetty, then how did he end up on the pallet? In mid-September, the boys' mother, Annika, reported that she'd been discussing the situation with Robin when he suddenly made an announcement. My brother did it. With this new information coming to light, investigators asked Robin if the person he saw kill Kevin was actually his big brother, Christian.

Robin replied, Yes. Two months into the investigation, lead investigator Rolf Sundberry hired Sven Orker-Christensen, a professor of psychology at Stockholm University who had specialised knowledge in interrogation techniques and had worked with police on murder investigations in the past. Christensen had also conducted extensive research on the subject of repressed memories. He believed that certain memories can be lost when an individual experiences a traumatic event but that they can be retrieved from the subconscious later on. This psychogenic amnesia, as Christensen called it, was a defence mechanism aimed to protect

people from extreme emotions that surface during trauma, as stated in one of his research papers. To the same extent that we need mechanisms to identify and recognise unpleasant events, we also need mechanisms to forget unpleasant experiences. Christensen reviewed the interrogation reports from all of the children who had been questioned and immediately determined that Robin and Christian either knew exactly what happened to Kevin or had been involved in his death. They had likely repressed the memory and would eventually tell the truth but it could take some time, possibly several months.

The truth might not come out all at once but in dribs and draps. Christensen believed the most important thing the investigative team could do was make the boys feel safe enough to open up. When Weiner realised that his sons were now being treated as suspects, he couldn't take it anymore. The past two months had taken such an enormous toll on his mental health that, like his wife, he too was admitted to a psychiatric ward. Investigators visited Weiner in hospital to question him once again about the night that

Kevin was killed. They wanted to know if he recalled his sons having wet clothing when they returned from playing outside that evening. Weiner said he couldn't remember for sure but admitted it was possible. The clothing Robin and Christian had been wearing on the night Kevin was killed was taken for analysis but the garments had already been washed so they held no clues. One night shortly after the police visit, Weiner suddenly remembered that on the night Kevin died, Christian had drawn a picture.

It was of Kevin's body floating in the water near the jetty. By late October the interrogations had been ongoing for six weeks. During that time more than 1,300 interviews had been held with 482 individuals. After eliminating all other persons of interest, investigators pieced together the details provided by Robin and Christian and deduced the most likely scenario. The brothers had been playing a game with Kevin when things spiralled out of control. An argument likely broke out on the jetty and Christian had accidentally killed Kevin. The brothers had simply been so traumatized by the event that they'd blocked it out of

their memories, hence why they couldn't give investigators a straight answer about what happened or how Kevin's body got from the jetty to the pallet. The fact that Kevin died by a sharp object being pressed against his throat was still classified information. If the brothers revealed this detail, police felt satisfied that they could officially close the case. According to Professor Sven Orke Kristiansson, repressed memories could be revived by leading the children back to the scene where the traumatic event took place and recreating

the same smells, sound and light. When investigators felt that the boys were close to making a breakthrough, Ingrid Harrison took Robin down to the jetty. She wore an earpiece so that Professor Kristiansson could guide her words. With them was a child-sized doll. Harrison encouraged Robin to use the doll to re-enact what happened to Kevin. She asked if he or Kristiansson did something to hurt Kevin. Robin replied, No.

Harrison encouraged Robin to play with the stick, but he ignored it, instead asking if he should push the doll into the water. Kristiansson was then brought to the jetty. Harrison encouraged him to use the doll to show where Kevin's injuries had occurred. Kristiansson shut down completely, saying, You can't know if you didn't see what happened. He eventually said that Robin pushed Kevin into the water after a fight on the jetty, but he still didn't make any mention of a stick or strangulation. Although the interrogation team were frustrated that they hadn't received the confession

they were hoping for, they were certain that the boys' memories were now bubbling away just below the surface and would soon be revealed. On October 26, it all became too much for Kristiansson. He broke down and finally admitted that Kevin wasn't killed on the floating jetty. According to Rov Sundbury's official report, the interrogation team left Sundbury alone to interview Kristian with Robin and Diva. This time, Kristian walked to the table where a map of the lake had been laid out. He picked up a pen and circled the area of reeds where Kevin's body was found.

He then indicated to Robin that it was okay to speak. Robin said that Kristian, Kevin and himself were playing in the soccer field when an argument broke out amongst them. The brothers began kicking and hitting Kevin, including in his groin area. They then chased Kevin down to the shore of the lake where the fight continued and Kevin somehow ended up on his back. Kristian then grabbed a stick and pushed it against Kevin's throat. When he let go, Robin knelt down and pinched Kevin in the throat, but he was already dead.

The brothers lifted Kevin up and dragged him onto a rock where they rested for a while before carrying him onto the pallet in the water. It was at this point that Kristian's clothing got wet. When Sundbury pointed out to Robin that this account differed from his most recent story, Robin replied, That was not true. Everything else is true. The following day, a press conference was held to announce that two young brothers had admitted

to killing five-year-old Kevin Jelmeson. It was the first time in modern Swedish history that a child had been blamed for killing another child and the authorities knew they had to choose their words carefully. Instead of labelling it a murder, they announced that Kevin's death was the result of a game that had gotten out of hand. Due to the age of those responsible, there would be no trial and their identities would not be revealed. Sundbury urged,

This investigation only involves victims. I therefore implore the media to show restraint and consideration towards Kevin's relatives, as well as the children involved and their relatives. Despite their names being suppressed, there was no hiding Robin and Kristian's identities from their fellow residents of Avika. The community wanted nothing to do with the boys or their family, and some people wanted revenge. It wasn't safe for the family to return home, so Robin, Kristian, Vyna and Eva were moved

to a treatment facility outside of town, while authorities figured out the next steps. The boys' mother, Annika, was relocated nearby, but she was only allowed to see her son's for scheduled visits. A team of 11 staff were assigned to help the family process what had happened. Robin and Kristian couldn't grasp the situation and kept asking when they'd be going home. Robin continuously asked when he'd be able to see his bike again. Speaking about the case, Rolf Sundbury later commented, After all the conversations we had with children, I realized that children are fully aware of

their actions. In the Kevin case, the boys knew they weren't playing a game. They knew that if they did something in a certain way, it could lead to death. Robin and Kristian were both subject to various tests, including MRIs and EEGs, to check for any brain damage or abnormalities. Authorities were interested in figuring out why the brothers had killed Kevin and whether they presented a danger in the future. In April of 1999, a special program titled Project Staircase was developed to help Kristian

and Robin come to terms with what they'd done and to help integrate them back into society. As part of Project Staircase, the boys would move with Vina and Eva into an apartment within a treatment facility, while a team of assistants would live in the apartment above. The assistants would monitor the family's movements from 9am to 8pm, taking note of everything from their daily activities to their interactions to the boys' toilet breaks. Robin and Kristian would undergo daily therapy sessions where they'd be asked how they felt about Kevin's death. The aim was to help them process what had happened without fear of judgment or rejection.

They'd soon be allowed to return to school on two conditions. An assistant would accompany them in the classroom every day, and they weren't allowed to tell any of their classmates about Kevin or their involvement in his death. Five months into Project Staircase, Kristian was in his daily therapy session when he suddenly made a revelation. The reason he had taken so long to confess was because his father had instructed him and Robin not to tell anyone how Kevin had died. The authorities were stunned.

From early on, they had suspected that Vina might have been covering something up and that he may have been the one who carried Kevin's body from the jetty to the pallet. Kristian's revelation only strengthened their belief. Deeming Vina unfit to be a parent, Robin and Kristian were taken out of the clinic and temporarily put into their mother's custody. Vina adamantly denied having any involvement in Kevin's death or telling the boys to lie about their involvement. The authorities decided the brothers would be best placed in foster care and set about

finding suitable placements. However, when prospective families found out who Robin and Kristian were, they wanted nothing to do with them. Nobody felt safe having a child killer in their homes. Eventually, the decision was made. Kristian would live with his mother while Robin would remain with Eva and Vina. The brothers could see one another on weekends. In early 2000, projects staircase officially disbanded and the families were free to live

without daily supervision for the first time in over a year. However, they still had to abide by strict rules. Under no circumstances was anyone to reveal their involvement with the Kevin case. If an outsider ever found out their secret, a crisis plan was put in place. The boys were also forbidden from returning to Arvika until they turned 18, but at this point it didn't matter anyway. None of their friends wanted anything to do with them. Although neither brother initially had any recollection of the event, they'd believed

it was possible that they'd blocked the memories out, as investigators said. As years began to pass, the whole situation remained shrouded in mystery. Kristian and Robin weren't allowed to talk about it with friends, and their parents seemed eager to put it all behind them and move forward. But every now and then, when life felt normal again, an unexpected abusive message would find its way into their letterbox or email accounts to remind them of their dark past. By the time Robin was 10, his niggling concerns had developed into full-blown doubt that he was capable of hurting his best friend.

It just didn't feel possible that he could have absolutely no memory of such a significant event. He wondered if he'd simply witnessed the crime and gotten his stories mixed up. At the same time, he was plagued by the question, what if it was me? Over the next few years, Robin started doing his own research about the case, using the internet to uncover any information he could get his hands on. The more he learned, the more he felt he couldn't be responsible. If he was capable of such horrific behavior, he didn't want to live.

Robin's mental health began to suffer, and he considered suicide. In contrast, Kristian didn't want to dwell on the past. He tried not to think about Kevin's death, but there were some things he couldn't avoid. Ever since the police interrogations had begun, Kristian's sleep had suffered hugely. He became so riddled with anxiety that he tossed and turned all night and could never fully relax. He was afraid of the dark and would wake up in a panic several times each night. According to the book The Story of the Kevin Case, one night not long after his confession,

a forlorn Kristian summoned his mother to the clinic where he was being housed because he had something he wanted to tell her. When she arrived, he said, I know nothing about Kevin. I wasn't there. When Anika reasoned that that hadn't been what he'd told the police, Kristian responded. But I just invented everything. Concerned, Anika reported this to the police, but they assured her that her sons had been telling the truth.

While the interrogation reports were confidential and they couldn't reveal exactly what was said, the police confirmed that Kristian and Robin had provided descriptions of Kevin's death that only those responsible could know. A couple of years later in 2001, the boys' parents asked to see the transcripts of the interrogations after one senior investigator contacted them to raise questions about the way things were handled. Lead investigator Rolf Sundberry refused on the grounds that the investigation was classified and the parents didn't push any further.

On the outset, they'd felt completely out of depth when dealing with the authorities. They had fully trusted the process and accepted that the necessary steps had to be taken to find Kevin's killer, even if it meant a few difficult months for Robin and Kristian. Robin eventually fell in love with a woman named Mimi, and when he was 20 years old, the two welcomed a baby boy. However, the secret about his past continued to haunt him. Robin was under strict instructions not to tell Mimi about the Kevin case, and their relationship suffered as a result.

By the time their son was three months old, Robin and Mimi broke up, with Robin given full custody. Kristian had done his best to push the Kevin case to the back of his mind, but he found it impossible to live a normal life with such a huge secret in his past. By the time he was in his early 20s, the thought occurred to him for the first time. What if he didn't do it? Kristian was still in close contact with the child psychologist Bent Joran Jornson, who had been seeing ever since the police interrogations.

He voiced his concerns to Jornson, but he assured him he could put his mind at ease. There was no doubt that Kristian and Robin were responsible. Professor Richard Sherbury specialised in neuroscience at Umeå University in northern Sweden, and he had a particular fascination with forensic psychology. In 2010, Professor Sherbury became involved with the high-profile case that shocked Sweden to the core. Sturra Berival, formerly known as Thomas Quick, was a Swedish man who confessed to committing more than 30 murders and cannibalising several of his victims.

He was ultimately convicted for eight of the murders and sentenced to psychiatric confinement. However, the confessions were made while Berival was undergoing psychiatric treatment in a mental health facility, and they only came about after a team of psychiatrists used recovered memory therapy to extract vague information from a heavily medicated Berival that could loosely tie him to the crimes. In the absence of any concrete evidence, the credibility of his confessions was hotly disputed, and when Berival retracted all of his confessions in 2008, there was no ground for the convictions to stand on.

Professor Sherbury was part of the team that criticised the memory techniques used in Berival's case, and all eight of his convictions were ultimately quashed. It was deduced that the psychiatric team had essentially used leading questions to coerce Berival into believing that he remembered certain details about the crimes, when in reality he had no involvement whatsoever. Berival ultimately admitted he had lied about his involvement in the crimes because he enjoyed the attention, and because the medication he was on enabled him to confidently create the false stories.

In 2013, Sherbury began looking through the Kevin case, and noticed there were distinct similarities between it and the Thomas Quick case. Not only did both cases rely strongly on repressed memories, but both investigations had been guided by the same memory specialist, Professor Sven Ocke Christensen. While Christensen's work on repressed memories had seemed groundbreaking at the time, this methodology had since come under fire. Research had revealed that the so-called techniques used by therapists to recover repressed memories also had the potential to create false memories of experiences that never happened.

Professor Sherbury started reading about the techniques used to solve Kevin Yulmerson's murder and was immediately suspicious. There was simply no scientific evidence to support the interrogation techniques used against Robin and Christian. Research had also taught him that having multiple long interrogations with children can be dangerous. The harder children are pressed, the more likely they are to tell police what they think they want to hear. Professor Sherbury couldn't help but wonder, what if their brothers hadn't had anything

to do with Kevin's death after all? Professor Sherbury contacted Don Yusufsen, a respected journalist whom he'd worked with on the Thomas Quick case, and told him about his suspicions. Yusufsen wasted no time in looking into the Kevin case himself. He immediately shared Professor Sherbury's concerns that a severe miscarriage of justice might have taken place. Christian and Robin's family had a strict no-media rule and they were near impossible to get in contact with.

Don Yusufsen persisted for five months and eventually they agreed to speak with him. When the family learned of his intentions to make a documentary about the case, they were hesitant. If Yusufsen's suspicions were wrong and investigators had acted entirely above board, the family risked revealing their true identities after 17 years of secrecy. All their hard work would be undone and Christian and Robin would be publicly outed as child killers. Yusufsen made them a promise.

If he and his team couldn't find any evidence to support their theory of a botched investigation, they'd forget about the documentary entirely. The family agreed on the condition that they didn't want updates until Yusufsen's team had completed their research. Because the Kevin case was classified, the documentary crew had to use various sources to get their hands on the preliminary investigation. They eventually gained access to interrogation transcripts as well as some video footage of the interrogations.

The more they uncovered, the more shocked they became. It was immediately clear that the interrogation team had acted unethically. The European Convention stipulates that children should only be interrogated once and never for a long period of time. Children and Christian were interrogated a total of 30 times, with some interrogations lasting over four and a half hours. Their parents were rarely present, even when the boys became visibly distressed. During the interrogations, the brothers had singled out a total of nine different perpetrators

and mentioned at least seven different ways that Kevin had died. They rarely repeated the same story twice. Up until the very last interrogations, at no point did either of the boys mention the pallet where Kevin was found or the correct method of Kevin's death. It was only when the interrogation team fed them leading questions that they were able to provide the details the investigators seemed so desperate to hear. In fact, the majority of the most damning statements made by the brothers had been the result of leading questions.

One of the main reasons that Robin and Christian had been considered suspects was that Robin had responded yes when Sundbury asked if his older brother was the one who killed Kevin. After being shocked by this response, Sundbury had proceeded to ask Robin 15 more times whether he saw Christian kill Kevin. Of those 15 times, Robin replied yes eight times, but seven times he said no. It was clear from the interrogation reports and videos that investigators became increasingly frustrated as time went by. In the final stages of the investigation, the boys had been taken to the jetty with

a life-sized doll in the hopes their so-called repressed memories would resurface. When a visibly upset Christian had claimed that he didn't know how Kevin's injuries had occurred, Ingrid Harrison had pushed him saying, but you did see because you were here. It's you who knows because you were here. Christian, what did you do to Kevin? In the subsequent final interrogations, investigators not only intensified their use of leading questions, but blatantly fed the brother's information in order to extract a confession. Ingrid Harrison was receiving directions from the rest of the team in her earpiece.

She stopped beating around the bush and straight out told Robin where Kevin's body was found and that he had a bruise on his neck. They even drew him pictures. From there, she proceeded to ask Robin more than a hundred times how the injuries occurred on Kevin's neck. Robin repeatedly said he didn't know. Eventually, with Harrison continuously pressuring him to speak about Kevin's neck, Robin finally said that Christian pinched Kevin on the throat.

At no point did he mention helping carry Kevin's body to the pallet. Despite Harrison literally telling him how and where Kevin had died, Robin seemed incapable of providing this information. The same technique was then used on Christian. Over four and a half hours of questioning, he became increasingly distressed. He cried and repeatedly asked for his mother. All up, he asked 61 times for the questioning to stop. Instead, the interrogators told him he could only see his mother if he admitted what happened

to Kevin. At this point, it was clear that he'd say anything if it meant he could leave, but he still couldn't provide the information they were so obviously hoping to hear. Instead, detectives showed Christian a photo map of the lake and blatantly pointed out the area where Kevin's body was found. One detective asked, did you carry him there? Now realizing what they wanted him to say, Christian said yes. However, he was still unable to explain how.

For the investigative team, it didn't seem to matter. That evening, lead investigator Rolf Sundberg interviewed the brothers and then wrote an official report declaring that they had made a full confession. Interestingly, no other investigator was present during this significant interview, and it was the only time during the entire investigation that Sundberg filed an official report. Robin and Christian were both interviewed again the following morning, but this time neither of them repeated the confession they'd supposedly given the previous day. The reality was, there wasn't a single piece of evidence to tie Robin and Christian to

the crime. Their finger and hand prints didn't match those found on the stick believed to be the murder weapon. In fact, there was no evidence that the stick was the murder weapon at all. He had witnessed the brothers at the scene of the crime, nor had they provided any insider information until the interrogation team spoon fed it to them. Forensic specialists also didn't think it was possible that the brothers could have moved Kevin from the jetty to the pallet, nor had they ever provided any explanation of

how they managed to do so. At the time of the investigation, the authorities didn't think that Robin and Christian needed illegal assistance, because they weren't able to be prosecuted due to their age. No one ever told the boys' parents about their right to a lawyer, and they had never thought to ask. Had a defense lawyer been brought in, they would never have allowed the brothers to be interrogated for so long, or so many times. Furthermore, a crucial detail would have never slipped through the cracks.

At the time of Kevin's death, the Dalyan family were close with another family called the Grorns, who had children similar in age to Robin and Christian. The two families thought it would be nice to spend the last day of summer vacation together. On Sunday, August 16, 1998, the Grorns arrived at the Dalyan's house mid-afternoon. While the adults chatted inside, the three Grorn children played outside with Robin and Christian. As the eldest of the group, the Grorns' 10-year-old was put in charge and told to keep an eye on the younger kids.

When police later questioned him, he was unwaveringly adamant that Robin or Christian never left his sight for any period of time. Likewise, his mother had been keeping a close eye on the children from the window, and she confirmed that none of them ever strayed from view. After dinner, the two families left to go fishing at around 6pm. Christian rode in the car with the Grorn family, who stopped at a gas station just outside of Drvick to put petrol in their car. This was corroborated by receipts as well as the gas station owner.

During the fishing trip, all the children remained within view of the parents at all times. Police had been aware of this alibi since the early days of the investigation. In fact, they'd interviewed the Grorns a total of 14 times, and they always told the same story. Police never told Vyner and Eva that their alibi had been verified, and the Grorn family stopped speaking to them in the wake of Kevin's death. This led to the boys' parents questioning their own recollection of that evening and

wondering whether the boys had indeed snuck off at some point without their knowledge. The suspicion against the brothers had been fueled by Vyner and Eva's admission that the boys may have had wet clothes on the night that Kevin had died, and that they may have admitted to seeing Kevin be killed on the night that had happened. However, these admissions had been made while Eva and Vyner were heavily medicated and receiving treatment at a psychiatric facility. Police had persisted in asking probing questions despite knowing full well that they were taking sedatives and suffering immense stress.

Not only had investigators acted unethically and overlooked a crucial alibi, they'd been quick to rule out a potential person of interest. On May 7, 1999, just nine months after Kevin's death, a 50-year-old Dr. Vick resident was walking through the playground near the lake when they came upon a horrifying incident. A three-year-old boy was being raped in the sand pit. The witness scared the perpetrator off but managed to catch a good glimpse of him as he fled the scene. It was Felix, the same 13-year-old boy who had been spotted with Kevin Jolmeson on the

night that he was killed. Felix fled across the nearby border to Norway but soon returned to Dr. Vick and turned himself in. He admitted to the crime but, given his age, he was sent to a treatment facility before returning to regular schooling. Three years later, he was speaking to a classmate about the rape when he allegedly confessed, I have done worse things than that. According to the book The Story of the Kevin Case, Felix's family lived in the same apartment

complex as Kevin's mother, Therias. Just six days after Kevin was killed, Felix's mother suffered a heart attack. Therias had rushed to help provide CPR and paramedics were able to revive her. But when Therias heard that Felix had sexually assaulted a young child, she immediately became suspicious. Was it possible that Felix's mother knew more about Kevin's death than she wanted to admit and had that caused her heart attack? There were several factors that made Felix appear suspect.

Not only was he one of the last people seen with Kevin but he'd also been the one who told the other children where they could find Kevin's shoes and socks behind the shed. Felix had denied being with Kevin on the night of his death, despite multiple witnesses placing the two of them together. He told police that he'd wrote around town for a while before visiting the library, then writing home. However, had the police bothered to double check this alibi, they would have discovered that the library was actually closed on Sundays.

Furthermore, no witnesses had seen Felix writing around town as he described. Before Felix arrived in Dottovik, he spent time in a refugee camp after fleeing war in his home country. His childhood had been marred by traumatic events and he also had an intellectual disability. After being revealed as a child rapist, many Dottovik residents began to wonder if he could have been the real perpetrator of Kevin's death. The combined factors seemed way too coincidental and it was possible that the police could have written Felix off to avoid igniting xenophobia amongst Swedish citizens.

Kevin's family voiced their concerns to the authorities but were advised that Kevin's case was closed and that was that. Robin and Christian's mother also found it curious that Felix wasn't looked into further. She contacted both the police and the media to explore the possible connection but it seemed that nobody was interested in what she had to say. Felix has never provided an explanation as to how he knew that Kevin's shoes were behind the shed near the lake. One year after Don Yusufsson and his documentary team started digging around,

they sat down with Robin, Christian and their parents and presented them with the interrogation videos. The family was absolutely flawed. Although they'd always suspected that Robin and Christian were innocent, they'd been completely oblivious to how the interrogation was going to go. Vyner didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After digesting what they'd seen, Christian remarked, Every question mark is erased for me.

When the three-part documentary titled Documents From Within, the Kevin case aired on Sweden's SVT network in early 2016, the three-part documentary titled Documents From Within, the Kevin case aired on Sweden's SVT network in early May of 2017, Robin, Christian and their parents were extremely anxious. They feared the exposure might lead to a backlash. However, they received nothing but overwhelming support from the community who were completely outraged at the way the authorities had handled the investigation. In a subsequent press conference, Robin and Christian's full names were released to the

public for the first time. The brothers spoke of the joy and relief they felt after the bungled investigation had been exposed and thanked the media for helping bring the truth to light. Instead of living in fear of being recognized, they embraced the spotlight and welcomed people who approached to wish them well. Robin told reporters, This is a new start. We'll just keep trying to lead an ordinary life. Work, house, car.

Not much planned beyond that. Ordinary life goals. Christian commented, They have taken years of my life that I will never ever get back. Now when new chapter begins, one can finally settle down. I do not need to be afraid anymore. The brothers voiced their concerns for Kevin's family who would no doubt have old wounds reopened. Christian told reporters, It is tragic, both for us who were suspected and also for Kevin's family who now have to go through all of this once again.

With the story gaining huge attention in the media, the case was formally reviewed by chief prosecutor Nicholas Vargrian. He dissected the interrogation records, reviewed Kevin's autopsy report, and interviewed over 80 people who had been involved in the initial investigation. On March 17, 10 months after the documentary aired, Vargrian held a press conference to announce his verdict. He concluded that there was absolutely no forensic evidence to indicate that Robin and Christian were involved in Kevin's death in any way or that they were even present when he died.

Not only did they have a verified alibi from the very beginning, but the interrogation methods used against them were entirely unethical and unprofessional. Vargrian had no doubts about it, both Christian and Robin were entirely innocent. The brothers were over the moon at finally being vindicated. After the announcement, Christian told reporters, I haven't been able to digest it, so I can only describe it as pure happiness. They subsequently applied for financial compensation for the hardships they faced, but their application was rejected on the grounds that too much time had passed.

With the botched murder investigation exposed, it raised a serious question. If Robin and Christian didn't kill Kevin, then who did? Chief prosecutor Nicholas Vargrian believed there were several possibilities. While he wasn't prepared to completely rule out drowning or that Kevin might have been killed by someone other than the brothers, it was more likely that he had died by accident. Judging by the injuries to his body, it was possible that Kevin had been playing by the lake, either alone or with another child, when a wooden pallet accidentally fell on top of him while trying to lift it. The other child might have panicked, moved the pallet and then fled the

scene, vowing never to speak a word about what had happened. Alternatively, Kevin might have been Kevin might have been playing with another child who could have sat on top of him, pushing his neck into the edge of the pallet and accidentally strangling him. The prosecutor concluded that exactly what happened to Kevin would likely never be uncovered. Kevin's father, Patrick, told the media that he would now have to learn to accept a new truth. He remarked, For almost 20 years I thought it was murder. Now it looks like it was child's play ending in an accident. Believing something for such a long time, then everything changes, it's going to be a process

to get through. Christian, Robin and their parents wanted to do something to ensure that Kevin Jullmeson would be remembered not just as a name in a news headline, but as the happy, friendly and confident little boy they remembered him to be. They also wanted to heal the wounds that the case had created for the city of Arvika. With the blessing of Kevin's family, they created the Kevin Foundation, an organization that would honor Kevin's memory while awarding two scholarships a year to vulnerable teenagers in Arvika in a field of their choosing. The Foundation aimed to reward those who fought against all odds to succeed academically. For years after Kevin's death, Kevin's mother,

Therese, was haunted by the accusations that she was a bad parent. Those years filled with mourning and resentment had blended into one, and she looked back at them as a fog. After the truth was finally revealed, she was relieved to find solace with Eva and Vyner, with whom she formed a close bond. Like them, Therese had reluctantly accepted the police explanation that Robin and Christian had confessed to killing Kevin, despite questioning it herself for 20 years. She was relieved that the truth had been exposed, even if it meant that the mystery of Kevin's death remained. When the initial investigation was underway, nobody made any objections to the way things were handled, and after Kevin's murder was solved, Rolf Sundberry was promoted to chief

of Vermland Police. Two years before the documentary team reexamined the case, Sundberry suffered a head injury that affected his memory. Yet, he recalled that the brothers had been very clear about their confession and denied any wrongdoing. According to the book, The Story of the Kevin Case, after Christian and Robin's names were officially cleared, Christian called the child psychiatrist Bent Joran Johansson who he had worked with closely for 20 years, wanting an explanation. However, Johansson never returned Christian's calls. Neither Johansson nor lead investigator Rolf Sundberry, interrogation leader Ingrid Harrison, or Professor Sven Orke Kristiansson have apologized to the family.

In March 2022, Robin and Christian were reached finally awarded compensation of one million krona from the Swedish government in recognition of the wrongdoing. Announcing the payment, Sweden's Justice Minister said, When the state makes a mistake, the state must take the consequences and try to put things right. Today, Robin and Christian are both fathers, a role they each revel in. They refuse to be bitter about the situation that impacted their childhood and haunted them for 20 years. When they were publicly declared innocent, their father Vyner wiped tears from his eyes as he told reporters. It's absolutely incredible. It's so wonderful after so many years.

Finally, finally, it's all right. you