# Danguolė Rasalaitė

Danguolė Rasalaitė (19 May 1983 – 10 January 2000) was a Lithuanian girl who came to Sweden on November 17, 1999 with the belief she would work as a berry picker. However, she was forced into prostitution and held captive in Malmö, Sweden where in 2000 she took her own life by jumping off of a bridge.

## Sold into prostitution

Danguolė's mother had left her alone in Lithuania after she moved to the United States with a man she had met when the girl was 14, and her father was serving a life sentence. Her mother had renounced all contact and responsibility in the care for her, in a letter to the municipality. Later she told her grandmother she had been contacted by a man who said he could arrange work for her. The man gave her a false passport and put her on a flight from Lithuania. She came to Sweden with a man who pretended to be her boyfriend. On November 17, 1999, Danguolė arrived in Kristianstad. While there she was driven to Arlöv and confined in an apartment. He told her she owed him 20,000 Swedish kronor for her passport and the transportation from Lithuania to Sweden. She soon understood she would be working as a prostitute.
After about a month of prostitution and in an unguarded moment, Rasalaitė managed to escape from the apartment through a window. Reportedly she did not dare to contact the police and therefore fled to Malmö where she met a man from Skopje, Macedonia who offered her accommodation. It has later emerged that during the evening of January 6, 2000, she was gang-raped by both the Skopje man and his friends. At this time she lived together in an apartment with a 17-year-old girl, called Melita, who became close friends with Rasalaitė. It is Melita who has told a lot about what happened in the last months of Rasalaitė's life.
On January 7, 2000, Rasalaitė jumped from a motorway bridge in Malmö, intending to commit suicide. She was taken to hospital but died on January 10, as a result of her injuries. Rasalaitė never regained consciousness during her time in the hospital.

## Aftermath

Rasalaitė had no passport nor other identification on her, however the police found two telephone numbers written on a piece of paper which she had in one of her pockets. With the help of this, the Malmö police tracked down the apartment in Arlöv where she had been confined. Danguolė's belongings and three farewell letters to her friends in Lithuania were found in the apartment. She stated she had been betrayed by a man referred to as "the Russian." He was later identified as Giedrius. No arrests were made in this case. Her case has since stirred much debate on human trafficking. On January 23, 2006, Queen Silvia gave a speech about violence against women, and spoke about Rasalaitė's life and death.
On April 6, the police questioned the person who kept Danguolė in the apartment in Arlöv. Giedrius, the so-called "Russian", was described in a radio documentary as being around 30 years old, around 6'5" (195 cm), muscular, and from Lithuania. He may have worked on a farm south of Malmö. When the police arrived at the scene, Giedrius had already left the country. He left Sweden for Lithuania on April 13, 2000. On May 4, 2000, Giedrius was positively identified. On May 31, 2000, Giedrius was suspected of pimping.

## Movie

Lukas Moodysson directed the movie Lilya 4-ever which is based on the fate of Danguolė Rasalaitė.