Unsolved Mysteries: The Murder of Catrine da Costa and the Show Trial That Followed
By: Michael East
Tags: Mystery, True Crime, Murder, Culture, Sweden

Soon after the discovery of the remains, eyes turned toward a pathologist at the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Karolinska Institute, the first set of remains being found close by. Dr Teet Härm was known to use prostitutes and view violent pornography, being considered “creepy” by former colleagues. He sent unsolicited autopsy reports to his friends, complete with graphic photographs, and even invited these friends to watch him perform autopsies. Despite this, he was seen as one of the upcoming lights in his field, already being widely published at 30 years of age and speaking at several international conferences. His specialisation was strangulation, and he was considered an expert on sexual violence. Two years before the killing of Catrine da Costa, Härm’s wife, Ann-Catherine, had been found hanged in their bedroom.

While the case had at the time been ruled a suicide, there was some suspicion by police working on the matter that it may have been a murder. The deceased was dressed for a night out and in the process of divorcing her husband. Ann-Catherine had been found hanging from the side of their bed with a ligature around her neck. Just two months later, Härm published his first paper on strangulation. Police noted that he seemed unusual and callous after his wife’s death, being seen as cold and arrogant by many in his life. However, given the nature of his work, it is not unreasonable to suggest he may have assumed a detached persona, and his personal manner should have no bearing on the facts of the case. The matter officially remained a suicide.

Absurd coverage in the British press alleged that Härm was a vampire who hoarded brains. | The Sun, March 10, 1988

The nature of the dismemberment led investigators to believe a medical man was involved, with Härm’s own supervisor Jovan Rajs concluding that the killer was skilled in human dismemberment rather than animal dismemberment, ruling out the possibility of a butcher or other animal worker. Härm was arrested after Ann-Catherine’s father reported his suspicions to the police. Showing his photo around the red light district, 50 separate women recognised him, with one saying he had been violent toward her. During questioning, he lied about how often he used prostitutes, claiming there had only been one incident while interviews in Malmskillnadsgatan suggested otherwise. Despite suspicions, no physical evidence linking him to the crime was found, and he was released five days later. Later that year he would attempt suicide, losing much of his hearing in the process. While he was not named in the Swedish press, many knew his identity and his former mother-in-law, Ann-Catherine’s mother, was employed by the tabloid Expressen. The newspaper was front and centre of the campaign against him, portraying the suspect as akin to Hannibal Lecter.

At this same time, Dr Thomas Allgen, a GP, was reported to police by his wife on a seemingly unrelated matter. Allgen’s wife Christina accused her husband of child sex abuse, claiming that he had molested their 17-month old daughter. At the time, the Allgens were going through a nasty divorce and examinations revealed no evidence of molestation. The couple would separate later that year.

Catrine da Costa, date unknown | Enhanced by author

There was little movement in the case for some time, it being 1985 before police believed that a break had finally come. It was revealed that Teet Härm and Thomas Allgen were partially known to each other, having worked together for 18 months between 1980 and 1981. Allgen allegedly even invited Härm and his then-girlfriend to his home for dinner. Once Christina realised that Härm was the individual being talked about as a suspect in the press, she made a phone call to Stockholm police asking if the man was indeed Härm. They shockingly confirmed it was so. She soon made a new accusation against her now ex-husband, claiming that her daughter was saying she had witnessed a dismemberment. The police came to the conclusion that the two men must have been jointly involved in the killing of Catrine da Costa. However, on February 28, 1986, the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in the street near his central Stockholm home, and all police resources were diverted to the hunt for his killer. The assassination would go unsolved, with thousands of man-hours devoted to the killing.

Further evidence would begin to mount against the pair in the autumn of 1987. The owners of a photo shop close to the Karolinska Institute claimed that in the summer of 1984 two men had sought to process a film at their shop. They alleged that this film contained images of a corpse first decapitated and then dismembered. They claimed they didn’t alert the police as the two men had said the pictures were part of a top-secret investigation. Crucially, they picked out Allgen in a line-up, being less sure of Härm. Police believed they had enough evidence to convict the two men on a murder charge and they were arrested in October. They went to trial in January of 1988.