Another Norwegian woman was killed over the weekend, and police suspect her partner was behind the stabbing. He disappeared along with the couple’s one-year-old son, but was apprehended during the night by police in Poland.
The 32-year-old woman was found stabbed to death on Saturday afternoon in the couple’s home at Kolbotn, just south of Oslo. It’s the latest incident involving assaults and violence against women, in which often their partners or former partners are the assailants.
Ida Melbo Øystese, acting chief of the Follo Police District, said evidence at the scene led investigators to immediately suspect the woman’s samboer (live-in partner) and warrants went out for his arrest both within Norway and internationally. The fate of their young son was of special concern.
“Our highest priority is to find out how the child is doing,” Melbo Øystese said. “A child that young can’t manage without an adult.”
The international police agency was contacted because the 36-year-old man’s closest family lives in France. He and the victim had been childhood sweethearts while growing up in Oslo, reported newspaper Aftenposten, and reunited as adults. He reportedly had been struggling recently with psychological problems.
That’s also been an issue in earlier cases of violence and murder among couples, and Norwegian authorities have been criticized for failing to offer adequate psychological treatment or, in some cases, custody.
Norwegian police were able to follow an electronic trail left by the man as he used his mobile phone and credit cards. They credited Polish authorities and police for finding the man and the child, after tips came in that he had crossed the border with his Norwegian-registered car and entered Poland.
Polish police spotted his car on a motorway south of Krakow. He was pulled over and the little boy was in the car.
The suspect was in custody Monday in Poland, and arrangements were being made to transport both him and the little boy back to Norway.
“The most important thing for us now is that both the defendant and the child are safe,” Øystese told news bureau NTB.
Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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