Sweden’s Most Famous Cold Case
On May 4, 1932, Lilly Lindeström, a 31-year-old prostitute was found dead in her small apartment in the Atlas area of Stockholm, Sweden. While police would quickly discover that Lilly had been murdered, it what’s they found next that would truly leave them speechless. Lilly’s body had been drained of blood. It was the case that someone or something had killed her and left her with very little blood. In this post, we will examine the unsolved murder of Lilly Lindestrom, and the suspect who was never caught, who became to be known as the “Atlas Vampire”.
As police entered the apartment of Lilly it was determined she had been dead for 2-3 days. Lilly’s friend, Minnie, who lived downstairs, went to the police when she hadn’t seen her friend in several days. At the crime scene, the police quickly found that Lilly had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
It appeared that based on evidence at the scene, Lilly had been engaging in sexual intercourse, and for some reason her partner had savagely killed her.
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The question became why?
As mentioned, Lilly was a prostitute, yet unlike others, Lilly worked exclusively from her apartment. Minnie would tell the police Lilly’s client list, with many visiting her for quite some time. As police interviewed suspect after suspect, no one was ever found to be guilty. It should be said that during this time, police relied heavily on confessions to solve crimes since DNA evidence wasn’t around. The question of the Killer’s motivation and who did it were never answered.
While the Killer was never found, the case still managed to be one of the most famous cold cases in the history of Sweden. This is because of the bizarre circumstances surrounding the death of Lilly. Lilly was found face down and had been smashed in the head by something. As previously stated, her body had been drained of all or most of the blood. A gravy ladle soaked in blood was found at the scene. Police hypothesized the killer might have used the ladle to drink her blood.
The crime scene, for 1932, was remarkably clean. This led some to believe a police officer committed the murder.
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Others thought that a vampire did it. It’s important to remember that in the 1930’s many people believed in vampires.
Vampire origins date back hundreds of years with many different cultures and beliefs. During the great plague in the 16th century, it was said vampires fed off of plague victims and spread the disease. One popular belief around vampires comes from grave robbers digging up corpses. Occasionally, grave robbers would open a coffin and the corpse would sit up, leading the robbers to flee in terror. In time, it was explained that the corpse movement was due to decomposition, and this is how the belief that vampires had to sleep in coffins began.
So, who killed Lilly Lindestrom?
While it probably never be known, it is a strong possibility that the person was suffering from Renfield’s syndrome. Rensfield syndrome is a modern-day medical disease which involves individuals obsessing over drinking blood. Serial killer Richard Trenton, also known as the Sacramento Killer, is one murderer who was said to suffer from this.
While Lilly’s murderer may never be found, hopefully Lilly was able to find peace.
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