Cats Falck

The Swedish police, who had been working on several hypothetical theories, closed the case as an "accident".[3] The initial investigation has been criticized because very few technical investigations were carried out, and several things that were never investigated.[2]

Because Falck had just recently taken her driver's license, the police concluded that Falck had been practicing her driving with Gräns. They theorized that the women had driven too fast down a slope and lost control of the car which hit a 15 cm high rail for a harbor crane and flipped into the water. The women had subsequently drowned.[2]

The autopsy revealed that Gräns had a broken nose but Falck had no broken bones or head injuries. It was noted that the women had pink water in their lungs but the water was never tested, and no reason was given as to the color.[2]

Color scrapings were found on the car but either no analysis was carried out, or the results of the analysis were never noted down.[2]

A piece of jewelry was found in the gravel at the harbour. Gräns's mother reported that a piece of jewelry was missing from her personal effects. It was never investigated if it was the same piece of jewelry.[2]

The theory of how the car ended up where it was in the water has also been debunked. If the car hit the rail and flipped into the water the way the police suggests, it would have to move some 550 m while on the bottom. According to harbour employees, the water in the area has no currents, which is why the harbour is placed there. The bottom is muddy and the car, which had broken windows, would have sunk into it.[2]

The legal limit for driving in Sweden is and was a blood alcohol content of 0.2 pro mille.[4] After half a bottle of wine the women were likely over the limit.

Both Falck and Gräns were wearing high heels.[2] It is somewhat illegal to drive in high heels in Sweden; although there is no explicit law, a driver in high heels may be charged with a reckless driving offence.

In 1997, new information that Falck was murdered because she had come across information about illegal arms deals led to the police re-opening the case. Despite new interviews investigating some of the leads that were missed in the first investigation, the police again arrived at the conclusion that the death was an accident.[2]

During the early 1980s, the Swedish company ASEA was selling American computers and software to the Soviet Union. It is known that Falck was investigating the case, but many people doubt that she had come across any sensitive information. According to the journalist Bo G Andersson, who has also written several of the articles used a sources in this article, Falck's work notes do not indicate that she had any unique information. Andersson has personally investigated the ASEA story and he has found no indications that Falck had any unique sources, or any information beyond what had already been publicised in other news.[2]

Andersson also claims that the police officer who led the initial investigation into the case, Eric Skoglund, had told him that if Falck and Gräns were murdered, it was not because of the smuggling by ASEA, but rather because of information retaining to the gunpowder smuggling by Bofors. It is not known why Skoglund thought this was the case.[2]

The Swedish armaments company Bofors was involved in the smuggling of gunpowder to Iran and Iraq during the 1980s. Bofors sold the gunpowder to East Germans, who then sold it forward. The person responsible for monitoring all Swedish arms deals with foreign powers was Swedish weapons inspector Carl-Fredrik Algernon.

In autumn 1984, Algenon contacted Christer Ekberg, one of the highest operatives at Säpo. According to Ekberg, Algenon told him that he had received information about Bofors's smuggling, but Algenon would not tell Ekberg where the information originated. The facts that Algenon provided were according to Ekberg written down into a PM, but if this is the case the PM has later gone missing.[2]

In April 1997, the Swedish Security Service received an anonymous letter sent from Germany in which it was claimed that the former East German secret police Stasi had carried out the killings.[3] In the letter, which was written in English, two retired Stasi officials and four other East German government officials were named, while the purported death squad was said to have consisted of three persons.[3] The alleged motive behind the assassination was that Falck had received sensitive information about a secret weapons affair between the Swedish weapons manufacturer Bofors and East Germany.[3] In the letter, Stasi was further blamed for the death of the Swedish weapons inspector Carl-Fredrik Algernon, the chief investigator of the Bofors scandal, in the Stockholm Metro in 1987.[5] The letter claimed that it was Falck who had informed Algenon about weapons affair.[2]

In June 1997 the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote a series of articles based on the new information from the letter, which prompted the Swedish police to take a new look at the case.[5] The case also received much attention in German media and prompted the German Federal Police to open an investigation.[6]

In September 2003, a 53-year-old German citizen, named as "Jürgen G" in a press release from the German Prosecutor-General, was arrested in Berlin suspected of having been a member of a group that carried out a number of assassinations on orders from the East German government from 1976 to 1987.[7] [8] According to an article in the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, the suspicions against the man also involved the murder of Cats Falck and Lena Gräns.[7] According to the article, the alleged death squad had operated directly under the East German government and not under Stasi as it was claimed in the earlier letter.[7] The group had entered Sweden on false passports via West Germany and Denmark and then sought contact with Falck in Stockholm.[7] There they had met up at the restaurant where Falck and Gräns were allegedly poisoned, placed in their car and then dumped into the Hammarby Canal.[7] On 15 December 2003 the man was released from custody due to lack of evidence.[9] The German investigation was closed in 2006.[10]

An investigation made by reporter Christoph Andersson on behalf of Sveriges Radio, the Swedish public service radio broadcasting service, found that Falck had been investigating the export of isostatic presses, which can be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons, to Eastern Germany and the Stasi-controlled enterprise AHB Elektronik Import Export.[11]