Shock twist in 50-year-old murder mystery as podcast find chilling clues that could solve cold case
A MURDER mystery that has baffled police for five decades could soon be cracked by an amateur team of sleuths who have discovered haunting clues.
Eccentric farmer Sven Sjogren vanished from his home on Swedish island Gotland in October 1972 after becoming embroiled in a bitter land dispute with neighbours.
Seven months later, Sjogren's pal Bjorn Adolfsson - who had been investigating the incident - also disappeared.
He left only a cryptic note in his cabin on the Swedish mainland, which read: "I’m going to the lake."
Sjogren's disappearance - the island's first unsolved missing person case in more than a century - has stumped cops for 50 years.
But now a group of amateur sleuths who host true crime podcast Cold Cases believe they are on the brink of a breakthrough.
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The podcast's host, Urban Gardek, became fascinated with the case ten years ago while working as a tour guide in Gotland one summer.
He and pals spent years reviewing old newspaper clippings, talking to witnesses and sifting through original police files.
They discovered that Sjogren, who came from a wealthy industrial dynasty that had hit hard times, had a lucrative asset on the island - a spring.
A local mink farmer had repeatedly attempted to buy the land of him, but he refused.
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But Sjogren decided to sell up after being persuaded by a stranger called Bernt Larsson, who turned up at his door one day.
Soon after, however, the 62-year-old disappeared.
Dan Horning, who runs crime podcast Unsolved Murders, said Sjogren was "single and didn't have many friends," reports The Times.
"It's quite hard to completely disappear on Gotland if you commit suicide," he said.
"His house looked like he had just walked out of the door and vanished. A glass of milk was still on the table."
His pal Adolfsson, a teacher, suspected foul play and started probing the incident.
He discovered Larsson had acted secretly on the mink farmer's behalf to get hold of the land in exchange for forged private pension entitlements.
Soon after, Adolfsson vanished - but police concluded he had taken his own life, despite no body ever being found.
However, decades on, a witness told the podcasters they'd spotted Larsson at an old landfill site - the day after Sjogren was last seen alive.
The sleuths suspected Larsson, who died in 2015, may have poisoned the farmer's milk.
Using £20,000 raised by listeners, they hired a "skeleton dog" able to sniff out human remains buried up to a millennium ago.
The skilled canine shockingly discovered three traces at the dump - and the team is now waiting for permission from local authorities to dig at the site.
