Note! This article contains spoilers from the new HBO documentary.
– When the production company got in touch two years ago, and asked if it was a case we really wanted to dig into, Knutby was the one who was at the top of our list. It is a story that has fascinated us, at the same time as we knew that there was very interesting evidence in the case. Now the sect is dissolved, and then the truth comes out, says Martin Johnson, who together with Anton Berg is behind the new HBO documentary series “In blind faith”, about the Knutby case.
Fifteen years have passed since the murder in the Philadelphia congregation in Knutby, just over an hour’s drive north of Stockholm. On January 10, 2004, Alexandra Fossmo (23), who was married to the Norwegian pastor Helge Fossmo, was found shot and killed in the couple’s bed. Another ward member, Daniel Linde, was found badly injured in the house next door, but survived.
The next day, Sara Svensson, Helge Fossmo’s mistress, was arrested and later convicted of the murder.
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To say that there has been silence around the case since then would be an exaggeration of dimensions. Slowly but surely, details about the Philadelphia congregation and its participants in Knutby have come out. Details about violence, extreme control, brainwashing, jealousy, sexual exploitation and finally murder.
– I think we have never come across a case where so many people have been disturbed and destroyed. It has made a big impression on us, and something we have really struggled to digest, the creators of the series tell Dagbladet.
The “bride of Christ” sex pastor breaks the silence
Breaking the silence
The recent documentary fits into the long line of coverage of the case, but still stands out drastically. Not only does Johnson and Berg provide a detailed insight into church life. New and shocking information is also brought to light here.
At the end of the documentary series, the biggest bomb of them all is dropped, during an interview with the woman convicted of murder. Sara Svensson, who breaks the silence for the first time since she was sentenced to compulsory mental health care for the murder. She was released from the treatment institution four years later, and now says that Fossmo’s second wife may have been dead even before she was shot.
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– I have thought a lot about how it was. On the first shot, which hit Alexandra in the hip, there was nothing. There was no reaction. How can that be, I do not understand. Back then, I thought it was because of me, because of something I did. But now. I do not know. Maybe she was not alive when I got there, says Svensson.
The information comes as a shock, not only to the viewers, but also to those who have worked on the documentary.
– Maybe she needed 15 years outside the sect to be able to see this. It is now up to the police or others to take this information and allegations further. That is why we have ended the series with what Sara says, because we leave it up to the prosecution or other bodies to possibly take this further legally, Berg and Johnson tell Dagbladet.
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Torn to pieces
Of the evidence, the documentary makers point out, among other things, one of the police’s reconstructions, which was used as central evidence in the murder case. In the material the creators have gained insight into, a reconstruction of just over 20 minutes is shown, which was presented in court. The original, on the other hand, was six hours long.
As if that were not enough, it appears that the way Svensson acts in the reconstruction and the way she shows that the shots that killed Fossmo were fired, in no way correspond to the findings at the scene. Nor when the police who are present during the reconstruction almost instruct Svensson in what she should do, she manages to recreate the murder correctly. A situation that is recognizable, among other things, from the recordings made during crime scene inspections in the Thomas Quick case.
In this way, the entire reconstruction of the murder is torn to shreds, and the evidence is further weakened when the creators of the series themselves make their own reconstruction of the Knutby murder.
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– We suspected that we were facing a new Thomas Quick case, Johnson says to Dagbladet.
The documentary also gives an insight into the degree of control that was exercised in the Philadelphia congregation. Svensson is among those who tell of a culture of fear that characterized the entire sect.
– I was just a shell, a robot. Had I been told to shoot myself, I would have done it, says the woman convicted of murder in the documentary, and refers, among other things, to how pastor and leader Åsa Waldau, better known as “Christ’s bride”, ruled the sect with an iron fist.
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Accident may have been homicide
The documentary also takes a closer look at the theory that Pastor Fossmo’s first wife, Helene Fossmo, was actually poisoned and killed – and did not die as a result of an accident in the bathtub as the police established a month after the incident in December 1999.
The trail of poisoning is not new, it has been up before, most recently when Alexandra was killed four years later. But the creators of the series have done investigations, investigations and interviews that strengthen the theory that Fossmo’s first wife was also killed.
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– With the amount of the substance that was found in Helene’s blood, she should have been in a coma at the time the murder took place, the creators of the series Johnson and Berg tell Dagbladet.
The medicine found in Helene Fossmo is the opium-like substance dextropropoxyphene, which is now banned. The people the creators of the series interview in the documentary, present a theory that the woman was first poisoned, then beaten against the tap in the bathtub.
Such was life with “Bride of Christ”
Critical look at “Christ’s bride”
Waldau was not convicted until 2020 in connection with the Knutby case. The woman, who has today changed her name, was then sentenced to prison for eight cases of ill-treatment in connection with the sect.
Her influence on the members and how the closed society in Knutby was governed, has gradually emerged in the public eye. The official truth has nevertheless been that Helge Fossmo manipulated and brainwashed Svensson to shoot his wife – something he was also convicted of.
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However, the documentary series takes a very critical look at the possible role of the “bride of Christ” in the deaths of Fossmo’s wives. Waldau did not want to be interviewed when “I blind faith” was produced, but still replied in the form of a letter to the two series creators.
– It was important for us to include Åsa as a source, but she did not want to contribute further. However, there are many interviews with her from earlier, which we have used in connection with the documentary series, and which provide an insight into her version of what happened in Knutby, Johnson says.
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Do not think the last word is said
Another clue the series creators devote some time to in the documentary is that the police found other clues in the snow that led to the house where Alexandra Fossmo was found killed.
In addition, the creators of the series make heavy investigations into Helge Fossmo’s claims in the series that it was “Christ’s bride” who sent him text messages that Sara had to kill Alexandra. If she killed Alexandra, she would receive grace from God, was one of the things that came out. The way the picture was drawn at the time, it was Helge who sent the brainwashed Sara text messages that she had to kill.
Pastor ordered murder of wife – released in 2021
– There are obvious clues there that the police have not investigated enough. In addition, new technology makes it possible for us to dive into them, Johnson and Berg say.
– Do you think that this will now be the last we hear about the Knutby case, or will it be an aftermath as a result of the series?
– So far we have not heard anything from the police or others, but we will see what happens when Sara’s story comes out. We do not know what consequences this will have, says Johnson.
– The only thing we know is that the more time that passes, the more details come out about what happened in the sect. Then we will see if this will be the last story about Knutby, Berg adds.
“In blind faith” will be broadcast on HBO Nordic from 4 April.
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