Relative found the man: – Smelled rotten

The 41-year-old man was found on the floor of his 70-year-old mother’s apartment on Sunday. According to Swedish media, it is suspected that she has kept her son trapped in the apartment since he was about 12 years old.

It was a relative who found the man. Expressen has spoken to this relative, who says that she discovered him in a corner of the apartment.

– It was urine, dirt and dust. It smelled rotten, she says to Expressen.

According to information, both Expressen and Aftonbladet went out on Monday, the man is said to have missing teeth and had a number of wounds.

On Sunday night, he was operated on at Karolinska Hospital.

The man’s mother has been arrested, suspected of deprivation of liberty and grievous bodily harm. Police now suspect that the woman held him captive for 28 years, since he was in seventh grade.

Went to the apartment

The relative who found the 41-year-old on Sunday tells Expressen that it was more than 20 years since she had last set foot in this home.

She says that many years ago she tried to sound the alarm about the woman’s control over her son, but claims that other relatives should have doused this.

– I was young then and finally gave up, she says.

But on Sunday she was told that the man’s mother was in hospital, and she then decided to go to the apartment.

– I understood that he was in there, and that he had to be scared as his mother, who was his only safety, was now gone, she says.

Dark corner

The door to the apartment was unlocked, the woman tells Expressen. She opened it and shouted, but got no answer. From the darkness inside, the stench hit her.

– It smelled rotten, she says.

She discovered the man in the kitchen. He was sitting in a dark corner on the floor there, according to the relative.

– I saw him in the light from one of the street lights outside. At first I only discovered his legs. When he saw me, he got up and whispered my name again and again.

– How could he recognize you after all those years?

– I do not know, but he must have done it in a way, the relative says.

– Only wounds

She goes on to say that she discovered that the man was missing many teeth, and says that he spoke quickly and a little incoherently. He did not seem afraid of her, she says.

Then she became aware of the man’s legs.

– I can hardly describe them. It looked awful. Everything up to the knees was just sore.

She alerted an ambulance, and the health workers who came to the apartment treated the man’s legs on the spot. Then they carried him out on a stretcher and drove him to the hospital.

According to Expressen’s information, the man must have had emergency surgery there yesterday.

The doctors at the hospital also alerted the police.

– I am shocked, despairing, but at the same time relieved, says the relative who found him.

(Dagbladet / Expressen)