Sargonia Dankha killed in Sweden in ’95, her ex-boyfriend arrested in Sanremo after 28 years: turning yellow

The Prosecutor of Imperia may have given the breakthrough to a case that remained unsolved for almost 30 years. An over seventy year old was arrested in Sanremo, accused of killing in Sweden a 21 year old girl and to have done it disappear the body. The crime dates back to 1995. The victim was called Sargonia Dankhaa young woman of Iraqi origin but naturalized Swedish.

The main suspect in the murder is an Italian manwho at the time of the disputed facts resided in Sweden, where ran a restaurant. He had then been stopped by the Swedish authorities: they had collected some evidence against him, but had not been able to find the body. Therefore, the indictment was not possible. The murder of Sargonia Dankha has remained to this day a “cold case“.

The investigations

To resolve the case, the Italian investigators flew to Sweden in recent weeks, following the complaint filed with the Imperia prosecutor’s office by the victim’s family members, assisted by a lawyer from Milan: in all these years they have always continued to fight to obtain justice. The investigations were entrusted to the chief prosecutor of Imperia, Alberto Lariand substitutes Maria Paola Marrali e Matthew Gobbi.

The investigators recovered the old folders of the investigations, carried out at the time by the Swedish colleagues, to have them translated in Italy by an interpreter and examined again. According to what emerged, the restaurateur would have killed his ex-partner on the occasion of the so-called “last meeting“, at the culmination of a turbulent relationship made up of ups and downs, to then hide the body in a landfill. Furthermore, according to what Swedish media have reported over the years, it seems that she had denounced him several times for assault and harassment, after the end of the relationship.

Sargonia Dankha was born on December 2, 1974. She was last seen alive in Linköpinga city in southern Sweden, in the early afternoon of November 13, 1995. At the time, the Swedish policemen had found traces of blood and hair of the victim in the trunk of the car owned by the restaurateur, a red Ford Escort. Elements that then led to the arrest of him.

The suspect is presumed to have dismembered the victim’s body in the kitchen of his restaurant, then throw it in the landfill. But as mentioned, those remains have never come to light. Factor that forced the Swedish authorities to release the suspect: Swedish law – contrary to the Italian one – does not recognize criminal liability to an alleged murderer if the victim’s body is not found. So the restaurateur had taken advantage of the investigative deadlock to escape to Italy. Leaving behind his Swedish life, the restaurant and the children from a previous relationship.

The new life in Liguria and under arrest

In Sanremo, the suspect in the murder of Sargonia Dankha has rebuilt his life with a new partner. At least until today, when the Italian police forces knocked on his door. He decided, once and for all, to give an answer to the family members of that poor girl killed in Sweden 28 years ago. The suspect was arrested by the judicial police section of the Court of Imperia, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The accusation is of voluntary homicide aggravated by abject and futile motives and the suppression of a corpse. According to the Imperia prosecutor’s office there would be overwhelming evidence against the suspect: the magistrate will have to establish it.

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