Polcirkeln is a remote location in the north of Sweden that becomes a potential site in the investigation into foreign children held at farms. Its few houses make a door-to-door search seem practical, but the demolition of the old Lundström family house leaves the police with no intact property to examine there.

Setting and the Investigation

During a police discussion of Annette Lundström’s account, she is described as being deeply psychotic but as confirming much of what Sofia Zetterlund had told Jeanette Kihlberg. Annette says she wants to go to Polcirkeln and lists people who would be there: Per-Ola Silfverberg, Charlotte Silfverberg, Madeleine Silfverberg, Karl Lundström, Linnea Lundström, Gert Berglind, Fredrika Grünewald, and Viggo Dürer. The list ties the location to the investigation’s wider circle of people, although Annette’s condition makes her testimony difficult to assess without qualification.

Jens Hurtig connects Polcirkeln to the case of foreign children held at a farm in Struer and at a location there. He says he knows the geography and expects colleagues from the Norrbotten force to be able to go door to door quickly because Polcirkeln consists of only a few houses. The place is thus treated as a small, searchable area rather than a large settlement where a search could easily disappear into the landscape.

The Demolished House

The expected search is complicated when police in Norrbotten report that the Lundström family’s old house in Polcirkeln has been demolished. A property owned by Viggo Dürer in Vuollerim has also been demolished; the report distinguishes that property from the Lundström house rather than placing both in Polcirkeln.

The location resurfaces when Jeanette and Hurtig examine a photograph found beneath Dürer’s garage and try to determine where it was taken. Hurtig says the pictured building could be a common forester’s house, with examples across the country, so its appearance does not establish that it is in Polcirkeln. The demolished house and the inconclusive photograph leave the suspected northern setting relevant to the inquiry but difficult to verify.