The murder of Alberte Goldschmid was a carefully staged hit-and-run, not the accident it had appeared to be. In her confession, June Habersaat described how she lured Alberte to a familiar roadside spot with a forged note, then drove into her and her bicycle using a car fitted with a homemade snowplough.

The lure and the preparation

June said she knew Alberte went to the spot by a boulder every morning before the others were up, even when there was no particular reason to go. She characterized Alberte as treating it like a game. Taking advantage of that routine, June left a note beneath the boulder very early in the morning, before driving to Aakirkeby. She said she could imitate Frank Brennan’s handwriting, making the note appear to come from him and giving Alberte a reason to be there.

June prepared a vehicle and an attachment to make the collision look different from an ordinary impact. She borrowed her son’s car while he was working at a workshop in Aakirkeby; he usually left it outside his sister’s house, where he ate lunch each day. To prevent the impact from leaving a mark on the car, June took the snowplough her son had welded himself from the garage at home in Listed. She drove to Jernbanegade and attached the plough to the Toyota’s fender, where it fitted its intended mounting.

The collision

June described Alberte as standing at the roadside when she arrived. She made it appear that she was steering around her, and Alberte smiled at the driver and the snowplough’s inscription, despite there being no snow and Christmas still more than a month away. June then jerked the steering wheel and drove into Alberte, striking her first and her bicycle afterward.

The timing helped June avoid witnesses: she said it was very early in the morning and that people on Bornholm took things slowly. Her account makes the apparent chance encounter part of the plan. Alberte’s routine brought her to the roadside; the forged handwriting supplied the invitation; and June’s feigned attempt to pass safely preceded the deliberate turn into her.

Conflicting accounts and disclosure

In a separate confrontation, Pirjo accused Atu of running Alberte down with a Volkswagen Kombi and using a sign attached to its front to fling her into a tree. Pirjo also said she had disposed of the sign by burning it. These were Pirjo’s accusations to Atu, whereas June’s later account identified her own actions and described the Toyota and its snowplough attachment. The distinction matters: the collision had been surrounded by competing claims, and June’s confession disclosed a specific method and motive for the apparent accident without turning Pirjo’s accusation into established fact.

June’s account also explains how an ordinary object became part of the deception. The snowplough was made by her son, taken from a garage in Listed, and fitted to the Toyota at Jernbanegade; its inscription helped draw Alberte’s attention just before June struck her. The revelation recasts the roadside scene from misfortune into a planned killing, with Alberte’s familiar morning habit and trust in the supposed message used against her.