Västmannagatan 73

Västmannagatan 73 enters the investigation as the location of a concealed piece of evidence: a bloodstained shirt found in a paper-recycling container in the building’s trash store. The find connected the address to the search for the murderer, but did not immediately resolve the case; the shirt’s forensic clues pointed toward the shooter while leaving the investigators uncertain about where those clues would lead.

Discovery in the trash store

After extending the search to stairwells between numbers seventy and ninety, Nils Krantz showed Ewert Grens a plastic bag containing a piece of gray-and-white checked fabric. It had been recovered from the paper-recycling container in the trash store at Västmannagatan 73. At first, the garment was described as possibly a shirt or jacket; subsequent examination identified it as a shirt.

Forensic significance and uncertainty

Krantz reported that the shirt carried the victim’s blood as well as a second blood group he believed belonged to the person who fired. He identified it as the murderer’s shirt, making its recovery a potentially decisive development. Yet the blood evidence also complicated the lead: one account noted blood and gunshot residue on the garment, while the additional blood was not recorded in any Swedish database. Erik Wilson suspected that this unfamiliar blood might prove to be a red herring and consume investigative time without bringing the police closer to the killer.

Role in the investigation

The discovery made Västmannagatan 73 a concrete point in the widening search around the crime scene. The shirt seemed to join victim, shooter, and location in a single object, but the investigators still lacked a clear route from the evidence to an answer. Ewert Grens later handled the gray-and-white shirt with irritation, recognizing its apparent importance while the inquiry remained stalled.