VILNIUS - Two Lithuanians were arrested in connection with the murder of Swedish psychologist Helena Bering, who disappeared two months ago in Sweden. A Vilnius court on Oct. 8 ordered the detention of the two suspects - Gintare Bakstaityte and Vidmantas Varkalis - for whom Sweden had issued an international arrest warrant.
Bakstaityte, a 20-year-old female student at the Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education, was detained on Oct. 6, while 37-year-old Kaunas-resident Varkalis was detained one day earlier.
"Varkalis and Baksaityte are both suspected in the Swedish citizen's murder. Neither of them deny the fact they are suspected," senior prosecutor Ramutis Jancevicius told the Baltic News Service.
While the court hearing was in session, a masked Bakstaityte was escorted into the building, where she was urged by her mother to agree to the Swedish handover since she herself didn't trust Lithuanian law enforcement.
Varkalis, a 37-year-old taxi driver, also appeared in court, trying to conceal his face from the media by burying it in his sweater.
The case began when Bering, a 56-year-old mother of five and prison psychologist, was reported missing in Stockholm on Aug. 18. Authorities suspected that both Varkalis and Baksaityte committed the crime while on their way to Lithuania from Norway, where they had been working on a strawberry farm. Police believe that the suspects decided to rob someone after they themselves were robbed.
The assailants took the victim's mobile phone, about 1,500 Swedish kronor (166 euros) and her car, which they later abandoned at the Nyneshamn port dock, some 60 kilometers from the Swedish capital, before departing for Latvia.
The pair's suspicious conduct and nervous manor drew the attention of Swedish border guards. Upon finding the abandoned car, officials at first suspected that Bering had been kidnapped and taken to a Baltic state where she would be held for ransom.
However, hopes of finding the psychologist alive crumbled on Aug. 29 when a man jogging in a forest several kilometers north of Stockholm found her body, which had suffered from 10 stab wounds.
According to Swedish officials, Varkalis is suspected of not only murder but of trafficking prostitutes from Lithuania and Latvia to the Scandinavian country.
Swedish authorities asked Vilnius prosecutors and police for investigation assistance last month, and it was the Lithuanian department's operation that led to the suspects' detainment.
Swedish police are hoping that Lithuania will extradite the suspected murderer in the nearest future. According to Vidmantas Putelis, spokesman for the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office, Varkalis' European arrest warrant meets all extradition requirements.
Had the crime been committed in Lithuania, it would be classified as a first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of five to 20 years or life in prison.
