Peter Lundin

Peter Lundin
Born Peter Kenneth Bostrøm Lundin
(1972-02-15) 15 February 1972
Solrød Strand, Denmark
Other names Bjarne Skounborg
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment
Conviction(s) Murder

Bjarne Skounborg (born 15 February 1972[1] as Peter Kenneth Bostrøm Lundin) is a Dane convicted of four counts of murder, in both the United States and Denmark.

Early life

Lundin was born Peter Kenneth Bostrøm Lundin in Solrød Strand, Denmark in 1971 to Ole Bostrøm Lundin (1935) and Anna (née Schaftner; 1932-1991). His family migrated to the United States when he was seven years old.[2]

First conviction

In April 1991, Lundin strangled his mother to death in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and, with the help of his father, he buried her body on a beach at Cape Hatteras, where it was found eight months later.[2] In 1992, he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for the murder: his father, Ole Lundin, was sentenced to two years as an accomplice.[2]

While serving this sentence, Peter Lundin was interviewed by Danish television in 1994, with his face painted partially black and quoting a poem on the "light and dark sides of life".[2] After viewing this interview, a renowned Swedish psychiatrist, Professor Sten Levander, awarded Lundin 39 points (of a possible 40) on the Psychopathy Checklist.[3][4] In 1999, Lundin was released from prison for capacity reasons and deported to Denmark.[2]

Second conviction

After returning to Denmark, Lundin moved in with his wife in Måløv, but she kicked him out because he was violent with her.[2] He met Marianne Pedersen (born 1963), who worked in a brothel. Pedersen and her two sons, who were living in Rødovre, near Copenhagen, were declared missing on 3 July 2000, and Lundin initially claimed that they had left on vacation and he had agreed to paint their house. Police discovered blood traces in Pedersen's car and the basement of her house on 5 July 2000, and Lundin was promptly arrested. Further examinations of the house led to the conclusion that Pedersen and her sons had been killed and dismembered.[2]

The detective in charge of the investigation, Niels Kjøller of the Hvidovre Police Department, described the basement and garage of the house as resembling "slaughterhouses", despite Lundin's attempts to clean the crime scene. Discovery of human tissue revealed that Lundin had used an angle grinder, and more than 100 visible markings in the floors revealed that he had also used an axe.[2]

Three weeks later, Lundin changed his statement, claiming he heard screaming on the night of the crime and discovered that Pedersen had killed her sons. He found her passed out on drugs and fatally hit her, after which he dismembered the bodies. He claimed to have withheld this information because he felt the police wouldn't believe him due to his criminal background. On 10 October 2000, Lundin again changed his statement, this time admitting to the murders. He admitted to first killing Pedersen because she had allegedly been "talking sweetly" to a man on the telephone, on the night between 16/17 June 2000, then killing her two sons. All three victims had their necks broken.[2]

In 2001, a jury sentenced Lundin to life imprisonment for the crime.[2] In spite of extensive searches, the dismembered bodies have never been found. Lundin's father, Ole, was sentenced to four months in prison for theft of items owned by Pedersen.[5] Peter Lundin was found not to be insane.[2] He initially served his sentence in the Herstedvester prison in Albertslund near Copenhagen, but was later transferred to the new State Prison of East Jutland, near Horsens, then was sent back to Herstedvester prison.[6]

Personal life

Incarcerated marriages

Following the program on TV 2 in 1994, many women contacted Lundin, and he married one of these, named Tina, while still serving in his US prison.[2]

On 29 September 2008, it was reported that Lundin had remarried while incarcerated (this time for the Pedersen murders), but was quickly divorced.[7] After just 11 days, the woman filed for divorce, not because of his criminal past, but because she claimed he had lied to her about another woman who turned out to be his girlfriend at the time of the wedding.[8]

On 26 May 2011 Lundin married a woman named Bettina.[9] They have been together since 2009.[9]

Violence against Peter Lundin

On July 27, 2000, that is before Lundin was sentenced for the murders, several inmates in the State Prison in Vridsløselille assaulted Peter Lundin, supposedly because they were angry with his part in the murder of children.[10]

Lawsuit against journalist

A journalist on the Danish newspaper Information called Peter Lundin a psychopath by writing the sentence "We are, basically, not clinical psychopaths in the Peter Lundin category" (Danish: Vi er, kort sagt, ikke kliniske psykopater i Peter Lundin-klassen) in an editorial not otherwise about Peter Lundin.[11] This prompted Lundin to file a lawsuit. The lawsuit was settled in court, clearing the journalist by explaining that the "sentence should be taken as a statement that the plaintiff is a clear-cut example of a psychopath in the sense of a deviating person" (Danish: Sætningen skal forstås som en udtalelse om, at sagsøgeren er et klart eksempel på en psykopat i betydningen karakterafvigende person).[12]

Lawsuit against Pia Kjærsgaard

In November 2008, leader of the Danish People's Party, Pia Kjærsgaard, called Peter Lundin callous (Danish: afstumpet) in a program on TV 2, which prompted Lundin to file a lawsuit against her demanding 100,000 kroner in compensation. However Lundin lost the lawsuit.[13]

Name change

While incarcerated in Denmark, Lundin changed his name to Bjarne Skounborg.[1]

Media

The publishing house of Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet sparked a lot of debate when it announced plans in 2001 to cooperate with Lundin to write a book about him. The plans, however, were dropped shortly after the announcement - on the grounds that the book would not contain enough "news and quality content".

In 2003, the book Sagen Lundin. Forbrydelsen, opklaringen, medierne og ondskaben (The Lundin Case. The crime, the investigation, the media, and the evil) by Palle Bruus Jensen was released, including analyses by a psychiatrist, Henrik Day Poulsen.[14][15]

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Kriminelle vilde med at få nyt navn". B.T. (in Danish). 27 August 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Lundin: Morderen der vidste at ligene sladrer" (in Danish). TV 2. 9 September 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  3. ↑ Den værste psykopat jeg har set
  4. ↑ Lundin stemplet som psykopat
  5. ↑ "Lundins far i fængsel for tyveri". Jyllands-Posten (in Danish). 7 June 2002. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  6. ↑ "Peter Lundin er blevet gift igen" (in Danish). TV 2. 27 May 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  7. ↑ "Peter Lundin gift i fængslet" (in Danish). Politiken. 29 September 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  8. ↑ "Peter Lundins kone vil skilles" (in Danish). Politiken. 9 October 2008. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  9. 1 2 "Bettina is the love of my life" (in Danish). B.T. 17 August 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "Han gav Peter Lundin en omgang store klø" (in Danish). B.T. 23 December 2000. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  11. ↑ "www.danpedo.org" (in Danish). Information. 4 March 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  12. ↑ "Retten slår fast: Lundin må kaldes 'psykopat'" (in Danish). Politiken. 4 November 2005. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  13. ↑ "Lundin lægger sag an mod Pia Kjærsgaard" (in Danish). Politiken. 17 February 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  14. ↑ Jensen, Palle Bruus (2003). Sagen Lundin. Forbrydelsen, opklaringen, medierne og ondskaben. Hellerup: Forlaget Documentas. ISBN 87-91345-00-6.
  15. ↑ Dorte M. Sestoft (2003). "Sagen Lundin. Forbrydelsen, opklaringen, medierne og ondskaben. Jensen PB. Boganmeldelse" (PDF). Ugeskrift for Læger 165 (19): 2026. Retrieved 10 March 2009.


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