Where is Daniel Nyqvist now? Details explored as Netflix drops The Breakthrough

Netflix’s new four-part docu-series titled The Breakthrough is a fictionalized account of the 2004 double murders carried out by Daniel Nyqvist.

Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson were killed by Daniel Nyqvist in Åsgatan in Linköping, Sweden on October 19th, 2004. The case went unsolved for 16 years however with the advent of genetic genealogy, the murderer was finally arrested on 9 June 2020.

Nyqvist was found guilty of the 2004 double murders by a Swedish court in 2020 and given an indeterminate sentence of psychiatric treatment.

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Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson were stabbed to death by Daniel Nyqvist

Daniel Nyqvist, a 37-year-old Swedish national who was arrested in June 2020, admitted to killing Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson in 2004, as reported by The Guardian.

Both the victims Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson were unrelated and were randomly picked by Daniel Nyqvist, as also demonstrated on The Breakthrough on Netflix. Both the victims were stabbed to death with a knife.

The crime went unsolved for 16 years although there was a witness account, blood of the killer on a beanie found at the crime scene, and DNA on the murder weapon.

Even though Nyqvist confessed to the killings, there was no motive discovered behind the murders, and as per an October 2020 report by BARRON’S: Daniel Nyqvist "committed the acts under the influence of a severe psychological disorder." He was therefore sentenced to psychiatric care.

Daniel Nyqvist disclosed during questioning how terrified he was following the crime and said:

"I remember that I didn’t brush my teeth because I was just going to die or get caught that day. But I had to do it. I did it mostly on automatic.”

Talking about his medical condition, his lawyer later revealed in court:

"Daniel was suffering from a serious psychiatric disorder at the time of the murder. It caused obsessive thoughts about killing two people and he acted on these thoughts. He had limited ability to control his actions."

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How was this case cracked?

This case that went unsolved for nearly two decades was cracked with the help of genetic genealogy as reported by The Guardian. The databases of commercial genealogy websites: GEDmatch and Family Tree were utilized by the investigators.

Reportedly a sketch of the suspect was made in 2010 and another in 2018. Despite additional tips resulting from the sketch, no one was arrested.

Peter Sjölund, a qualified ancestor scientist, then helped the police. He assisted in the creation of the suspect's family tree using genetic genealogy, which was then compared to the familytreedna.com database.

The findings in the database led to the arrest of Daniel Nyqvist's brother, who was subsequently freed. Nyqvist was arrested in 2020. His DNA was compared to that of the crime scene which proved to be a 100% match. He later confessed to killing Mohammed Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svensson.

A police statement after his arrest cited that:

"We received a match almost immediately. And several months later, the suspect could be arrested. His DNA was taken and matched 100%."

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To learn more about this case, watch The Breakthrough, now streaming on Netflix.