Couple in Sweden charged with burying woman's body in cement block in forest

A Swedish couple have been charged with burying a woman's body in cement, but not her murder, it was reported.

In November 2015 a 29-year-old woman named Madelene from Järfälla, near the Swedish capital of Stockholm, disappeared and a massive search operation was launched.

Eventually the woman's body was located buried in a block of cement in a forest in Upplands Väsby three months later, in February 2016.

It was reported by local newspaper, Mitti, that it was not possible to determine how Madelene died.

Two arrests were made in the wake of the macabre discovery, a 33-year-old man, and his 30-year-old girlfriend.

It was thought that the man may have been a former partner of Madelene's.

The pair were taken into custody on suspicion of murder and having protected a criminal, but because of a lack of evidence they were both later released by police.

But the investigation has continued and on Friday (3 November) the Mitti newspaper reported that the pair have now been charged with casting her dead body in the cement block.

According to the prosecutor they are suspected of "unlawfully having moved, damaged and reprehensibly handled" Madelene's body before casting her body into concrete.

If convicted of these lesser charges they could be jailed for up to two years.

It was reported by Expressen that the concrete block, that the woman was buried in, was passed many times by police in their search for her.

The newspaper reported that Madelene was "stifled and suffocated" before her death, although her cause of death could not be ascertained.

Expressen added a statement from one of Madeline's parents that said: "I will remember her as the incredibly fun, spooky, sometimes a little tricky (laughter), very ignorant person as she was. She had an unusual ability, for example, if someone filled the year, to make that person feel like the best in the world."