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Annie Börjesson
We have conducted a long campaign to achieve greater transparency in cases of unexplained or suspicious death in Scotland. We have criticised the long delays in calling fatal accident inquiries; examined in detail the poor quality of specific judgements; and challenged the refusal in some cases to call inquiries at all.
But there is one case, more than any other, which exposes the inadequacy and injustice of the system – the mysterious death of Annie Börjesson.
Later in the day a CCTV camera filmed her in the overhead walkway which connects the railway station at Prestwick Airport with the terminal building. The time was 3.15pm. Even if she left her apartment at 1.30, she could not have reached Prestwick by train in less than two hours. There has been a suggestion that she may have been driven to Prestwick, which would make the timing possible. But when she was captured on CCTV, Annie was alone.
We have checked with the management at Prestwick Airport: there was a flight to Gothenburg on the Saturday in question. But she did not board it. Instead she must have left the terminal building very soon after entering it. Fifty minutes later, at 4.05pm, she was spotted a second time on CCTV, walking down Station Road in Prestwick, a mile from the airport.
It was the last positive sighting, although there was an unverified report that a woman matching her description was seen talking to two men on Prestwick beach around 5pm. At 8.30am the following morning – Sunday 4 December 2005 – the body of Annie Börjesson was found under the sea wall.
II
Within a few days, the police in Ayrshire had come to a view about the cause of death. Either Annie had committed suicide – much the likelier explanation in their view – or she had been the victim of some bizarre accident. The reasons for this view were not given then or later. The Crown Office confirmed that there were ‘no suspicious circumstances’ and no grounds for a fatal accident inquiry.
The Crown Office should have been challenged to say why, if there was a choice between suicide and an accident, there were no grounds for such an inquiry. The strange circumstances, and any residual doubt about the cause of death, should together have been sufficient grounds. But the moment passed. After a post-mortem which concluded that Annie had died by drowning, the body was returned to her family in Sweden.
How likely was suicide? She was 30 years old, a bright, intelligent woman who had worked in Scotland for a year, latterly at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. She was fluent in several languages, a good singer, a rugby enthusiast, a strong swimmer. There is no suggestion that she took drugs or drank excessively.
On Friday 2 December, the day before Annie left for Prestwick Airport, her mother Guje rang her to ask if she was all right: ‘Annie, what’s the matter? We are very worried’. Annie said she couldn’t talk, she was with someone, and added: ‘You have to respect this, but I have to take care of myself’. Guje Börjesson was mystified.
The young woman who knew all about water could have chosen an easier launching pad for suicide. When her mother visited the spot, Guje walked into the sea a considerable distance before the water touched her knees. Conclusion? Annie too must have walked a considerable distance.
Perhaps she did. But it is remarkable that when her body was washed up, clothes and personal belongings of various densities were found beside it. How very neat. The only significant objects which were not recovered on the spot were the red and white fleece she had been wearing when she crossed the walkway into the airport, and a filofax containing many names and addresses. If the filofax had been found, it might have helped the police to identify a man with whom Annie had recently been seen in conversation in an Edinburgh rugby club, a man who was observed acting oddly.
IV
The grieving family gathered for the opening of the box containing Annie’s body. Guje Börjesson recoiled in horror when she saw that her daughter’s long hair – undisturbed when she crossed the walkway at Prestwick Airport – had been hacked off. Closer examination of the body revealed bruises which had not been mentioned in the post-mortem report, including two ‘very strange’ square bruises on the right arm. The state of the body confirmed the family’s suspicion that Annie did not drown herself in Prestwick bay but that she was murdered elsewhere and that her body and some of her belongings were dumped on the beach.
Recently there have been suggestions, unreported in this country, that a Swedish pathologist who examined the body found that she drowned in freshwater, not seawater. We hope to be able to establish whether there is any truth in this astonishing claim.
Despite persistent requests from the Börjesson family for a fatal accident inquiry, the Crown Office has consistently refused one. In the light of the facts presented in this report, we are entitled to come to our own view of the case: that, after a far from thorough police investigation at the time, it would be inconvenient for the Scottish authorities to re-open the case.
Cock-up or conspiracy? It looks like a bit of both.
The sighting at Prestwick Airport: 3 September 2005
The Scottish Review intends to pursue the case of Annie Börjesson with the help of her family and friends
Kenneth Roy is editor of the Scottish Review
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