Makaveli Linden (formerly Christian Bo Linden), 20, a suspect wanted for the murder of cryptocurrency trader Heikki Bjørklund Paltto, 24, was arrested Tuesday at 16:45 in Dijon, France, Aftonbladet reports.
Dijon is a city in eastern France about 1700 kilometres from Oslo, where the murder took place. Police reportedly tracked Linden there by following “digital traces.”
Televised news content accompanying the Aftonbladet story shows security footage of Linden on the move with a backpack.
Linden, who is from Sweden, was released from a Swedish prison two months ago after serving close to 18 months for break-and-enter.
Aftonbladet reports that he was released this August after serving the minimum amount of time required despite having made threats to personnel and having spent much time in isolation for misconduct.
Police say that when Linden entered Paltto’s apartment though a window in the early hours of October 15th, he may have believed Paltto’s unit was empty.
But during the course of the robbery, he was surprised by Paltto and a fight broke out between the two, during which Linden allegedly stabbed the victim 20 times.
Linden then fled the apartment with some of Paltto’s money, which he later tried to convert at local currency exchange.
Aftonbladet and other Norwegian media say that Linden had been in contact with his parole supervisor just one day earlier regarding his failure to report to supervisory meetings.
After being threatened with a return to detention for failing to show up for meetings, Linden reportedly told his parole supervisor that he had left Sweden because he was under threat and had gone to stay with relatives in Germany.
Police, however, believe Linden was in Oslo. Linden’s parole supervisor advised him to contact police regarding any threats and told him to seek psychiatric support.
Linden had long been in contact with Swedish youth support and detention services, and was reportedly first jailed at the age of 15.
He is said to have struggled with addiction (hash, amphetamines and spice) and had been caught in possession of a knife before.
Youth rehabilitation staff he had been in contact with also believed he had persistent “intervention needs,” including (according to an automated translation), “anti-social history, pro-sexual intercourse, anti-social personality patterns, (and) drug abuse.”