Swedish man commits suicide in Ghana

For the fourth time in two weeks, Ghana has witnessed another incident of suicide. The person involved, this time around, was a Swedish national resident at East Legon, Accra, whose death occurred in the early hours of yesterday in very bizarre circumstances.

Bjorn Carlstedt, 65, was found hanging in his bathroom in the house in which he lived with his Ghanaian wife at the Shiashie portion of East Legon, next door to the Opportunities Industrialisation Centre (OIC) in Accra. The retired Swedish Police officer relocated to Ghana in his retirement, living uneventfully with his spouse, Mary, until the unexpected happened, shocking residents in the neighbourhood who have testified to his goodness during his three-year stay in the area.

According to his Ghanaian wife, there was a power outage in the area on Saturday night and so she and her husband went for dinner at the nearby Accra Mall and upon their return retired to watch TV when power was restored.

He had however told his wife that he was going to buy something in the neighbourhood at about 9pm before the TV viewing.

Mary said she fell asleep while watching TV but upon waking up at about 1:55am early Sunday morning, she did not find her husband in his position, a situation which compelled her to conclude that he could possibly be in the bedroom of their chamber and hall residence.

The couple had previously lived in a guest house until acquiring their new house for an initial four-year rent advance.

Her expectation that he was in the chamber was dashed when she enquired. She therefore went to the bathroom where she discovered that the facility was locked, leaving her with no access to the place.

When she tried to find out whether he was outside, perhaps smoking as a routine midnight ritual, she discovered that the main door to the house was also locked.

A heavy smoker and alcoholic as he was, the deceased was noted for a routine smoking outside at about midnight and that fateful night was no exception, as some neighbours said they saw him smoking about that same time earlier.

Mary said she went outside the house to have a neighbour, a carpenter, come and peep through a window opening to the bathroom, to check whether her husband was in there since the facility was locked from inside.

When the carpenter peeped, he saw the retired Swedish police officer dead, and suspected suicide.

He had used his waist belt for the suicide, having created a noose using one of the holes and putting his head into it accordingly.

His wife proceeded to the East Legon Police Station to report the suspected suicide and was followed by a cop to the scene, where it was confirmed that he was dead.

The landlady, Madam Elizabeth Quayson, upon hearing the grim news, woke the tenants up and broke it to them at about 3am, prompting all manner of conjectures about what really happened.

Some residents expressed surprise at the wife’s composure as she did not scream upon witnessing the spectacle for the first time when it happened.

When he was discovered, his neck was still in the noose in a sitting position, at first raising suspicion of a foul play until the police came in and gave an initial report of “no foul play”, after isolating symptoms of suicide.

When the police turned up to pick the body around 9am, they confirmed a suicide.

The landlady told DAILY GUIDE that three weeks ago, the police picked up the deceased following a report his wife made to them about a threat on her life. He was detained overnight and released the next day.

It has also been learnt that whenever the deceased went into tantrums, which he lately did rampantly, especially when drunk, a recent departure from the norm in their relationship, the wife usually called his daughter in Sweden.

The periodic intervention of the daughter usually calmed his nerves but she eventually told him to return to Sweden if he was fed up with his residence in Ghana.

The marriage has yielded no offspring even though each of them has children from their previous engagements.

The remains of the deceased have been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The country appears to be passing through a season of unusual suicides, with the Swede’s coming at the heels of a Baptist priest’s in Kumasi last week.

A 9-year-old primary school pupil died through suicide by hanging two weeks ago, shocking all who read the story, leaving them to wonder how a kid that age could tie a knot for the gruesome act.

A man suspected to be in his mid 30s also hanged himself in an uncompleted building at North Ridge less than two weeks ago.