UPDATE: Murder-Suicide Investigation Launched After Mother And Son Die In Ferry Accident

Saturday, June 30 at 5:35 pm

The investigation into a mother and son who died after falling from the Stena Spirit passenger ferry took a shocking turn this Saturday, July 1.

According to the Polish news outlet BLT, Grażyna Wawryniuk, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk, informed them that they are now pursuing a line involving a suspected murder-suicide incident.

The mother is reportedly suspected of deliberately killing her seven-year-old child before taking her own life.

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Friday, June 30 at 7:35 pm

A mother and her seven-year-old son died this Friday, June 30, after the child fell from a passenger ferry in the Baltic Sea.

His 35-year-old mother jumped into the sea after he allegedly tripped over a table while the Stena Spirit was travelling from Gdynia in Poland to the port of Karlskrona in Sweden at around 4:15 pm yesterday.

Stina Brindmark, from the District Attorney’s Office in Karlskrona, confirmed to Aftonbladet: “We have started a preliminary investigation where the crime is classified as murder”.

A massive rescue mission was initiated by the Swedish naval and air rescue services when it was discovered that the two had gone overboard.

‘We alerted all resources, everything we have’, said Anders Lännholm, the rescue leader at the sea and air rescue centre.

A massive rescue operation was launched

Several ships and rescue helicopters from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland were sent to the scene. An ongoing NATO exercise in the area was suspended and military aircraft, helicopters and ships from there helped search the sea.

About one hour after the alarm was raised, the two Polish nationals were found and rescued from the water. The woman was winched up by a rescue helicopter, while the child was picked up by the Stena ferry’s rescue boat.

Neither of them was conscious at the time. They received CPR on the spot and were then taken to hospital by helicopter. Both tragically passed away this Friday.

The cause of the accident is still unknown

Exactly how the accident happened is yet to be established. Initial reports from the emergency services claimed that the boy fell for an unknown reason and that the mother then jumped in after him. The police confirmed that they both fell from the ship, but not how it happened.

Late on Thursday evening, Stena Line’s Agnieszka Zembrzycka told the Polish newspaper Fakt that the cause of the accident could not yet be confirmed.

‘We have secured surveillance footage. But that material does not confirm that version, that the child fell overboard and that the adult jumped behind’, she told the outlet.

Swedish police were present when the Stena Spirit docked at the Värkö ferry terminal in Karlskrona on Thursday evening. They questioned the passenger ferry’s crew to try to clarify the course of events.

Stina Brindmark, a prosecutor at the Prosecutor’s Chamber in Karlskrona said this Friday: ‘We have started a preliminary investigation where the crime classification is murder, but there is no suspect in the case. The investigation aims to try to clarify what happened’.

Their investigation is being carried out in collaboration with Polish police. They are seeking contact with passengers who were on board the Stena Spirit at the time of the incident and who may have seen something.