ESS: Asikkala taxi murder charged with manslaughter and aggravated rape

There is a pink flower preserved in a glass jar on the edge of Hiekkamontu.
Flowers had been brought to the place where the victim of a homicide in Asikkala was found last August.

A homicide case from August last year will be heard in Päijät-Häme District Court at the end of March

Charges of manslaughter and aggravated rape have been brought in the taxi murder in Asikkala last August, reports Etelä-Suomen Sanomat. A 24-year-old man from Asikkala is suspected of the offences.

The charges were brought on Wednesday 15 March.

The police have been investigating the highly publicised case as a murder.

The suspect boarded a taxi driven by a young woman from Lahti market, and the police caught him near the gravel pit in Salonsaari, Asikkala. The district court of Päijät-Häme arrested the suspect in late August.

According to the police investigation, the woman was the victim of a sexual crime first, and the murder took place after that. The prosecutor considers homicide to be manslaughter instead of murder.

The case will be heard in Päijät-Häme district court on March 27-28. and 30.3.