Iceland gripped by mystery murder of woman, 20, whose snow-covered shoes were found 22 miles from her body on a snowless day
The body of Birna Brjansdottir, 20, was found a week after she was last seen staggering down a Reykjavik street at 5am
ICELAND has been gripped by a tragic murder mystery involving a beautiful young woman who vanished after a night out.
Birna Brjansdottir, 20, was found dead after a week of searching on a beach 22 miles away from where she was last seen.
The mystery has captivated the remote island country which has a population of 336,000 and the third lowest murder rate in the world.
Indeed, the case has been likened to a Nordic crime thriller as questions still remain about what happened to the fun-loving shop assistant whose snow covered Doc Martens were found despite there being no recent snowfall.
CCTV footage showed Birna staggering down a street in capital city Reykjavik at 5am after a bar crawl on January 14.
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A few days after her distraught mother reported her missing, police found her boots at docks outside the city centre over 20 miles from where her body was eventually discovered.
A red Kia car was also found near the dock which was similar to a vehicle she was pictured near in the CCTV footage.
And according to local reports, Birna's blood was found in the rented vehicle which was traced to two men, from Greenland, working on a fishing trawler.
Iceland’s only armed squadron, known as the Viking Swat Team, tracked down the fishing boat using a helicopter and dramatically arrested the two sailors aged 25 and 30.
An astonishing 775 rescue volunteers helped look for tragic young woman as the story dominated news coverage in the peaceful country where cops do not carry firearms.
On Sunday, her remains were found while authorities are in the process of questioning the two suspects.
Birna’s final Facebook message was a light-hearted post about ‘Kiss a Ginger Day’ and how no one had kissed her yet.
Helgi Gunnlaugsson, a sociology professor at the University of Iceland, insisted the story’s colossal impact is not just down to the country’s low murder rate but also because the suspects are foreign.
Speaking with the , he said: “Most murder cases in Iceland are not mysteries — the victims and their killers usually know each other, the murderer rarely seeks to cover up the crime, and cases are usually solved quickly.
“Foreign involvement is almost unheard-of. The reaction would be different if the suspects would’ve been two Icelandic boys.”
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