Are two men innocently convicted?

The convicted, Bo Madsen and Claus Stokholm Larsen, claims that this is a crime of justice. Besides the missing body, the police also lack a crime scene, technical evidence, and firstperson witnesses to the crime. Still the two men are sentenced to 13 and 15 years of prison – exclusively on indications. Are they innocently convicted for a crime that never happened?

In ‘Dead man missing’ TV2 Documentary dissects the spectacular case. With a unique access to the two convicted, the main witnesses, and the case files, the case and police investigation is thoroughly examined.

- We are working with a criminal environment, where as a baseline no one is to be trusted. But one thing is certain. Someone is lying.  And that means, that we in the process can’t be sure of what is right and wrong, when searching for the truth, says journalist Jacob Kragelund.

For two years he has, together with a team of investigating journalists worked on the case. And they have found essential new knowledge that haven’t been examined before.

Scams for millions

Henrik Haugberg Madsen and Bo Madsen lived an extraordinary live with big penthouses, luxury cars and huge parties with the jet set of Southern Sjælland. They financed this luxurious way of living by scamming for millions and they are both convicted multiple times for financial crimes. But after years of success everything changed.

After 10-years of marriage the homosexual couple became enemies. Bo Madsen was in love with a woman and wanted a divorce. At the same time Henrik Haugberg Madsen was on trial for fraud and stood before a four-year prison penalty.

Henrik disappears

On the 11th of November 2010 Henrik Haugberg Madsen suddenly disappears from their holiday cottage on the island of Enø. Bo Madsen claims, that Henrik has run off to a foreign country with a big amount of their millions in cash. But the police and public prosecutor believes there is another explanation. Bo and the suspected assassin, former drug dealer Claus Stokholm Larsen, gets a prison sentence of 13 and 15 years for the murder of Henrik.

Claus Stokholm Larsen claims his innocence. He is convicted on the basis of a testimony by his wife, Birgitte Mørup Rasmussen. She tells the police, that her husband confessed to her, that he got a paying of 100.000kr. to kill Henrik Haugberg Madsen. And later he cut up the body in the back of a van and buried it in the woods. 

She is one of the main witnesses. But is Birgitte Mørup Rasmussen’s explanation trustworthy? She is also known as ‘the powder witch’ in the Danish press, because she in 2005, among other things, sent a letter to Barack Obama and the Danish prime minister, which set of the terror alarm. She has a long and sketchy criminal history and she also met her husband Claus in prison.

One of the first cases after the new police reform

This spectacular case was investigated by the police of Southern Sjælland and Lolland-Falster. It is one of the first bigger cases after the central police investigating team was cut with the new police reform. The investigation of homicide in Denmark was moved from the central department to the locale police, who now had to solve even to most difficult cases themselves.

- In that perspective, it is essential to look at the investigation and on what ground the two men are convicted. It is a question of whether we can trust the authorities and be sure that the rule of law is in order, says Documentary editor Lasse Bjerre.