Daniel Nyqvist arrested, confesses, and sentenced to lifetime psychiatric care
On June 9, 2020, police arrested Daniel Nyqvist, then 37 years old, at his parents’ home in Linköping. He had lived in near isolation in the city since the murders. His DNA matched the evidence collected at the crime scene in 2004.
During his initial interrogation, Nyqvist confessed to both killings. He said he had felt an uncontrollable compulsion to kill two people — a thought he described as impossible to resist or explain — and that he had chosen his victims at random. He had been 21 years old at the time of the attacks.
Medical experts diagnosed him with a severe psychiatric disorder and determined he had suffered from it during the crimes. He had previously received a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome in 2011. His lawyers did not appeal the verdict. In October 2020, Nyqvist was sentenced to lifetime psychiatric care at the Regional Clinic in Vadstena.
29 million views and a debate over DNA privacy that Europe has not resolved
The Breakthrough exploded onto Netflix’s Top 10 charts in January 2025, reaching 29 million views in its first half. Rotten Tomatoes scored it 60% on the tomatometer and 73% on the popcornmeter, with an overall rating of 7.2. Critics called it “the best Scandi noir in years.” Director Lisa Siwe, who also helmed multiple episodes of the acclaimed Swedish series The Bridge, keeps the focus on victims and investigators rather than on the perpetrator, with each of the four episodes running between 30 and 40 minutes.
The method that solved the case, however, has remained legally contentious. Sweden’s Data Protection Authority initially ruled that searching commercial genealogy databases violated privacy laws, even though Sweden had changed its legislation in January 2019 to permit the practice. A government inquiry later proposed new legislation in 2025 to allow the technique under strict conditions. In Germany, this type of DNA analysis remains explicitly illegal, and most European countries keep individuals automatically opted out under GDPR.
The core concern is consent: when people submit DNA to ancestry websites, they do not typically expect it to be searched by law enforcement. Because DNA is heritable, one person’s genetic data can expose the privacy of entire families. Research indicates that databases covering just 2% of a target population can provide third-cousin matches for nearly anyone — turning voluntary genealogy participants into involuntary contributors to criminal investigations.
