Danish War Veteran Held Parents' Bodies in Car for a Week

A routine traffic stop in Denmark's Eastern Jutland in 2016 uncovered one of Scandinavia's most disturbing crimes: the bodies of a middle-aged couple hidden in the trunk of a car, dead for nearly a week. The driver was Søren Kragh, a former military serviceman whose actions shocked the nation and would later become the subject of intensive criminal and psychological investigation.

The discovery fundamentally challenged public perceptions about familial violence in Denmark, a country with relatively low homicide rates compared to other European nations. The fact that the victims were the perpetrator's own parents—and that Kragh had continued driving with their decomposing remains for days—added an exceptional layer of horror to the case.

**From Crime to Documentation**

Now, nearly a decade later, the case has been examined in depth in a new book titled *Mord i familien: dobbeltdrab på mor og far* (Murder in the Family: Double Murder of Mother and Father), authored by Miki Mistrati and Robert Zola Christensen. Published in September 2024 by Kriminalforlaget, a Danish true crime publisher, the work reconstructs the events leading to and following the murders with documentary precision.

The book represents an emerging Scandinavian approach to true crime literature—one that moves beyond sensationalism to examine the psychological, social, and situational contexts that enabled such extreme violence. Rather than focusing solely on the criminal act itself, the authors investigate the family dynamics, Kragh's military background, and the broader circumstances that preceded the tragedy.

**The International Context**