What happened to Mohammad Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svenson? Details explored as shown in The Breakthrough on Netflix

Another true-crime series titled The Breakthrough has arrived on Netflix, focusing on the brutal homicide of an eight-year-old boy, Mohammad Ammouri, and an elderly woman named Anna-Lena Svenson. This tragedy goes back to 2004 in Linköping, Sweden, when the boy was on his way to school, and the woman headed for work.

While The Breakthrough is based on the real incident, the makers have practiced creative liberty, like changing the characters' names. As seen in Episode 1, "The Unthinkable," schoolboy Adnan (Mohammad Ammouri) and his elder sister Maya are preparing for school, and Adnan leaves before his sister.

On the other side, Gunilla (Anna-Lena Svenson) is set for work and is on her way to the office. Little did the two know that the morning of October 19, 2004, would be their final moments alive.

Gunilla hears a boy screaming on the street and approaches the man who hurt the boy, hoping to help him. The moment she reaches the spot, the killer attacks her as well and stabs the woman multiple times. While Adnan died on the spot, Gunilla was still breathing until she was declared dead at the hospital.

Continue reading to explore the case in depth and why it took over half a decade to solve the crime.

Netflix's The Breakthrough tracks the crime that shook Sweden

Police officer John and the genealogist (Image via Netflix)

To date, the murder of Mohammad Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svenson is one of the most horrifying homicides in Sweden. It took place in the peaceful city of Linköping, where a young boy was cheerfully leading his way to school and a woman to her office.

What's even more startling is that the victims were two unrelated individuals killed during bright daylight on the morning of October 19, 2004. The attacker appeared with no clear motive and even left the murder weapon at the crime scene.

As seen in the first episode of Netflix's The Breakthrough, Officer John is leading the case, and one of his team members found the knife used in slitting Adnan's throat and stabbing Gunilla.

Despite the DNA evidence, the investigators were unable to identify the killer as the forensic team couldn't find a match in the database. The families of the victims were left heartbroken with multiple questions, just as it's shown in The Breakthrough.

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The Breakthrough using genealogy websites

The genealogist worked on numerous samples (Image via Netflix)

Viewers can notice the determination of the police officers, especially John, who refused to give up and went to great lengths to find the killer. In The Breakthrough Episode 2, "Leave No Stone Unturned," John learned about a genealogy website after hearing news about a California killer.

He began searching on the web and found a genealogist who could help. John meets him, and he agrees to solve the case. In reality, a genealogist named Peter Sjölund achieved what detectives couldn't for almost sixteen years.

Per The Times, Peter Sjölund said:

"DNA doesn’t lie. Hopefully, this will be used as a standard method... Police have been using DNA for 30 years. They test 15 markers in the DNA. But in a genealogy test, they use 750,000 markers."

Using genealogy, Sjölund was able to track a local man whose hair and blood had a 100% match with the DNA investigators found at the crime scene. Through this technology, the genealogist was able to track the local's distant relatives, make a family tree, and finally able to identify the killer.

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Mohammad Ammouri and Anna-Lena Svenson's killer identified

The killer in Netflix's The Breakthrough (Image via Netflix)

While helping the Linköping police station, Sjölund updated the database and found almost 25 partial matches. After finding a common ancestor from 1792, the genealogist used Church records of the late 17th century and then traced the family lineage forward to the present day.

As seen in The Breakthrough, the genealogist is also determined to identify the killer, so he left no stone unturned. After eliminating individuals based on age and gender, Sjölund was able to identify two brothers.

While he was a bit worried, it turned out that Daniel Nyqvist, a 37-year-old loner with no prior police record, was a 100% match with the DNA found on the murder weapon used to kill the boy and the woman.

Nyqvist confessed to the brutal murders and was arrested for his crime in 2020. However, he didn't have a motive for killing the two and was mentally unstable. As a result, he ended up in psychiatric care indefinitely.

As seen in The Breakthrough Episode 4, "A Lonely Person," John arrested the killer and asked why did he kill Adnan and Gunilla. John was puzzled to hear his response:

"Well, you must kill two of them, people, to find peace in your head."

He heard these voices in his head, and the detectives described him as a lonely person who had just six phone calls in a year and lived like he never existed. The families were informed about the killer, as they had been looking for answers for more than a half-decade.