On the morning of Tuesday 2 April, 35-year-old Miriam Daniela Ayres Cea was found stabbed to death outside a Boots pharmacy in the center of Arendal, where she worked.
Two days later, a 63-year-old man was arrested and charged with the murder. The man has since been in custody, but denies criminal guilt for the charge.
There is no relationship between the man and Cea, and the police suspect that she may have been an accidental victim.
Possible homicide evidence may be useless
Has appointed experts
The 63-year-old accused did not want to explain himself during questioning.
However, preliminary health examinations give reason to question his sanity, police attorney Vanja Bruvoll told Dagbladet.
So far, the man has been through a so-called preliminary observation, but he will now undergo a full forensic psychiatric examination.
– The preliminary observation concludes with a strong suspicion of insanity. The court has now appointed two experts and given them a mandate to investigate the sanity issue, says Bruvoll.
The experts have been given a deadline of 14 June.
ARREST: Police crime technicians are working in the home of the accused 63-year-old. Photo: Olav Svaland
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Caught on surveillance camera
Last Friday, the 63-year-old was remanded in custody – initially for eight weeks, before the Agder Court of Appeal reduced the period of imprisonment to four weeks after an appeal.
It is justified by the fact that there is “strong suspicion of an underlying psychological disorder” and that the accused is now being investigated, according to the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
– The next step is the forensic psychiatric examination. If the accused does not exempt himself from the duty of confidentiality, or wishes to cooperate with the experts, it becomes a matter of forced observation, says Bruvoll.
Recently, the man has changed his defender to lawyer John Christian Elden. Dagbladet did not succeed in getting a comment from him on Friday.
Pharmacy employee dead: – Very difficult day
Police: Confident of the evidence
Although the accused does not want to be questioned, the police believe they have a good overview of the sequence of events.
– We are not in a position to question him, as he has been clear that he does not want to. We still feel confident that the evidence we now have is good enough, says Bruvoll and points to the fact that there are a number of surveillance cameras at the crime scene.
– There is no suspicion that anyone else has committed the murder, she says.
LOCATION: Miriam Daniela Ayres Cea was found murdered outside her workplace on the morning of 2 April. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet
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Assessing supervision case
As Dagbladet has previously mentioned, the accused 63-year-old has been convicted several times in the past – including for threats against Nav employees and for carrying a knife in a public place.
At the end of April, it became clear that the State Administrator in Agder is considering a supervisory case to investigate whether the man has received proper health care in the time before the murder.
The deceased Miriam Daniela Ayres Cea was a Swedish citizen, but she lived in Grimstad. She had worked at the Boots pharmacy in Arendal since 2018.
– Miriam Daniela Ayres Cea was incredibly well liked by both colleagues and customers. She was always welcoming, kind, sympathetic and helpful. She wanted to help everyone, no matter what it was, Kathrine Mehlin, CEO of Boots, previously told Dagbladet.
