A 39-year-old man has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after a 37-year-old man was found dead at an address on E. Hansens Vej in Esbjerg on Monday morning.
South Jutland Police, Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi, announced the arrest in a press release on September 21. DR reports that officers received a report of a dead person shortly before 8 a.m. When they arrived at the address, the 37-year-old was confirmed dead.
The circumstances surrounding the death led police to investigate the case as a homicide. The police district has not said which specific findings point to a killing. Investigators cite the ongoing inquiry as the reason for withholding further details.
According to Ekstra Bladet, the report of a dead person on E. Hansens Vej came in at 7:52 a.m. The same outlet reports that the 39-year-old man was found at the address and arrested at around 8 a.m., then charged with manslaughter.
Relatives of the dead man have been notified, police said. Neither the victim nor the arrested man has been publicly named. Police have not described any relationship between the two men.
Police remain at the scene
The investigation is being carried out with assistance from the National Forensic Center, Nationalt Kriminalteknisk Center, and the Department of Forensic Medicine, Retsmedicinsk Institut. Both units are routinely brought in for suspected homicides in Denmark.
Officers continued working at the address through the day. E. Hansens Vej was closed to traffic between N. J. Poulsens Vej and Grådybet while examinations were carried out. Police stated in the press release that they were present in large numbers and expected to remain for several more hours.
Earlier in the day, Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi had described the case differently on its Politi Update service. At that point, the district said only that officers were at the address to examine a suspicious circumstance. The description changed after the death was confirmed and the man was arrested.
Esbjerg, on the west coast of Jutland, falls under the Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi district, which covers southern and southwestern Jutland. The district has previously reported on other incidents in the city, including burglaries in Esbjerg neighborhoods.
A charge in Denmark is a formal accusation and not a conviction. Police have not said when the arrested man is expected to appear before a judge in a pretrial custody hearing, known as a grundlovsforhør. Such hearings must normally take place within 24 hours of an arrest.
Syd- og Sønderjyllands Politi said it had no additional information to release out of consideration for the investigation. DR reported the case on Monday afternoon, with an update published shortly after the initial story.
