After a quick initial arrest in the Herning murder case, the police struggle to pin down a suspect

The brutal murder of 20-year-old Maria Møller Christensen in the Jutland town of Herning on New Year’s Eve has proved both a headache and an embarrassment for the local police.

After first arresting a 48-year-old man – whose name was published by several media – and then releasing him, police have since taken DNA samples from more than 20 men in connection with the crime.

The men all have keys to the apartment building where Christensen’s body was found. But police now say that the number of people with unauthorised access to the building is much greater than they had originally believed.

‘We really don’t know how many keys are in circulation,’ said police detective Ole Henriksen, who is heading the investigation. ‘But our primary theory is still that the murderer is someone linked to the place, and that this person would have had keys to the building that evening.’

Christensen was sexually assaulted and then killed just after midnight on New Year’s Eve, not far from her home. An autopsy revealed she was extremely intoxicated, and she had reportedly been wandering around in sub-zero temperatures wearing only a thin dress and no coat.

Police had originally arrested the 48-year-old Herning man in connection with the crime, believing Christensen had been in his flat.

But although the man was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by police, his name had been published by Dagbladet Holstebro/Struer newspaper and subsequently used by several other media. Unusually, the man’s lawyer did not ask for name suppression.

In addition, Ekstra Bladet newspaper put the man’s photograph on the front page of one of its issues.

‘No journalist thinks it’s nice to have inaccurate information passed on to them, and we’re naturally sorry about that,’ said Erik Møller, editor-in-chief at Dagbladet Holstebro/Struer, who said the information was obtained from an anonymous source within the police.

Møller added that he had no doubt the police were at that point working from the angle that Christensen could have been in the man’s flat. But he added that Henriksen would neither confirm nor deny the information.