Eleven years in prison in a 34-year-old murder case in Denmark

A unanimous city court in Copenhagen concluded that Henrik Krogh Rasmussen was behind the murder 34 years ago. The court emphasizes that the man’s DNA and footprints were found at the scene, and that he has not given any “probable or plausible” explanation.

23-year-old Hanne With was found murdered in her apartment in Copenhagen on New Year’s Eve 1 January 1990. She had suffered a number of stab wounds and had her throat slit. In addition, she was strangled with an antenna cable.

After the murder, a taxi driver told the police that he picked up a man and drove him to Vesterbro where they picked up a sex worker who is believed to have been Hanne With. The man and woman were then driven to the apartment where the 23-year-old was later found dead.

Found via the son’s DNA

The police were without a suspect for many years. The breakthrough came when they searched the police’s DNA register for people who might be related to the person who had left DNA in With’s apartment.

The son of the man who has now been convicted of the murder was on the register because of a minor case, and in February the police were able to arrest Rasmussen. The evidence once morest him was further strengthened when the floor of the apartment was broken up later in 2024, and a bloody footprint was found that matched the 54-year-old’s.

He was on first duty in the navy in Copenhagen when he spent New Year’s Eve 1989 in a pub in a side street to Strøget. In court, he explained that he was so drunk and high on drugs that he does not remember being in With’s apartment that night.

He has pleaded not guilty, and defender Mette Grith Stage says you can’t admit something you don’t remember.

Can appeal

The sentence of eleven years and six months in prison is a so-called additional punishment, as Rasmussen was sentenced in several other cases in the time following the murder. The court therefore had to consider how much more severe the sentence would have been if the murder had been sentenced at the same time as the other cases.

The 54-year-old has 14 days to decide whether he wants to appeal the sentence.