The killing in Pitäjänmäki
On 6 April 2024, a 21-year-old woman met her former partner, Dimitri Allan Lindberg, at a McDonald's restaurant in the Pitäjänmäki district of Helsinki. Their three-week-old child was with the woman.
According to the court findings later reported by Yle, Lindberg attacked his former partner inside the restaurant. She died shortly afterward. The criminal case focused on whether the killing met the Finnish legal standard for murder and on whether anyone else had criminally assisted him.
District Court: murder and life imprisonment
In September 2024, Helsinki District Court convicted Lindberg of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court found that the killing had been carried out with stable deliberation and in a particularly brutal manner.
Two women were also accused of assisting the murder. The District Court did not convict them of complicity in the killing.
Court of Appeal upheld the conviction
On 19 September 2025, Helsinki Court of Appeal upheld the murder conviction and life sentence. The appellate court agreed that the killing had been committed with stable deliberation and in a particularly brutal way, and that the offence was aggravated when assessed as a whole.
The Court of Appeal also left in place the lower court's conclusion that the two women charged with assisting the murder had not been proven guilty of that offence.
Supreme Court review ended in 2026
Lindberg sought leave to appeal to Finland's Supreme Court. On 14 April 2026, the Supreme Court refused leave to appeal.
That decision left the murder conviction and life sentence in force. The case is therefore classified as adjudicated and final.