A British man traveled to Finland to try to run over and kill a 23-year-old woman after she ended their online friendship, researchers believe.
The police in the Finnish city of Joensuu believe that the man went to Finland with the intention of tracing the woman and killing her.
Detective inspector Petri Tyronen shared that the Brit, now 31, had been friends with the woman online for several years before she ended contact at the end of last year.
“We suspect that the motive before the law was at least partially related to the end of the contact,” he said.
The police said that the man's arrival in Finland came as a complete shock for the woman. Their relationship was only based online and they had never agreed to meet each other.
Researchers have been able to compile the journey of the suspect and travel to the city that they think it was an attempt to kill a few days before the incident.
After playing where the woman lived, the man tried to cross the woman around the Hukanhauda Cemetery, near her house, on the evening of January 13.
The man was arrested immediately after bystanders intervened and held him down.
The police believe that the British man went to the Finnish city of Joensuu (photo) with the intention of tracing the woman and killing her
Finnish police officers (file image). The police said that the Brit did not have a previous criminal record and that they did not find a firearm on his person
The police said they had received a report that a man had chased a woman with a knife in the city and that he had also tried to hit her in a car.
She was intact and got away without injury, the authorities said.
Another car was damaged when the suspect reportedly crashed.
The police believe that the man deliberately traveled from Britain with the intention of killing her, a few days before the attack to stay in a rented apartment and a hotel.
They said he did not have a criminal record before and that they did not find a firearm on his person.
The police did not reveal which items from the Brit were seized when he was arrested.
He is not known to have a relationship with Finland, except through his former online friend.
Tyronen told the local media that the suspect cooperated with their research.
