Police admit failure after neighbour’s calls before woman’s death
Sunday 4th October 2026 on 11:30 in
Denmark
Funen Police has admitted it should have told a neighbour it would not attend after he called twice about disturbing sounds from the flat of a 23-year-old woman who was later found dead. DR reports that the force has since tightened its procedures.
Anders Østerby heard thuds and groans from his upstairs neighbour’s flat in Odense during the night of 4 August last year. He called 112, saying the noise might be “kinky sex” or possibly something non-consensual, and was transferred to Funen Police.
He was told officers would arrive “before long”. After half an hour, he called again and was again assured they would come. The sounds later stopped, and Østerby returned to his own flat. Police never arrived. The next day, his neighbour, Cecilie Voller Kjærulff, was found dead in her flat.
Kjærulff died alone from poisoning, according to the article. Police initially investigated her death as suspicious because she had several injuries. An autopsy concluded that she probably died from an overdose of medication prescribed for bipolar disorder. The report said a high dose can, in rare cases, cause severe seizures that may result in injuries.
Police Inspector Christian Rasmussen said the force should have told Østerby it would not come because other reports had been judged more urgent. He said the decision not to treat the call as an emergency was considered correct based on what officers knew at the time, but added that with the information now available, police would have wanted to make a different decision.
Experts in poisoning told DR that Kjærulff would very likely have survived if she had been taken to hospital when Østerby called. Her parents remain strongly critical of the police response.
Funen Police has tightened guidance for its control room staff on informing callers when officers will not attend. The force has also instructed staff to use its VALA questioning method consistently to gather relevant information, and has introduced a new dispatch system intended to improve the overview of incoming and ongoing tasks and available patrols.