Eriksson Twins: The Horrors of Shared Psychosis

Psychosis is a highly-challenging state of mind – and as the case of the Eriksson sisters shows – can lead to dire consequences for many.

This bizarre case led to many concluding an episode of Shared Psychosis had taken place – a rare, albeit dreadful, event.

Who were the Eriksson twins?

Ursula and Sabina Eriksson were identical twin sisters from Sweden, and were born in 1967.

They had two older siblings, and had a normal childhood. There was no history of mental health issues, nor any criminal history.

In adulthood, both sisters had settled down – Ursula resided in the United States, with Sabina living in Ireland with her partner and two children.

Shared Psychosis episode

While the duo seemed to have a rather conventional life, all this would change on a fateful day in May 2008, in the United Kingdom.

On Friday 16^th May 2008, Ursula had been visiting her sister Sabina in Ireland. It is believed that Sabina and her partner had an argument on the Friday. Late Friday, the duo covertly left Sabina’s house, bound for the United Kingdom.

By Saturday morning, the pair had made it to London, mainland UK – and they boarded a bus for Liverpool, arriving at around 8:30am.  Once in Liverpool, the sisters visited a Police Station to report concerns over Sabina’s children – namely their current safety.

While it wasn’t clear why the sisters opted to travel over 200miles from London to Liverpool just to raise the alarm about Sabina’s children, nothing else appeared amiss at this point.

A few hours later the pair began a return journey to London. But when the bus made a stop at a service station in Keele (on the way back to London), it came to the attention of the bus driver that the sisters were exhibiting odd behaviour.

The sisters left the bus at the service station, citing illness. As all passengers returned following a short break, the sisters were refused re-entry onto the bus.

The bus driver refused entry on the grounds that the twins refused to put their bags in the main luggage compartment. The pair were fixated on their bags, yet wouldn’t allow anyone to inspect the bags for illegal items. The sisters were subsequently left behind as the coach continued its journey without them.

The coach driver informed the manager of the service station about the duo’s strange behaviour. Upon seeing the twins, the service station manager contacted the police.

The manager felt the pair were exhibiting odd behaviour. The Police however took no action, believing that the women posed no threat.

Next, chaos ensued. The sisters left the service station on foot, and started walking down the central reservation of a motorway – essentially the area that separated the two streams of traffic.

The sisters aimed to cross the road, but amid heavy traffic, suffered minor injuries. Highway patrol officers attended the scene and took the sisters to the hard shoulder, and the Police soon arrived. Joining the police was a small camera crew who were coincidentally filming a TV show at the time.

The police were being informed of the situation when, all of a sudden, Ursula charged onto the road once more – straight into the path of a large lorry that was travelling at over 50mph.

Seconds later, Sabina followed suit, and was robustly hit by a car, which was also travelling over 50mph. The two sisters were seriously injured.

Ursula had been severely hurt by the lorry, but she resisted help from paramedics – instead screaming, struggling and even scratching at staff. Sabina meanwhile spent over ten minutes unconscious following her injury.

Upon being restrained, Ursula said to those restraining her “I recognise you – I know you’re not real”. Sabina, now conscious, said “they’re going to steal your organs” to her sister.

Sabina then, despite being badly injured, got to her feet and screamed for the police – despite them being present. She hit one of the police officers attempting to calm her down, and then ran into traffic for a third time – this time on the opposite side of the road which hadn’t been affected by the chaos that had so far ensued.

A chase followed, involving members of the public and law enforcement officials, and eventually ended when Sabina was caught. She was handcuffed and taken to an ambulance – where she was sedated.

Ursula was taken by air ambulance to hospital – still with severe injuries. It is believed she too was sedated, having initially avoided treatment.

At this point the two sisters were both heading for hospital. The police and other investigators were left confused by the pair’s behaviour – though believed that their similar behaviour pointed to either being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or a suicide pact.

A video anonymously uploaded to the internet showed police officers discussing the need to section the sisters for 24 hours on a Section 136. Strangely, this didn’t ever happen, and was edited out of the BBC show following motorway cops.

Discharge from hospital

Upon making it to hospital, Sabina appeared to have calmed down. Strangely, she asked very little about Ursula’s condition. Within hours, she was discharged.

Somewhat chillingly, she said to an officer while waiting to be processed – “we say in Sweden that an accident rarely comes alone. Usually at least one more follows – maybe two.”

On the Monday following the chaos, Sabina attended court, though the case was quickly completed, with Sabina pleading guilty to trespassing on the motorway and striking a police officer.

She was sentenced to just a day in custody. Having spent a night in police custody already, Sabina was free to leave. At no point was she given any psychiatric tests, despite her actions.

While Ursula remained in hospital with her injuries, Sabina was now free to go anywhere. However, she was in an unfamiliar place – Stoke-on-Trent, which is roughly in the middle of Liverpool and London.

Disaster strikes

Sabina attempted to try and find her sister. A few hours into her search, two men spotted Sabina while dog walking. As they approached, Sabina appeared to be friendly – engaging in conversation and petting the dog.

One of the men, Peter Molloy, recalled being worried by Sabina – whom he said was behaving nervously.

Sabina explained her predicament, and asked the two men for directions to a nearby hotel. The other man – 54-year-old Glenn Hollinshead – offered Sabina a room at his house for the night.

The three returned to Hollinshead’s home. Sabina’s behaviour was erratic at the house. Molloy stated she would regularly get up to look out of the window, only to then sit back down.

She also suggested that cigarettes she was holding could be poisoned. It therefore appears that Sabina was highly-paranoid in the evening. Molloy left at close to midnight, and Sabina stayed the night.

The next day, Hollinshead attempted to locate Ursula by calling local hospitals. After little luck, the two remained in Hollinshead’s house. In the evening, Hollinshead briefly left his house to ask a neighbour a question, before going back into his house.

Yet within a minute, he emerged again outside, this time heavily bleeding, and telling the neighbour how “she stabbed me”. Tragically, Hollinshead died from his injuries. The neighbour alerted the police, with Sabina fleeing.

Sabina left the house with a hammer, and while running, started hitting herself with said hammer. A motorist in the area, upon seeing what was happening, tackled Sabina to the ground. But Sabina took out a roof tile that she had concealed, and hit the motorist with it.

By this time, paramedics had caught up with Sabina, and chased her on foot. Having ran for less than half a mile, Sabina leapt off of a 40ft bridge, landing on the busy A50 road. In doing so, she suffered multiple bone breaks, and was then taken to hospital.

Legal proceedings

Bureaucracy delayed the trial, which had originally been set for February 2009. In the end, it took place in September – 15 months after the incident.

The court heard that Sabina had stabbed Hollinshead five times. Sabina pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The defence successfully argued that Sabina had been affected by the very rare shared psychosis condition – where someone is influenced by someone else’s psychosis, resulting in them acting in the same manner. This often takes the form of delusions or hallucinations – such as hearing voices. The prosecution agreed with this.

Given the similar behaviour from the sisters, this explanation was deemed plausible. While the condition is very rare, it does happen. Without doubt, it is a very serious mental health condition that can have grave consequences.

As seen in this case, it doesn’t just affect those with the shared psychosis – but also others, in this case, disastrously so. An innocent man who was trying to help her sadly died as a result.

Sabina was sentenced to five years in prison. In his closing remarks, the judge admitted that the sentence was somewhat inadequate, but that mental illness meant a longer sentence would not fit the crime in light of culpability.

In her time in prison, Sabina dedicated significant time to Christianity – which appeared to change her in many ways. Sabina was released early from prison, being freed in 2011.

Many criticised the response of the police – who didn’t recognise the severity of the incident, and that the sisters clearly needed immediate psychiatric help.

These decisions ultimately led to the tragic passing of Hollinshead. Hollinshead was purely trying to help someone, but this had a terrible outcome.

Ursula meanwhile was released from hospital, and then returned to Sweden. Her behaviour was completely normal upon release.

This bizarre, yet tragic case highlights the problems facing those with psychosis. As mentioned, the effects far transcend just the sufferers.

Summary

This case has become widely-known. So many questions have been left unanswered, and the internet is awash with questions and theories around the event.

Going to Liverpool was bizarre, and their actions and beliefs on the motorway are simply unknown, and unexplainable.

The fact that there is little to no information on the sisters in the modern day only adds intrigue to this story. Moreover, no one has ever come forward as being on the bus to add extra information to this case.

All of the questions of this case do not look like they will ever be answered – which will only add more curiosity into this case. What should never be forgotten however, is that an innocent life was lost.

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