Woman confronts cannibal father who murdered her ‘second mom’ in chilling reunion
For the first time in four years, Jamie-Lee Arrow was ready to sit face-to-face with her father, the “Skara Cannibal.”
It was October 2024, and the 23-year-old, now a mother to two young children, was hoping to be reunited with the man she knew and loved.
“I had no idea how he would react,” Arrow told Fox News Digital. “And I didn’t know how I would react. I couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like. But when I first saw him, it was like we had always been together. And when he started to cry and show so much emotion, it felt really nice. It felt he had changed. I thought he changed.”
One of Sweden’s most shocking murders is being explored on Investigation Discovery’s true crime series, “Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks.” The two-hour special, now available for streaming, features intimate interviews with Arrow, as well as her father, Isakin Jonsson.
In 2010, Jonsson, 46, brutally killed his girlfriend, Helle Christensen, 40, in his Skara, Sweden, home. According to the episode, he slit Christensen’s throat, decapitated her and then ate parts of her remains. Arrow was nine at the time.
“I accidentally saw the newspapers,” she recalled. “I didn’t know what the word ‘cannibal’ meant. But, when I was 13, I read some articles, and then I understood what the word meant. But by then, my dad had me wrapped around his finger. He made himself the good person, and his girlfriend was the villain. He brainwashed me to believe that.”
As a child, Arrow lived in two worlds. She described her mother’s home as “loving and normal.” But when it came time to visit her dad, she experienced “the dark side.” There was no light in his home, she recalled. He kept himself busy watching violent horror films and making macabre voodoo dolls. She was warned by Jonsson not to tell her mother.
“It was like demons and the devil were our reality,” she said. “… That was so normal to me. But I also kept all of that inside of me.”
On some days, Jonsson was “the perfect dad” who was doting and loving. But his mood swings were like whiplash, and, without warning, he could be cold and distant. He would sometimes send a confused Arrow back home when “he couldn’t deal with me.”
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At nine years old, Arrow met Christensen, her father’s new girlfriend. Arrow was smitten by the mother of five’s warm demeanor and flaming red hair. She considered her a “second mom.”
“My impression was that she really loved him,” Arrow explained. “But I was never under the impression that my dad loved her. I knew she . . . was begging for him to love her back. But at the same time . . . she could provoke him. They could have a really good time. They could laugh together, watch films together. But it was like a rollercoaster all the time.”
The episode described how Christensen and Jonsson frequently fought violently. Arrow witnessed their brawls and would worry that something bad might happen.
“[My father] lost touch with reality,” said Arrow. “I felt like I was losing my dad more and more. The happy times became rarer.”
Arrow still vividly remembers the last time she saw Christensen. She called it “the worst weekend of my life.”
“She cooked some food for us,” said Arrow. “As she served it, she went, like, ‘Enjoy your meal because this is the last thing you’ll ever eat from me, because your dad is going to kill me.’ That’s one of the last things I ever heard her say.”
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Soon after, Christensen was gone.
Arrow’s mother tried to shield her daughter from the news of the murder. Arrow said she went into a state of shock when she found out from the press that her beloved “stepmom” had been killed by her father.
“I cried my eyes out,” she said. “… I went into denial very quickly. The next day, I was cold. I was cold as ice. I couldn’t feel anything…. I was just numb. And it was scary, because I didn’t recognize myself. I think I went into denial to protect myself.”
In 2011, Jonsson was convicted of Christensen’s murder. The court placed him in a psychiatric hospital. Over the years, Arrow spiraled into depression and anxiety, leading to a crippling drug addiction.
During that time, she stayed in touch with her father. When she opened up to him about being teased at school, he suggested using voodoo dolls to punish her bullies, the episode revealed.
Arrow later confided in her father that she was suffering from depression and was contemplating taking her own life. He made her perform a ritual where she would have to sell her soul to the devil, she said.
He also opened up about the murder.
“When I was 18, he asked me, ‘Jamie, do you want me to walk you through how I committed the murder?’” said Arrow.
“It’s such a twisted thing to say. [But] he walked me through it. I was so surprised, because he showed no remorse. He almost said it with passion. And I was sitting there wanting to throw up. He almost had a smirk on his face. Then it all became so real, like, ‘Oh, my God. He really did this.’ That’s the first time I truly felt in my body that my dad was not well. This man is sick.”
“… His eyes had turned black,” said Arrow. “He reminded me of what it used to be like when I was a child. That scared me, because he talked to me in the same way as he used to talk to his girlfriend that he murdered. That made me feel like I was no different from her.”
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At 19, Arrow decided to stop visiting her father. As time passed, she wondered whether he had changed for the better. That’s when she decided to see him again.
The series captured the pair’s unsettling reunion. During their emotional sit-down, Jonsson claimed that he had killed Christensen because he would then get psychiatric help for his deteriorating mental health. He also claimed that Christensen had had a death wish.
“I used to believe that so hard,” Arrow admitted. “I didn’t question it at all. I do believe there are some truths in that, but I do also believe that he always liked watching . . . really twisted films. I do believe he had some sick fantasies. I believe he saw the murder as his chance to live out those fantasies.”
Still, Arrow doesn’t think of Jonsson as “evil.”
“I think of him as a very broken, sick person,” she said. “The thing he did was evil. That was an evil thing to do. And there is nothing that makes up for that. There is no excuse for that. It was completely and utterly evil. But I see him as my dad, my very broken and sick dad.”
“I know he had a very difficult childhood, a lot worse than mine,” she continued. “I feel sorry for the little child that is my dad, because no one knows what would’ve happened if he had gotten a better start in life.”
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According to the series, Jonsson has been released from the hospital, but remains under its supervision. Arrow, having closure, now mourns him “like he is dead,” People magazine reported. The episode shared that she has no desire to have Jonsson be a part of her children’s lives.
“Becoming a mother made me look at everything differently,” she reflected. “I can look at the little Jamie from a parent’s perspective. That made me realize so much about my childhood. I used to think that some events happened in my childhood because of me, because it was my fault. But becoming a mother made me realize that none of it was my fault.”
“Sometimes I just want to go back in time and hug myself,” she said. “… My goal with sharing my story has always been to make people realize and believe that anyone can make it, no matter where they come from, no matter how broken they are. If you suffer from PTSD, if you suffer from trauma or addiction – I believe that everyone on this Earth can get out of any darkness.”
