A man has been remanded in custody by Helsinki District Court in connection with the death of a woman who fell from a fifth-floor balcony last week.
Police suspect that the 59-year-old man may have been involved in the death of the woman, who was in her early 50s. She fell through an apartment balcony barrier in the Hietalahti neighbourhood around 6pm last Wednesday. He was detained soon after the incident.
The man was formally placed under arrest on Saturday when the remand order was processed at Helsinki Police headquarters in the Pasila district.
According to Yle's information, the suspect and the woman who died shared the flat.
Yle has learned that the suspect has a lengthy criminal record, including a firearms offence, drunken boating and welfare fraud. He was also banned from contacting a former spouse in a domestic violence-related restraining order issued about 20 years ago. Before they divorced in 2006, she said that he repeatedly beat her and threatened to throw their child out of a window.
However, there were no ongoing legal issues between him and the woman who fell from the balcony.
Helsinki police's lead investigator in the case, Juha Piippo, told Yle on Friday that they have not yet heard any eyewitness accounts of Wednesday's incident.
He said that investigators have also not ruled out initial assumptions that the fall may have been accidental.
According to the police, investigators are seeking information from people who may have seen or heard something related to the incident.
On Tuesday, Piippo told Yle that the police are still actively seeking tips from the public regarding the case. He said that they had received some observations but that "we are still missing actual eyewitness observations from someone saw the event".
He added that interrogations of the suspect have begun, but declined to discuss any details.
23 September: Updated with remand, renewed call for eyewitnesses and other details.
