Helge Fossmo

Helge Arnold Fossmo (born 27 July 1971) is a Swedish Pentecostal pastor sentenced to life imprisonment for solicitation of the Knutby murder in Sweden in 2004.

Helge Fossmo was born to Norwegian parents in the village of Björneborg, close to Kristinehamn in Värmland County.

The family was not particularly religious, but when he was about ten years old Fossmo joined the scouting organization of the Mission Covenant Church in Björneborg.

Not long before he turned twelve he became a "born again" Christian.

He went to high school in Kristinehamn, where he volunteered at a Christian youth café.

At age 17 he met Heléne Johansson, his future wife.

In 1989 he joined the Pentecostal church of Kristinehamn, where Johansson also was a member.

After graduation, he studied in Karlstad to become a science teacher, eventually dropping out.

For a while he worked as a teacher in his old school in Björneborg.

In the spring of 1993, Fossmo was involved with Jaspis.

In Kristinehamn this was a small group inspired by Ulf Ekman's Livets Ord, part of the Word of Faith movement.

After a few months, however, he left Jaspis and rejoined the pentecostal church.

He was then employed as a youth pastor.

Fossmo met Åsa Waldau for the first time in August 1993.

The main pastor Claes Frankner had invited her to Kristinehamn from Knutby.

His son Samuel was already an adherent of Waldau's and moved to Knutby in 1994.

In May 1995, he organized a March for Jesus.

The Christian newspaper Dagen published Fossmo's experience of xenoglossy.

The Fossmos moved there in August 1997 with their two children (a third child was born in Knutby).

In Knutby, Fossmo and Waldau started in 1997 a month-long training school, which has been held three times a year since then.

It attracted young Christians from all over Sweden, some of whom would move to Knutby permanently.

Fossmo also started the missionary foundation Aid for Nations.

At first it tried to be active in Estonia.

Later this foundation organized bible schools in Coimbatore (India) and in Hongkong.

Fossmo's web page with Christian links is dominated by Word of Faith (Livets Ord, Morris Cerullo, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, John Avanzini, Kenneth Copeland), but also includes Pentecostalism (IBRA Radio, Kensington Temple, Oral Roberts) and others (Willow Creek Community Church, Ray Stedman).

The web page also shows strong support for the State of Israel.

Later, Fossmo was photographed with the Israeli ambassador, Zvi Mazel and the ambassador also invited Fossmo to the embassy as he was seen as a positive voice for Israel.

The Fossmos moved to a house next to Åsa Waldau, and Helge was spending most of his time with her.

Reading the Bible, they found that the metaphorical interpretatation of Bride of Christ as the Church is not explicit in the New Testament texts.

Fossmo told Waldau that if the Bride were a person, it would have to be her.

Waldau then bought a gold ring with seven diamonds.

On 29 March 1999, he was the only other person present at the ceremony where Åsa Waldau was betrothed to Jesus.

She became the Bride of Christ, and also assumed a new name: Tirsa.

Fossmo said in court that he had to mediate Jesus to her, by satisfying her sexually with his hands, which Waldau denied.

On 18 December 1999, Fossmo found his wife Heléne dead in the bathtub.

Although there was a hole in her skull and a toxic concentration of dextropropoxyphene was found in her blood, her death was ruled an accident.

A few months later, Fossmo married Alexandra, Tirsa's youngest sister.

In June 2001, Fossmo fell ill.

He was nursed by Sara Svensson, who moved into his bedroom.

She divorced her husband a year later, but Åsa Waldau did not approve of Fossmo's liaison with her.