27 Hours – The Girl Who Survived: Philip Patrick Westh and the Kirkerup Case
The parents' personal account of the abduction of 13-year-old Karla in 2023
What is the book about?
27 Hours – The Girl Who Survived by author Christina Ehrenskjöld documents one of the most dramatic days in modern Danish criminal history. The book is set on April 15, 2023, when a 13-year-old girl, anonymized in the book under the name Karla, disappears without a trace during her newspaper route in the small town of Kirkerup in South Zealand. The narrative is created in close collaboration with the girl's parents and serves as a chronological reconstruction of the 27 hours during which the family hovered between hope and deep desperation.
Through the parents' eyes, the shock is described when their daughter's bicycle is found abandoned in a ditch, and the subsequent massive police investigation that quickly involved helicopters, dog patrols, and thousands of volunteer citizens. The book provides a unique insight into the internal preparedness and the close cooperation with the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police, while the fear of a tragic outcome grew as the hours passed.
The real case
The real case behind the book shook all of Denmark and led to the arrest of the then 32-year-old Philip Patrick Westh. When the police stormed an address in Korsør on April 16, 2023, they found the 13-year-old girl alive. This happy outcome set the case apart from many other similar cases, but the investigation quickly revealed a much darker background. The arrest of Philip Patrick Westh was, in fact, the starting point for solving several historical crimes.
The trial against Philip Patrick Westh, which the book also touches upon in its context, resulted in a conviction for both the abduction and rape of the girl from Kirkerup, as well as the long-unsolved murder of Emilie Meng from 2016. However, the book primarily focuses on the human costs and the trauma that the family experienced while the perpetrator held their daughter captive. It describes how the local community in South Zealand came together and how the technical investigation of digital traces became crucial for locating the crime scene in time.
About the author
Christina Ehrenskjöld is an experienced journalist and author specializing in true crime and personal narratives. She is known for her ability to convey complex criminal cases with great empathy for the relatives. In her work on 27 Hours, she has had exclusive access to the family's own experiences, making the book a historical testimony rather than just a crime report. Her writing style has been compared to a thriller, but always with deep respect for the victims' integrity and without wallowing in the explicit details of the abuses.