She Thought She Was Going On A Date With A Doctor, But She Was Abducted And Held Captive In A Bunker He Built
In 2015, a 30-year-old woman from Sweden thought she was having a typical date with a doctor. Instead, she was drugged, abducted, and held captive in a remote bunker the doctor had built himself.
This terrifying true story is now being shared in a docuseries called “The Bunker,” which debuts in the United States on January 16.
Isabel Eriksson, who uses this alias to protect her identity, let Dr. Martin Trenneborg, who was 37 years old, into her Stockholm apartment in September 2015.
The pair were supposed to go on a second date, and Trenneborg told Isabel that they’d be attending a dinner with other doctors and their wives. He reportedly brought her presents, including flowers and a bottle of perfume.
“He said he picked them himself, which I thought was sweet. It all felt pretty good, and he seemed quite normal. But there was one thing I noticed: he had a very intense gaze, in a way I haven’t felt before,” Isabel recalled.
“Psychopath eyes is the description that came to mind, but I pushed that feeling away as I thought he was otherwise nice.”
Trenneborg also brought chocolate-covered strawberries for them to share. Isabel didn’t know that he’d secretly marked some strawberries as “safe” for himself to eat; meanwhile, the others were laced with Rohypnol.
After ingesting the drugged strawberries, Isabel passed out. Trenneborg proceeded to put her in a wheelchair, bring her to his car, and drive her to a remote region of southern Sweden.
Isabel awoke in a concrete room with no windows 350 miles away from her house. She had no clue whether she was above or underground, and she had a needle in her arm. Trenneborg had spent years constructing the bunker, which was 60 square meters, by himself.
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The bunker had 12.5-inch-thick concrete-enforced walls, with a bedroom, a toilet, and a kitchen. It also had a small, covered courtyard.
When Isabel initially woke up, she felt “dazed.” Her mouth was dry, and she had no idea what day it was. Once she looked down and saw a cannula in her arm, she ripped it out. Trenneborg had been sitting in a chair, watching her, and she lost consciousness again.
After Isabel woke up a second time, her toy poodle named Nellie was suddenly beside her. She took in her surroundings, noting it was dusty and dirty. There were no sounds of nature; all she heard was the humming of the refrigerator.
Trenneborg unlocked three heavy doors to enter the bunker, and Isabel attempted to attack him. Her escape effort was squandered when he overpowered her, and she was warned not to try anything like that again.
Isabel soon learned that Trenneborg’s plan was to keep her, as well as other women, captive in the bunker as a girlfriend.
She was to sleep with him, clean up, and cook. Trenneborg also gave her three different books to read, all of which were about women who’d been assaulted and murdered.
“I didn’t know how to interpret it. He shows me a room in the bunker. He said it would be a torture chamber,” Isabel explained.
“I didn’t know if he would build a real torture chamber as he said or if it was just some kind of sick game to really scare me.”
Trenneborg would enter and exit the bunker as he pleased, leaving Isabel without any knowledge of what day it was or how much time had passed.
He’d go to work at a medical center, and she’d pace the bunker. Isabel also tried doing push-ups and situps to remain physically strong.
One day, she was brought outside to the tiny courtyard. It was then that Isabel realized Trenneborg had built the bunker beside his home, which was located in a wooded area. He claimed that he planned to keep her in the bunker for a couple of years.
“I don’t know what he has planned for me after that. To murder me and bury me in the woods,” Isabel remembered.
Yet, hundreds of miles away in Stockholm, Isabel’s loved ones knew that something was wrong. Her friend was unable to get in touch with her and reached out to Isabel’s mother, who contacted the police.
At that point, authorities went to Isabel’s apartment, taped off the unit, and began a missing person investigation. This, coupled with Isabel’s smart thinking, would ultimately lead to her escape on day six of being held captive.
But first, Isabel had to keep Trenneborg on her good side. By day four in the bunker, she was cooking for him. While sitting at the table together, they spoke about his day as if they were a normal couple.
Day five was a different story. Trenneborg suddenly entered the bunker with a gun in his hand and forcibly gave it to Isabel. He stated that the doors were unlocked, so all she had to do was shoot him, and she’d be free.
Isabel suspected the doctor was trying to trick her. If she did shoot him, and the doors were actually locked, she’d die in the bunker.
“He was the only one who knew I was there. Nobody would find me. It was horrible. I’m freaking out, my hands shake. Even if it’s my way out, I don’t dare. I cry. I give him back the gun,” Isabel detailed.
The next day, Trenneborg acted as if the gun incident had never transpired. In fact, he just said Isabel had fallen in love with him, and she didn’t try to refute it. Rather, she went along with it and told Trenneborg that she needed to get some clothes from her apartment.
He shockingly agreed to bring her there. Yet, after they arrived, they realized Isabel’s apartment had been locked and covered in police tape. This put Trenneborg on edge, and he actually brought her to a local police station.
He intended to have Isabel walk in and pretend she’d simply been away, visiting a friend as a cover story to quell suspicions.
However, she was taken to an interrogation room alone by a police officer, and she was able to share what had truly happened to her.
Trenneborg was arrested by four officers and convicted of kidnapping Isabel in 2016. He spent 10 years behind bars before he was released in 2023.
In the wake of this harrowing experience, Isabel was forced to battle severe trauma. She faced her recovery by seeing a therapist who specialized in treating PTSD, and part of her treatment involved prolonged exposure therapy.
As shown in “The Bunker,” Isabel returns to a reconstructed bunker that resembles where she was kept captive.
When visiting the reconstructed bunker, Isabel felt as if she were back in Trenneborg’s real construction, saying, “It was extremely painful.
But I knew it was part of the healing process.” As for why she agreed to do a documentary and film portions of her therapy sessions for the world to see, Isabel hopes her story raises awareness about the long-term effects of trauma and shows that “recovery is possible, even after the most horrific experiences.”
Isabel is now living under a different name in an undisclosed location. Following Trenneborg’s release in August 2023, she admitted to feeling very afraid that he’d try to “get revenge” on her. Then, she worked to change her thought process.
“He has taken so much from me already. I am not going to let him take away my sense of safety, peace, and happiness,” she stated.
The true crime docuseries “The Bunker” debuted in Sweden last year. It will be available for streaming in the United States on January 16 through the streaming service Viaplay, which is offered as an Amazon Prime add-on subscription.
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