On Thursday evening, a 23-year-old man from Gothenburg and an accomplice were arrested on suspicion of having carried out the killings in what the police believe to have been a brutal robbery.

“It has come to our attention that several items are missing from the couple’s house,” said Thomas Fuxborg, police spokesman for the county police, told news agency TT.

The 36-year-old suspect was called in for questioning on Friday and revealed information that led police to place him under arrest, the Aftonbladet newspaper reported.

According to the paper, the man is believed to have sheltered the two other suspected murderers.

The elderly couple, a 69-year-old dairy farmer and his 71-year-old wife, were found dead on Wednesday, after failing to turn up for a performance with the local choir, scheduled for that afternoon.

“They were supposed to come along for a performance at an elderly care home, but they didn’t turn up,” Ulf Efraimsson, chair of the local parish of the Mission Covenant Church, to the TT news agency.

Two members of the choir then traveled to the couple’s home to see if they had become sick or run into trouble of some sort.

They then discovered the farmer’s body and called police. When police arrived, they found the woman’s body in the farm’s main residence.

Police describe the victims as a pair of well-meaning farmers from in the small village of Långared, about 15 kilometres north of Alingsås.

Both victims had been subjected to extreme violence and an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday to determine the exact cause of death.

The revelation that objects were missing from the couple’s home have led the police to believe that a robbery was the motive behind the brutal murders.

It was late Thursday afternoon that the police began suspecting the two men, said Fuxborg to daily Aftonladet on Friday.

A warrant for the arrest of the two was promptly issued and they were brought in after police had raided two houses in Gothenburg and Stockholm late on Thursday evening.

According to the paper, the police were able to seize several objects that could be vital as evidence in the case.

“As its stands there are no other suspects and no other arrest warrants issued. But we will see where the investigation takes us,” he said to TT.

Police started their initial questioning of the two suspects as soon as they were brought in, but further interrogations will take place on Friday morning.

Investigators now have a clearer picture of the crime.

“We know the couple were killed some time between late Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon,” Fuxborg told Aftonbladet.

According to the police, the two suspects were seen in the area on Tuesday evening.