'My dad is the Skara Cannibal: it hurts loving someone so bad for you'

“He sent a twisted, sick text years later. He can never, ever in a million years, be a part of my life again."  

Jamie-Lee Arrow was nine years old when she saw her stepmother, Helle Christensen, for the last time. 

She was visiting her dad, Isakin Jonsson, and described that ominous weekend as the “worst” of her entire childhood. 

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What did Isakin Jonsson the Skara Cannibal do?

While Helle was cooking in the kitchen, Jamie-Lee noticed that she appeared aggressive and was “acting weird”. When they sat down to eat, Helle said it was the last meal she would ever cook for them because Isakin was going to kill her. 

Horrifyingly, after a shopping trip the couple took soon after, Isakin slit his 40-year-old girlfriend’s throat, decapitated her, and ate parts of her body. 

Now, almost 14 years later, Jamie-Lee is speaking out about her experience as the daughter of one of Sweden’s most infamous killers. 

“I want people to understand the darkness I came from and that I actually managed to get myself out from under it,” she tells PEOPLE. 

“I still struggle with feeling like I am my own person and that my dad has got nothing to do with who I am.”

Jamie-Lee's story is being told in an upcoming documentary, Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks titled My Father, The Cannibal, where she visits her dad for the first time in four years. Since being found guilty in 2012, he has been in the care and supervision of a psychiatric facility. 

Jamie-Lee says that when she initially saw him, he appeared delighted to see her - crying and hugging her. But things soon shifted. 

Jamie-Lee Arrow. Image: YouTube

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"His true colours started to show again"

“I so wanted to believe that he had changed and that he had become the dad I always wanted and needed. His true colors started to show again,” Jamie-Lee explains.

Nevertheless, Jamie-Lee continued seeing him, which initially seemed positive, but then she received a “twisted, sick” text from him. Now, even though she’s certain she won’t maintain a relationship with him, she still loves him. 

“Even though he can never, ever be a part of my life again, I will love him. It hurts loving someone that is so bad for you.”

Before the murder, Jamie-Lee says that her dad was a psychopathic narcissist, who struggled with a drug addiction and mental health issues. 

She recalls her father being obsessed with voodoo dolls - so much so that she had 10 in her bedroom. 

“He was very aggressive, very unpredictable, and he put me through loads of traumatising events,” she shares in one of her YouTube videos.

At six she met her father's new girlfriend, Helle, and felt an “instant connection” to her. The two shared a loving and strong relationship, but Jamie-Lee says her dad and Helle were not good for each.

In the documentary, when speaking to his daughter, Isakin ostensibly justifies the gruesome killing of Helle, saying that she wanted to die.

“I had lost control. In my demented mind that was a logical decision to get what I want and I saw a way out for me to get help,” he told Jamie-Lee. 

After the murder, she says she spiralled into pits of anxiety and depression, which led her to a drug addiction. However, at 19, she realised he had been “brainwashing” her and made the decision to stop seeing him. 

Now, as a mum of two, Jamie-Lee is passionate about connecting with other children and adults who have suffered from traumatic upbringings. 

“I did this for the little Jamie - the little girl that I once was… [who] was told to stay quiet… cried herself to sleep… felt scared all the time.”

Wondering if he was just putting on an act for her, she says, “I just have to accept that my dad is actually sick and probably capable of doing that even though it hurts to admit that to myself.”

Originally published as 'My dad is the Skara Cannibal: it hurts loving someone so bad for you'