Who Killed Helene’s Father in The Secret Woman? Aksel’s Death Explained

Aksel Söderberg’s death was not an accident. The Secret Woman ultimately reveals that Caroline, Edmund’s mother and Aksel’s former secretary, was responsible for killing him after he began trying to confess the truth about the criminal operation tied to Söderberg Shipping. Aksel had apparently fallen down the stairs, making his death look accidental, but Caroline’s confrontation with Helene near the end confirms that she silenced him. The complication is that Aksel was not an innocent victim of the trafficking conspiracy. The evidence Helene uncovers indicates that the illegal operation had begun under her father decades earlier.

Was Aksel’s Fall Down the Stairs Really an Accident?

No. Aksel’s death is initially presented as a suspicious but apparently accidental fall shortly before Helene disappeared. Because Helene has lost her memories, she cannot immediately connect his death to the fear and obsessive investigation that consumed her during those final weeks. Her secretary Ingrid remembers that Aksel had repeatedly tried to tell Helene something while he was dying, but his failing health prevented him from completing the warning.

The final confrontation removes most of the ambiguity surrounding his death. Caroline tells Edmund that Helene must die just as her father did, prompting Helene to realize that Caroline killed Aksel before he could reveal the truth. Caroline does not deny the accusation and instead attacks Aksel for developing a conscience at the end of his life. The supposed staircase accident was therefore part of the family’s cover-up.

Related: The Secret Woman Ending Explained: What Happens to Edmund and Caroline?

Who Was Caroline to Aksel?

Caroline had once been much more than Aksel’s employee. She reveals that she worked for him for eight years and had also been romantically involved with him. According to Caroline, Aksel promised that they would marry, but he abandoned the relationship after meeting the woman who became Helene’s mother.

That rejection appears to have shaped Caroline’s relationship with the Söderberg family for decades. She knew Aksel’s secrets and used that knowledge to force him to give her son Edmund a future inside the company. Rather than leaving the family after the affair ended, Caroline found another way to attach herself and Edmund to the Söderberg empire.

What Was Aksel Trying to Tell Helene Before He Died?

Aksel was trying to confess that Söderberg Shipping had been connected to a human-trafficking operation. Ingrid remembers Helene becoming convinced that her father was attempting to warn her about something she needed to know before inheriting control of the company. After Aksel died, Helene began examining contracts, clients, transactions and shipping routes almost constantly.

Her investigation was later portrayed as evidence that she had become mentally unstable. The truth is almost the opposite. Aksel’s fragmented deathbed warning had pointed Helene toward a real criminal operation, and she was getting dangerously close to exposing it.

However, the later evidence adds an ugly qualification to Aksel’s confession. Joachim discovers that Söderberg’s relationship with one of the companies involved in the suspicious shipping routes goes back more than 50 years, long before Edmund joined the business. Helene realizes that her father did not merely discover the scheme. He had helped start it.

Why Did Caroline Kill Aksel?

Caroline killed Aksel because his late attempt to confess threatened everything she had worked to secure for Edmund. Aksel’s deathbed change of heart could have exposed the trafficking operation, implicated the company and undermined Edmund’s place inside the Söderberg empire. Caroline had spent years using what she knew about Aksel to ensure her son gained access to the business, so his confession jeopardized both their position and their secrets.

Her response to Helene makes the motive particularly clear. Caroline mocks Aksel for suddenly developing a conscience and treats his desire to tell Helene the truth as a betrayal. From her perspective, keeping the past buried matters more than whatever remorse Aksel felt near the end.

This also explains why Helene becomes Caroline’s next target. Helene is not dangerous simply because she has returned from the dead. She has resumed the investigation Aksel accidentally set in motion when he tried to confess.

Did Edmund Help Kill Aksel?

The film does not clearly establish that Edmund participated in Aksel’s actual death. Caroline is the person directly implicated in killing him, while Edmund’s confirmed crimes center more heavily on continuing the trafficking operation, manipulating Helene and killing the real Louise Andersen. It would therefore go beyond the movie to say Edmund helped Caroline push Aksel down the stairs.

Edmund certainly benefits from Aksel’s death, though. Caroline had already forced Aksel to bring Edmund into the company, and removing Aksel makes it easier for Edmund’s influence to grow. By the time Helene reconstructs her past, Edmund has become deeply involved in the same criminal system her father had helped create.

Aksel Was Both a Victim and One of the Original Culprits

That contradiction is what makes Aksel’s death more interesting than a simple murder reveal. Caroline kills him because he is finally willing to expose the truth, but his last-minute conscience does not erase his own role in creating the problem. The trafficking network existed long before Edmund rose to power, and the evidence leads Helene directly back to her father.

Aksel’s final attempt to warn his daughter therefore comes much too late to make him heroic. He helps build a system that destroys other people’s lives, then tries to confess when he knows he is dying. Caroline prevents that confession by killing him, and Edmund continues benefiting from the criminal structure afterward.

So the direct answer is Caroline killed Aksel Söderberg, apparently turning his death into a fatal staircase accident. But the deeper revelation is that Aksel died while trying to expose a criminal operation he had once helped establish. His murder protects the Söderberg family’s secrets, while his unfinished warning becomes the clue that eventually allows Helene to uncover them.