Lake Bodom murders

murders of lake bodom

Finland

Finnish movie BODOM 2016

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Suspects

Pauli Luoma

Every camper's worst nightmare came true at Lake Bodom in 1960 when four teenagers were stabbed to death while sleeping in their tent.

Pentti Soininen

Hans Assman

Valdemar Gyllström

Initial investigation

Arrest of Nils Gustaffson

In late March 2004, almost 44 years after the event, Nils Gustafsson was arrested by the police on suspicion of having murdered his three friends. In early 2005, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation declared the case was solved based on some new analysis on the blood stains. According to the official statement, Gustafsson erupted in jealous anger over his feelings for Björklund, his new girlfriend. She was stabbed multiple times after the fatal blow, while the two other teenagers were killed less savagely. Gustafsson's own injuries, while notable, were less severe.

The trial started on August 4, 2005. The prosecution called for life imprisonment for Gustafsson. It argued that the re-examination of the old evidence using modern techniques such as DNA profiling raises suspicion towards Gustafsson. The defense argued that the murders were the work of one or more outsiders and that Gustafsson would have been incapable of killing three people given the extent of his injuries. On October 7, 2005 Gustafsson was acquitted of all charges.

On his acquittal, the State of Finland paid him €44,900 for mental suffering caused by the long remand time.

It was later found that the killer had never entered the tent, but instead had opted to attack them with a knife and an unidentified blunt instrument through the sides of the tent. The murder weapons have never been located.

The killer had stolen several of the victims personal items, including their wallets and some of their clothes. Some of these clothes, and Nils Gustafsson's shoes, were later discovered partially-hidden approximately 500 meters from the murder site. Other items of the victims, for instance Seppo Boisman's leather jacket, were never located. The tracks of blood and footprints had shown that the killer was wearing Gustafsson's shoes.

Maila Irmeli Björklund, Gustafsson's girlfriend, was found undressed from the waist down and was lyring on top of the tent, she had the most injuries out of all of the victims. She was stabbed multiple times after her death, whilst the other two teenagers were slain with less brutality. Nils was also found lying on the top of the tent.

The Murders

On Saturday, June 4, 1960, four Finnish teenagers had decided to camp along the shore of an elegant lake nearby the city of Espoo's Oitaa Manor. The lake was known as Lake Bodom. Maila Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki were fifteen-years-old at the time, accompanying them were their eighteen-year-old boyfriends, Seppo Antero Boisman and Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson.

between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 5, 1960, Mäki, Björklund and Boisman were all stabbed and bludgeoned to death by an unknown person or persons. Gustafsson, the only survivor of the massacre, sustained a concussion, fractures to the jaw and facial bones, and bruises to the face but lived. And, in a state of peril after everything that had transpired that night, he stated that he had seen a vision of black and bright red eyes coming for them.

At about 6:00 AM, a number of boys bird-watching at some distance from the murder scene had reportedly seen the tent collapsed and a blonde man walking away from the tent.

The bodies of the victims were discovered at about 11:00 AM by a carpenter by the name of Risto Sirén. Sirén had been jogging and, upon his discovery of the bodies, he subsequently alerted the police. The police arrived on the scene at Noon.

The Lake Bodom murders were a multiple homicide that took place in Finland in 1960. Lake Bodom is a lake by the city of Espoo, about 22 kilometres west of the country's capital, Helsinki. In the early hours of June 5, 1960, four teenagers were camping on the shores of Lake Bodom. Between 4AM and 6AM, an unknown person or persons murdered three of them with a knife and blunt instrument wounding the fourth.

The tent where the teenagers were murdered in 1960