Here’s another case of teens mysteriously murdered in the wilderness and their murderer remains free after 60 years. It’s eerily reminiscent of the Dyatlov Pass murders, the main difference being that in this case … one of them survived. Join us as CryptoVille investigates this mystery!

In an idyllic setting, alongside a beautiful Finnish lake, four teenagers were brutally attacked and three of them killed. It happened 60 years ago and justice still hasn’t been attained for its victims. There is plenty of blame to go around for a bungled investigation, but what clues we do have, are tantalizing. Let’s take a look at what happened, who the suspects were, and what became of the investigation.

The Scene

Two young couples headed into the Finnish woods on what some describe as a “Sweetheart’s Retreat” on June 4^th, 1960. They camped in a camping area near beautiful Lake Bodom and enjoyed the day out in nature.

The couple’s names were Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, 18, and his girlfriend Maila Irmeli Bjorklund, 15, and Seppo Antero Boismon, 18, and his girlfriend Anja Tuulikki Maki, 15.

In the evening they gathered around the campfire and drank some, and some sources said Gustafsson had become drunk and was kicked out of the tent as a result. These sources had the impression (for some reason), that Gustafsson and Boismon had even gotten into a fight, but they don’t cite any evidence for that assumption. Moving on …

It wasn’t until the morning of June 5^th, around 6 AM that two boys, who were hiking through on a bird-watching expedition, saw a blond man walking away from the teens’ camp and noticed the tent was collapsed. They continued on their way, and never went near the campsite. Interestingly, none of the teens had blond hair, so who was this other guy?

Around 11 AM, a local named Esko Oiva Johansson was passing nearby the campsite and noticed the devastation and the bodies. He quickly called the police and they arrived on scene around noontime.

They had all been stabbed but Gustafsson’s girlfriend Maila had been beaten and stabbed the most. She was found slumped over the outside of the tent, no clothes on from the waist down, and evidence proved she had been stabbed even after she was dead.

Gustafsson was also found lying on top of the tent, and the other couple were inside. Investigators said they were stabbed through rips in the tent with a knife. Their bodies also showed evidence that they had been bludgeoned with some other kind of weapon which was never found.

What Evidence?

From all I read, it seems the police didn’t do a very good job preserving the crime scene and recording everything police are supposed to record, even back in those days. Apparently, the police let a “crowd of police officers” onto the scene, and later enlisted the military to help search for clues so that any evidence that might have been there (like key footprints) were trampled.

They never cordoned off the crime scene so that nosey onlookers got into the area and further contaminated it.

Some strange things went missing, that seem like they should be pertinent clues, but they don’t quite add up to anything. For instance, the keys to the motorcycles which the teens had left in their ignitions were gone and yet the motorcycles were never stolen. Then Gustafsson’s shoes were missing and later found about a third of a mile away, partially hidden beneath some forest debris, along with parts of Gustafsson’s clothing. Yet Gustafsson was found slumped over the outside of their tent.

People immediately assumed Gustafsson had committed the crimes because he survived, pointing to the fact “he tried to hide his shoes which were covered in blood.” But considering his injuries, that scenario is a stretch. Turns out Gustafsson had a broken jaw, plenty of bruises, and a concussion. He had also been stabbed but apparently not as badly as the others had been.

Still, a broken jaw is a terrible injury and super painful. I don’t see anybody suddenly jumping up, running into the woods, and then trying to hide his shoes while enduring the pain of a broken jaw. It seems far-fetched. And yet I’ve heard people do some incredible things when they’re experiencing a rush of adrenaline.

And let’s not forget: authorities never found the knife used in the attacks, nor the blunt object that had pummeled some of teens to death.

Suspects

Karl Valdemar Gyllstrom:  Locals thought he could have been the murderer for several reasons. He owned a kiosk business in the campground and was known to be a nasty man. He often harassed campers, doing things like cutting their tent spikes and throwing stones at them if they made too much noise. So, people thought he probably “snapped” and went on a rampage killing and attacking the teenagers.

Interestingly, Gyllstrom killed himself in 1969. People then said this is proof of his guilt. There was a rumor that he confessed to the killings before he took his life. However, his wife told the police he had been in bed with her the night of the crime. Regardless, the police did not consider Gyllstrom a suspect.

But consider this too, someone with that nasty and terrible state of mind, who may well have been mentally ill, could have had thoughts of suicide apart from all the drama over the teenagers’ murders.  So, this seems like another dead end.

Pauli Luoma: Somehow the police got a lead that Pauli was in the area of the teens’ campsite that same night. When they checked him out, he had a valid alibi because he had been in another town and must have had witnesses there.  So he was scratched off the list.

Pentti Soinenen: Pentti was well known to the authorities because he was a crook. In fact, he had confessed to the murders when he was in jail for other charges. Nothing linked him to the crimes, so the police decided it was just “jailhouse bragging.”

Hans Assman: He became a suspect after Dr. Jorma Palo reported that he had been into the Helsinki Surgical Hospital for treatment “at some point” after the murders. Dr. Palo reported that he had dirt under his fingernails and blood on his clothes.

Crucial choice of wording: At some point after the murders. How long was that? Could the guy have been out fishing or deer hunting or something like that? We don’t know why he was actually seeking treatment at the hospital, but the police investigated and took him off the list of suspects.

DNA Enters the Fray

Fast forward a few decades and finally in 2004, authorities tested Gustafsson’s shoes for DNA. Remember they were covered in blood.

The blood on his shoes belonged to the deceased victims. The strange thing is, despite his injuries, none of Gustafsson’s blood was on them.

I have to wonder if they had all been asleep, maybe Gustafsson had taken his shoes off, and maybe put them outside the tent. He was found barefoot, after all. Maybe he got up in the middle of the night to relieve himself, and came back to find his friends being attacked.

I should mention that right after the incident, Gustafsson was having trouble remembering what happened. He said “a shadowy figure dressed in black with bright red eyes appeared and viciously attacked them.”  Very strange.

The addition of this DNA evidence caused authorities to start theorizing and then finally charge Gustafsson with the murders of his friends.

The Trial

Working Theory for the Trial: Gustafsson killed the other three out of jealousy because he believed that something was going on between his girlfriend and his friend.

A fellow camper testified that she saw Gustafsson and Boismon engaged in a heated argument, and Gustafsson seemed to be very drunk.

The police further hypothesized that Gustafsson had been kicked out of the tent after having had a knock-down drag-out fight with Boismon. In a rage, Gustafsson supposedly returned to the tent and started attacking them all.

A policeman named Markku Tuominen reported that he heard Gustafsson say after his arrest, “What’s done is done” and that he estimated he’d get 15 years for his crimes.  Gustafsson strongly denied this claim and stuck to the story he’d been telling for over 50 years at that point.

For the Defense: Enter defense lawyer Ms. Riitta Leppiniemi.  Her rebuttal can be neatly summed up this way:

• Gustafsson’s blood had been found inside the tent as well as everyone else’s.
• Being beaten by Boismon (or someone else) to the point of having a broken jaw would have left him in a weakened state, certainly not able to violently murder his friends.
• She criticized the convenient testimony of the woman camper who only at that point (2005) decided to come forward and say she had seen the boys arguing. Why wait so long? Then she couldn’t remember certain key details.
• Gustafsson rejected the policeman’s claim and stuck to his story that he and Boismon went fishing and that they never argued.

The Verdict: Not guilty due to insufficient evidence and too much time having passed to uncover what really happened.

Unanswered Questions

Besides the obvious, who killed these teenagers, there are some puzzling questions that we will probably never be able to answer.

• People seem fixated on why Gustafsson’s shoes were found so far from the campsite. Why were they?
• If Gustafsson had stabbed himself to cover up the crime, why is there no blood trail leading to where he hid/disposed of the knife?
• Where are the knife and bludgeon?
• Who was the blond man seen leaving the scene of the crime around 6 AM the morning of June 5^th?  Assman was a blond, but he had a credible alibi, so who else could it have been?

This tragedy has taken on legendary proportions throughout Scandinavia, as you can imagine. There is a heavy metal band named after them, Children of Bodom. These guys even marketed a beer made from the water of Lake Bodom.

Several books have been written about the tragedy, but I’m not sure any of them are in English. And of course, there was a movie made about the incident, simply called “Bodom.”

So, what do you think about all this? Have you figured out who could have done the deadly deed? Let us know below, or come over to our Facebook page, CryptoVille, and tell us there. We’d love to hear from you!

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References

https://allthatsinteresting.com/lake-bodom-murders

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/584241/lake-bodom-murders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Bodom_murders

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52171857  for Poster image caption.