Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found.
Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind.
Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast.
Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Are you there?
I am here.
Somehow I can't even see you now.
Well, no, you wouldn't be able to see me because I told you I'm reserving the camera.
You know me, I'm always going to do something different.
Always because I'm that wild child.
Why do you think it's my hair though?
It's intuition.
Okay.
Are you ready?
I don't think so.
Not for this.
I have a feeling I'm going to be scared shitless.
You either went with extensions or you went red.
Oh dear Lord.
My eyes are closed.
Okay.
Reveal.
You scared me.
No, the reason I did this is because I'm going to work on Monday dressed as a book character and I'm going to be the Mad Hatter.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, you've got that hat, don't you?
I do.
So God almighty, let me take this scarf off.
I have been sweating for two hours waiting for the finale here.
Holy crap.
Well, here it is.
We took an hour folks to get everything ready and then I jumped backwards when Deb revealed the camera.
Did you see me jump?
No, honey bunny.
I don't have a picture of you.
Oh, that's right.
Why do you think I have been hinting for the last hour that I really needed your camera?
But audio was plenty.
I really was scared.
Really?
Why?
Because I really thought you went red with extensions.
Okay.
Well guess what I'm about to do?
What?
I shared my weekly reel on Instagram.
Everybody go check us out at Dying to be Found because I have had all day to figure out how I was going to prank you because I haven't had a chance to do that in a while.
But I guess what?
I figured I'm going to do it with my reels.
Alrighty then, so welcome to our little podcast Dying to be Found everyone.
We're so glad you're here.
I'm Deb.
And I'm Beth.
And I'm not even going to say what episode we're on because Beth, I was waiting to see what your reaction was on our recording today to see if I was going to bump it up and it looks like I'm going to.
But secondly, things are really creeping up on me on my calendar and regardless, we're excited that you are here for another episode.
It looks like Beth is going to take the wheel on this one.
Tell us what you have for us today.
Well Deb, like you said, it's my turn to take you on a trip.
Good.
So today we're going to go far away to the world's most northern region.
Any guesses?
Okay, so you're going to throw me under the bus just like that because you're testing my geography.
Of course not.
All right, I feel like I've been really looking at our heat map lately, Beth, because we have a lot of listeners way up north and I saw that we have someone up there in Victoria Island in Canada.
Hi, Victoria Island.
Thank you for listening.
Absolutely.
And so that is isn't that way up in the Canadian territories?
The yeah, the Canadian territories.
Am I right?
Wrong.
I need to get one of those buzzers.
I'm going to get one.
No, I can go find a sound online.
Okay.
Today we're going to talk about an unsolved murder case in Finland.
And before I go any further, let me tell you how excited I was to learn that the official hometown of Santa Claus resides in the most northern region called Lapland.
Oh my gosh, I was so excited.
There is actually a town that has Santa Claus Village, which is open 365 days of the year.
Oh, now I will tell you in Stone Mountain, Georgia, they have a little village and it's not like you're describing, but they have a Christmas store that's open year round.
I don't know if it's still there, but that's so cool.
I was on Stone Mountain 10 years ago at Christmas time and there was a little village with lights on and everything.
I was there.
Yeah, that's where we went.
I was just at Stone Mountain, gosh, this summer.
Nice.
It's changed a little bit.
Did it?
Is there more stores open?
No, it did commercialize quite a bit.
It's no longer like a state park.
They've commercialized it.
So to me, it's just not what it used to be.
Oh, anyway, so yeah, if you guys are going to visit Georgia, come on down and visit Stone Mountain.
It's kind of cool.
Yeah.
Well, our regular listeners will know by now how much I love Christmas. I have 70 Christmas cards, handmade 70.
Snap, crackle and pop 70.
I'm feeling bad about the cards that I'm probably going to, I have any, let's just put it this way.
I'm not recycling them.
I've just never used them.
You might see the same one again because I don't know which one I sent you five years ago, Beth.
Well, I don't know which one you didn't either.
So it'll all be new to me.
What are you saying?
You throw them away every year?
I have so many of them.
I'm just kidding.
I was just over to the US border doing some Christmas shopping.
Beth, I think you need some wine every time we do this.
No, it's because I, well, yes, that may be that, but I'm excited about Christmas and about you're being all dressed up for Halloween.
Do you love it?
Yes.
That is so funny.
It's supposed to be the mad hat or but it's two hours worth of makeup all day.
This one used to be like white.
Oh, now it's just pasty because the lipstick.
I have to sip wine through a straw today.
Cheers.
Clink.
You better put in a clink in that.
Okay, I will.
So I love Christmas and it's my time to gift my friends and my family with handmade Christmas cards.
And this year I'm doing more calendars, but for my coworkers, I have approximately 25 of them.
And Deb showing me hers.
I still have it.
You don't think I throw these away, right?
Well, I think what I'm going to do this year is I this is this is horrendous.
I bought some mini tear off calendars.
They were on sale 10 for $2.
Wow.
And I had to get them in the States.
So I bought four packages because it's a good deal.
I'm just going to give you one of the calendars and you can reglue it on.
Absolutely.
These were so cheap.
Then it was $19 in shipping plus the American exchange and these $2 calendars worth $10 cost me $43.
I won't be doing that again.
But at Christmas time, our regular listeners will know by now how much I love Christmas.
Yes, you do.
It's my time to gift my friends and family with handmade Christmas cards and calendars plus my baking.
Oh my gosh, Beth.
I love your baking.
Beth is a fine baker.
In one year, she even put together a homemade family recipe book that was made from a brown paper bag of all things, which I still have by the way, Beth.
You know what?
That means a lot to me that you still have it.
Oh, okay.
So in the meantime, Beth, I love that you have the spirit of Christmas.
Thanks.
So today we're going to talk about Finland.
It is a country with four regions, the Lapland, Lakeland, Coast and Archipelago and Helsinki region.
Finland has the world's cleanest air, visible northern lights year round and in the northern Lapland region, it has eight seasons a year.
Imagine that.
What?
What do you mean eight seasons?
Well, they just rotate their seasons a little quicker than we do.
Okay.
So what they have spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall, winter in the time period that we do?
Yes.
Wow, that sounds fascinating.
It's interesting.
It's a little different.
I was very surprised when I read that.
But so I thought I'd throw that tidbit in.
Yeah, we appreciate that because I always love to learn new things.
Especially since Santa Claus lives up there today.
Absolutely.
Hi, Santa.
Don't listen to this episode.
I'm sure it's about to get worse.
It is.
Today's story comes from the Helsinki region, which is a central part of Finland and in a town close to Helsinki called Espoo.
This unsolved mystery was so sensational, it became common knowledge among residents of Finland.
Statistically, Finland is considered a safe country compared to so many others.
And I'd like to give our listeners an example of just how safe it is.
Not to pick on Americans, but I will be comparing Finland and the United States as the United States is well known to you around the world.
I know the states are a melting pot of crime, so no offense taken.
Good. I didn't want you to think I'm picking.
No, not at all.
So the murder rate in Finland is two to five murders in the United States.
And the number of police officers in Finland are 157 versus 243 in the United States.
54% more than Finland.
Okay.
So I'm going to talk a little bit in the statistics about violent crimes because what I'm going to describe today is a violent crime.
Okay.
So in Finland, I have 1.64 violent crimes to 4.7 crimes in the United States.
So you can see there that there's quite a number fluctuation.
Is that like shoplifting or violent?
Like when you say violent?
Intentional homicide.
Oh, okay.
I got you.
For the murder rate, there's 118 murders in Finland to the United States, 12,996 murders.
Snap, crackle, and pop.
Wow.
Murder rate in Finland is 22 and in the United States, it's 42.1.
Wow. So that's almost doubled.
Yeah, it says actually 91% more than Finland.
Now, please don't think that this United States is full of crime.
It's not.
It's a heavily populated country, which is reflected in these statistics.
So with more people, you're going to find more crime.
Yeah, like rats in a big city.
Yes.
Oh, I mean based on news reports that I see every day, that's all I see.
So I believe you.
Well, here we go.
It's the night of June 4th, 1960, a group of teenagers decided to go for a hike.
This group of friends included Seppo and Tiro Boisman, age 18, and his girlfriend Anya
Tolukimaki, age 15.
Along for the trek were 18-year-old Niles Gustafen and his girlfriend, 15-year-old Malaya
Ermele Borkland.
So there were two guys and two girls out hiking that night who went to one of the hundreds
of trails that Helsinki region had to offer them.
It's important to note that the group made their way up into the trails by motorbike,
which will come into play later.
But once they arrived at their location, the group walked along Lake Bodom in Espoo, not
far from the city of Helsinki.
This adventure was a hike like so many others where they pitched a tent, ate, drank, and
told stories.
I mean, that sounds delightful.
I know you love to go camping and that sounds right up my alley because when I was their
age, Beth, I did a lot of that.
I enjoyed the outdoor life.
I did too.
But unless there's Bigfoot and I know we've talked about Bigfoot already.
Yes, but they're nurturing.
So you don't have anything to worry about.
I mean, not according to our episode on Teresa Bear, but go on.
Everyone was enjoying the natural outdoors plus the peaceful tranquility of the hiking
trails.
Around 1030 that night, everyone settled in for the night and went to bed.
Around 11 a.m. the next morning, a couple of hikers came upon the grisly scene.
They had stumbled upon three murdered teenagers with a tremendous amount of blood in and around
the scene.
I mean, it's tremendous.
It's horrifying when you look at the photo.
That tent is just full of blood.
Did you see the photos?
No.
Mm-mm.
Sipo and his girlfriend Anya were both inside the tent.
Niles and his girlfriend Armela were lying on top of the tent and police speculated that
they had tried to escape.
All teenagers had died except for Niles, but he was barely conscious.
Apparently he suffered bruises, a broken jaw and a concussion.
And he played dead because if you were in this situation, I know that's what you're
told that you should do.
Yes, that's smart.
Well the photo of the tent showing the crime scene that I saw was covered in a lot of blood
and the police believe the attack occurred between 4 and 6 a.m. on the morning of June
5th.
The tent was ripped and had slashes from a sharp object streaked across the tent and
three of the deaths from this group of teenagers were allegedly caused by numerous stab wounds
caused from outside the tent.
Wait, did someone creep up on everyone while they were inside the tent or?
Yes, that's what they were guessing because there was something blunt.
They felt because they were bludgeoned to death.
So they began slashing from the outside.
Yes.
They didn't run into the tent where they were first attacked.
I mean, you know how people run away?
No, because they were sleeping.
Oh no.
Yes, they were sound asleep.
Oh gosh.
They were bludgeoned to death in the very early hours of June 5th.
Once the police arrived, they began looking around and noted that money and clothing were
missing.
I mean, how would they know that money was missing?
Probably because they looked through everything and saw that they had no money and who didn't
carry some cash back in those days.
Got you.
I went into a hardware store and I kind of got scolded by the cashier because I was paying
something that was under $5 with debit.
And I said to her, well, I don't carry cash anymore.
You got scolded.
That's rude.
I know it is.
Do you carry cash now?
No, I don't think I ever carry cash.
It's very rare.
I mean, I probably do from time to time.
Pre-COVID, I had money put in envelopes and I would write everything on it, what it was
for, and I would pay cash.
But now I realize I actually spend less money using my debit card because I can track it.
I do too.
And that's why I don't carry cash and I haven't carried it for years.
I mean, like I said, I do carry cash when it's necessary, but very rarely, but interesting.
So they had money missing.
Yeah.
They did have money missing and the most curious items such as the keys to the victim's motor
bikes were gone when the motor bikes were still left behind.
Niles's shoes were found buried a long way from the tent.
Again, different reports had different distances mentioned.
One said 500 meters, one said three miles.
Wow.
I know.
So when you're reading all these different reports, it's hard to put everything down
is this is definite.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So a long ways away works.
The knife and the unidentified blunt item that were used through the tent, it was never
found.
So the question here is what the heck happened?
Yeah.
I mean, what did happen?
This reminds me a little bit of the Dyatlov Pass incident.
Have you heard of that?
No, please do say.
I'm not going to because I'm going to ask you to follow up on that one day and you're
going to tell us all about it because it's going to be right up your alley.
Is it?
It sure is.
You personally, this is going to be your genre for sure.
Okay.
Police called in the military to help with this case to little avail and to the detriment
of the investigation.
Police did not rope off the crime scene like they do nowadays, nor did they even document
the details of the scene.
That's odd.
I know.
Can you believe that a mob of police were allowed to trample the entire crime scene
and they even disturbed all the evidence?
What year did this happen?
1960.
You still think they would know.
Yeah, but it doesn't seem that the standards of securing crime areas were the same as they
are today.
I'm going back to that case that we had with the two girls that went missing, the Elvis
fans.
Well, the police even brought in soldiers to search the lake for the missing objects
and weapons and none were found.
Autopsies of the victims later showed that Armelli received the worst of the attack.
She received most stab wounds and blunt force trauma and was even stabbed multiple times
after she was already dead.
I know.
That's terrible.
I mean, Beth, that sounds like an act of rage to me.
Somebody went directly for her.
You know, that does sound very plausible.
Maybe somebody was really angry, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, who knows what the
drama is back then.
True.
And if they were drinking.
Yes.
As you can imagine, with the lack of physical evidence, only three suspects were placed
on police radar throughout the years.
Tip number one, Carl Vladimir Gilstrom, a man who ran a kiosk on the campgrounds.
He had a hot temper and especially if there was noise, he would be seen throwing rocks
at visitors when he was very angry.
Oh my gosh.
How rude.
Yeah.
How boyish.
Exactly.
Boyish is a great word for that because come on now, you're trying to run a professional
business.
That's crazy.
I mean, not only that, but scary.
And you said that the group was partying around the campfire.
Yes, but they went down to sleep after that and I'm assuming they must've gone in a little
early and...
Yeah, not soon enough.
No.
Carl died by suicide in 1969, but before he died, he confessed to the crime.
Oh wow, really?
That's really strange, but this claim was later debunked by his wife because she said
he was with her throughout the whole night of June 4th, which is when the occurrence
took place.
Okay.
According to police, there was absolutely no evidence that Carl had executed the murders,
so they closed Carl's file and moved on to search further suspects.
Suspect number two, Hans Asman was considered a suspect.
I know, I know, I know.
Can you believe living your entire life with that name?
Well, it's funny because I see a lot of names like that throughout my day and it's like,
can you imagine having that name?
Oh, that in itself.
Well, can you imagine having a middle name like Rose, like me, because I was teased terribly
in school.
Are you serious?
Yes.
And the funny thing is, remember the Halloween party that I went to?
Yes.
Well, we got the last laugh because we took all those boys that were teasing me and we
were Googling them.
And let me say, justice was done.
I got the last laugh and so did the group of ladies that were with me.
Yeah.
You look like you had fun.
Good for you.
All right.
So moving on past this name, man, I'm glad I never had to live with a name such as that.
Nope.
Hans Asman lived nearby Lake Bottoms Coast.
According to a local physician, Carl had presented at the hospital with multiple cuts and abrasions,
dirt under his fingernails and blood on his clothes.
Several novels had been written on Hans stating that he was guilty of this heinous crime.
Police also believe that a figure that resembled Carl was amongst the mourners at the teen's
funerals.
Wow.
I know that's kind of crazy, eh?
Well, you know, I mean, I've heard that criminals like to show up at that scene, either the
crime scene or the teen's funerals.
That's shameful.
It is shameful, but you're right.
They like to go back to the scene of the crime.
Yeah.
His photo is a little grainy, so his identification could not be confirmed.
Police could find no further evidence that Carl took any part of the murders.
Plus he had an alibi.
Apparently he was in Germany at the time of the murders.
Don't you think though that he could sue someone for slander if so many books were written
about him in this case, especially if they were deliberately accusing him of this crime?
That's a very good thought.
Maybe people didn't sue each other back then.
That's true.
And plus it's another country.
I mean, I know the United States is sue happy, but other countries might not be so much.
So he was out of the picture for being a suspect.
They moved on to suspect number three, Niles William Gustafen.
Deb, does that name sound familiar?
How do you say that?
Gustafen?
Okay.
No.
It sounds like one of those names from Beauty and the Beast.
I think it is.
Oh wait, no, that's Gaston.
Oh, wait a minute though.
Niles, he was on the trip.
Yes.
He was the one person who lived in that crime of violence the very night of the murders.
Over the next 40 years, after the murders of Sipo, Anya, and Amelie, Niles lived an
average life, just like you and me.
Wow.
He married, he had two children, and then he went off to retire.
Way to put it into perspective, Beth.
Well, in March of 2004, Deb, 44 years after the incident, the police arrested Niles stating
that he had been a suspect all along.
What do you think of that?
If you think about it, I mean, they always go back to the scene of the crime and he was
the only survivor.
They based this arrest on the blood found in Niles' shoes of all three victims, but
there was not any blood from Niles himself.
It was thought that the killer wore Niles' shoes when the victims was bludgeoned to death.
That's kind of strange, eh?
That is.
Are they saying that Niles was in his own shoes or somebody else was in his shoes?
Well, they were thinking somebody else was from all the reports that I read.
I mean, that's kind of weird in itself, but what injuries did Niles incur on the night
of the murders or did he come out unscathed?
No, he was badly bruised and he even had stabs on him.
Oh gosh.
Okay.
Because those shoes did not have Niles' blood on them, the prosecution surmised that the
attack on Niles occurred before the attack on the others.
Authorities believed that Niles had committed the murders, then faked the disappearance
of the missing items like the motorbike keys and the money they believed was there.
Then he returned to the tent where he proceeded to stab and bruise himself to make it appear
that there was another perpetrator.
What was the motive?
Did they say?
Well, through the years, Niles kept tight lipped about the accounts of what had happened
that night.
So I have no idea.
He was very disoriented and couldn't remember anything that had happened.
He just said he saw a black figure with red eyes near the camp right before the attack.
Oh, that's where your big foot comes in.
It does.
Okay.
Red eyes.
I mean, that's believable.
I don't know.
Wait, what does he mean though by red eyes?
Was it a monster with glowing red eyes as red as my hair right now?
Yes.
Did it have bloodshot eyes?
I don't know.
He might not have, maybe he didn't even have a drink, so he didn't have bloodshot eyes.
Niles was finally cleared of the murders on all counts on October 7th, 2005.
And when you think about it, that's not that long ago.
It was long ago, but you know, this poor guy.
Yeah.
The court stated that there was not enough evidence to go through a trial.
Wow.
To me, it doesn't sound like the police did much of an investigation here.
No, it doesn't because after Niles, no other suspects were ever identified and the case
went cold.
To this day, the Lake Bodom murders continue to be Finland's most heinous and longest unsolved
crime.
Oh, that's a shame.
It is.
And I don't know if they still have the tent or any other evidence, but surely they could
test it for DNA now if they did.
Yeah, absolutely.
My understanding that even if in recent years, Finland is still somewhat behind the times
with DNA progression.
So much of the time has gone by though, we may never know what really happened with the
Lake Bodom murders.
Huh.
So tell me again, what happened with the shoes?
Because you said that everyone's blood was found on Niles shoes except his own.
Yes.
The weird thing is I had three or four different records.
Each of the reports said the same thing, but nobody said how the shoes went missing.
So I'm going to be honest here.
I don't know how the shoes ever got to be where they did, but there was blood in everyone
except Niles.
Okay.
That's kind of strange in itself.
And you said that the shoes were buried away from the tent where they were stashed.
So he was basically found shoeless.
Yes, he was.
And I think when one report said 500 yards away, I think that's more plausible than the
three miles because they'd never find the shoes three miles away.
So they were far from the tent, but not obscenely far.
Yeah.
I mean, that makes sense if you're settling in for the night, but I mean in itself, it
kind of sounds suspicious.
It does.
I don't know.
Interesting.
It is.
So that's the mystery of the Lake Bodom murders.
Wow.
That's it, huh?
So it's an unself case today?
It is.
It's always, it's a shame when there's a case that just gets into your head and you can't
find any answers.
I hate unsolved mysteries.
I know.
In this day and age, I keep saying after the year 2000, you have got to have some kind
of way to connect that DNA, but you had mentioned Finland doesn't have the resources like maybe
the bigger countries or what have you have.
Exactly.
I was quite behind even back then in the sixties.
Poor people.
I feel bad.
I know.
So Deb, what's your teachable moment?
Well, bear whistles.
What?
Yeah.
Bear whistles.
Look, I have been hiking in some pretty desolate areas in the North Georgia mountains.
There was one time Beth, that I took a five kilometer hike all by myself.
I was never so creeped out in my life.
It was just nothing but trees and hills and isolation.
I mean, these are parts known for black bears and black bear sightings.
And one black bear was even found in my neighborhood not too long ago.
Oh my.
Yeah.
So you'd better believe every sound from the surrounding woods, leaves rustling, twigs
breaking scared the crap out of me, Beth.
Yeah, it would me too.
So if you know you plan on going out on a hike in the woods or the mountains, especially
if you're roughing it and you just simply need to bring a bear whistle.
Believe it or not, I looked up its effectiveness while I was trying to think of a teachable
moment and bear whistles do not deter bears.
Did you know that?
No.
Yeah.
They are not deterred from the sound.
You need some kind of repellent for that.
Bear whistles are highly effective for drawing attention due to its intensity.
So if you go out, be sure you carry a bear whistle.
This is not just about group settings and being in the wilderness, Beth.
If this group went hiking and camping and had a bear whistle on them or even a police
whistle, Beth, they may have likely been able to stop the attack long before it happened
and bring help.
So basically that's my teachable moment.
That's a good one, Deb.
I actually carried a whistle for years.
Dad's military whistle.
Do you remember that one?
Yeah, for sure.
And I do feel like it was pretty much dry rotted when I was a kid.
So Beth, that was an amazing, amazing story as usual.
You were so good at finding these stories that are just kind of off the beaten path.
So that was interesting.
I hope one day that we can find resolution to this.
As always, that's kind of what you and I look forward to is always trying to find answers
to the missing case or to the cold case.
All right.
So there you have it.
And that's a wrap.
That is a wrap.
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Bye.
Shake hands.