The Lake Bodom murders is one of the most infamous unsolved homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On 5 June 1960, at Bodom Lake in Espoo, Uusimaa, Maila Björklund and Anja Mäki (both 15) and Seppo Boisman (18) were killed by stabbing and blunt-force trauma to their heads while sleeping inside a tent. The fourth youth, Nils Gustafsson, then aged 18, was found outside the tent with broken facial bones and stab wounds. Despite extensive investigations, the perpetrator was never identified and various theories on the killer's identity have been presented over the years. Gustafsson was unexpectedly arrested on suspicion of committing the murders in 2004, but he was found not guilty the following year.

Murders 
On Saturday, June 4, 1960, four Finnish teenagers had decided to camp along the shore of Lake Bodom (Finnish: Bodominjärvi, Swedish: Bodom träsk), near the city of Espoo's Oittaa Manor. Maila Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki were both aged 15 at the time; accompanying them were their boyfriends, Seppo Antero Boisman and Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, both aged 18.

Sometime between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (EET) during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 5, 1960, Mäki, Björklund and Boisman were all stabbed and bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant. Gustafsson, the only survivor of the massacre, had fractured facial bones that appeared to confirm his story of being a victim. He stated afterwards that he had seen a glimpse of an attacker clothed in black with bright red eyes coming for them.

At about 6:00 a.m., a group of boys birdwatching some distance away had reportedly seen the tent collapsed and a blond man walking away from the site. The bodies of the victims were discovered at about 11:00 a.m. by a carpenter named Esko Oiva Johansson. He alerted the police, who arrived on the scene at noon.

Initial investigation 

The killer had not injured the victims from inside the tent, but instead had attacked the occupants from outside with a knife and an unidentified blunt instrument (possibly a rock)  through the sides of the tent. The murder weapons have never been located. The killer had taken several items which detectives found puzzling, including the keys to the victims' motorcycles, which themselves had been left behind. Gustafsson's shoes were partially hidden approximately 500 meters from the murder site. The police did not cordon off the site nor record the details of the scene (later seen as a major error) and almost immediately allowed a crowd of police officers and other people to trample around and disturb the evidence. The mistake was further exacerbated by calling in soldiers to assist with the search around the lake for the missing items, several of which were never found.

Björklund, Gustafsson's girlfriend, was found undressed from the waist down and was lying on top of the tent, and had suffered 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. Gustafsson was also found lying on the top of the tent.

Suspects
There have been numerous suspects over the course of the investigation of the Lake Bodom murders, but the following are the most notable.

Valdemar Gyllström
Many local people suspected Karl Valdemar Gyllström, a kiosk keeper from Oittaa known to have been hostile towards campers. Police found no hard evidence to link him to the actual murders. They were skeptical of supposed confessions he was said to have made because they considered him disturbed. He drowned in Lake Bodom in 1969, most likely by suicide. The people in the town knew Gyllström was violent, cut down tents, threw rocks at people who came to his street, and some have later said that it was Gyllström they saw coming back from the murder scene but were too afraid to call the police about him. The police never recovered DNA from Gyllström. A book released in 2006 brings up the theory in detail. The book also claims that the police almost immediately ignored much more evidence that was previously unknown to the public because of language barriers, among other things.

Hans Assmann
Most public suspicion focused on Hans Assmann, who lived several kilometers from the shore of Lake Bodom. A series of popular books promulgated a theory of Assmann committing the Bodom killings, and other murders. It was not taken seriously by the police, as Assmann had an alibi for the night of the Bodom murders (and was said to have been in Germany during the time of another murder). On the morning of June 6, 1960, however, he had shown up at a hospital in Helsinki with bloody clothes. Hans was also a suspect in 5 other cases, even confessing one on his death bed. 

Pentti Soininen

During the mid-1960s, an individual named Pentti Soininen, known for his violent tendencies, claimed to a fellow inmate that he was responsible for the heinous murders that occurred at Lake Bodom. However, a significant piece of evidence challenges the notion of Soininen being the perpetrator: his age. During the Lake Bodom attack, he was approximately 14 years old. Many question whether he could have single-handedly overpowered four older teenagers, casting doubt on his involvement.

Arrest and trial of Nils Gustafsson
In late March 2004, almost 44 years after the event, Gustafsson (not a suspect in the case as far as the public knew) was arrested. In early 2005, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation declared the case was solved based on new forensic analysis. According to the prosecution's interpretation of the bloodstains, Gustafsson had been drunk and excluded from the tent when he attacked the other boy, getting his jaw broken in a fight which escalated into him committing three murders.

The trial started on August 4, 2005. Gustafsson's defense lawyer 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. It had always been known that the shoes worn by the killer and hidden by him 500 yards away from the tent belonged to Gustafsson, who was found barefoot on top of the tent. Modern DNA analysis was significant for the prosecution as it showed that the three murdered victims' blood was on Gustafsson's shoes, but Gustafsson's was completely absent.

The prosecution said it followed from the lack of Gustafsson's blood on the shoes, that his injuries had occurred at a different time to the attack on the murdered victims, and that the only explanation of this was that Gustafsson had committed the murders, then faked the theft of items by hiding them, further injured himself and then went back to the tent where (now barefoot) he pretended to be unconscious. The prosecution attempted to bolster their case by alleging an identification by two birdwatchers of Gustafsson as the tall blond man at the scene on the crime, an assertion that he had been overheard making an incriminating remark, and also that a decade after the event he had boasted to a woman about his guilt.

On October 7, 2005, Gustafsson was acquitted of all charges. The court explained the verdict as due to the prosecution evidence being inconclusive, failure to show Gustafsson had a motive appropriate to a crime of such extreme seriousness, and certainty about the facts now being impossible given the time that had elapsed. 
The State of Finland paid him €44,900 for the mental suffering caused by the long remand time, but he was refused permission to sue Finnish newspapers for defamation.

In popular culture

Podcasts 
 The case was covered by the Heart Starts Pounding podcast on July 12, 2023
 The case was covered by the Casefile True Crime podcast on October 30, 2021
 The case was covered by Morbid: A True Crime Podcast on August 28, 2018.
 The case was covered by RedHanded on August, 2017.

See also
 Lake Bodom (film) – a 2016 Finnish slasher horror film based on the murder case
 Children of Bodom – a Finnish melodic death metal band that is named after the lake.
 List of unsolved murders
 Murder of Kyllikki Saari – unsolved Finnish murder case from 1953
 Oven homicide case – unsolved Finnish murder case from 1960
 Viking Sally murder mystery – unsolved murder case from 1987, on board the ferry MS Viking Sally
 Ulvila murder – unsolved Finnish murder case from 2006

Further reading
Jorma Palo and Matti Paloaro wrote three books about the murders.

 Palo, Jorma: Bodomin arvoitus. WSOY, 2003 (The mystery of Bodom)
 Palo, Jorma & Paloaro, Matti: Luottamus tai kuolema! Hans Assmannin arvoitus. Tammi, 2004 (Assurance or death! The mystery of Hans Assmann)
 Palo, Jorma: Nils Gustafsson ja Bodomin varjo. WSOY, 2006 (Nils Gustafsson and the shadow of Bodom)

Notes

References
 (Helsingin Sanomat, 5 April 2004) 
Joe Turner: Finland’s Unsolved Lake Bodom Murders (Historic Mysteries) 
https://anymystery.com/lake-bodom-murders/ ( in English)

1960 murders in Finland
June 1960 events in Europe
Child murder in Finland
Bodom murders, Lake
보돔 호 살인사건()은 1960년 핀란드 에스포 근교의 보돔 호 호반에서 일어난 살인사건이다. 15세 여아 2명과 18세 남아 1명이 칼에 질려 죽은 시체로 발견되었다. 피해자들은 사망 전날까지 또다른 18세 남아, 닐스 빌헬름 구스타프손이 소유한 천막을 함께 쓰면서 야영을 하고 있었다. 구스타프손은 의식불명인 채로 천막 안에서 발견되었고, 마찬가지로 부상을 입었지만 유일하게 살아남았다. 하지만 구스타프손은 아무런 기억을 할 수 없다고 진술했다.

구스타프손은 초동수사 때는 유력 용의자로 여겨지지 않았으나, 사건 발생 44년 뒤 혈액 검사 결과에 따라 살인 용의자로 기소되었다. 하지만 구스타프손은 2005년 무혐의 석방되었고 사건은 현재까지 미제로 남아 있다.

사건 
1960년 6월 4일 토요일, 핀인 청소년 네 명이 에스포 시 외곽의 보돔 호로 야영을 가기로 했다. 마일라 이르멜리 비외르클룬드(Maila Irmeli Björklund)와 아냐 툴리키 매키(Anja Tuulikki Mäki)는 당시 나이 15세의 소녀들이었고, 그 남자친구들인 세포 안테로 보이스만(Seppo Antero Boisman)과 닐스 빌헬름 구스타프손(Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson)은 당시 나이 18세였다.

1960년 6월 5일 일요일 새벽, 동부 유럽 표준시 기준 오전 4시 정각에서 오전 6시 정각 사이에 매키와 비외르클룬드와 보이스만이 알 수 없는 사람 또는 사람들에게 칼침을 맞고 둔기로 두들겨 맞아 사망했다. 사건 현장의 유일한 생존자였던 구스타프손은 뇌진탕, 턱뼈 및 얼굴뼈 골절, 안면 타박상을 입었다. 구스타프손은 검고 밝은 붉은 눈이 자신들을 쫓아왔다고 진술했다.

오전 6시 정각경, 탐조를 하러 나온 다른 청소년들이 멀리서 야영 천막이 무너져 있고 금발의 남자가 그 현장에서 멀어져 가는 것을 목격했다. 피해자들의 시체는 오전 11시 정각 리스토 시렌(Risto Sirén)이라는 목수가 발견했다. 시체를 발견한 시렌은 경찰에 신고했고, 경찰은 정오경에 사건 현장에 도착했다.

수사 

살인범은 천막 안으로 들어가서 피해자들을 공격한 것이 아니고, 천막 밖에서 천막 안의 피해자들을 칼로 찌르고 상세불명의 둔기로 두들겨 팬 것으로 보여졌다. 살인 흉기는 발견되지 않았다. 살인범이 이륜차 열쇠를 비롯한 피해자들의 물건 몇 개를 가져갔기 때문에 형사들은 수사에 혼선을 빚었다. 구스타프손의 신발도 살인 현장에서 약 500 미터 떨어진 곳에 숨겨져 있다가 발견되었다. 경찰은 현장을 봉쇄하지 않았고 사건 현장의 상세 사항을 기록하지도 않았다. 많은 수의 경찰관들과 구경꾼들이 뒤섞이면서 중요한 증거들이 뒤섞이거나 소실되었다. 이런 사태는 사라진 피해자의 소지품을 찾기 위해 경찰이 군부대에 도움을 요청하면서 악화일로로 치달았다. 그렇게 고생하며 찾아다닌 소지품들 중 일부는 그 뒤로도 영영 발견되지 않았다.

구스타프손의 여자친구였던 비외르클룬드는 하의가 탈의된 채 천막 위에 눕혀진 상태로 발견되었으며, 피해자들 중 가장 심한 부상을 입었다. 비외르클룬드는 죽은 뒤에도 여러 차례 칼침을 맞았다. 다른 두 피해자가 공격당한 정도는 그보다 훨씬 덜했다. 구스타프손 역시 천막 위에 눕혀진 채 발견되었었다.

용의자 
보돔 호 살인사건에는 수많은 용의자들이 거론되었지만, 그 중 다음 두 사람이 특히 유명했다.

많은 지역 주민들은 오이타 출신의 야영장 가판대 관리인 카를 발데마르 귈스트룀(Karl Valdemar Gyllström)을 범인으로 의심했다. 귈스트룀은 야영객들에 대한 불만을 여러 차례 표출했던 것으로 알려졌다. 하지만 경찰은 귈스트룀을 사건과 연관지을 만한 물적 증거를 아무것도 찾지 못했다. 지역 주민들이 귈스트룀을 싫어했기에 그를 범인으로 몰았다는 추측도 있다. 귈스트룀은 1969년 보돔 호에서 익사했다.

한편, 보돔 호 호반에서 수 킬로미터 떨어진 곳에 살던 한스 아스만(Hans Assmann)이라는 자가 그보다 더 유력한 용의자로 공중에 오르내렸다. 많은 책들이 아스만을 보돔 호 살인사건을 비롯한 여러 살인사건의 진범이라고 지목한다. 하지만 아스만이 사건 당일 독일에 있었다는 증거가 확보되자 경찰은 일찌감치 아스만을 용의선상에서 배제시켰다.

구스타프손의 체포와 재판 
살인사건이 발생하고 약 44년 뒤인 2004년 3월 말, 구스타프손이 체포되었다. 2005년, 핀란드 국립수사국은 새로운 법의학 기법에 따라 사건이 해결되었다고 선언했다. 국립수사국의 성명에 따르면, 구스타프손이 당일 술에 취했기에 천막 밖으로 내쫓겼고, 이에 보이스만과 싸움이 벌어졌다가 보이스만에게 맞아 턱이 부러졌으며, 그 싸움이 격화된 끝에 세 명을 살해하기에 이르렀다고 했다.

2005년 8월 4일부터 구스타프손에 대한 형사재판이 개시되었다. 구스타프손의 변호인은 이 살인은 한 명 이상의 외부인에 의해 저질러진 것이며, 구스타프손은 피해자들에게 발생한 부상을 모두 만들 능력이 없었음을 주장했다. 구스타프손은 사건 당일 맨발에 의식불명인 채 발견되었는데, 살인범이 구스타프손의 신발을 신고 약 500 야드 정도 이동하여 신발을 숨겼다는 것은 이미 잘 알려져 있었다. 검사측은 현대 DNA 분석 기술의 중요성을 강조하면서, 피해자 세 명의 혈흔은 구스타프손의 신발에서 검출되었지만 구스타프손의 혈액은 전혀 검출되지 않았음을 증거로 제시했다. 검사측은 이것에 대한 타당한 설명은 구스타프손이 피해자들을 찔러 죽인 뒤 신발을 벗고 스스로 자해했다는 것 뿐이라고 주장했다. 검사측은 당시 탐조를 하던 목격자 두 사람에게 그들이 당일 본 사람이 구스타프손이었다는 증언을 받아내어 근거를 더욱 강화했고, 구스타프손이 구금되어 있는 동안 범죄적 현저성을 나타냈다고 단언했다. 그러나 2005년 10월 7일 구스타프손은 모든 기소내용에 대해 무혐의 선고를 받고 석방되었다. 구스타프손은 핀란드 정부에게 위자료 44,900 유로를 받았지만, 그가 신문들을 허위사실 유포로 고소한 것은 기각되었다.

참고 자료 

 Man remanded on suspicion of infamous unsolved triple murder from 1960

1960년 핀란드
핀란드의 미해결 살인 사건
1960년 5월
1960년 살인 사건
1960년 6월