Lake Bodom – Unsolved Murders in Finland

The Lake Bodom murders of 1960 are a tragedy on several fronts. First there were three people brutally murdered and then, forty-five years later, when all hope of solving the crime had vanished, a fourth victim who survived with massive injuries was charged and put on trial for all three murders. It all started one hot summer night.

On June 4, 1960, on the outskirts of Helsinki, four teenagers, two eighteen-year-old boys and two fifteen-year-old girls, were camping at Lake Bodom. Between 4 and 6 a.m., an intruder or intruders entered the tent where the teens were sleeping and attacked all four with a knife and what appeared to be a blunt object.

Three died at the scene, but the fourth, Nils Gustafsson, survived the attack.

In 1972, a man claimed to be the Lake Bodom Killer in a suicide note, but a police investigation disproved his claims and found an alibi for the man. His wife verified the alibi. A book was published in 2003 that theorized that an East German agent was the killer and that his involvement was part of a diplomatic cover-up. The police denied this and claimed that this man also had a valid alibi.

Gustafsson went on to live a normal life. Then in 2004, after re-examining the case, prosecutors charged him with the gruesome murders. At the time of his arrest, Gustafsson was 63 years old.

In October 2005, a jury found Gustafsson not guilty. The Lake Bodom incident was classified as an unsolved murder again!