Persons Unknown
Persons Unknown
Tuula Lukkarinen and Maarit Haantie (Unsolved Murder and Missing Presumed Murdered)
On a Spring day in 1991 the body of Tuula Lukkarinen was found in woods near the disused Hausjarvi gravel pits in Southern Finland. The 28 year old had gone missing the previous day after leaving the mental hospital where she was temporarily staying. It was a brutal slaying, with the killer displaying disturbing and sadistic tendencies. Two years later 40 year old Maarit Haantie disappeared in the same area during a night out with friends. She has never been seen since and the Finnish police believe she was murdered. Two earlier attacks on women have also been linked to these cases and investigators believe there is a connection, with one perpetrator being responsible for all the crimes. Over the past three decades, the small towns and forests of southern Finland have been the backdrop to the search for, a rarity in Finnish criminal history, a serial killer.
If you have information about the Hausjarvi murders you can email the Finnish Police at rikosvihje.ksp@poliisi.fi
Sources for the episode can be found here
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Tuula Lukkarinen and Maarit Haantie
Finland is known as a safe country and one that prides itself on a low crime rate. Incarceration rates are also one of the lowest in the world. The crime that does occur is mostly traffic and property offences; violent crime is rare and serial killers are practically non-existent. Michael Maria Penttilä (born Jukka Torsten Lindholm) is considered the only serial killer in Finnish criminal history. Penttilä has four known victims and his crimes span from 1985-2018.
The FBI's definition of serial murder is "a series of two or more murders, committed as separate events, usually, but not always, by one offender acting alone”. Finnish law enforcement have a more detailed definition and include other factors like motive, and victim type. By this definition some say even Penttilä cannot be classified as a true serial killer.
This is why the case I am focusing on in this episode is such a rarity. Even taking into account the high bar put in place by Finnish law enforcement, there is a distinct possibility that a serial killer did operate in the southern region of the country during the late 1980s and 90s. What's more he remains unidentified and at large.
It was November 13th 1990. 39 year old Helena “Hellu” Merilainen had spent the evening at a friend's apartment. They had a drink and chatted together. Things had started out well enough, but had swiftly gone downhill leading to a massive argument. Angry and annoyed, Hellu left her friend's house and made her way on foot to Jarvenpaa train station. Jarvenpaa is a town of around 46,000 people located in southern Finland, approximately 37 kilometres (23 miles) north of the capital city Helsinki. Hellu needed to get a train to take her home to the town of Riihimaki, an hour's journey to the north. She soon realised that this was not going to be straightforward as the next train was not due until the following morning. The weather was terrible, with temperatures below freezing and heavy snow falling. Even with a warm coat and crocheted hat she was feeling the cold. Hellu was facing the prospect of a very uncomfortable night waiting at the station.
As she stood on the platform wondering what to do, Hellu was approached by a man of about 30-40 years. He had dark brown, curly hair and was wearing a leather jacket. One report calls him tall but another says that he was around 5ft 7 (170cm). The man offered to give Hellu a lift back to Riihimaki. Faced with the rather daunting alternative of spending the night alone at the station, Hellu readily agreed.
The pair walked to the man's car which was parked nearby. The car was a late 1970s/early 1980s Japanese make, possibly a Datsun or Mazda. It was light in colour, perhaps white. In the back of the car was a child's seat. Seeing this gave Hellu confidence that the man must be trustworthy, as he was the father of a young child. She got in and they left.
As the man drove Hellu asked him why he was out and about late at night helping women. In reply he mumbled something about being estranged or divorced from his wife. He also mentioned he had a child. Conversation was difficult with the man, he appeared introverted and not keen on small talk. Slightly odd behaviour from someone who has approached a stranger and offered them a lift.
During her life Hellu had experienced problems with addiction and struggled with alcohol. She had already had a drink that night with her friend, so her head was a little clouded. Almost as if knowing this was a weakness of Hellu’s, the man offered her some alcohol to drink. He also gave her some pills or capsules. Unable to refuse, Hellu imbibed freely and took the pills. Shortly after this Hellu drifted off to sleep.
Some time later Hellu was woken abruptly when the car came to a sudden stop. Something didn't seem right. They were no longer on the main road to Riihimkai. The man had pulled over on a small forest road in an isolated spot near a large gravel or sand pit near Hausjarvi. Material from these pits was extracted to be used in the construction of roads, or as anti-skid treatment for roads, and to produce bricks, blocks and pipes. From what I have read these pits were no longer in use. This spot would be about a 15 minute drive from Hellu’s home in Riihimaki.
Finding herself at this remote location Hellu was confused. She asked the man where they were but he remained quiet and spoke little in reply. He told her he had pulled over because he needed to go to the toilet. After drinking so much Hellu decided she needed to go as well, so she got out of the car along with the man. He left the headlights of the car on to illuminate the pitch back forest.
Hellu walked a short distance and crouched down. Seconds later she heard footsteps coming towards her from behind. They were walking but suddenly quickened into a run. She then felt a sharp blow to the back of her head. Stunned and in pain, Hellu had no idea what hit her. She put her hand to the back of her head and could feel it was wet with blood. Disorientated, Hellu scrambled to her feet and started to run. She did not know where she was heading but knew she had to get away, and fast.
Hellu was screaming for help but the man continued to chase after her. Why had he attacked her? What was going on? After a little while the man gave up but Hellu didn’t stop and fled deeper into the dense forest. From behind she heard the man shout, “Damn it, it did not work this time”.
After running aimlessly for what seemed like an age Hellu saw the lights of a house through the trees. She knocked on the door pleading for help. Deeply shocked, the resident of the house let Hellu inside. As it so happened the person was a nurse and was able to dress Hellu's head wound. It was a deep cut, and over 12 cm in length. The police and ambulance were called and Hellu was taken to a hospital. Medical examiners surmised that Hellu had been struck with a knife. The only reason she wasn't dead was the fact she had been wearing a very thick crocheted beanie hat.
Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and missing persons cases from all over the world.
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Brown haired, blue eyed Tuula Anita Lukkarinen was 28 years old. (As a note her age is variably given as 28, 29 or 30). The cheerful and animal loving Tuula hailed from Janisenlinna in Tuusula, a town situated in the southern interior of Finland. Tuula is described as being from a group of society referred to in Finland as "Those poor people”. Tuula was a vulnerable woman who had a problem with alcohol and other mental health issues. She was currently unemployed but had worked as a kitchen assistant in the recent past. In April 1991 Tuula was temporarily living in Kellokoski in south east Finland. She was an inpatient at a psychiatric facility in the town and was there for short term treatment.
On Wednesday April 17th Tuula left the psychiatric facility as she had a meeting with social services in Hyryla concerning the custody of her 9 year old son. Hyryla is in her hometown of Tuusula and is just 16 km/10 miles from the treatment centre. Tuula left at 8.30am with the knowledge and permission of medical staff.
That day Tuula was wearing a yellow sweater and black jogging trousers with the brand Nike in large blue letters along the side of the leg. On her sweater she wore a brooch in the shape of a butterfly. On top of the sweater she wore a brown suede jacket with fringes. On her feet she wore white trainers with odd socks. One was white and the other purple.
When Tuula said goodbye to staff at the facility she told them she would be returning later that day. They never saw her alive again.
Instead of going to the social welfare office in Hyryla as expected, Tuula got on a bus and travelled to Jarvenpaa. Here she was seen at 9am outside an Alko store in the town. This is an off-licence and Tuula was waiting for the store to open. Tuula had obviously relapsed and was looking to buy a drink. For decades this was the last official sighting of Tuula.
In Finland, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), or Keskusrikospoliisi (KRP) in Finnish, functions as the central criminal police authority. It is a specialised unit within the Finnish police force, responsible for investigating serious and organised crimes, such as drug trafficking, violent crimes, cybercrime, financial crimes, and international crime. In English this organisation is translated as the Central Criminal Police, but I will use the abbreviation KRP.
In the last few years the KRP have revealed that there exist two further sightings of Tuula from April 17th. It’s important to note they are not 100% confirmed. It is unclear exactly when these sightings came to light.
The first has Tuula still in the centre of Jarvenpaa at around 3pm. There is then a second sighting of Tuula in Riihimaki city centre sometime between 4 and 6pm. This is doable as the two places are less than an hour's drive away. There are no sightings after this, but less than a day later the authorities were in the early stages of a murder investigation.
The following day, Thursday April 18th, a lumberjack was on his way back home after a long shift working his forest plot in Hausjarvi. He was walking through the forest and reached a spot approximately 2 km or just over a mile from Erkyla mansion, a 19th century manor house and park. The location is 15 km/ 9 miles from the town of Hyvinkaa.
It had been tough going that day because, although the ground had thawed, the wind was bitterly cold. As the lumberjack made his way through the forest he noticed what he thought was a newly felled large Myrtle tree at the base of a birch tree. It was about 10- 20 metres from the road that cut through the forest. As he got closer he saw that it was not a felled tree but the body of a person lying on its stomach. Despite the long dark hair he believed it to be the body of a man. As it turned out, early news reports stated this error as fact. It was in fact the body of Tuula Lukkarinen. The lumberjack undoubtedly made this mistake due to the gruesomeness of the scene upon which he had stumbled. It was plain that a bladed weapon had been used to kill the person. Tuula’s body was found fully clothed in the garments I detailed earlier. Her handbag was found neary at the base of a tree.
Police arrived quickly with tracker dogs to search the area but the killer was long gone. Within hours it was realised that this was no ordinary murder case. Jurisdiction went from local law enforcement to the KRP. Forensic teams painstakingly attempted to work the crime scene. This was no easy feat as fresh snow was continually falling. One crime scene tech had to resort to using a hairdryer to melt snow in order to prevent markings close to the body from being covered and disappearing forever. It was a laborious process but the forensic team were able to retrieve some good evidence from the scene. Exactly what this was has been a closely guarded secret.
From early on there were rumours that Tuula’s murder had been particularly sadistic in nature. For their part the police said little about the crime scene and did not share any details concerning the murder. On the whole the KRP have remained tight lipped but over the years have shared some details.
Almost two decades after the murder in 2008 police constable Jorma Hautala from the KRP divulged information concerning how Tuula was killed. He told the Finnish news site Iltalehti that from the way Tuula’s body had been left it was evident the killer had some knowledge of human anatomy, or at least the anatomy of a large animal. Jorma also confirmed that the murder had been exceptionally brutal in nature. No further details were shared, though one can infer from this that there was some kind of mutilation of the body. As you can imagine there is a lot of speculation of what this might entail on Finnish crime blogs and forums but I'm not going to engage in that conversation. The KRP have deliberately kept this information back in the hope it may one day lead to a successful prosecution.
More information has been drip fed through the media in recent years. I've already mentioned the additional sightings of Tuula but there were other key details too. In 2021 KRP Crime commissioner Jan Aarnisalo confirmed that they have an instrument they believe was used in the course of Tuulas murder. This is not necessarily the bladed weapon I spoke of earlier as more than one instrument may have been involved. Crime scene investigators discovered this weapon on the evening Tuula’s body was found. During an interview with news platform IS Jan Aarnisalo would not be drawn further on the matter.
There has also been much discussion in the media about whether Tuula was killed at the scene or murdered elsewhere and her body taken to the wood. Quite a lot of news reports present the latter theory as fact. The KRP have never officially confirmed this.
In the aforementioned interview Jan Aarnisalo wouldn't comment on this subject. All the KRP will reveal is that they are confident regarding where the killing happened. They say they are keeping the details back as only the perpetrator and police know this information.
There is undoubtedly other evidence that has not been revealed. The KRP did not start doing DNA analysis until the beginning of 1993; before that this was the role and responsibility of the National Institute of Health. It is unclear if DNA evidence exists in Tuula’s case. What the KRP have said is that the investigation was carried out correctly and at the time all protocols were carried out. The KRP have never said if Tuula was sexually assaulted.
40 year old Maarit Haantie was from Riihimaki. Like Hellu and Tuula, Maarit had a known problem with alcohol, in particular Vodka. Family and friends were concerned about Maarit’s alcohol addiction but spoke highly of her character. Maarit was a doting grandmother who would often look after her grandchild. She loved doing it, she did not view it as a chore and would never refuse when asked. Family members noted that Maatit would never drink when she was with her grandchild and was responsible and trustworthy in that matter.
On the morning of Friday August 13th 1993 Maarit went and got her hair cut and styled at a hairdressers in her home town of Riihimaki. She had a big night out with friends planned for that evening. Later that day Maarit travelled by car with her male partner, referred to as her common law husband, and two or three friends to Jarvenpaa, a distance of 48 km /30 miles. Some reports indicate the friends were female, others that they were male. This seems to be a translation issue.
Their destination was a bar or club called Cantina Zapata. The venue is also described as a well to do restaurant. That night marked the one year anniversary of its opening. Maarit and her friends queued in line for some time to get inside. Maarit was denied entrance by the bouncers on the door. She had already been drinking for a while and was visibly inebriated. Her friends were not stopped from entering and they all decided to go inside for one drink. They left Maarit waiting outside for them to return. This was at 9pm.
One drink turned into two or three and time ticked on. Maarit grew increasingly bored. After an hour of standing around Maarit tried again to gain entrance but was refused a second time. At 10pm, fed up and frustrated, Maarit walked off down the street. She was never seen again.
Maarit’s daughter Tanja raised the alarm when her mother failed to show up for a pre-arranged appointment to take care of her grandson. Tanja knew something had happened as, despite her many difficulties, Maarit could always be counted on when it came to her grandchild.
Maarit’s partner went to a police station to file a missing person report over the weekend. (Maarit was last seen on Friday night). The police didn't want to know and sent him away. A report was finally filed on August 21st, 8 days after the disappearance.
2 ½ weeks after Maarit went missing, on August 31st, her handbag was found by staff in a restaurant called Martina in the town of Hyvinkaa. This is a half hour's drive north of where Maarit was last seen in Jarvenpaa. Inside the handbag was Maarit’s driver’s licence and 280 Finnish markka.
Staff at the restaurant could not specifically remember seeing Maarit there on the evening of August 13th. However they did remember a dark haired woman being removed from the restaurant that evening due to drunkenness. Police assumed that this was likely to have been Maarit. It is not known why it took so long for the handbag to be found. Had it been there since that night or had it been left or placed there in the intervening period.
Investigators also couldn't fathom how Maarit had travelled from Jarvenppa to Hyvinkaa in the first place? Taxi was thought unlikely; it was assumed inquiries amongst local taxi companies would have unearthed this. Train was also thought unlikely as Maarit had not been near the train station when she was last seen in Jarvenpaa. Did she get a lift from someone? The Martina restaurant where her handbag was found was near the train station in Hyvinkaa. After being thrown out of the restaurant, had she then tried to catch a train back home to Riihimaki? And had someone approached her offering a lift in their car?
There is no thought that Maarit disappeared of her own choosing. Her bank accounts have not been touched since she vanished. The KRP believes she was the victim of a homicide. The gravel pits around Hausjarvi and the surrounding forest have been thoroughly searched over the years on many occasions but as of the release of this podcast in October 2024 Maarit’s body has never been found.
It was three months after Maarit went missing that the KRP first became involved in her case. They noted similarities between her disappearance, the 1990 assault on Hellu Merilainen, and the 1991 murder of Tuula Lukkarinen. From that point they suspected that all three cases were connected. Considering the lack of serial murders in Finland this was a bold step by investigators.
Some of the reasons why they came to this decision are obvious. There were many similarities between the women targets. All three had dark brown hair and were vulnerable women with problems with alcohol. Then there is the matter of geography. The town of Riihimaki is the location that ties them together. Tuula is believed to have been seen there between 4-6pm on the day she disappeared. Hellu was on her way there when she was attacked and Maarit was presumably on her way home to Riihimaki when she vanished without a trace. The Hausjarvi gravel pits are also significant as Hellu was attacked very close to the spot Tuula's body was found a year later.
While we don't know what happened to Maarit Haantie or whether a weapon was used, we do know a bladed weapon was used in the murder of Tuula Lukkarinen and Hellu was attacked with one. I suspect that the KRP have other evidence that points to a connection that they have not made public.
Over time this series of crimes became known as the Hausjarvi Gravel pit murders and the unknown perpetrator as the Jarvenpaa serial killer.
A psychological profile of the killer was released by the KRP sometime in the 2000s. At least some of the profile has been made public. The perpetrator is believed to have been aged between 30-40 during the early 1990s. This would today in 2024 make him in 60s or 70s, so there is a chance he is still alive. The profile goes on to suggest the man has a withdrawn personality and is someone who finds establishing and maintaining “normal, healthy” relationships with women problematic. He may display an aversion to women and there is little doubt that he will have bothered or harassed many other women he has come into contact with. He would be well known for doing this. As mentioned he also knows something about anatomy. This may mean he has some training in this field or he could be a hunter. He has a good knowledge of the area between the towns of Hyvink, Rhiihimaki and Jarvenpaa. This would suggest he has either lived or worked nearby or possibly travelled through the area on a very regular basis.
Periodically there have been developments in the investigation and, as already mentioned, the KRP have slowly released new information. In 2009 a suspect was interrogated by investigators but was released without charge. A couple of years later, in the Spring of 2011, a tip came in naming the killer. The KRP spoke several months later to Finnish news site Iltalehti to say that efforts were being made to check to see if this individual was in the area at the time the crimes were committed. Apparently this was one of three or four tips that had come in over the previous 12 months. One had mentioned a car and another a person who seemed to match the psychological profile.
I've read other stories, which may be referencing the same tip, which report a man who offered lifts to women in the Jarvenpaa, Riihimaki, Hyvinkaa area during the 1980s and 1990s. Many years later, after a TV documentary aired about the missing Maarit Haantie another tip came in to say this man had still been offering lifts to women as late as 2005/2006. Investigators were never able to find this man to see if there was a connection. Yet another potential lead came about following a report that a man was seen threatening people with a knife outside Zapata restaurant. I’m unsure if this was on the night Maarit Haantie vanished or some time before.
All this prompted a case review, I think this happened in 2011 and new avenues were said to be being explored. At this juncture, after such a long time without any other similar crimes, it was speculated by the KRP that the killer had either moved to a different area, entered a mental health facility or had died.
Six years later, in 2017, the KRP received a tip from a member of the public about a burial mound that lay in the woods just a few km from the forest location where the body of Tuula Lukkarinen was found. The burial mound was in a shady spot under a canopy of trees. A wooden painted cross lay at one end of the mound. Could this mound be hiding the body of the missing Maarit Haantie?
When the KRP investigated the landowner told them that the burial mound had been there for decades and that he would occasionally find flowers left there. One local resident said people used to gather there, but he hadn't seen anyone do that since the early 1990s. The last time he remembered they parked three cars nearby.
It's a bit unclear why it took so long for this burial mound to come to the attention of investigators, since locals seemed to have been aware of it for years. Further inquiries found that local tradition held that the bodies of people who had fought on the side of the reds during the 1918 Finnish civil war were buried there. The KRP did check out this gravesite and found several bodies were buried 1.4m below the surface. Forensic experts confirmed that the bodies had been there long before 1990 and indeed were said to come from the civil war era. They had nothing to do with the Jarvenpaa serial killer and Hausjarvi gravel pit murders. Even though that lead went nowhere, searches continued and as recently as 2019 the gravel pits were dug over as teams looked unsuccessfully for the body of Maarit Haantie.
KRP Crime commissioner Olli Toyras revealed in the Spring of 2017 on a Finnish crime TV show that there was a potential fourth incident in this series of crimes. It involved another woman from the town of Jarvenpaa. If true, this would be the first in the series. In 1989 a 30 year old woman left a restaurant in Jarvenpaa in a drunken state. A man approached and offered to help by giving her a lift home. She accepted what seemed like a kind offer, but once inside the car the man began offering the already inebriated woman more alcohol and pills. Just like Hellu Merilainen a year later the man didn't take her home but instead drove to an isolated spot in the middle of a forest. It is unclear if the man then attacked the woman. Regardless she did not go to the police at this time but something about the encounter must have unsettled her as she told the story to her daughter. (Some reports say mother but again I think this is a translation error.) It was she who came forward to the authorities after reading about the Hausjarvi gravel pit murders in a newspaper. The woman who experienced the frightening incident had since passed away so the KRP could not interview her. The KRP have not stated when the report of the potential fourth incident first came to their attention.
Other crime sprees targeting drunken women have taken place in Southern Finland, with some similarities to the Hausjarvi. For example in 2008 a serial rapist from Porvoo was finally apprehended after his brutal reign of terror. The culprit was a forklift driver who posed as a taxi driver and preyed on inebriated women on a night out. He would drive them to a remote area and rape them, before releasing them and allowing them to wander home. Another serial rapist operated in the town of Tampere where he would drug women before raping them at his apartment. Investigators eventually caught up with him but only after he had murdered a woman. She had woken up during the assault and fought back, so he strangled and hit her with a dumbbell. The 47 year old suspect was arrested but killed himself while in custody so the case never went to trial. Despite the similarities, these cases do not appear to be connected to the Hausjarvi Gravel pit crimes.
We are now well over three decades since the Hausjarvi murders. The KRP have revealed that during the very long investigation several people have been interrogated for the crimes. Dozens of tips have come in over the years, some of which have been very interesting and led to police action. There have been suspects and arrests but no clear answers. As recently as 2021 they said they believe the crimes are connected, though they cannot be 100% sure.
The two women who are believed to have been survivors of this perpetrator can no longer help investigators. Hellu Merilainen and the unnamed woman from 1989 have both since passed away. Any information they possessed which could have helped modern day investiagtors is now lost forever.
There is no ongoing investigation into the attack on Hellu, Tuula’s murder and the disappearance of Maarit. However any new information and tips are looked into if and when they arise.
There is an email address with which to contact the KRP if you have information about the Hausjarvi gravel pit cases. I will put this in the show notes.
Sources
