The Lake Bodom murders were an infamous multiple homicide that took place in Finland in 1960. Lake Bodom is a lake by the city of Espoo, about 22 kilometres west of the country's capital, Helsinki. In the early hours of June 5, 1960, four teenagers were camping on the shores of Lake Bodom.[1] Between 4AM and 6AM, an unknown person or people murdered three of them with a knife and blunt instrument wounding the fourth. The sole survivor, Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, led a normal life until 2004, when he became a suspect and was subsequently charged. In October 2005, a district court found Gustafsson not guilty of all charges against him.
The murders have proven to be a popular subject in the Finnish media and commonly return to the headlines whenever new information or theories surface, but the case is still unsolved and will probably remain a mystery.
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Some years later – between June 3 and 6, 1972 (approximately the twelfth anniversary of the killings) – a man announced in his suicide note that he was the Lake Bodom murderer. On the day of the murders he was working in a kiosk near the lake and had sold lemonade to the victims. He was generally known to have hard feelings about campers. However, a police investigation disproved his claims and found an alibi for the man (he was allegedly sleeping at his home with his wife and close friend Tobias Hallberg, who verified it).
In 2003, Professor Jorma Palo published a book outlining his theory about the murder. In 1960, Palo had worked as a doctor at a nearby hospital. Shortly after the murders, he had treated a highly suspicious man for his injuries at the hospital. The man was the German-born Hans Assmann, allegedly a KGB agent. According to Palo, the lack of a thorough investigation into Assmann's involvement was a diplomatic cover-up. The police denied this and claimed Assmann had a valid alibi.[2]
In late March 2004, almost 45 years after the event, Nils Gustafsson was arrested by the police on suspicion of having murdered his three friends. In early 2005, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (Finnish: Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP, Swedish: Centralkriminalpolisen, CKP) declared the case was solved based on some new analysis on the blood stains. According to the official statement, Gustafsson erupted in jealous anger over his feelings for Björklund, his new girlfriend. She was stabbed multiple times after the fatal blow, while the two other teenagers were killed less savagely. Gustafsson's own injuries, while notable, were less severe.
The trial started on August 4, 2005. The prosecution called for life imprisonment for Gustafsson. It argued that the re-examination of the old evidence using modern techniques such as DNA profiling raises suspicion towards Gustafsson. The defense 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. On October 7, 2005 Gustafsson was acquitted of all charges.[3]
On his acquittal, the State of Finland paid him €44,900 for mental suffering caused by the long remand time.
The Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, who are also from Espoo, derive their name from the lake. All the band members looked for good names in their local phone book after the record label said they needed to change their name (as they had previously signed to another label as Inearthed). When they stumbled upon Lake Bodom, they felt it was a name with impact and one behind which was a story they found interesting.