Casefile True Crime - Case 194: Lake Bodom

Episode Date: October 30, 2021

Saturday, June 4 1960 seemed like the beginning of an idyllic summer break for Finnish teenagers, Nils Gustafsson, Seppo Boisman, Maila Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki. The four friends had decided to go camping at Lake Bodom, a picturesque region not far from their homes in Helsinki... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Holly Boyd Editing – Erin Munro Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn This episode's sponsors: Babbel – Get 6 months free with a 6-month subscription. Use promo code ‘CASEFILE’ SimpliSafe – Save 20% on the security system and get the first month free when you sign up for the interactive monitoring service Best Fiends – Download Best Fiends for free ShipStation – Try ShipStation FREE for 60 days with promo code ‘CASEFILE’ Scribd – Get a free 60 days trial to Scribd’s unlimited number of full-length books, audiobooks, and other content For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-194-lake-bodom

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local Crisis Centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Nestled in the centre of a clearing hidden amongst tall birch and pine trees was a small light-coloured A-frame tent. Ruth Colley had spotted it as she wandered through the glade with her five-year-old daughter. The secluded campsite overlooked Lake Budam's clear and tranquil waters from a vantage point

along the eastern peninsula. The tent itself was not an unusual find. Located in southern Finland, Lake Budam was a hive of activity on the morning of Sunday, June 5, 1960. With the ice and snow blanketing the countryside having long since melted away, outdoor enthusiasts had flocked to the lake to swim, sunbathe, and go fishing. Some opted to camp throughout the patch of forest, framing the three-kilometre-long waterfront. When Ruth Colley stumbled across one such campsite, it was far from surprising, yet

something drew her closer into the quiet clearing. This centrepiece, the A-frame tent, had collapsed in on itself. There were several people seemingly asleep amid the disarray. It was difficult to distinguish what was what in the tangle of limbs, hair, and belongings, but Ruth could see two teenage girls lying more or less side by side. A boy about the same age lay slightly apart from them. And there was a second adolescent male who was more exposed than his friends. He was lying on his back, directly on top of the tent, with his legs bent.

His face was smeared with blood, and flies buzzed around his head. Bottles of alcohol scattered around the area led Ruth to suspect she was looking at the fallout of a drunken and violent argument between some young campers, who were now sleeping off their hangovers. She moved away and continued along the peninsula with her daughter to meet up with the rest of their family. Soon, Ruth spotted her husband, Marty, and their son in their fishing boat about 200 metres offshore.

She waved them over. Marty Colley rode over to where his wife and daughter were waiting. Ruth informed him about the four teenagers camping nearby, and Marty decided to check on them. He strode up the ridge and was confronted by the same confusing scene that had troubled his wife. Marty recognised the teens. He had seen them arrive the previous day.

At around 5pm, the group of four had wrought up to the south side of the lake on two motorcycles. The boys were driving, and each had a girl clinging to his back. They'd seemed like a happy group, all smiles and laughter. Marty leaned in closer to inspect the mess before him. As he gazed at the tense filthy and collapsed canvas, he realised that large swaths of it had been slashed open with a knife. Nils Gustafson and Sepple Boysman had been best friends since they were 12 years old. With just four months between them, the pair were inseparable and frequently had sleepovers

at each other's homes. As they grew older, their lives followed similar paths. They became electricians after graduating school and gained employment at the same electromechanical plant. By May of 1960, Sepple had turned 18 and was dating 15-year-old high school student Anya Mackie, who went by her middle name of Tulikie. Tulikie introduced Sepple and Nils to her own best friend, Myla Björklund. She was also 15 and was known by her middle name, Irmely.

Irmely was charmed by Nils, with his slicked back brown hair and rockabilly fashion sense inspired by the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. The pair officially became a couple just after Nils' 18th birthday. About two weeks later, the four teenagers decided that an overnight camping trip to Lake Budum would be a great way to celebrate the start of the holidays. Irmely was particularly excited about the upcoming break, as it was the first summer where she wasn't needed to look after her two younger brothers. Despite the girls' excitement, their parents were reluctant to give their blessing for the trip.

Although they had always found Sepple and Nils respectful and trustworthy, the idea of their young daughters staying out overnight didn't sit right. Eventually, both Irmely and Tulikie's parents relented and they were permitted to go. The boys fared much easier. Sepple convinced his mother and father that the trip would be safe, as the lake was only a 30-minute drive northwest from their home city of Helsinki. It wasn't as though they would be camping in some remote wilderness. Nils' parents had no problem with him camping and fishing with Sepple for the night,

although Nils failed to mention that the girls would be with them. And so it was settled. On Saturday, June 4, 1960, Sepple, Nils, Tulikie and Irmely would venture to Lake Budum. The timing was perfect for the young couples, as they would wake up together on the morning of the Christian holiday known as Pentecost. In Finland, there was a saying, if you don't have a sweetheart on Pentecost, you won't have one all summer. Sepple borrowed a canvas tent from work and got his hands on some alcohol, a half-liter bottle of Salmasari liquor, a 370-milliliter bottle of citrus liquor, and a couple of pale lagers.

The boys packed bread, sausages, snacks, and fishing equipment, as well as various knives and a pair of pliers to use as tools. By Saturday afternoon, Nils and Sepple were cruising to Lake Budum on their motorcycles, their girlfriends clinging tightly to their respective backs. At about 5pm, they pulled up to the south side of the lake and found the ideal camping spot at the tip of a small peninsula. It was a short walk east from the lake's main swimming area, but was screened off from the beach by another small peninsula in between. They unloaded their bags in a clearing that overlooked the lake.

Rather than setting up camp right away, they fired up the motorbikes again and headed back about a kilometer down the road to a kiosk they had passed on the way in. There, the boys bought several packets of chewing gum and a few bottles of soft drink as mixes for their liquors. By the time the group arrived back at their campsite, it was about 7.15pm. There were still a few swimmers in the water, but their numbers were dwindling. Nils and Sepple unrolled the tent with the opening facing east, away from the swimming beach. They cut some thick birch sticks from the trees and sharpened them into makeshift tent poles. One of the boys found a decent sized rock down by the shore and used it to hammer the

stakes into the ground. Then they tied off the guidelines and stepped back to admire their handiwork. It was a typical 8-frame tent, which stood at 113cm at its highest point through the middle, not tall enough for any of them to stand inside. At 138cm wide, it barely had room for two, but the four teens would make it work. It was just going to be a very tight fit. Early the next morning, two teenage friends were strolling along the southern shore of Lake Budum. Just before 6am, the boys reached the eastern peninsula when they heard a voice. Drawn to the sound, they climbed up a ridge and into the surrounding woodland to investigate. There, they spotted two motorcycles leaning up against some birch trees. Behind them,

in a clearing, was a collapsed tent. The boys were certain that a man was lying on top of it. They couldn't see his face, but they spotted a pair of legs in dark trousers. It looked like he was stirring slightly. Then, some activity a little further away caught their attention. Another man was heading away from the tent into the trees. The boys didn't see his face, but he looked to be an adult wearing a light-colored shirt. They couldn't tell which direction he headed after reaching the trees. Perhaps he'd stopped walking once he was hidden from view. The boys wanted to take a closer look at the motorcycles, but decided they shouldn't risk disturbing the campers and left. 14-year-old Olivier Kivillati was perched on a rocky outcropping

overlooking Lake Budum, waiting for his fishing buddy. The sun had already risen by the time he'd arrived and the morning was calm and quiet. Then, at about 6am, Olivier's solitude was broken by a man emerging from some trees near the base of the eastern peninsula, about 80 metres away. He looked to be in his 20s, was of average height, and had brown hair combed backwards. He was wearing a light top and dark pants. The man moved quickly and purposefully down to the peninsula's base and continued south before disappearing out of Olivier's sight. It was several hours later when Ruth Collie discovered the collapsed tent and pointed it out to her husband. By 10am, more people had noticed the tent, including a group of teenagers who had

been swimming in the lake. They too thought it looked as though the young campers had been in a fight and carried on with their morning. Then, at 11.15am, a passerby realised something far more sinister had taken place and rushed to a nearby construction site. Using the phone in its office to call the police, he informed them that there had been a slaughter at Lake Budum. Upon observing the campsite for themselves, local officers immediately contacted the central criminal police. Special investigators arrived and examined the bodies bundled close together. Sepo Boiseman was lying under the folds at the edge of the tent. His legs, dressed in blue jeans that were unbuttoned at the fly, were outstretched. He also wore a blue

collared shirt and his hands rested on his chest, almost as if he was sleeping. But Sepo was not asleep. He had been hit with a blunt object multiple times in the head and jaw, producing four fractures to the left side of his skull. Curious onlookers watched as a police officer lifted one of the tent folds that covered Sepo's head, revealing that he had also been stabbed through the tent's canvas. There were wounds in his neck and trachea. The fatal strike was another stab wound that had punctured Sepo's chest cavity. He would not have been able to move before he bled out into his lungs. His girlfriend, Tuliki Mackie, was curled up, face down, and partially covered with a blanket.

Her blue jeans were fastened, but her yellow blouse had ridden up her torso, exposing her mid-riff. She too had suffered severe blunt force trauma to her head, which caused multiple fractures to her skull. Irmily Björklund was near the tent's doorway, her left leg paralleled to Tuliki's back, and her right leg bent around Tuliki's head. Irmily's light green jeans were down below her knees, with the right pant leg pulled off entirely, exposing her lower half. Her beige blouse and light blue sweater had also been pulled up to her shoulders, exposing her torso and bra. At least three powerful strikes with a blunt heavy object had shattered Irmily's skull across her forehead and produced further fractures along her jaw and the side of her face.

These blows were enough to cause severe swelling and bleeding of the brain, resulting in almost immediate death. But the killer had also stabbed Irmily 15 times in her neck and shoulders. She had clearly borne the brunt of the attack. Nils Gustafson was lying on top of the tent, dressed in a grey sweater, dark jeans, and socks. The entire left side of his face was swollen and bruised, including his eye, which was sealed shut. Nils had suffered a fracture to the left side of his lower jaw and another to the temporal bone, otherwise known as the ear canal. The left side of his upper jaw and his cheekbone were also fractured. Nils had been slashed multiple times with a knife. He had a gash on the back of his

left forearm and another along his left cheek. This second wound was so deep it had cut through the entire depth of skin and muscle, exposing his teeth. Police determined that the killer had intentionally cut the tent's guidelines before the attack. As the tent collapsed onto the sleeping teens, the exact location of each of their heads would have become obvious. The four victims were effectively trapped, confused, and disoriented, with no means of escape. The killer would not have known the order in which they were sleeping, so he likely unleashed the violent blitz attack indiscriminately. Items recovered at the crime scene correlated with what the teens had packed for their weekend getaway. Bags, clothing, cigarette boxes, makeup, bread, and a red leather song book

that belonged to Tuliki were catalogued. Two table knives and two pocket knives were found, but none were the bladed weapon wielded by the killer. The pale lager bottles were found, one empty, one full, along with multiple bottles of soda. Some of the soda bottles were empty, but one still contained a mix of soft drink and the citrus liquor. A foreign fingerprint, not belonging to any of the teens, was found on one bottle. The bottle of saumisari liquor was never located. Other, more crucial items were also missing. Notably, each of the teenagers' wallets and IDs, another knife they had packed, sepals leather jacket, and the keys to the motorcycles. The girls hadn't brought any watches, but the boys had, and they were missing too.

Over the next day or two, community volunteers joined police and military personnel in an extensive search of the entire Lake Buldum area. Metal detectors were used and sniffer dogs were deployed, while divers searched the depths of the lake. Items as small as a piece of iron wire were collected. The weapons used in the attack were not located. About 500 meters from the crime scene, just off the road that led to the campsite, a pair of worn brown leather slip-on loafers were found hidden under a rock. They were covered in flecks of blood and were identified as belonging to victim Nils Gustafson. Sepal boys' shoes were also unearthed nearby, discarded more carelessly in the scrub on the other side of the road. An appeal was made to identify the men seen

walking away from the campsite the morning the bodies were discovered. While this particular individual wasn't identified, sightings of other suspicious persons were called in. Given the brutality and shocking nature of the murders, the provincial government ordered police teams to apprehend all suspects immediately. Dozens of people were brought into police stations across the county for interrogations. One man was arrested based on the suspicions of a bishop. A soldier was also detained after his parents tipped off the police. Both were eventually released. In one more promising lead, a man was arrested when a bloody knife was found in Buldum Village. After tests proved that the blood didn't match any of the victim's blood types, he was

let go. A bearded, dirty man spotted hiding out in the Buldum forest area was found to be a fugitive named Paoli Luoma. Luoma had received a mandatory labor order likely for vagrancy which was been a crime in Finland but had deserted his sentence. A large-scale manhunt began. The police managed to locate Luoma but he was so drunk that they had to keep him in a holding cell overnight to sober up before they could interrogate him. When Luoma was interviewed the next morning, he was able to name nearly a dozen witnesses who confirmed he had been in a hut outside of Helsinki at the time of the murders. Although the police investigation seemed to be stalling, locals were working on theories of their own. 51-year-old Carl Gilstrom ran the kiosk near the southern part of the lake where

visitors often stopped for refreshments and supplies. He also lived in a house a short distance up the road. Gilstrom was of average height and had dark hair that he wore slicked back across his head but the most notable thing about him was his temper. Although he could be friendly and polite especially when authority figures were around, sometimes his mood would flick like a switch. Suddenly he'd turn aggressive and cruel. Locals said that he hid razor blades in the apples that grew from his tree to deter children from picking the fruit. A heavy drinker with a known hatred of the campers who stayed at the lake, Gilstrom was also prone to attacking others. A man who owned land near the lake once caught Gilstrom hunting illegally and asked him to leave.

Gilstrom raised his shotgun, took aim, then fired at the man. He wasn't seriously hurt but he had to have the shot pellets removed at a hospital. The road leading to his home seemed to be a particular fixation for Gilstrom. One time a truck driver had been heading along the road only to hear a loud crack followed by the shattering of glass. Sharp shards lodged in the driver's face and he realized that someone had shot at him, breaking one of the truck's windows. When Carl Gilstrom was found to be responsible, he claimed he'd only fired at the vehicle to discourage drivers from hooning down the road too fast. Sometimes Gilstrom lined the road with makeshift spike strips consisting of wooden planks

with nails jutting out. Gilstrom kept the length of iron pipe in his car and was known to carry a curved and hunting knife on his belt. He was also renowned for something else. He had a history of cutting the guidelines of campers' tents. When Nils Gustafsson, Seppo Boysman, Tulliki Mackie and Irmely Björklund arrived at Lake Budum on June 4, they headed to Gilstrom's kiosk shortly after choosing a campsite. Gilstrom's wife was working by herself behind the counter that day and served the 14s as they purchased soft drinks and chewing gum. They hung around the kiosk for a little while longer, chatting, laughing and enjoying ice cream in the sun. Afterwards, they took off on their motorbikes back down the road towards their campsite,

passing Gilstrom's home along the way. Gilstrom's wife closed the kiosk at around 9 that night and later told her husband about the 14-ages camping nearby. As investigators examined the grisly crime scene the next morning, one onlooker rushed to the kiosk to inform Gilstrom of the terrible crime. To his surprise, Gilstrom took the information in his stride. In fact, he seemed utterly nonchalant. Not long after the murders, locals learned that Gilstrom had filled in a well located on his property. Aware of his violent temper and dislike of campers, some speculated that Gilstrom was the killer and had disposed of the murder weapons and or the teenagers missing belongings down the well. Their suspicions were strengthened by the

discovery of Nils and Seppo's shoes along the road that led to Gilstrom's house. Investigators eventually interviewed Gilstrom and his wife. Both said that he was at home asleep on the evening in question. Gilstrom's wife explained that she and the children slept in the bedroom while Gilstrom slept in the kitchen but the door between the two rooms was kept open and her husband never left the house. Police searched the Gilstrom premises, though nothing of significance was uncovered. Yet many locals felt that the police search was far from exhaustive. They hadn't even examined the filled-in well. At 10.45 pm, the day after the murders, an ambulance arrived at Helsinki Surgical Hospital

with an unconscious adult inside. The patient, a German-born man by the name of Hans Asmann, was wearing dirty overalls covered in red stains. The same stains could be seen all over his hands. According to his wife who had accompanied him, Asmann had collapsed as a result of severe stomach pains. When the doctor poked him during a responsiveness test, Asmann giggled. Apparently, he had been faking his unconsciousness. After Asmann's ruse was discovered, he exhibited no remorse or shame. Instead, he began threatening hospital staff and demanding that he be treated right away. A medical intern was struck by Asmann's strange behavior and kept a close eye on him during

his stay. At one stage, Asmann was visited by a woman who was not his wife. The pair spoke at length in hushed tones. Asmann also spent hours vigorously washing his hands with paint thinner to remove the red stains. According to Asmann's own claims, he had been a Nazi prison guard at Auschwitz during World War II, before being captured in 1943 by the Russians. After two years in a prisoner of war camp, he supposedly switched sides to join the Soviet Union's security agency, the KGB. Asmann remained in hospital for several days, but that wasn't the last the staff saw of him. After he was discharged, he returned numerous times for further treatment. On one occasion, he showed a doctor a German magazine

article about an unsolved murder. Another time, he joked to one of the surgeons that he too was skilled with a knife, but unlike the surgeon's patients, those on the other end of Asmann's knife never survived. By July, the doctors at the hospital had grown so suspicious of Hans Asmann that they reported him to the police. The medical intern that initially treated Asmann had been so convinced that the man was somehow connected to the Lake Budum murders that he'd bagged his stained overalls so that police could analyze them. Yet, the authorities didn't seem to share their concerns. There was one other thing that further convinced the hospital staff they were right about Hans Asmann. A month after the crimes, a composite sketch of the Lake Budum

murders suspect was released. It depicted a man with large eyes, a straight nose, and thick lips. He had long pale hair combed backward. His face was round, but he had a strong jaw and slightly protruding red cheeks that were dotted with pimples. The man's forehead was high and was also pimply with uneven horizontal wrinkles. To hospital staff, the sketch looked remarkably like Hans Asmann. When the sketch was made public, about 50 tips were received as a result. While none yielded anything promising, the sketch was still considered one of the most important leads investigators had. It was based on a description provided by a crucial eyewitness. None other than Nils Gustafsson.

On Thursday, June 9, 1960, four days after the Lake Budum murders, Nils Gustafsson woke with a pounding headache. Strange faint noises accompanied each thump to his brain, leading the 18-year-old to wonder where he was. He tried to look and see, but struggled to bring his surroundings into focus. The problem was his left eye. It was almost swollen shut. Eventually, he managed to force his eyes open. The room took shape, and Nils realized that he was lying in a hospital bed. He saw his mother by his side, and an unfamiliar man who looked to be a doctor. Nils tried to speak, but found it difficult to move his mouth. He strained his eyes downward and saw bandages and a brace of some kind wrapped around his jaw. With great effort, he carefully opened his mouth

and asked his mother if he had been in a motorcycle accident. She hesitated to answer. Nils racked his brain, trying to remember what had happened. He recalled being at Lake Budum with his friends Seppo and Tuliki and his girlfriend Irmily. They all went to sleep in their shared tent sometime after sunset. Before dawn, Seppo headed off alone to go fishing, only to return a short while later without a catch. He resettled in the tent, and all four of them went back asleep. Try as he might. Nils could not remember anything that happened thereafter. When police arrived at the Lake Budum crime scene, they found Nils Gustafson lying on top of the tent, slightly apart from his companions. Unlike the others, Nils was clearly alive,

though barely conscious. He'd sustained a number of head injuries, but none were life-threatening. The left side of his face was swollen and beaten. He had been badly cut along his left cheek, and there was a two-inch cut on the back of his left forearm. A police officer peppered Nils with questions as he was rushed to hospital, but only received a series of unintelligible noises in response. The questions continued as physicians worked to stitch up Nils's wounds. How was he able to survive the attack? Had he somehow managed to squeeze out of one of the gaping slashes in the tent? Perhaps he tried to escape or fight back. It was also possible that the two boys who had stumbled

across the crime scene early that morning had disturbed the attacker, maybe just before Nils was about to receive a fatal blow. Police were hopeful that the sole survivor of the brutal attack could provide them with some answers, but Nils only responded with the occasional faint moan. Nils was monitored in the Traumatology Ward for two days before being transferred to the hospital's neurosurgical wing. It wasn't until June 9, four days after the attack, that he regained full consciousness. One of his first requests was to see his best friend, Seppo. Despite some slight swelling that remained on the left side of his face, the doctors determined that Nils was well enough to be discharged on June 23. The police didn't waste

any time. At noon that day, they ushered Nils out a back exit to avoid the crowds of reporters lingering outside the hospital. He was then driven to the police station and once settled, began his story. After he and Seppo set up the tent between 7.30 and 8 on the evening of Saturday, June 4, the girls went swimming in the lake. The boys remained at the campsite, sharing a lager and fashion fishing rods out of birch branches. They also mixed some liquor with the soda, but didn't finish it because it didn't taste very nice. When the girls returned from their swim, they declined to have a drink. After the sunset at about 9.30 pm, Nils and Irmily kissed and cuddled for a little while. About an hour later, they decided to go to sleep. Somehow, the group of

four managed to squeeze into the tent's small confines. Tuliki took position on the far right of the tent, facing inwards with her back to the wall. Seppo was next in line, facing Tuliki. Irmily lay on the tent's left side, also with her back to the wall. Nils entered last and zipped up the tent door, then lay down on his right side, facing Irmily. He used his leather jacket as a makeshift pillow. Hours later, Nils woke to the sound of Seppo rustling in the tent for his fishing tackle. The sun hadn't yet risen, and Nils estimated it was just before 3 am. He felt like going for a swim, so he joined Seppo while the girls continued to sleep. Once they were down at the lake, Seppo perched himself on a rock while Nils tested the water. It was too cold, so he left

Seppo fishing and wandered back to the tent. The girls were still inside, but were now awake. A little while later, Seppo returned as well, having had no luck fishing. All four then went back to sleep. So far, Nils' story made sense. Tuliki's red songbook that had been found at the crime scene had contained a diary-style entry that corroborated his version of events. The entry referred to the excursion to Lake Budum and contained three brief lines. The first read Seppo and Nils were drunk, the second that they were up at 2 am, and the third that Seppo was in the woods. The police urged Nils to continue, but Nils said the next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital. Investigators were dismayed to hear that he had no recollection of the attack.

They were certain he held the key to solving the case. Despite continued prodding, Nils was insistent. He remembered nothing else. Investigators escorted Nils back to Lake Budum in the hopes that visiting the crime scene would prompt a repressed memory to resurface. The visit didn't seem to provoke anything new in Nils' mind. There was, however, one other option that could be explored. Dr. Asa Stenbeck, a professor of psychiatry who lectured at the University of Helsinki, believed he could access Nils' repressed memories through hypnosis. After having previously attended a short course on psychotherapy and having had some success with

other patients, Dr. Stenbeck felt he was capable enough for the task. In the month after the murders, Dr. Stenbeck conducted three hypnotherapy sessions with Nils, each lasting around 30 minutes. Nils shared no new information in the first two. During the third, Dr. Stenbeck asked the hypnotized Nils if he'd heard any screams that night. Nils replied that he'd faintly heard the girls screaming, crying out that someone had attacked them. Dr. Stenbeck asked Nils what he then saw. Nils said that the roof of the tent was on top of them. A man started hitting them with a sharp weapon, maybe a knife, and also a hard weapon, like an iron pipe. Dr. Stenbeck asked if Nils had seen the man before.

Nils didn't know. Then he described seeing blood all over Irmely's head. Look closely, do you see the man now? asked Dr. Stenbeck. Nils replied that yes, he could see. He described a man who was about 30 years old with long, fair hair. His face was round and pimply. The man was of average height and size, but looked strong, as though his work involved heavy labor. He wore a thick, dark plaid sweater, with green and black present in the pattern. A sketch of the man Nils described was widely circulated, and by the second month of the investigation, nine men had been arrested on suspicion of being the perpetrator. Each was subjected to intense interrogations, but all had solid alibis and were ruled out,

as were friends, family, and acquaintances of the victims. The summer of 1960 soon turned to autumn, and the newspapers were no longer filled with near-daily articles on the Lake Buddha murders. Eventually, snow replaced the fallen leaves, and as the air turned cold, so did the case. Years then decades passed with no new viable leads. Police continued combing through tip-offs from the public, yet they seemed to become more and more outlandish as time went on. It wasn't until 2003 that the case's new lead investigator decided to utilize advances in DNA technology in the hopes to uncover previously undetectable evidence. Sepo, Tuliki, and Irmely's

remains were exhumed for additional forensic examination, though failed to reveal anything of significance. However, the preliminary DNA testing of several key items from the crime scene, including the tent, did yield new information. It was enough for investigators to narrow in on a suspect. Finally, almost 44 years after the murders, police released a statement that a person of interest in the Lake Buddha murders had been detained. By this point, the suspect was a semi-retired bus driver aged in his early 60s, but in 1960 he was an 18-year-old who lived in the metropolitan area. Police interviewed him nearly a dozen times throughout March 2004, before arresting him on the 29th. To the shock of many, the man they had arrested was soul survivor,

Nils Gustafson. The police alleged that Nils had been intoxicated on the night of the murders. He had packed a condom for the trip, and investigators believed he had intended to use it until Irmely rejected his advances. Sepo was then forced to step up in order to protect the girls from an angry Nils. Their argument escalated, culminating in Nils being banished from the tent. Fueled by alcohol, resentment, and adrenaline, Nils then waited for his three friends to fall asleep before cutting the tent's guidelines to trap them inside. Then, knowing Sepo's position inside the tent, Nils began to attack him with a rock. Sepo defended himself by kicking Nils in the chin, causing his jaw to break. Further enraged by this injury, Nils took out his knife

and stabbed Sepo in the chest and neck. By this time, the girls had woken in a panic. As Tuliki tried to escape the confines of the fallen tent, Nils beat her in the head with the rock until she was no longer moving. Then he focused his attention on the true object of his rage, his girlfriend Irmely. Before Irmely could escape the tent, Nils smashed the rock down on her head, then stabbed her 15 times in the neck and shoulders. At some point during the attack, Nils sustained a deep gash to his arm and the side of his face. With each of his friends now dead, Nils got to work. First, he gathered up all the wallets and IDs and other items of some value, such as the keys to the motorcycles and Sepo's leather jacket and shoes. Then he disposed of

them, either by digging a hole somewhere in the forest or throwing them into the lake, far from where the slaughter took place. Nils tossed Sepo's shoes into the forest scrub just off the road to the kiosk. He then carefully concealed his own blood-spattered shoes under a rock on the other side of the road. The man seen leaving the campsite early in the morning was, in fact, Nils. After disposing of everything, Nils returned to the campsite to continue his forensic countermeasures. He slashed the tent's canvas to give the impression of a more frenzied attack. Then, in either a final show of contempt or to fool the police into thinking the murders were sexually motivated, he stripped Irmily Naked from the waist down. He's staging of the crime scene complete,

Nils settled down on top of his murdered friends and waited to be discovered. The year Nils Gustafson was arrested for the Lake Budum murders, a 61-year-old woman named Tarja fronted a television crew to break an oath she had held since 1960. Tarja revealed that she had been at Lake Budum the night Nils and his group were present. 17 years old at the time, Tarja had been camping with friends at a public site on the shores of the lake when Nils and his group appeared. Nils was drunk and Tarja recalled a growing animosity between him and his companions. As to why she never told police of this case-hiding, Tarja claimed she had been sworn to secrecy by her group of friends.

While damning, Tarja's story didn't add up. She couldn't remember the names of the friends she was with that night other than one who was already deceased. The public campsite where she said Nils and the others had arrived didn't exist. She also claimed she was amongst the crowd when the injured Nils was stretched away from the collapsed tent, adding that there were no police officers present. However, one of the people who helped carry Nils was a police officer in full uniform. Tarja also couldn't describe anything about Nils, Seppo, Tuliki or Irmeli from 1960, including basic physical characteristics like their hair colour. Nils himself denied ever seeing Tarja that night and rejected claims that there was tension between his group during their

trip. Tuliki's writings in her songbook supported his assertions. She had made no reference to an argument. Despite this, Tarja's recollections played a large part in the prosecution's case when 62-year-old Nils Gustafsson faced trial for the murders of Seppo boysman Tuliki Mackey and Irmeli Björklund in August 2005. As did a confession Nils had allegedly made while in custody awaiting trial. A police officer observed the seemingly frustrated Nils throw himself on the bed in his cell and exclaim, what's done is done, I'll get 15 years for it. Yet, there was no official record of this confession and Nils himself denied making the statement. He claimed that if he had ever said words to that effect, he would have just been

venting about the situation he found himself in. The defences interpretation of the crime scene was vastly different to that of police. As Blood Spatter was only found on the exterior of Nils's shoes, investigators took this to assume he must have been wearing them when he went on his violent rampage. Yet, analysis showed that the blood on the shoes matched Spatter found at the tent's entrance, meaning they were by the door during the attack. Something else might have been blocking the insults, such as clothing or tent fabric. The defence pointed out that it was unlikely Nils had walked 500 metres barefoot or in his socks back to the tent after hiding his shoes. Both his feet and socks were clean.

In a macabre display, the tent that the three victims had been slain in was displayed in the middle of the courtroom. Held up in place with string, the filthy yellowed canvas showed huge slash marks and was stained with blood. The prosecution stated that Nils had cut up the tent after the murders to embellish the attack. Yet, Blood Spatter once again suggested a different scenario. Analysis showed they were made beforehand. Furthermore, seven of Sepo's stub wounds were found to have been made through the tent. Only the blood belonging to the 14s was present on the tent, leading investigators to conclude that no other party was involved. However, only 20 samples taken from 11 locations had been tested. Therefore, it was not possible to conclusively determine

that a fifth person's DNA was not present somewhere else. Additionally, many of the samples tested failed to yield any DNA information given the degradation of the evidence over 45 years. Tests did reveal that Nils Gustafsson's blood was present in the exact spot where he claimed to have been sleeping. During the trial, a disagreement arose between the testimony provided by neurology experts. Those speaking on behalf of the prosecution claimed Nils had suffered nothing more than a mild concussion, meaning he could have easily doctored the crime scene after the murders and that his claims of memory loss were unlikely. In contrast, experts for the defense stated that while Nils's injuries were not life-threatening, they were not minor either. He struggled with

balance in the weeks after the attack, during which time he was unable to walk unaided. They concluded that Nils unquestionably received significant head trauma capable of causing brain injury and memory loss. The trial of Nils Gustafsson for the murders of Sepur Boysman, Tulliki Maki and Irmeli Björklund concluded in October 2005. The panel of six district court judges retired to consider their verdict while Nils awaited his fate. Days later, Nils was sitting at home when he received a phone call from his lawyer. He had been acquitted. The lack of motive and the fact that witnesses had seen another unknown man leaving the crime scene

convinced all of the judges that Nils was innocent. Moreover, the blood evidence confirmed that Nils was inside the tent when the attack occurred and his injuries would have prevented him from hiding the missing items. After the verdict was handed down, the prosecution had seen seven days in which to appeal. They declined to do so and on October 14, 2005 Nils Gustafsson's innocence was final. With the sole survivor of the attack at Lake Bulldom officially cleared, the crucial question still remained. Who was responsible for one of Finland's most notorious unsolved crimes? For many armchair detectives, there was still a question mark around one of the earliest suspects, Carl Gilstrom, dubbed the chaos man because he ran Lake Bulldom's chaos.

From the outset, Gilstrom's violent temper and attacks against people passing through the area had made him highly suspicious to many in the local community. Even though he didn't really resemble the police sketch of the suspect, one individual convinced of Gilstrom's guilt was Ulf Johansson. Ulf was 18 years old at the time of the murders and had visited the lake the very same day. As a young man who was around the same age as the victims and who always saw Lake Bulldom as a safe place to spend time with friends, Ulf had been horrified by the slayings. He'd also had his own run-in with Carl Gilstrom on the road leading by the man's house. Ulf was cycling along when Gilstrom threw rocks at him.

Ulf grew up to become a local politician and in 2016 he published a book about the case titled The Legend of Bulldom. In it, he collated many of the clues that pointed to Gilstrom, including his habit of cutting the guidelines of campers' tents. This idiosyncrasy was particularly troubling, given whoever had attacked the 14 ages used this exact method to catch his victims' unawares. Some time in the late 1960s, Gilstrom's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. While in hospital, she made a startling admission to a friend. Her husband was the Lake Bulldom murderer. Although she had initially told police that he was at home asleep on the night in question,

now she claimed that she had only provided him with an alibi because she was scared Gilstrom would attack her and their children. After learning of this admission, police attempted to interview her again, but she refused to speak with them for fear of her husband. No physical evidence that Carl Gilstrom was the Bulldom Lake murderer was ever found, and the police closed their file on him in September 1969. According to Finland's Evening Newspaper, an 80-page police investigation file dedicated to Gilstrom came to light in 2005. Unfortunately, it shed no further light on his possible involvement. Suspicions have also remained around the other case suspect in the case,

Hans Assmann, the German man who sought treatment at a Helsinki hospital the day after the murders. He'd raised suspicion amongst hospital staff due to his bizarre behavior, troubling comments, and resemblance to the police sketch. Following the release of the sketch, Hans Assmann suddenly shaved off his long pale hair, an act that could have been interpreted as an intentional effort to avoid comparisons. Jorma Palo, who had treated Assmann as a medical intern at the time, was so convinced of Assmann's guilt that he authored three books on the subject. He and Marty Paloaro, a former crime commissioner turned journalist,

speculated that the police were refusing to investigate Assmann as a suspect due to sensitive national security matters. In 1997, an ailing Assmann granted an exclusive bedside interview to Marty Paloaro. During their conversation, Marty asked Assmann directly if he was responsible for the Lake Buldum murders. Assmann replied that he would, quote, not talk about the details. Marty took this as a confession. Hans Assmann died the following year at the age of 74. For many, suspicions that Assmann may have been the Buldum Lake killer were put to rest in 2005, when police unsealed an investigation file that related to him.

Mika Mercer, a special reporter for Finland's Ilta Sanomat newspaper, was given access to the entire file, and on October 1, 2005, published an article on the findings. The file showed that in June 1960, after receiving the tip-off by the Helsinki Hospital doctors, the police had in fact investigated Assmann as a potential suspect. However, he was quickly ruled out on the basis of an airtight alibi. On the night of June 4, 1960, Assmann had shared a bed with his girlfriend in the same apartment as her sister and her sister's husband. According to witness statements by all three, Assmann arrived at about 6pm on June 4, and woke up on the morning of the Lake Buldum murders at 9.

Police also interviewed several witnesses who confirmed that Assmann had been painting at a construction site on both Saturday June 4 and Sunday June 5. On Monday, the construction site's caretaker gave Assmann a bottle of wine and the two men indulged. According to Assmann's wife and his regular doctor, he had been suffering from severe stomach pains for some time. After drinking the wine, these pains returned, and Assmann called his wife to collect him. When she arrived, she found him unconscious and called the paramedics. An ambulance delivered them to Helsinki's surgical hospital, where Assmann was treated. According to the police file, the stains that were on his clothes that day were paint, not blood.

In 1978, police checked the foreign fingerprint on a soda bottle found at the Lake Buldum crime scene. It did not match Assmann's. Despite the release of Assmann's police file, many true crime enthusiasts remain convinced that he could have been the Lake Buldum killer. One reason for this is his likeness to the police sketch that was produced following Nils's hypnosis session. There are only a few photographs of Assmann in circulation today, one of which bears a striking resemblance to the composite. There is another photograph widely available on the internet that was supposedly snapped at the funeral of Sapo Boiseman, Tulliki Mackie and Irmely Björklund on June 13, 1960.

The photograph depicts a large group of mourners. Standing towards the centre is a taller man. Unlike most of the other attendees, he is not looking straight ahead or casting his gaze downward in a solemn expression. Instead, his somewhat bulbous eyes seem fixated on something to his left. His face is angular, with protruding cheeks, a straight nose and a strong jaw. He looks strikingly similar to the suspect sketch. Some believe that this man is also Hans Assmann. This speculation relies heavily on the accuracy of the description given by Nils Gustafsson while under hypnosis. In the decades since 1960, the use of forensic hypnosis has proven to be unreliable. Studies have shown that hypnotised subjects may be more vulnerable to recovering

false memories or being overly confident in their recollections, even when such memories are false. The Sixth District Court judges at Nils's trial did not consider his recovered memories to be reliable in any way. Nils himself has said that he has no recollection of what he said while hypnotised. Consequently, the descriptions he provided of the suspect at that time cannot be verified. As of late 2021, 61 years have passed since the brutal murders of Seppo Boysman, Tulikimaki and Irmeli Björklund. All three were laid to rest side by side in the Helsinki Parish Church Cemetery. In the decades since the tragedy that claimed the lives of his girlfriend and best friend, Nils Gustafsson has never had any criminal record, nor has he exhibited any signs of being

an angry or violent man. Many believe that the murder charges brought against Nils were a fumble in the dark from a police force burdened by one of Finland's most infamous unsolved crimes. Nils described how, after his arrest, the police seized his family photo albums. Some of the private personal pictures within were splashed across newspapers the following day. During the trial, salacious headlines focused on the prosecution's baseless claims of drunkenness, sexual jealousy and rage. Hounded by the media, Nils and his family were forced to hide in their home. After his acquittal, Nils was found to have suffered deprivation of liberty and loss of reputation. He was awarded compensation in the form of 45,000 euros.

Decades later, advances in forensic technology tried and failed to shed light on the murders. So much time has now passed that many believe the identity of the killer will likely remain an enduring mystery. Nine years after the murders, the kiosk man, Carl Gilstrom, was drinking with a when he suddenly grew extremely angry. Then, just as quickly, his mood switched to one of despair. Beria couldn't figure out what was wrong. Gilstrom blurted out, don't you realize, I'm Bulldom's murderer, what am I going to do? Beria apparently frightened by this outburst told his neighbour, if you are the murderer of Bulldom, then go and drown yourself and do it right away,

because otherwise they will put you in a small prison cell for the rest of your life. At about six that same evening, Gilstrom's 15-year-old son couldn't find his father. He went out looking for him around the lake and eventually came across some people who told him that they'd seen his father swimming just off the eastern peninsula on the south shore. It was a location where he often swam, right near where the Lake Bulldom murders occurred. But Gilstrom's son saw no sign of his father in the lake. When Gilstrom failed to reappear, police were summoned to Lake Bulldom to undertake a search. A short while later, Gilstrom's body was found floating just off the headland.