The Misery Machine - They Left Karina Holmer in Plain Sight [One of Boston's Oldest Unsolved Cases]

Starting point is 00:00:09 Hi, with the Misery Machine. I'm Jurygy. And I'm Drewby, and we're in Boston again. We're at one Boylston place, which is the old home of the Zanzibar Nightclub, which is the last place O'Pair Karina Homer was seen before she tragically was murdered. Yeah, she was an O'Pair from Sweden, and she disappeared in the summer of 1996, and this is still one of Boston's most heinous unsolved crimes. Yes, the very oldest. Now it's used to be a bunch of nightclubs. Now it's actually buildings for Emerson College. So funny how times change. But if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. We really appreciate all the help that y'all have given us so far for us to be able to travel and do things like this. Even though it's absolutely freezing today in Boston.

Starting point is 00:00:56 I am cold. I cannot feel my hands right now. My hands are all red. Even though it's almost May, I cannot feel my hands. But without further ado. Karina Holmer. Karina Holmer was 20 years old when she first bought that lottery ticket in early 1996. Much like many girls from small town Sweden, Karina had dreamt of moving to America,

Starting point is 00:01:24 and the money she could get from a simple lottery ticket meant that dream could be a reality. Growing up, she was the chairman of her local pony club in her hometown of Hillingherd and was the Swedish equivalent of a Girl Scout. Described as cheerful and ambitious, with the true love of life and people, it was no surprise that Carina wanted to become an au pair in America. She had a way in. She just needed to get money for travel. And get that money, she did.

Starting point is 00:01:51 That one lottery ticket won her 10,000 Swedish corona, roughly $1,500 U.S. Karina was overjoyed and was so excited to take this next step towards the life that she wanted. Unfortunately for her, this one instance of apparent good fortune was actually leading her down a very dangerous path. For those unfamiliar, an opair, some pronounce it as a pair, is a worker from a foreign country that lives with a host family while taking care of childcare and housework for them in return for payment and lodging. It's essentially marketed as a cultural exchange that gives the family and the opair is a chance to experience and learn new cultures. Opaire arrangements, depending on the country, are often subject to government regulations. Some countries specify an age range that is quite commonly restrained. to mid to late teens to mid to late 20s. While some males are accepted for these programs,

Starting point is 00:02:46 some countries specifically limit this opportunity only to women. In the United States, one of the many requirements is that the OPEER must go through a designated OPEO agency who handle all the legal steps in order for the prospective OPEO to gain access to the country, including obtaining a work visa, an extensive background check, a full medical physical, and a psychological exam. accepted, the opair would fly to the United States to receive training before even meeting with the host family. The purpose of these regulations is not only to protect the opair, with the host family and their children as well. But Karina did not follow this requirement. As with any process with a lot of red tape, there are unlicensed agencies that get opers into America illegally, quite often through tourist visas, without

Starting point is 00:03:34 any approval from the U.S. government. This is the option Karina pursued. And ultimately she went through an unlicensed agent named Tage Sundin, who had twice been convicted for operating without a permit. We do not know what the meeting entailed between the two or what deal they struck together. But when all was said and done, Karina Homer was on a plane for America in March of 1996. She had no work visa, nor was she registered with any American agency. She was placed in the household of Frank Rapp, a commercial photographer, and Susan Nied. a painter, and was put in charge of caring for their two children, as well as taking care of routine household chores. The family resided in Dover, a residential community roughly 16 miles

Starting point is 00:04:22 southwest of downtown Boston, known to be one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts. Dover had both a small town charm with easy access to the city and the most beautiful mansions that one could ever dream of. Corina was a beautiful Swedish blonde and was smart and had a great personality, all of which helped her make new friends quickly. Among those were other opairs working locally in Dover. Karina's weekends were free and one of the perks of her job was a crash pad in the city, specifically a loft apartment on A Street, in the south end that Frank Rap used during the week as an art studio. What more would a girl in the 90s want? The summer solstice, or midsummer, as some in the U.S. would know it, is a major holiday in Sweden and many other Scandinavian countries.

Starting point is 00:05:09 It's a time when little girls in Hillingarid would dance around maypoles, pick flowers in the meadows, and then put them under their pillows so they can dream that night about the man that they will one day marry. On the night of the summer solstice, Karina and three friends went to club Zanzibar in Boston's theater district, just outside of Chinatown and what used to be the infamous combat zone. Which we talked about last week if you missed that episode. If you miss that episode, go back and listen. Karina, who was 20 at the time, used a fake ID and easily fooled the doorman into thinking that she was 21. Tradition calls for celebration, and Karina did just that. Club Zanzibar was described by Best of Boston as, quote, a Banana Republic fantasy complete with palm fronds, wicker setis, and waitresses and khaki hot pants.

Starting point is 00:05:58 The music is numbingly dumb disco for white people who can't keep time. In other words, goofy, suburban fun. End quote. Karina came dressed for the occasion, donning a shiny gray sweater in tight, shiny silver pants, the height of the 90s club fashion. She danced the night away, and then unfortunately passed out on the restroom floor.

Starting point is 00:06:20 Around three in the morning, Karina found herself in the alley, also known as Boylston Place, which connects the various bars off a Boylston Street. She thought her friends had left her, however Karina was so intoxicated she had lost contact with them after she passed out. She tried to get back into the club after closing, but the doorman refused her any entry.

Starting point is 00:06:41 It's been reported that Karina began a one-woman party, singing and dancing around with the panhandler. She also struck up a conversation with a man named Herb Witten. He was 49 years old and is from the town of Andover, and he'd drive to the city on the weekends with his great Pyrenees. They'd both wear Superman T-shirts. And it should probably be clear here that Andover, I think at the time was about an hour drive away. and he would walk his dog around nightclubs in the middle of the night to pick up women. Yeah, basically everyone would go, oh, look at your cute dog. A dog is a good conversation starter.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Right, especially great Pyrenees. They're a big white booth. Yes, they're very adorable. Well, they're not all white. A lot of them are white. A lot of them are white. There are several conflicting reports regarding what happened next. A friend of Karina's claim that she had told her that she had planned to attend an after-hours party.

Starting point is 00:07:31 Another friend told police he took Karina to Zanzibar where she was last scene alive and said he was threatened by two men outside the club when he tried to take her home. He claimed that he leaned into a gray Mitsubishi. Inside that carina Homer was sitting between two men. This was right outside the club Zanzibar. He said to her, let's go, you came with us. And he said one of the men replied, quote, get away from the car, you little bitch or I'll crush your fucking head, end quote.

Starting point is 00:07:59 However, reports claim Karina was last seen headed down Tremont Street on foot. In any case, this would be the last time that Karina Homer was seen alive. Leading up to that point, there were signs that Karina could have been in danger. While her letters back to her parents were jovial and reassuring, the letters she wrote to her friends were quite different. Karina had written a letter to a friend complaining about the housework that came with her new job. And I quote, there's always so much cleaning and I think I'm stressed all the time. So this is not exactly what I thought it would be. end quote. But there was more than just a simple gripe of a job she didn't like.

Starting point is 00:08:38 It was discovered during the course of the investigation that Karina had been planning on returning home to Sweden in August, cutting her trip much shorter than was planned. She'd only been with her host family for four months at this point. In another letter she wrote to a friend, she said, quote, something terrible has happened. I'll reveal more when I get home, end quote. Karina's sister Johanna said that if Karina wasn't happy about anything, she hadn't confided in her. According to her host family, she seemed to be happy enough with her job and had made no complaints to them. Unfortunately, Karina never got a chance to explain what went wrong. On June 23, 1996, the top half of Karina Holmer's body was discovered in a trash bag, in a dumpster by a homeless man behind an apartment building at 1091 Boylston Street near Fenway. Park. If it had not been for that homeless man digging through the trash for returnables, her body might never had been discovered. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of Karina's murder

Starting point is 00:09:41 is that her lower half has never been recovered. Yeah, this was her chest up, including head. That's all that was found. And I don't know if this is 100% or not, but I've read a few sources that say the homeless man that found her was the one that she was hanging out with at the club the previous night. After seeing news reports about a beautiful blonde Jane Doe being discovered, family members of Carina's host family immediately called the police. When the authorities arrived at Frank Rapp's residence in Dover, they discovered that their trash bin was mysteriously set ablaze. The police retrieved the ashes from the trash and sent them to the Boston Police Department for analysis.

Starting point is 00:10:21 However, there was no sign of Carina's remains, blood, or anything else in the trash that would help the case. The source of the fire is unknown, and the family was. wasn't talking. So many believe that Frank Rap was responsible for Karina's murder. According to this theory, rap allegedly allowed her to stay in the loft he owned so they could have sex when she wasn't working. Although some believed this may not have been consensual. Theorists believed that Frank Rap allegedly may have gotten her pregnant, murdered her, and then removed the lower part of her body to remove any evidence. This is a far-fetched theory. However, it's noted by multiple sources that the Raps did not cooperate with the investigators and

Starting point is 00:11:00 were outright hostile. They have not spoken publicly about Karina's murder and were quick to obtain legal counsel. Not that that's an admission of guilt, but they were quick to obtain legal counsel. Keep in mind the fact that the rap family contracted Karina from an unlicensed agency, despite being a very affluent family who could very much afford an opair from a legitimate source and that there is a reported widespread abuse of these unlicensed opairs, including but not limited to racial discrimination and verbal, emotional, financial, and sexual abuse. The nature of which Karina was in the U.S. bordered on human trafficking. Yeah, and if the theories about Frank Rapper True, it is 100% human trafficking, as Karina came

Starting point is 00:11:44 to America under false pretenses. I really think it bears examining that why would this very rich family that could easily afforded an opair through one of the many agencies that are licensed America, getting an opair through a legal means. There are some sources that have stated that the Rapp family had obtained six different opairs from this unlicensed agency. Really? Yes. Is there any record of the other ones?

Starting point is 00:12:12 No, not that I know of. I couldn't find any information with different names. And see, this is how these agencies protect opaires because their names, their identities, they're on record. Karina came to America on a tourist visa. visa. Far less documentation is on a person obtaining a tourist visa. And at the time, prior to 9-11, her name may not have been on the books anywhere. It definitely wasn't in any agency for an opair. So Herb Witten, the 49-year-old man from Andover mentioned earlier, who would drive to the city on

Starting point is 00:12:46 the weekends dressed in his Superman shirt with his Great Pyrenees. He was arrested by police the day after Karina's body was discovered. However, he received a speeding ticket while driving back to Andover early that morning, and that gave him an alibi. Though it is pointed out by conspiracy theorists that Herb's car was not searched during the traffic stop, and its possible evidence could have been in there. Sadly, though, Witten committed suicide the following year with no note left behind. Also interviewed was John McSweeney, professionally known as John Zawiz, prolific musician and frontman for the industrial goth-erotica band Sleep Chamber, who lived two blocks from the dumpster

Starting point is 00:13:26 where Karina's body was found. I had not heard of this band before. So we looked them up. And they're right up our alley. They're actually rather good. We were doing some notes. We were listening to Sleep Chamber. If you're thinking of some goth industrial nightclub band from the 90s, this basically

Starting point is 00:13:43 fits that picture in my mind. So this accusation against John McSweeney, coupled with a growing heroin addiction, quickly began to destroy the band and led him away from his bandmates and friends. However, according to him, he was able to get clean in 2004 through the use of magic. Another person of note that was interviewed was an unnamed Boston police officer, Karina, may have been dating at the time. It has been theorized by some that the lack of evidence and a crime scene constitutes a large-scale cover-up on behalf of the Boston Police Department.

Starting point is 00:14:18 Allegedly. Allegedly. And would also explain why her body was discarded in a dumpster that was seemingly out in the open, where one can be seen at any time of the night or day. And no one's going to question a cop and would probably steer clear of him. So you can quite literally from this dumpster, see the Massachusetts Turnpike, and that's from 1091 Boylston Street, as well as the famed Berkeley College of Music. I cannot stress this enough.

Starting point is 00:14:45 This is a very busy area. Even if her body was disposed of at three in the morning, four in the morning, there is very high visibility here. It really puzzles me how somebody was able to do this. Somebody was either very, very brave and got lucky or they were somebody

Starting point is 00:15:07 that people wouldn't have paid any mind to. One of my friends from work actually went to Berkeley for a bit and got there a month before, excuse me, a month after Karina was found. Did he have anything to say about it? Not really. He said that

Starting point is 00:15:23 life in Boston, the 90s, was awesome. You could get a cheap apartment. It was an eclectic time. I feel like I really missed out on something. Those days are far, far behind us, unfortunately. There is a part of me that wishes I lived in Boston, but sometimes it's a little too busy for me. I just hate places with a lot of traffic.

Starting point is 00:15:40 Another theory that is a bit more of a reach is that Karina Homer was a victim of a serial killer who operated in Hollywood, Florida. The serial killer's M.O. was to find a woman, kill her, and dismember her in the same fashion that Karina was dismembered before discumbered. their bodies away in a dumpster. The partially nude body of a 34-year-old woman by the name of Delia Lorna Mendes was found in a dumpster behind a supermarket in 1999, bisected just like Carina's was. The only real difference that I found in my reading between Delia and Carina is Delia had a lot of blood evidence.

Starting point is 00:16:17 She was covered in blood, so it's highly unlikely that it's the same killer. cutting a human body in half as neatly as it was performed demonstrates that the killer had experience an obvious knowledge of anatomy, leading some to believe that they could have been a butcher or a surgeon or a doctor, given the fact that police did not find any blood evidence. The only evidence recovered from the recovery site,

Starting point is 00:16:41 not going to say crime scene because that's not what it was, was a partial fingerprint found in the garbage bag in which Karina's body was discovered, as well as rope marks on her neck indicating that she was strangled to death before being dismembered. The main reason no one has been charged in the murder is that there was no crime scene. Eventually, the months turned to years and the years unfortunately turned to decades. Despite an exhaustive and thorough police investigation, the brutal and senseless murder of Karina Homer still remains unsolved to this day. Her family has stayed over the years that their grief has gradually seen.

Starting point is 00:17:19 subsided, and they like to focus on Karina's the daughter that they lost as opposed to the gruesome circumstances surrounding her death, and really, who could blame them? Many compare the murder of Karina Homer to that of Elizabeth Short, known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, who was found murdered in the Lymeert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Her case became highly publicized due to its graphic nature, which included her corpse having been mutilated and bisected at the waist. Short also happened to be a native of Boston before making the trip west chasing Hollywood dreams. Her case also has never been solved. Club Zanzibar, the nightclub where Karina danced her final dance, was later shuttered due to a liquor license suspension.

Starting point is 00:18:02 Due to the negative publicity surrounding the murder, the club's name and management changed hands several times, and was known as the Big Easy, Mansion, the estate, the alley, just to name a few. However, one Boylston place is still vacant today, and the alley is now home to various sections of Emerson College, the Massachusetts Transportation offices, and a food court known as City Place housing a Panera, Chipotle, Duncan Donuts, Jimmy Johns, P.F. Changs, the Halal Guys, and many, many other different types of eateries. I believe there's also a CVS in there. This is also a really great place on a cold Boston morning to go warm up, and that's exactly what we did. Yeah, so when we went down there, and we had just found out about Karina Holmer right before deciding to go to Chinatown for last week's episode, and we realized these landmarks were very close by. And unfortunately, we went there when it was very, very cold. When we walked to this place expecting an alley that wasn't used anymore, we found the home of an Emerson College building. It looked like there was a cafeteria in there and some administrative buildings.

Starting point is 00:19:14 And then at the very end of it was this plaza, which upstairs has the Massachusetts DOT and all these restaurants and places like that in the bottom. And my hands were so freezing and this was the only place to warm up. Our hands were red by the time we got in there. It was so cold that day. It was wonderful to find that place. But being in the alleyway, it was hard to imagine it as this strip of nightclubs in there. It's not very long. I mean, I could see where they could have stuck some places.

Starting point is 00:19:45 They've transformed it quite a bit. I can visualize it. I think it would be a really cool place to hang out. So I read some Yelp reviews of what the Zanzibar became. One of these places was called the alley, as Yergy mentioned. This was in 2010. And one of the reviews stated that it was just. loaded with drunks at two in the morning and homeless, and it was hard to even drive your car

Starting point is 00:20:08 down the outside road. And that was just a miserable place to be at. To think about it like that, to think of it just 10 years ago is this more seedyer place. And now it seems as safe as can be and is full of college students. You have this cute little graveyard across the road near the Boston Common. It's funny how things can transform in such a short amount of time. I never would have guessed that that's what that place was unless I had looked it up. I'm glad we did because I was cold. Yeah, yeah, I know. And it was like the only bathroom we could

Starting point is 00:20:40 find. That's also true. Boston is not bathroom friendly. Yeah, it's not bathroom friendly at all. Get your shit together, Boston. So with that out of the way, I do have to say, since this is one of the first cases we've gone on location for that wasn't in the state of Maine, what other cases

Starting point is 00:20:56 on the East Coast would you really and I mean up and down the East Coast would you really like to see us go on location for let us know misery machine podcast at gmail.com or leave us a comment if you're listening on YouTube. I'd like to do more of these. And yeah, maybe Florida specifically is a bit far right now, but eventually I don't want any place to be off limits. I mean, eventually we're going to be going to some international places, but we're working our way up. And I mean, anything kind of within reason up and down the East Coast, maybe even Florida, that could happen.

Starting point is 00:21:29 Let's not say that couldn't happen. I wanted to happen. I'm just saying it might seem a bit far right now, but I want to do it. Yeah. There are some Florida cases I'd really like to see. Absolutely. Give us some ideas. I would really love some ideas because we'll probably be doing another main case soon,

Starting point is 00:21:46 but obviously we're still going to give love to our smaller cases outside of New England. So if you're listening on YouTube, if you could hit like and subscribe, we really appreciate it. We just passed 5,100 subscribers. That means we passed 5,000. We hit 5,000 on the morning of the Chinatown release episode. So thank you so much to everyone for helping us get as far as we have. What I have read online is that if you don't get 5,000 subscribers on YouTube in a thousand days, you should hang it up. That's the advice I keep seeing.

Starting point is 00:22:26 A thousand days, if memory recalls, should be just under three years. We've been doing this for, what, a year and three quarters now. Yeah. We're three months off of two years. So by that advice, we're ahead of schedule. And it's all thanks to people like you. So thank you so much. Next stop is 10,000.

Starting point is 00:22:46 We're not stopping. We have released a episode every week for almost two years now. And I plan to go for four years. Yes. Or even further. So if you want to help us and be along for the Ryan this journey, hitting like and subscribe goes a long way. And if you're listening on other platforms, hitting subscribe on there too helps us a lot as well. If you're on Apple Podcasts, if you could

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The Misery Machine - They Left Karina Holmer in Plain Sight [One of Boston's Oldest Unsolved Cases]

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