Summary: What Happened At Lake Bodom

What Happened at Lake Bodom?
Who says there are crimes known as unsolvable murder cases? The Lake Bodom murders occurred in Finland and involved four teenagers. Three of the teenagers were brutally murdered while one lived with serious injuries. The names of these young victims were Maila Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki, who were both fifteen-year-old girls at the time, while the third victim was an eighteen-year-old boy by the name of Seppo Antero Boisman. The lone survivor amongst the teenagers, Nils Gustafsson, was also eighteen along with his friend. These teenagers were camping along Lake Bodom when they were viciously attacked in their tent late into the night with a knife and a blunt weapon by an unknown assailant. Although

after extensive research, the clues and information seems to be directed towards Nils Gustafsson.
Maila Irmeli Björklund lived a short life as she had only been able to live until she was fifteen. On the day of June 6, 1960, Maila went camping with her friends and had a wonderful day of fun and fishing. Among those friends was her alleged boyfriend, Nils Gustafsson, who was eighteen at the time. As midnight approached, the campers went to sleep for the night, but little did they know they would be savagely attacked while they slumbered peacefully. Investigators figured that the attacker did not go inside the tent to attack the teenagers but instead attacked them from the outside. The killer used a knife along with a blunt object to kill three of the four teenagers and leave the sole survivor brutalized. These murder weapons were never found and still leave police puzzled on where they could have possibly been hidden. (“Lake Bodom Murders”) Unfortunately, among those victims, Maila was one of the teenagers that were murdered. She was initially killed by a severe hit to the head that caused brain hemorrhaging, but the horrific part is that she was stabbed fifteen times after she was deceased, showing this murderer’s ruthlessness. Her estimated time of death was anywhere between four in the morning and six in the morning. All of this evidence would help provide information to find the killer of Maila Irmeli Björklund.
After revealing some facts about the tragic events that happened to Maila Björklund, it is evident that more research it needed to determine the true murderer. Although there are numerous suspects, these are the facts that make these the top suspects and also lead me to believe that Nils Gustafsson was the true murderer behind Lake Bodom.
The police considered many suspects throughout the investigations. One of the main suspects in the investigation was Valdemar Gyllstrom, also known as “the kiosk man.” He got his nickname due to the fact that he owned a kiosk near Lake Bodom. Valdemar Gyllstrom was known for hating campers and had previously acted violently towards them. He drunkenly confessed to his neighbor that he had killed the kids and had hidden the evidence in a well on his property by sealing the well forever. (Suftin) He later drowned himself in Lake Bodom in 1969. Shortly after his death, his wife confessed that she had lied to the police to protect him and that she knew he was the one who murdered those campers. (Suftin) Although Valdemar confesses to murdering the three teenagers and assaulting Nils, the police did not take this confession seriously due to the suspicion that Valdemar was an alcoholic. It was also revealed that he confessed to the murders while under the influence of alcohol to his neighbor, who said he was simply rambling and had no idea what he was talking about. In addition to the confession to the neighbor, another source states, “Karl Gyllstrom was dead and, on his suicide note he said that he was the one who killed those teenagers” (Tofani). If there were two proven confessions from Gyllstrom, why were the police not convinced enough that he was the murderer? This is because there was not enough evidence to prove he was the true killer. The most suspicious thing about Gyllström was that he filled in his well with cement shortly after the murders, leaving many to believe that the murder weapons were permanently destroyed. This would give police suspicion, leading to a search of his house, but they wound up empty handed, leaving theories that the murder weapons were buried in that well, never to be found. Whether Gyllstrom was the murderer or not, he was clearly affected by these murders, along with the rest of Finland and Sweden.
Equally important as a suspect was Hans Assmann, a former KGB spy that was also supposedly involved in two other murders, but was never convicted for any. Hans himself had claimed that, “...he had worked with the German Army under Adolph Hitler, even serving as a guard for Auschwitz, but later fled the SS when he became involved with a Jewish girl” (Suftin). Eventually this would lead to Hans settling in Finland around the fifties, where he would soon find himself in trouble and involvement with mysterious murder cases. For example, there was a little girl that went missing for quite a long time in Finland by the name of Kyllikki Saari. There was suspicion of foul play and later found out that Hans was in the area around the time of her disappearance. Since Hans was known for his involvement with the German army, that he was a foreigner, and that he was within the region at the time, he was under high suspicion but there was never enough evidence to convict him, resulting in him walking away a free man. Hans later revealed on his deathbed that his driver that night had run over the girl while she was biking down the road, and he also admitted helping his driver bury the girl in a nearby swamp, where she would be found weeks later. If Hans admitted to one murder, does that make him more likely to have committed more than just one?
In addition, the night after the murders Hans showed up to a hospital with some very strange behavior.

His suspicious activity at the Helsinki hospital included, “The day after the murders Assmann appeared at the hospital, disheveled and erratic. He had blackened fingernails and a red substance covering his clothing. He lied to doctors about his identity and repeatedly played unconscious throughout his stay there” (Suftin). With this suspicious activity and what doctors believe to be blood under his fingernails and covering his clothing. With this evidence, why were the police not involved immediately? One doctor believes that Hans was the murderer so much that he wrote three books in detail and has inspired people to believe that Hans had committed these murders over any other suspect involved. In result of all the suspicion that was surrounding Hans, he would never be thoroughly investigated. Many believe the reason for this was, “...conspiracies surrounding the Lake Bodom murders involve Assmann’s possible association with the KGB and the Finnish government’s refusal to investigate Assmann further for fear the Soviets would be upset on their findings” (Suftin). World War II was still fresh in many civilians and verterans minds, resulting in many people wanting to avoid any more conflict in the world by any means necessary, even if it means not investigating a massive suspect that could have been involved in the mysterious Lake Bodom

murders.
Perhaps the most hotly debated suspect in this entire crime; Nils Gustafsson. Many believe that he is innocent while about the same amount believe that he is guilty. However the people may feel, there is evidence that supports both sides of the argument. One piece of evidence that supports his innocence is, immediately after the murders, Nils was not suspected as the killer. This was due to the fact that he told the police he had no recollection of the events that occurred that night. However, after being hypnotized, Nils confessed that after he had got of out the tent the attacker had kicked him in the jaw and made Nils pass out. Nils would later describe what the killer looked like and this led to other suspects to be brought to the police’s attention. (Man Remanded) After being hypnotized, it is thought that it is nearly impossible to lie, resulting in the police to believe Nils when he told them that a black figure with red eyes had attacked them through the tent. The attacker supposedly brutalized the victims by beating the teenagers through the tent with a large metal pipe. Another piece of evidence that suggests that Nils was not the killer was, “...(Nils) sustained a concussion, fractures to the jaw and facial bones, and bruises to the face but lived” (Lake Bodom Murders). If Nils was the killer, how would it be possible that he could injure himself with such force as to fracture his own facial bones? Also, while supposedly concussed, how could he dispose of the weapons and hid all of the personal items that were stolen from the teenagers? These reasons help support that Nils was not the killer at Lake Bodom.
However, there is more reason and evidence to support that Nils was the murderer at this tragic event in Finland’s history. The fact that Nils supposed girlfriend was stabbed fifteen times after her death is a motive that only Gustafsson would have. If the killer was not Gustafsson, how would he have the knowledge that Maila was Gustafsson’s girlfriend and be able to cover his tracks by stabbing her and Nils best friend, who was supposedly hitting on Maila, more times after their death. Police found that, “The tracks of blood and footprints had shown that the killer was wearing Gustafsson’s shoes” (Lake Bodom Murders). The only tracks found around the crime scene were Gustafsson’s, meaning that no outside person had come and murdered the teenagers, someone within the group had committed the murder. Nils had also been under the influence of alcohol, which is known for enraging some people when drunk. With the fact that it would have been impossible for any other killer to realize that Maila was Nils girlfriend, and covering his tracks by making it seem like a jealous rage had caused Nils to murder his friends, it is clear that Gustafsson is the killer behind the Lake Bodom incident.
What happened that night is clear.

After a day of fishing and hanging out with his friends, the teenagers had made a fire and decided to drink some alcohol. Nils noticed that Maila was flirting with Seppo all day and this made Nils upset. The flirting continued throughout the night and Nils became enraged that his “girlfriend” was flirting with his best friend. While under the influence, he made the decision he would teach Maila and Seppo a lesson. While everyone dozed off, Nils found a rather large tree branch and his fishing knife, and began to attack Maila while she was sleeping through the tent. Soon after realizing they were being attacked, Seppo had sprung out of the tent and started to attack Nils, causing Nils to be severely injured with fists to the head. Nils became more enraged and killed Seppo, then went back to finish the job on Maila. After killing her, he consummated that he had to deal with Anja to get rid of all the witnesses. He had killed all three of the teenagers and became enlightened that he would have to cover his tracks and make it look like some stranger had attacked them. He threw his weapons in the Lake, never to be found, took personal items off the victims bodies like wallets and Seppo’s leather jacket and hid them in a tree that was hollowed out, far away from the crime seen. Then realized that he was exhausted, collapsed onto the tent where he would be found in the morning by two boy birdwatchers. The rest is

history.