Season 1 Episode 4:

Disappeared in plain sight: Where is Raisa Räisänen?

Runtime: 53 minutes

Today we're still exploring Finnish cases, and Raisa Räisänen's disappearance is one of the more baffling missing person's cases in Finland.

In 1999, 16-year-old Raisa Räisänen, who was a talented basketball player, and by all accounts, a reliable girl, wanted to celebrate another successful game. With a borrowed ID, she headed to to the bars and clubs in Tampere with her best friend. Later that evening, the girls separated and Raisa was left alone in the city that was hosting an EU summit, buzzing with people and police. However, Raisa never returned home.

What happened to Raisa? Who is responsible for her disappearance, and most likely, her murder?

Content warning: extreme violence and mentions of cannibalism

Keywords: Raisa Räisänen, missing person, missing persons case, cold case, unsolved homicide, unsolved murder, Finnish true crime, European true crime, international true crime, disappearance, unsolved disappearance

Episode 2: The Finnish Camping Murders: Tulilahti Double Murder

Runtime: 1 hour 6 minutes

• For the blog post and images, see our Substack: https://nowayhomepod.substack.com/p/the-tulilahti-murders-a-finnish-summer?r=6389lt

We're staying in Finland for the case that had the Bodom parents properly worried. And no wonder. In July 1959, two young women set off on what should have been a lovely cycling holiday across Finland. Instead, they became victims of a crime so bungled by authorities that even we're getting frustrated, and we're just reading about it decades later.

Eine Nyyssönen and Riitta Pakkanen were the sort of sensible, well-prepared travelers who sent postcards home and packed sewing kits alongside their camping gear. They were also unfortunate enough to encounter someone with considerably less wholesome intentions at a remote lakeside campsite called Tulilahti.

This case features more suspects than a game of Cluedo: there's the gravedigger with the dynamite, the bricklayer who apparently didn't understand the word "no," the mysterious Moped Man, and those delightfully named Basket Boys who thought following strange women was peak romance. I guess it still happens now.

Naturally, our old friend Hans Assman makes another appearance because apparently no Finnish murder case from this era is complete without him.

We question the physics of moving heavy iron bicycles and two bodies through rocky terrain, whilst we both marvel at the police's decision to arrest a 5'3" Swedish-speaking man for crimes that propably required local knowledge and possibly more than one culprit.

This case is complete with possibly planted evidence, false alibis, and a justice system so desperate for a conviction they pinned it on a convenient scapegoat.

Two bright young women deserved far better than a monster lurking in the woods and a bungled conviction.

Content warning: Discussion of sexual violence and murder

Episode Keywords: Tulilahti murders, Finland 1959, cycling holiday murders, Eine Nyyssönen, Riitta Pakkanen, unsolved double murder, Hans Assman, bungled investigation, Finnish cold case, camping murders, cold case, true crime, true crime podcast, European true crime, international true crime

Episode 2: The Lake Bodom Murders - Finland's Most Enduring Mystery

Runtime: 50 minutes

For our proper debut into the world of forgotten crimes, we're heading to Finland in 1960, where four teenagers went camping by a picturesque lake and only one came home alive. The Lake Bodom murders have haunted Finland for over six decades, and frankly, we can see why.

Three young people were brutally killed in their collapsed tent while the fourth, Nils Gustafsson, survived with mysterious injuries and, some say, convenient memory loss. The Wife walks us through this genuinely baffling case involving a possibly homicidal kiosk owner, a supposed Nazi-turned-KGB-agent with the unfortunate surname Assman, and witness accounts that make about as much sense as Finnish tax law.

The Husband, meanwhile, struggles with the logistics of how one person could overpower four teenagers simultaneously and questions why absolutely everyone seemed to walk past a bloody crime scene at dawn without bothering to help. Fair points, really.

We discuss bungled police work that would make Inspector Clouseau weep, mysteriously placed shoes, a rather dodgy pillowcase, and the sort of confession that ends with someone drowning themselves in the very lake where it all began. Classic Finland, that.

Whether it was jealousy, random violence, or just a very bad camping trip, this case has everything: multiple suspects, destroyed evidence, hypnosis sessions, and enough red herrings to stock a Nordic fish market.

For the blog post and images, check out our Substack at: https://nowayhomepod.substack.com/p/the-lake-bodom-murders?r=6389lt

Or find us on Instagram under the handle @nowayhome_pod

Content warning: Discussion of violent crimes, murder, and the sort of police work that makes you grateful for modern forensics.

Episode Keywords: Lake Bodom murders, Finland cold case, 1960s unsolved mystery, camping murders, Nils Gustafsson, Finnish true crime, tent attack, multiple suspects, bungled investigation, Nordic crime