Disappearances and murder mysteries from Finland
Aili Sarpio disappearance from the Heinola Rheumatism Hospital
Aili Sarpio, 78 years old, disappeared on the night of 13-14 September 1988 from Heinola, Finland, from Heinola Rheumatism Hospital, where she had sought treatment for a neck injury. She was from Heinola. The treatment was a routine examination, which is why Aili was to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days.
On Tuesday the 13th, Aili received a mild sleeping pill just before going to bed. At midnight she was still in bed, as were her roommate at 1.15. The next time the nurse arrived at 2:10, Aili was missing.
The same night and the next day the police, hospital staff, field search dogs, conscripts and numerous volunteers searched for Aili from the hospital and surrounding areas. A helicopter with a thermal camera was also on site. The search continued for 3 days, but a thorough search of Aili showed no trace.
The searches were really thorough. The bodies of water were searched and the nearby construction site was closed for a couple of days for research. The hospital was examined by both staff and police twice from the attic to the basement.
-The thing we have the least information on is the internal search of the hospital, that is, if the hospital was actually searched. Whether the hospital staff investigated it or whether the police were investigating along the staff, as to who was in the supervisory position, Aili's granddaughter Katariina Melvas says in The Disappeared-television show.
After a week of disappearance, relatives filed an investigation request on rheumatism hospital staff. The subject was whether any accident or malpractice in the hospital would have caused the disappearance. The police answered the relatives in due course that there is no investigation to continue when there is no obvious maladministration.
Police ruled out suicide and crime. Aili did not have any illnesses that would have given her a reason end her days.
According to the police, one possibility is still that Aili Sarpio has disappeared into a nearby body of water.
So, the mystery remains: Did Aili wander off by herself? Did a nurse kill Aili intentionally or by accident? Did Aili leave the hospital, fall into a construction site pit and get buried by dirt? Was Aili’s body hidden somewhere by someone, was she kidnapped? Nobody knows. Aili has been missing for 34 years and she would be 112 years old as of this year, so it is safe to assume she has passed on if she didn’t meet her end on that night of the disappearance. Rest in peace, Aili.
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Antti Hanhivaara disappearance in Angeli, Lapland, Finland
Antti Hanhivaara, 21, from Ivalo, disappeared 15 years ago in Angeli, Inari, Lapland, and his fate has not been determined to this day.
According to police, Antti Hanhivaara disappeared into Angeli's wilderness on October 14, 2006. At that time, Antti was living in a terraced house with his dog in Ivalo. He left home with his friend on Friday night, October 13, 2006, in his car towards Karigasniemi and Angeli, where he disappeared.
In Karigasniemi, the friends went to a house party. From there, the journey continued at night for 60 kilometers (37 miles) to Angeli. In addition to the driver, there were three people on the car.
The next morning, Antti's car had been driven wildly on Angeli's gravel roads and gravel pit. The car was badly broken when it was abandoned on the side of the road in Angel. The gas had ran out and the tires were driven to the rims. This was also very out of character for Antti to destroy his car in this manner as he had saved and worked hard to be able to buy his car, a Toyota Carina. He took good care of the car usually.
According to police, Antti walked along a dirt road in the direction of the wilderness. Two men were working in the forest next to the road and they saw a man walking towards the woods. According to the police, that man was Antti.
- Afterwards, the police have been able to get such characteristics from the walker that it was Antti, says senior constable Risto Mertala from the Lapland Police Department.
Police believe Antti died in the wilderness. He has been searched for several years in Karigasniemi, Angeli and the wilderness.
- Searches have been performed several times. Tips have been reinforced and ruled out. Now that it has been so long since the disappearance, the investigation is more exclusive, Mertala characterizes.
Mertala himself has been looking for Antti in the terrain numerous times.
- Mostly because of the relatives sake, I hope Antti can be found. Hopefully there will be some concrete information or clues and we will be able target our searches more accurately.
Police have never suspected a crime in 15 years.
- In our view, he has disappeared into the wilderness. It is not known exactly why he walked into the woods at that time. At no point during the investigation have we become aware of any facts that the case should be treated of being a crime, says Mikko Halme, Director of Investigation at the Lapland Police Department.
Unlike the police, Antti Hanhivaara's relatives are not as convinced that Antti has just disappeared into the wilderness. The family has always hoped that the police would also investigate the possibility of a crime.
It is hard for Antti’s sister to believe the police's theory that Antti had walked in the woods. The whole story of disappearance sounds crazy to the sister.
- I think he would have already been found in that case, says Elina Tuiskala.
According to police, the last sighting of Antti is when bystanders saw him walking down a small gravel road into the woods, in the direction of the wilderness.
The sister does not consider the finding certain.
- During that Saturday morning, Antti's car has been driven around Angeli, it has run through a gravel pit and along dirt roads, there are several observations of the car. In my opinion, the times do not match, because if the car had been seen at 10-10.30 in the direction of Karigasniemi in Angeli, how could Antti have been walking in the forest at the same time? The question arises, who drove the car at that point and who walked into the woods? Elina Tuiskala wonders.
According to her sister, Antti was not the last person to drive the car. This, according to the sister, is evident from the police investigation papers she has seen. The family has seen only a few pages of the investigation, not nearly all of the material.
The sister has been trying to connect with each of the friends who were riding Antti’s car just before he disappeared. None of the friends have responded or they have fled contacts.
- Their behavior baffles me. None of them want to talk and tell what went on in the evening, night, and morning of disappearance. I saw one of them once, but he ran away from me. As long as they refuse to talk as if they have something to hide, they are suspicious in my books, Tuiskala says.
- A few days later, the guys returned to Angeli, and they went to look for Antti’s phone in his car. That, too, was very strange, the sister says.
Tuiskala herself doesn't think his brother is alive anymore.
Antti visited his mother and sister only three weeks before his disappearance. What was exceptional about that visit was that Antti gave his mother his own key back to his mother's apartment and hugged her for a long time when he left.
Antti had also spoken in a way at the local shop that has aroused the sister's doubts afterwards whether Antti would have disappeared voluntarily.
- Antti had visited Siwa shop and told the clerk that he was going on a long journey and therefore did not need any bonus cards when he was offered one. That conversation feels very special afterwards, says Elina Tuiskala.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding the police’s involvement in the case as Angeli is a very tight knit community in a small village - there has been rumours, that Antti was murdered by someone related to the police staff and therefore the case has never been treated as a crime rather than just a disappearance in the wild. Antti’s sister, her husband and a detective specialised in searching the grounds for remains with his trained dog had found bones in the Karigasniemi woods and they delivered the bones to the police, as to find out if they were Antti’s. The police refused to take them and only with an order of a higher authority they accepted the bones, but never examined them and possibly destroyed them. The family search party and the detective were also threatened by a local huntsman in the forest, warning them to stay out of Angeli if they know what’s good for them.
Edit: Please just ignore my spelling errors as I am not a native English speaker.
