The Central Criminal Police is investigating new information about the mysterious disappearance of a Turku lawyer. Ilpo Härmäläinenalmost 30 years ago.
The District Court of Southwest Finland began proceedings in December 2021 and January 2022, and the 68-year-old suspect is in custody. The prosecutor has demanded the defendant’s life sentence for Härmäläinen’s murder.
The suspect, arrested by the police last August, is a former advertising agency entrepreneur and was Härmäläinen’s business partner in 1994. The defendant has denied killing Härmäläinen.
But when new information was received about the case, the NBI launched a new investigation at the request of the prosecutor.
At a further interrogation, the defendant’s ex-wife said that the anchor of the sailboat owned by the suspect had disappeared at about the same time as Härmäläinen disappeared.
The prosecutor and the police suspect that the lost anchor may have been used as a weight to pull Härmäläinen’s body into the sea.
Divers have tried to locate the remains of the victim in the Turku archipelago.
August 1994
According to a report published by Yle last November, the suspect was convicted of fraud at the time of Härmäläinen’s disappearance, which also involved a lawyer. The men spoke on the phone moments before Härmäläinen was last seen at the door of his house on Eerikinkatu.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect and Härmäläinen met at noon on 3 August 1994 in the center of Turku and then drove to nearby Satava, where the suspect’s sailboat was at the pier.
Examination of the boat’s logbook confirmed that the accused sailed with his then wife on the weekend after Härmäläinen’s disappearance. The findings of the new investigation revealed that the suspect’s wife was responsible for completing the sailboat diary.
The woman recalled that a missing anchor was found "one friday" as the couple prepared to leave.
Based on the ex-wife’s memories, the defendant talked about the lost anchor next to her own with the owners of the pier.
However, the disappearance of the anchor was not mentioned in the logbook.
In further interviews, the suspect has vehemently denied that the boat had lost its anchor and that the matter had not been discussed.
The court was originally scheduled to rule on the case on Friday, March 4th.
However, due to evidence from the new investigation, the court said it was not known whether the date of the verdict would be postponed.
Source: The Nordic Page