The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is probing new information about the mysterious disappearance of a Turku lawyer, Ilpo Härmäläinen, nearly 30 years ago.
The Southwest Finland District Court began hearing the case in December 2021 and January 2022, with a 68-year-old suspect being held in remand. The prosecutor has demanded the defendant receive a life sentence in prison for Härmäläinen's murder.
The suspect, who was detained by police last August, is a former advertising agency entrepreneur and was Härmäläinen's business partner in 1994. The defendant has denied that he killed Härmäläinen.
But, after new information emerged about the case, the NBI initiated a new probe at the request of the prosecutor.
During additional interrogation, the defendant's ex-wife said that an anchor in the sailboat owned by the suspect had gone missing around the same time that Härmäläinen disappeared.
The prosecutor and police suspect that the missing anchor may have been used as a weight to pull Härmäläinen's body into the sea.
Divers have attempted to locate the victim's remains in the Turku Archipelago.
August 1994
According to an Yle report last November, the suspect was convicted of fraud at the time of Härmäläinen's disappearance, a case which also involved the lawyer. The men spoke on the phone moments before Härmäläinen was last seen at his building's doorstep on the street of Eerikinkatu.
According to the prosecutor, at noon on 3 August 1994 the suspect and Härmäläinen met in the centre of Turku and then drove to the nearby island of Satava, where the suspect's sailboat was berthed.
An examination of the boat's logbook confirmed that the defendant sailed with his then-wife the weekend after Härmäläinen's disappearance. Findings from the new probe revealed that the suspect's wife was responsible for filling in the sailboat's logbook.
The woman recalled that the missing anchor was noticed "on some Friday" as the couple prepared to set sail.
Based on the ex-wife's recollection, the defendant talked about the missing anchor with the owners of the boat berthed next to theirs.
However, the anchor's disappearance was not mentioned in the logbook.
In follow-up interviews, the suspect has vehemently denied the boat had lost an anchor and that no such matter had been discussed.
The court was originally scheduled to issue a ruling on the case on Friday, 4 March.
However, due to evidence obtained from the new investigation, the court said it was not known whether the verdict date would be postponed.