FINNISH MURDERS: The Body in the Oven

Finland is the country of lakes, happiness and ice hockey. However, under the calm exterior, it is a country that hides many dark and terrible unsolved mysteries. One of the most famous of such cases is the Oven Murder, in which Hilkka Saarinen met her tragic death. 

THE FAMILY

Hilkka Hillevi Pylkkänen, born on 1st November 1927, has lived all her life in Kokemäki, Finland. She married Pentti Frans Olavi Saarinen, and they moved into the home inherited from Hilkka's grandparents. It was a big, wooden house that was roomy enough for the couple and their five children. Unfortunately, all the kids were taken away by child services due to the father's behaviour. They were placed in different foster homes. 

Seppo and Seija Saarinen setting flowers on their mother's grave

Pentti had a problem with alcohol. He had violent and aggressive tendencies. In particular, his aggression and jealous inclinations were targeted to his wife, Hilkka.  The kids reported that at some point in time, the family was fairly normal and they had a happy, safe childhood. However, a turn came in their father and the family was torn apart. 

THE EVENTS

Christmas Day in 1960, their eldest son came to visit his family. Seppo Saarinen was 13 years old at the time, and brought  a friend with him. They arrived one day earlier than planned. When the two boys got to the house, the door to the exterior hallway was open. 

They went inside, and were greeted by a skittish Pentti. He stepped inside the hallway and immediately locked the front door to the home behind him. When Seppo asked where his mother was, Pentti answered that she left while he was gathering firewood for the sauna. Later on, when he was asked by police the same question, he answered that he was sleeping at the time. 

The Saarinen family home

That evening, the young boys and the father went to get more bedding for them to sleep. This was located in a room behind the kitchen. While the boys were walking through the house, they wondered why the large kitchen was dark. When Pentti was questioned, he answered that the lamp was broken. In the light of the dusk, Seppo's eyes rested on the oven at one end of the room. He knew that over the years, a lot of clutter accumulated on top of it. However, now the top of the oven was empty and the stuff was on the floor. His father quickly said that he had been cleaning up. 

Dad's strange behaviour made Seppo's friend feel very uncomfortable. He left to his own home soon after. In the meantime, Hilkka was still missing. The son thought that his mother just had enough of her husband's violent behaviour and left him. The matter was left at that. 

Pentti was left in the house alone. Over the years, Seppo came to visit for a few days at a time, but very infrequently. There was no love lost between father and son. 

HILKKA REPORTED MISSING

One month later, in January 1961, a neighbour reported Hilkka missing. They also reported some strange happenings at the Saarinen home. Pentti was opening all the windows to air the place. He was also digging a large hole in the garden. These events were strange because Finland gets very cold in the winter. On top of this, it was reported that a strange smell was coming from the chimney when the fire was lit. 

The police came around and questioned him. However, they did not gather anything useful. Pentti insisted that she left while he was sleeping. She was wearing a long black trench coat, and took some other clothes with her. 

Police kept the investigation open for a while, but no new leads were found. 

In the years following her disappearance, Seppo would conduct his own investigation regarding his mother. When he was at his parents' house, he would look under the floorboards. He looked in the surrounding area, and also checked the oven. The seams felt smooth and new, not worn out and old. He had the lingering feeling that his mother was dead, and his father knew more about it than he let on. 

In 1966, Seppo sent a letter to the police about the disappearance of his mother:

“I suspect that my father knows more than he has led on about the disappearance of my mother. It is obvious that he has opened the oven and laid new bricks on it. This is strange because the oven hadn’t even been used 7 to 8 years before it. When I came, my father was cleaning the room in the dark when the other room had lights on. I suggest that the oven needs to be taken apart. My father is capable of doing anything.”

The police did not react to this letter. The following year, in 1967, he wrote an article to a magazine called Elämä. It was titled "Where did they disappear/ I suspect my father is a murderer". He used an alias to publish it. 

The next time the father and son met, Pentti said that ''they should mind their own business from that point on.''

INVESTIGATION

In 1972, the police were rifling through some old cold case files and stumbled across Hilkka's case. They decided to call Seppo, and after some discussion, the police reopened the case. 

In November 1972, the Turku police turned up to the Saarinen home with a search warrant. They took Pentti into custody. Then, they started to dismantle the oven. Unfortunately, about a meter inside the oven, the police found the head of a mummified body. Then they found a foot, and after that the whole body. She was wearing a long black overcoat at the time of discovery. 

A drawing of how Hilkka was found in the oven

Turku police took the body back to Pori and asked Seppo to identify that it's his mother. Pentti was immediately suspected and questioned by the authorities. However, he insisted to them, and to his son, that he did not know anything.

TRIAL AND SENTENCING 

Throughout the whole trial, Pentti denied everything. He even claimed that some unknown group of gypsies invaded their home on that fateful Christmas day in 1960. However, this story was thrown out very quickly. In another desperate attempt to deflect blame, Pentti even denied that he was aggressive towards Hilkka. He said her injuries were due to a bike accident. 

A picture from police's investigation of the stove

The prosecutor brought forwards several witnesses  that testified to the abuse in the Saarinen household. They told of how Hilkka came to them to report on her husband's blind rages and the injuries that she suffered at his hand. The prosecutor relied on these witnesses as the backbone of his case. 

Hilkka's remains in the stove

The coroner could not determine the cause of death. There was no traces of violence on the body, therefore he surmised that Hilkka could have been alive when she was buried in the oven. 

Another key piece of evidence was that between April to December in 1960, Pentti borrowed 75 books from the local library, most of them on the topic of uxoricide, or the killing of one's wife. 

The court found Pentti guilty of aggravated assault, and sentenced him to eight years in prison. They could not determine that he killed Hilkka intentionally. However, he sat in prison for one year, and then he was released by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. This was due to the fact that cause of death could not be determined, and also the statute of limitations had expired on that case. Murder could not be prosecuted after twelve years. 

Pentti moved back to the home after his prison release 

Pentti returned to his big, wooden home and spent the rest of his days alone. He got the nickname of ''Freemason'' from the local villagers. He died at the age of 66 years old from alcohol poisoning, in 1986. The house was demolished in 2015.

This case is still listed as ''unsolved'' by the Finnish police. 

References

• Vilma's True Crime: Murhamysteerit - Hilkka Saarisen murha, ns. ”Uunisurma”
• The Mystery Box: Unsolved Mysteries: The Body in the Oven
• Wikipedia: Uunisurma