Austin

And they were the murders of his friends and his girlfriend.

Witness statements and accounts were heard from people who had been as young as 11 years old when the murders took place.

In addition to the birdwatching boys and the man who found the bodies, the court heard from a woman who claimed to be staying at the lake that evening despite never having gone to the police in the decades since the crime took place.

That was the woman that claimed that Niels was drunk and trying to fight his friend.

So Neal's defense attorney, and forgive me if I'm saying this incorrectly, Rita Lepignemi, argued that evidence showed Neal's was inside the tent when the attack started and someone stabbed through the outside of the tent.

His blood was found inside the tent, outside the tent, and ingrained in the slashes and tears in the same manner as the other victims.

So, in other words, this was indicating that somebody outside the tent was stabbing through the tent and then hitting nails inside.

Additionally, Myla Bjerkland had kept a diary while at the camp that really did not support the new eyewitnesses version of events.

The prosecution tried to use Niels' lack of memory against him, and the defense was quoted saying, Gustafsson remembers certain things clearly, such as the arrival at the campsite.

He also remembers clearly that the party did not visit another tent.

The woman claiming this has kept quiet for 45 years.

Also, Myla Bjorklund's diary does not mention the visit.

The lawyer went on to explain that Niels had no motive, that items had been noted to have disappeared from the scene despite him still being there.

If you remember the keys, did Niels go run and huck them deep in the forest or into the water and then come back and injure himself?

And they also mentioned that the police's theory that Niels had been in a jealous rage over an incident with his girlfriend and Seppo did not hold up to scrutiny as the police couldn't provide a single detail explaining why that would even happen when Seppo was there with his own girlfriend.

Regardless, the prosecution built a narrative based on their evidence, and they suggested that Niels drunkenly made sexual advances on his girlfriend, Myla Bjerkland, who then rejected him, and his angry response caused him to get kicked out of the tent.

Which is weird, because they're all sharing a tent, so why would he be making sexual advances to his girlfriend while there are two other people inside?

Yeah, that's just bizarre.

I mean, maybe.

Niels tried to return to the tent, but this ended in a physical altercation with Seppo, and this fight allegedly caused Niels' wounds.