Under The Midnight Sun
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What is the mystery behind the Lake Bodum murders?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Late Nights with Nexpo early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. You awake from a shallow sleep. For a moment you think it's morning already, but then you remember it's still night. During the summer in Finland, midnight is indistinguishable from dawn. From where you lay inside your tent, the night sounds perfectly peaceful. Crickets chirp softly outside. Not far away, the lake's gentle waves lap rhythmically against the shore. It's idyllic. And yet, you can't shake the sense that something is wrong. Something imminent. Then you hear it. A crunch of foliage outside the tent. Then a quick twang. The sound of a rope snapping.
Someone is cutting the cords that hold up your tent. You try to escape, but the tent is already collapsed down around you, smothering your cries for help. June 4th, 1960. A pair of motorcycles drive through the countryside of southern Finland, carrying four teenagers and their camping gear. On one motorcycle sits Seppo Boisman and his girlfriend Anja Tuleki-Maki. The other is driven by Nils Gustafsson, with his girlfriend Mila Bjorklund in the back. Myla's 16th birthday is coming up, so it's the perfect excuse for the friends to escape the city for a weekend camping trip. And soon, their destination, Lake Bodum, comes into view. It's about 3 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide, surrounded by pine and birch trees that make it feel quite remote, in spite of its relatively close proximity to the city of Espoo. At an intersection near the lake, they stop at a roadside stand. The mature woman working the kiosk is less than pleasant to them. She seems wary of their group, and when asked, she suggests that they camp far away.
Confused but undeterred, the group buys some soda and beer, then heads off to find a campsite, as planned. As they pull away, Myla shoots a glance back at the stand. The woman is watching them go. Myla finds herself wondering whether it's safe to camp here. She's already noticed that there are not many tents set up along the lake shore. There are plenty of hikers and swimmers, and the occasional boat out on the lake. It seems odd that there aren't more overnight campers on the weekend. As they scour the lake shore for a campsite, Myla, Nils, Seppo, and Anya encounter a handful of day trippers, people there for hiking or fishing, but they make sure to find a nice secluded space to set up. It's not long before they find the perfect spot, a small outcropping on the south shore. They're right by the water, but screened from public view by the trees. They lean their two motorcycles against nearby trees and pitch a small tent that's just big enough to fit them all inside.
Myla keeps thinking back to the woman who sold them their drinks, the look she gave to the four of them, her cryptic warnings. Myla hopes that they won't get in trouble for staying here. Since this is her birthday celebration, she'd feel awful if something happened. But her concern starts to evaporate as everyone settles in by the lake. It's been an especially hot summer, so the cool breeze over the water is just what they needed. The boys crack open their beers. Anya stops complaining about how annoying her dad was about letting her go on this trip. And finally, Milo relaxes as well. The day comes to an end, but the sun doesn't set. They may be in southern Finland, but they're still close enough to the Arctic Circle that the sun never fully sets in the summer. It dips low until it's barely touching the horizon and stays there. And as night falls, the sky dims to a sort of warm twilight, a phenomenon known as a midnight sun. All in all, it gives everything a beautiful, eerie look.
By 2 a.m., both of the boys are drunk and Anya is sleeping. It gives Mila enough privacy to make a quick entry in her diary made possible by the light of the midnight sun. She writes that the boys are still awake, that Seppo is out fishing. She doesn't write for long and soon she's putting away her diary to try to get some sleep. That entry would be her final words. Nine hours later.
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