Ensio Koivunen
| Ensio Koivunen | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ensio Kalevi Koivunen June 23, 1930 Impilahti, Finland |
| Died |
May 27, 2003 (aged 72) Varkaus, Finland |
| Cause of death | Natural causes |
| Other names | "Häkä-Enska" |
| Criminal penalty | 25 years confinement in a psychiatric hospital[1] |
| Conviction(s) | Murder |
| Details | |
| Victims | 3 |
Span of crimes | July 1971–August 1971 |
| Country | Finland |
Date apprehended | September 1971 |
Ensio Kalevi Koivunen (born June 23, 1930 in Impilahti - May 27, 2003 in Varkaus) was a Finnish serial killer.[2][3] He murdered three female hitchhikers in the summer of 1971, according to his business theme Häkä-Enska.[4]
The missing girls
On July 11, 1971, 23-year-old Salme Helena Metsänikula (born January 28, 1948) disembarked a bus in Anjala en route from Helsinki to Turku.[4] She was last seen in Koria, and then vanished, when she was supposed to be lifted near Turku. A friend of hers began worrying about Metsänikula because she had not yet returned to university. The girl's father traveled to Turku to investigate, but when no trace of her was found, she was declared missing.
On August 17, 17-year-old Ritva Anneli Raijas (born November 27, 1953) and 16-year-old Pirjo Marjatta Laiho (born July 20, 1954) took off from Pitäjänmäki to visit an aunt in Hyvinkää. When they did not arrive a few days later, they were also declared as missing. The last known location of the girls was at the Hämeenlinna bridge near Keimola on August 14. A 28-year-old Helsinki automechanic was seen taking the girls from the bridge. His actions were reported during the 1971 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, taking the girls near an Esso company on the crossroad between Kaarela and Nurmijärvi.[4]
Search
The man reportedly had taken the girls at 21:51 and had been seen with them at Esso until 22:00 when he left without them. Other motorists had seen the girls later on between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. According to a new hint, they had been seen in a red Citroën 2CV.
A Helsinki family left on August 18 to a mushroom forest in Ingå. Almost immediately upon entering the forest, the father stumbled upon a body wrapped up in plastic press and covered with moss and lark. Next to it were neatly fitted eyeglasses and patent leather shoes. The police later informed the NBI, who started exploring the woods and the surrounding environment. It was revealed that the cause of death was unnatural. Later, the victim's identity was confirmed as Salme Helena Metsänikula. Her camera, three rings and belt were missing.[4]
The corpse in the forest was near the old labor camp in Ingå, where the criminals were placed to work in the last moments of their sentences before release. The police screened the prisoners' fingerprints in case the killer was there.[4]
On August 20, the police were called in to inspect lost goods at Seutula's old airport. The police found a young woman's personal belongings, including a Kela card and an audio recorder. The goods were found to belong to Raijas and Laiho.[4]
Finding the bodies
On August 21, a group of young men found the bodies of two girls covered with plastic in Ridasjärvi village. The girls were Raijas and Laiho. The plastic was important evidence since it had a number that was assumed to be the Citroën's registration number. Since the plastic was made in Sweden, five Swedish companies were contacted about the matter.
Raijas and Laiho were last seen on August 9 in Riihimäki. A 24-year-old radio technician told that he had met the girls at the Karavaani nightclub in Riihimäki on August 14, and took the girls three miles to another nightclub at 20:30. Then a 28-year-old industrial guard told reporters that they had been at Keimola at about 22:00, but they might have been different girls.
The Swedish-made plastic got police to extradite intevstigations into Sweden. It was also apparent that a car registed in Sweden would have been at the abduction site in 1971. In the summer of 1971, Anetta Wernersson, 16, disappeared from the Linköping Youth Center Home in Sweden. She was thought to have been abducted. The police combined the killings with Wernersson's abduction through the press and the Swedish car, but the number 220 was a Voltt number rather than a registration number. The plastic had probably come through Finland with some electrical equipment. The connection between the plastic and the Wernersson case was dropped.[4]
The victims' shoes were tied neatly in lines, and at the time of the autopsy were in a smiling position. Ethanol was later found in their blood, and both had been sexually assaulted. The cause of death was determined as carbon monoxide poisoning.[1]
Search and capture
The NBI combined the investigation of the cases, as the girls' killings were very similar, and at the time quite close to each other. All the girls had been abducted and their goods found in the Southern Finland Province. The NBI for the first time in its history received pictures of the victims, which were distributed from all around Southern Finland to filling stations and dance venues. In one of the photographs found in the Old Airfield Ditch, there were fingerprints belogning to a man who had been to the Ingå Labor Camp. His car, a 1967 Dodge Dart, registration number BNL-99, was also sought for. According to anonymous tips, the car had been seen several times.
On September 26, the police found and arrested the owner, who was 41-year-old Ensio Kalevi Koivunen, on the island town of Hanko. His car was confiscated, and his home was also investigated. Two illegal pistols, a woman's belt and a camera were found.[4]
Interrogations
The hearings were heavy because Koivunen changed his story every day. He denied killing the girls or even meeting them. However, he had transported four women in the summer, denying they were the same girls. In one of the interviews, Koivunen admitted to having met Metsänikula at the shore of Myllylampi, who seemed a bit strange and unkempt. He then took her and gave her coffee. According to Koivunen, Metsänikula told private things about her studies, friends and personal life. He also noted that Metsänikula used a lot of medicines, and according to the girl, nerve drugs. As they continued their journey, the girl's chest began to squeeze. Koivunen was frightened, stopped the car and left. After returning, he noticed that Metsänikula was lying on the car's back seat, dead. Koivunen then started the engine and drank for a while until he hid the girl's body in the nearby forest, where the family soon found her.
Interrogations about Laiho and Raijas were started in the same way as Metsänikula. Initially, Koivunen denied knowing anything about the girls, but changed his story and claimed to have met Laiho earlier and began a relationship with her. According to him, Laiho called for him and proposed to meet. On the meeting place, Laiho arrived with her friend Raijas. The girls and Koivunen then headed for Hyvinkää.
They had stopped at a nightclub when an unknown young man joined them. After some time, all began to drink alcohol, with Raijas becoming sick and vomiting. When the night came, Koivunen had left his car to pick up cigarettes, and after that, he did not remember anything. He only remembered standing next to where Raijas and Laiho layed. The young man in the background then claimed to have battered the girls.
During the interrogation, Koivunen's wife was also interviewed, telling all of his actions. On August 15, she had been at home when Koivunen came home and told her that he had shown two girls and a boy around the city. When he and his wife read the magazine about the disappearance of two girls, Koivunen noted that they looked the same as the girls he had been with.
For Laiho and Raijas, the story was changed immediately. Koivunen told that everyone had moved back to the car, and the mysterious young man was now missing from the story. The girls had fallen asleep on the back seat while he was driving. Upon awakening, Koivunen noticed that the engine was running, and tried to wake the girls, unsuccessfully.
Shuddering, Koivunen wandered around hoping the girls would wake up, but they were dead. In fear, he remembered what had happened to Metsänikula one month earlier. Koivunen feared to get sent back to jail and decided to get rid of the bodies. When the police asked how they had died, Koivunen told them that while they slept, someone had dug up the hose from the car's back and connected it through the exhaust pipe to the back of the car. However, the question arose of how Koivunen survived that.
Koivunen never acknowledged his guilt and changed the details of the story many times, remaining consistant only on several occasions. According to his wife, they were scared, had vomited and choked while in the car. When they heard that the police had found tire marks on the fringes, Koivunen's wife remembered her husband's strange and nervous behaviour on that night.
During an examination of Koivunen, a hair of his was found on Laiho and Raijas' bodies. The camera found at home was also identified as his, as well as fingerprints from a photo found in a back alley near his home.
There were plenty of anonymous tips, some of which were significant. During a preliminary investigation, a girl told the police that she had taken a lift from Helsinki to Hyvinkää. The driver was a 41-year-old male. At first everything seemed innocent until the man had decided to introduce the girl to the city. He had taken her, among other places, to the Taabor mountain, speaking about himself and his life on the way. When they got there, he did not let the girl out and threatened her, but she jumped out of the car and fled. After the incident, she had seen that same man near her house several times. When she was shown a picture of Koivunen, she immediately recognized him.[4]
Trial
Koivunen was arrested for the murder of Metsänikula, Raijas and Laiho. He was jailed in the Helsinki Prison before the trial in the Hyvikää District Court, which got a lot of publicity. Koivunen was initially dissatisfied with his lawyer, and changed him before the trial. He tried to change his story and bring his own witnesses to the court, but nothing helped. The trial lasted six hours each day.
Koivunen's criminal record was very long. He had been convicted of several property crimes, and from 1953 to 1968 he had been free for a short time, and eight times in a prison hospital. He served a six year sentence in jail when he participated in a car crash. All the crimes he had committed were done in Hyvinkää and Ingå, because they were located near the prison camp. Koivunen was ordered for a mental health examination.[1]
Koivunen was found to sane, but in the process was identified as a habitual liar.
The Hyvinkää District Court ruled that Koivunen was guilty on all three charges of assault, false imprisonment and negligent homicide, and sentenced him to 25 years of confiment in a psychiatric hospital. President Mauno Koivisto released him in the fall of 1981, 10 years after the crime, and Koivunen died on May 27, 2003.[1]
