The Suspicious Case of the Reykjavik Confessions

[Music] this week on BuzzFeed himself we discussed the reykjavik confessions and icelandic case in which six people confess to murders that police have no physical evidence ever occurred this is a treat for me because as you know yeah i went on a trip to Iceland last year yeah I've heard about it it certainly is one of the many arrows in your anecdote quiver a big one well I'm excited to tell you that perhaps the place that you deemed heaven maybe isn't so heavenly stunning this does yeah hot springs great stuff let's get into it on January 26th 1974 booth moon Dare Anderson a quiet 18 year old laborer went out drinking with some friends they ended up in a dance hall and happen Arthur a town just south of Reykjavik goof moon Dare left the party in the early hours of the day and decided to walk home around 2:00 a.m. two of his friends saw a good mood there on the road trying to hitch a ride with another man they did not recognize both men were clearly drunk and Guth moon there swayed as he stumbled his way through the snow booth moon there never made it home at the time the entire country of Iceland's population was about two hundred and twenty thousand people for context that's five thousand fewer people than lived in Reno Nevada in 2010 major crimes were very very uncommon they didn't even have government bodies tasked with finding missing people after a few weeks of searching and coming up empty the volunteer search parties ended their hunt yeah not a lot of crime they're not used to it still I mean you should have some systems in place let me tell you something about Iceland one morning we woke up to go on a beautiful kayak trip the woman who drove us to the kayak thing we were talking about just the way things go there and she said you know we don't have a lot of crime here about once a year we will do a murder and she made and I was like okay I know you know you're not implying that the whole country gets together and picks one person like the lottery and decides to sacrifice them she said we will do over there do a murder around ten months after good moon there anderson disappeared on november 19 1974 a quiet construction worker given their anderson with no relation to good moon there was watching TV with a friend at his home in kep Levesque the pair briefly left to go to the harbor cafe but Geffen there shortly returned back at home he received a phone call his wife goofed knee said governor told the man on the other end of the call quote I've already come end quote followed by quote I'll come and quote GERD Fenner then drove his car into town parked close to a cafe left his keys in the ignition exited his vehicle and was never seen again two guys disappear within the span of ten months they have the same last name no relation in a place where this is not common yes so we may have a bit of a crook on our hands yeah maybe turning around up the task force to find the missing people another missing person meant another search party of volunteers who found no trace of Garin er this being the second disappearance within the year detectives decided it might be time to do a bit more sleuthing the first step for police was to find out who called Garin er two teenagers and a cafe employee described a man they had seen place a call from a phone booth outside the cafe from these descriptions the police made a clay recreation of a man's face and began showing it around kept Levesque is a small town so when no one could identify the man depict it in the police's model they assumed the man was from out of town the manager of a nightclub in nearby Reykjavik was questioned but released by the following summer detectives had no witnesses and crucially no bodies what they did have were rumors swirling around once Ivar see sales key so this is a possible suspect based off description so instead of doing like a a police sketch they did a yeah arts and crafts I got a little mr. Potato Head mr. Potato Head here sy VAR c sales key was a local petty criminal with a penchant for stealing things like alcohol candles and checkbooks he sold drugs and would tell his girlfriend but let doctor about his desire to commit the quote perfect crime end quote together the two would forged checks using airless job as a telex operator for Iceland's post and telecommunication company shortly after Geffen Nair went missing aired 'la and savart bought one-way tickets to Copenhagen with money they didn't bezel from Atlas job so these are these these is like a Bonnie and Clyde situation yeah you know what actually now that you bring this up I did go to Copenhagen right after Iceland and it is a stunning City wouldn't mind escaping there in Denmark antlia soon became pregnant and the couple moved back to Reykjavik to have their baby in September 1975 in order to support his new family cybers plan was to smuggle cannabis into Iceland perhaps consequently Ella decided the two should live apart I'm gonna provide for this family some of that good good good turn Iceland into Greenland baby while police were still stymied by the previous year's two disappearances they had been making progress on a case of some stolen money at the post and telecommunication company on December 12 1975 Savar was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement two days later antlia was also taken into custody Ella initially denied everything authorities questioned her and detained her in solitary confinement after seven days of grueling questioning she confessed to the post and telecommunication fraud as she was preparing to be released investigators showed Erika a photo of Guth moon dirt intercept the first man to go missing who she recognized from Reykjavik they had once shared a card together and had on another occasion ran into one another at a party etna told investigators that she vaguely remembered the night good moon there disappeared she had been at a nightclub without sy bar who she thought was in Denmark at the time when she got home she immediately fell asleep though she recalled a nightmare in which she could hear sigh bars boys whispering outside her window sensing the faintest hint of a lead police asked her if it was possible she hadn't been dreaming so instead of releasing her they'd been through Ella back in solitary confinement crook Lord she admits to the embezzlement yeah and then they throw a Hail Mary they say here's a picture of goo moon there yeah hey you do crimes you know she remembers him she has a nightmare that sigh bar who is unaccounted for is whispering outside of her window the police then say maybe it wasn't a nightmare yeah they then throw her back into solitary confinement two birds one stone as they say that is what they say little something I heard in Iceland alone air club began to doubt her memories she thought quote is it possible they killed someone in the apartment and I saw the whole thing and I can't remember end quote Ella was questioned for six hours on December 20th naming sy bar and their friend Kristian Vitter as possible suspects in booth moon dares disappearance she also mentioned being perplexed to come home On January 27th 1974 the day after goof moon there disappeared to find her bed sheet missing investigators drew up a confession that said she saw cypher and three others carry the body of guthe Linder while wrapped in the missing bedsheet antlia signed it after being kept in solitary confinement for days and being threatened to be kept there indefinitely all while she had an 11 week old baby at home Eric but herself was only 20 years old like you put me in a room for three straight days I'm starting to already questioned my sense of reality yeah I needed to talk to people the next day cypher who had been in solitary confinement this whole time was questioned for 10 hours then six hours the day after once investigators finally showed him airless confession sy bar told investigators he was involved along with three friends Christian who cypher had seen that adla had already named Craig V Runa and Albert Kaun so he's in solitary he's wondering what the hell's going on they're grilling him for 16 hours and then they show that his you know I guess former significant other hasn't a signed confession saying this is what he did I think that's the last draw right that breaks the camel's back and you may suspect if he's thinking well if I confess to this maybe they'll just get me out of solitary but if I implicate some other people maybe maybe that'll spread it out a bit exactly the police had developed an unfortunate habit of during their suspects in solitary confinement anytime they needed to solicit a confession in this criminal case they arrested the three men and threw them into solitary eventually the men all confessed to playing roles in booth moon dares murder now that they had extracted confessions for one disappearance the investigators wondered was it possible that they could solve the second one - pretty much everyone I met in Iceland was so kind and so polite I just imagined the most polite people in the world doing this and being like well we figured out that if you put them in that room you know they'd tell you so I guess maybe we'll just keep doing that I would like to not think that's the case I would like to think that maybe the community is pressuring like this guy's running rampant they're killing they killed two people that's twice the output in the last 20 years we got to do something and this is the answer they're they're doing result based investigative techniques they're getting the signature they did their job in their head yeah that's how they're legitimizing it which like I said some people you could you could understand that police went back to air club and asked if it was possible the men they've gotten confessions out of for good moon there's disappearance could have also been involved in get winners as well antlia replied quote maybe end quote the police told their quote we have a reason to believe that you have experienced something traumatic concerning Geffen Ayres disappearance and we are going to help you remember and quote they were like do you think this could maybe be connected to this other disappearance and she said maybe and they're like oh yeah that's the Greenline baby fire up that room again ridiculous oh great great this is the second time they have taken her out she assigned something and thought I'm free good to go and then they said uh-uh uh-uh and you go so you just got to think about what that would do to your brain her brain is Plato right now yeah the police began to question it sighs var and Christian about guarantors disappearance and sure enough received confessions from all of them their stories however kept changing at one point the murder happened on a boat but the final confession presented in court said the men had killed him on land eventually Christian mentioned a foreign-looking man who helped them murder Jeff inner that foreign-looking man was eventually identified as Guth yon Scarpia Tinson a former teacher of ciphers if you had a good teacher they say like write a note to him let him know how much you appreciate it give him an apple or something it'd be weird to be like hey you did a great you I really liked the multiplication tables we did you want to kill a guy yeah you did a really good job molding my mind you did it such a good job I'd like you to come in with me on this big score how'd you like to make a man disappear Guth Yan was arrested on November 12 1976 though he initially claimed he could not remember the night in question which at this point was almost two years ago 17 days of solitary confinement managed to jog his memory and he confessed by December 1976 antlia sighs Vaart Christian Guth Yan trivy and Albert had confessed to involvement in the murders despite the fact that all suspects demonstrated foggy memory of the events the fact that aired Lucifer and Christian all tried to retract their confessions which the court rejected and the fact that no murdered bodies had been discovered in December 1977 they were all found guilty by the court and given various sentences relating to their involvement oh boy yeah this is this is now getting kind of comical at this point yeah they're just roping him in it's worth pausing to go over what life was like for the six while they were detained by the police Albert spent a total of 88 days in solitary confinement antlia spent two hundred and forty-one days goofy on spent four hundred and twelve days trip Vee spent six hundred and twenty-seven Christiaan spent six hundred and eighty two and savart spent a whopping seven hundred and forty-one days more than two full years in solitary confinement they were periodically prohibited from sleeping and interrogated hundreds of times according to prison guard Lena Thor Magnussen SCI VARs head would be dunked in buckets of water as he was told he'd drown if he did not confess that is ridiculous usually it seems like when they try to force a confession like this it's like they maybe may not reveal they've got someone locked up Duncan their head in a bucket pretty proud of themselves you know I imagine yeah be they were pleased with the results while in detention Christiaan twice attempted suicide at times he was made to pose and recreated crime scene photos in one Christian strangles a police officer who is standing in for given her false memory experts say that the acting out of supposed crimes can make those crimes more concrete and realistic in the suspects mind on May 3rd 1976 art 'la who was not being detained at the time was brought in for questioning as a witness she was kept in custody overnight and the following day seemingly out of nowhere give a statement that she had shot air Fenner she was then detained in solitary until December 22nd their cruelty seems to know no end if you're already doubting yourself in thinking like man maybe maybe my brain is just blocking off that part of my memory suddenly now you've got sensations to tie to all the things that you may or may have not done the psychology of it is like maybe if I give them this or that they'll let me go yeah and that's all it becomes on New Year's Eve 1976 gisli Guth young son a young detective at the time of the disappearances who has since become one of the world's foremost false memory syndrome experts gave Guth young a lie-detector test that test sparked something in Guth young causing him to suddenly question whether he had been involved at all he couldn't remember any event happening gisli author of the book the psychology of false confessions 40 years of science and practice says false memory syndrome which can be triggered by interrogations with false evidence isolation and tense emotional situations can lead to false confessions easly says diary kept by Gucci on while he was detained in solitary for 14 months was the best example of false memory syndrome he's ever seen of the whole case gisli says that quote these individuals had absolutely no knowledge of what happened they were just trying to appease the police they were trying to be cooperative because they knew if they were not cooperative they will be given more solitary confinement end quote well who's this young go-getter shown up on the scene because I like the cut of his jib yeah he's kind of writing in like the white knight I like you got this young detective sitting there he's probably like hey you know that guy's been in that room for 700 days maybe that's not the best practice that we should be engaging in yeah maybe think about what we're doing here folks oh no no okay well I'm gonna write a book about you know ya with youth comes a changing of the guard so to speak yeah it was necessary here yeah in September 2018 everyone was acquitted but ECLA who was still fighting a conviction of perjury by then everyone had already finished serving their sentences and savart and Cristian had already died both in their 50s while much of that was about how horrible the justice system in Iceland was in the 1970s they're still a mystery to get to the bottom of so with that here are some theories about what happened to Guth moon there Anderson and gif man they're a nursin the first theory is that the police got this one right Guth moon dare was murdered by Erica sigh Park Christian Albert and trig V governor was murdered by Erica Savar and Christian and Booth Yin what evidence is there of this no bodies were ever found though there was it was missing bedsheet missing bedsheet doesn't always equal murder you know my freshman year of college mm-hmm we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to get some some stuff and my mom was like hey you should get these rubber sheets I said why on why in the hell would I buy rubber sheets and she was like you know case you spill like a pop on your bed I thought she was gonna say cuz you're like sleeping in a pool of your own vomit no no anyway back to the murder did you buy the rubber sheets I'm actually no I didn't buy the rubber sheet I think who would do that apparently you because you're getting pretty touchy about it which makes me feel like I just know why we're standing in that room for ten days and then I'll ask you about the road okay how about that is good you're bringing them back around the second theory is that neither man was murdered while crime was very uncommon in Iceland disappearances were not in fact disappearances happened so often in Iceland that they feature prominently in the country's folklore in the 50 years prior to these cases dozens of people had gone missing in Iceland most of them their cases unsolved in the more than 40 years since the disappearances of gooth wonder Anderson and get veneer Anderson they too have also taken on in nearly mythical quality within Icelandic culture oh I'm buying that because in Iceland big open fields were I don't think people are walking but on the on the Reg so you can get a body out there decomposes nobody knows yeah I'm booking up two years later than that book you might take a Dyson right now you've sold me you gotta check it I wasn't on board until you got to the decomposing body in an open field but after that yeah a third theory is that the men were murdered but by someone else new evidence in the case has compelled investigators to reopen it a new witness says they saw two men carry a third weakened man onto a boat the date governor went missing that man allegedly told the eyewitness quote remember me end quote when the boat that was carrying two men and the one Wigand man returned to shore there were only the two men on board recently this witness claims to have seen one of the men in East Iceland decades later working on electricity lines weird that you wouldn't just if you saw someone carrying a weekend de man who looked at you and said remember me you wouldn't maybe yeah get the police on the horn maybe do a little hey I saw a guy get carried off it looked like he couldn't walk he said remember me may want to look into it maybe like well we don't have a missing task force so so do you later you later hang it up and that's that yeah while these mysterious disappearances took place over 40 years ago we can draw important lessons for today in the way the cases were handled while it might be tempting to try and cram facts to fit a convenient theory truth works the other way around had authorities been better equipped to discover the facts of the case perhaps we'd know what happened to Goodwin there and get Vener but because of a rush to find a convenient solution these Icelandic disappearances remain unsolved it's not often that I have almost zero hope that this one a case is going to be solved I just I feel that way about most cases I'm really a bit there's a small glimmer but this one it just I just don't think so and for the record Iceland is breathtaking and you should really consider heading out there men hard sell after this story but yeah I'll check it out I met an unsolved fan there oh really yeah so shout out to all our murder heads in Iceland you thought you were doing so well we're caller alright see you next week everybody [Music]

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

Views: 8,365,706

Rating: 4.9391537 out of 5

Keywords: BuzzFeed, Buzzfeed unsolved, Guðmundur and Geirfinnur case, Reykjavik, SffZ, buzzfeed unsolved network, case, cold case, cold-case, creepy, crime, criminal, detective, detectives, eerie, haunted, iceland, investigate, investigation, investigative, mystery, reykjavik confessions, ryan bergara, shane madej, spooky, strange, theories, theory, true crime, unexplained, unknown, unsolved, unsolved mysteries, unsolved mystery, unsolved true crime

Id: GaLdHd2J-xM

Length: 21min 12sec (1272 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2019