MA MA - Karina Holmer, 20, Boston, 21 June 1996

New Posts

I don't think either were involved Gerhartshrieder? nagh too far fetched and the Zweiss guy? I think he was just an odd duck in close proximity at the time.
 
milopedes said:
Observations:

Herb Whitten, a 49-year-old man from Andover who would drive to the city on weekends, did have the speeding ticket alibi. But what time was the ticket? How far was he from the crime scene? Of course, he was seen in the alley with the victim so I doubt it was him . . . just doesn't make sense. I would like to know more about him, and why he committed suicide, or if he had a history of depression, etc., or if he simply was unable to deal with something (maybe what he did?).

Fire in a dumpster near the Rapp home in Dover? Odd, but c'mon, if he or his wife were involved do you think they'd be that reckless or careless. Why not simply dispose of whatever incriminating evidence in other ways. As for her art, while odd / disturbing, if they weren't involved it still had an impact upon them and their family since she was their nanny. I'd imagine that would leave an impression, that would show up in her creative-side, , either consciously or subconsciously.

Were her employers helpful? Was the loft searched? I read they were not talking about the crime while it was an ongoing realtionship, but I did not read that they - like Whitten - had "lawyered up".

In the original article posted in this thread it noted that video evidence simply did not exist. But another poster, who is apparently very familiar with the area, insists there was no way she couldn't have been on video. I wonder if the BPD have something they are not revealing. As we all know, sometimes video evidence can be helpful but not solve the crime. I think of that girl in FL who disappeared, where the video only took "snapshots" periodically. And the quality of some video, compared to others, may be low and poor.

I still need to read about this band member. Maybe more thoughts to come.
Click to expand...

The trash can fire: Sure people panic...if he had just committed murder it could have been "tale of the telltale heart" type thing...he could have just wanted to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible. not like he could stuff it in his car and deal with it later, her disappearance had to be reported right away due to his wife and kids who would notice she went missing. If the wife found any evidence she could/might dime him out.

Video/ no video: This was 1996 and although security cameras were around they weren't as many as there are now for sure.
 
Madilu said:
For whatever reason, I was thinking of this case today. I lived in Boston for many years and in 1996 when this happened. My Swedish friends and I were horrified, to say the least -we still are. I always suspected the reason her pelvis area and lower was eliminated was to hide a pregnancy. Theory: Her killer was the baby daddy and if it got out he impregnated her, through rape or otherwise, it would ruin his life. So he planned to dispose of her. Getting rid of the lower half would hide any DNA in the fetus that could be linked to him.

Who knows if it was the officer boyfriend, the host father, or someone else. -maybe even a nanny friend's host father?

Before today, I had never read that Karina sent a letter to her friend in Sweden the month prior saying that something horrible had happened. Could she have found out she was pregnant? Both? She was going to cut her stay in Boston short. Why? But, I believe if that were the case, then she would have confided in at least one of her nanny friends, as they all stick together when abroad... What was the horrible thing that happened in May? Someone knows.

Any thoughts? My heart still goes out to her and her family.
Click to expand...

You and I are in lock-step on all of our thoughts. I think it was a pregnancy that needed to be hidden. The top half was tossed in the dumpster because it was ok that that part was found but the bottom half gone forever??? This murder haunts me to this day...
 
http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/massachusetts/famous-murders-ma/

The upper torso of 19 year old Swedish au pair Karina Holmer was found in a dumpster in the Back Bay in June of 1996. She was last seen in the Theatre District earlier that week. The other half of her body was never located and the case remains unsolved.
Click to expand...

https://www.google.ca/search?q=karina+holmer+murder&tbas=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuntjzuovTAhXD1IMKHbA7BBUQ_AUIBygC&biw=1366&bih=659#imgrc=JlMCmB7Z26jguM:
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • original.jpg
    original.jpg
    34.2 KB · Views: 116
  • Blue_dumpster-700x652.jpg
    Blue_dumpster-700x652.jpg
    104.2 KB · Views: 114
Has anyone heard anymore info on this case? I was living in Kenmore Sq, when this happened. There were no security camera's in the area back then. The only ones were in banks/ATMs and there were none near by. The bar where she was happened to be in an area with several clubs and about a 20 minute walk (I had done it many times). Getting a cab there is tough, but she had no reason to be where she was found...it was not near any place she should have been going. So she would not have been walking...so she had to have gotten a cab or a ride, Her employer has always been shady...but he is wealthy so he can either pay an attorney to make it difficult to have police access him OR he has connections...either way, LE needs to have very good PC to get a warrant to do anything,,,but technology has gotten better so who knows, maybe there is new evidence...so now I ask...
 
What has always troubled me about the Holmer case is that there is no way this was the killer's first foray into this sort of murder. He would have to have graduated to, and from, such a killing. And another thing: the legs would have probably been kept as some sort of gruesome trophy piece. They're out there somewhere. You don't dispose of the identifying part of the corpse in such an easily detected way but then hide the legs.

The idea that she could've been pregnant isn't likely. That fact would show up in forensic tests regardless of what part of her they found.
 
Just trying this out for size, although Karina's murder occurred some time after Tina Foglia's murder, some things are similar, imo.speculation.

Tina, 19 years old, was last seen at a popular NY nightclub around 3 am, and her body parts found in plastic bags dumped along a highway.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?341106-Tina-Foglia-19-exit-ramp-westbound-Southern-State-Feb-1982&p=13449678#post13449678

[url]http://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/police-ask-for-help-in-cold-case-murder-of-brentwood-woman-1.13750287
A story from the Newsday archives said that “a source close to” the initial investigation had confided that Foglia’s limbs were severed “cleanly,” as if with a butcher’s knife. Michael Baden, then chief deputy medical examiner for Suffolk, said that Foglia had died as a result of asphyxia by smothering.
[/URL]
Click to expand...
 
what do you mean, Karina's employer has always been shady? Is he still married to the same wife he was back then?
 
After it happened he was not very forth coming or helpful in the investigation...I should have said her employers (both) behavior at the time was well, shady (believe me there are better words)...If it was my au pair, or anyone else who lived in my home, or was a close friend, family member, etc. especially who was from another country and had no family here that was murdered, I would have done anything and everything to find out who did it...I don't know his marital status but a check through records could clear that up...that would be interesting to find out. I kind of have some theories...

I was around the age of Karina Homer when this happened and lived in Kenmore. I also watched my niece full time while going to grad-school. I hung out with the nanny's and au pairs at the parks and on play dates and frequented the bars at night in downtown Boston. I walked home past where Homer was found countless times in the 8 years I lived in Kenmore as an undergrad and grad student and never felt unsafe.
 
So Karina was a nanny for two famillies? Was tthere any gossip in nanny circles at that time about the family? I think he was married. I saw a newspaper article somewhere that I swear mentioned that the wife and husband had both been questioned. Is Karina's family still in touch with the police dept over this?
 
I have no idea if this was her first family...as for nanny gossip...the girls that came through the agencies (there was one in particular that employed most of the au pairs, especially from overseas including Louise Woodward (charged/acquitted of 1997 death of Matthew Eappen) gossiped non-stop about the families they worked for. I can only assume that she just did the same. The public persona they have portrayed is at the worst, one of possibly concealing information, of possible involvement, and at the least, uncaring individuals who did not even want to waste their time to cooperate in the murder investigation of the woman who cared for their children. They could have fully cooperated with the police and cleared, but unfortunately that is not what the public saw in the first few days of the investigation when it mattered.

I would assume her family is in touch with BPD still
 
I find it unlikely that Karina was very intoxicated and wandering around the area of the nightclub and then was victim of a premeditated crime. I think this was random.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
solitary man said:
well I'm sure the employer was well aware that she got drunk every weekend and what part of town
Click to expand...

Welcome to Ws solitary man!
Were you at all familiar with the clubs popular with the foreign nannies?
 
What’s your thoughts of the killer being a med student?
 
Oh, and that half fingerprint they found. If I only could run that against all the databases around the world.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 162 more.
Total: 4,024 (members: 163, guests: 3,861)

Online statistics

Members online
163
Guests online
3,861
Total visitors
4,024
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,585
Messages
17,971,345
Members
228,830
Latest member
LitWiz
Back
Top