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

[insatiable]

Nanny's letters show discontent

June 28, 1996

“BOSTON -- A man told police he took a Swedish nanny to the nightclub where she was last seen alive and said he was threatened by two men outside the club when he tried to take her home, a report said.

The unidentified witness told police he leaned into a gray Mitsubishi in which Karina Holmer and the men sat outside the club Zanzibar and told Ms. Holmer, “Let’s go, you came with us,” referring to some friends.

He said one of the men replied, “Get away from the car you little (expletive) or I’ll crush your (expletive) head,” WCVB-TV reported.”

I can’t understand why this car and the men in it are not the focal point. So much was made of the guy with the dog or the creepy guy in the band, LE investigated them and ruled them out. This is a witness who knew her, was there with her...not some random person saying oh I think I saw her here or there or dancing with so and so after the fact.This is a person she went there with saying these are the last people she was with. Why are there no descriptions of these guys? Why did LE not ask to speak to them? It makes no sense.

 

[dotr]

VIDEO. rbbm.
Interested to know if a killer psychological profile was developed and if so- who does it suggest may be the type of person who could do such a thing?
imo.
Mystery remains 20 years after Swedish nanny murdered in Boston
2016
''She was last seen Friday into Saturday night at Club Zanzibar, a night spot in the Theatre District at that was popular with au pairs.

Twenty years later and there are still no arrests.

There have been plenty of potential suspects, but the case remains unsolved. It's been called Boston's most famous cold case. Now the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit is reviewing the file.


"I hope they can go through what we have for a file and at least give us some sense of who might still be somebody we should be looking into," said Police Police Sgt. William Doogan.''

 

[insatiable]

Karina was killed 24 years ago this past weekend. I hope this is the year they find her killer.

 

[kozyhelen]

Indeed.

 

[kozyhelen]

I asked this on here a while ago, but am going to give it another shot. Does anyone have access to or seen the police report? I've been trying with no success.

 

[dotr]

I asked this on here a while ago, but am going to give it another shot. Does anyone have access to or seen the police report? I've been trying with no success.

Welcome to Ws kozyhelen!
Sorry, no access to the police report that i know of, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

 

[ELIZABETH 0302]

I am new to websleuths ..and I just finished Crime Junkies episode on Karina Holmer and they have WIPED allll the pieces somehow off the internet of all the questionable arts of Susan Nichter. Does anyone happen to know where they can be seen or any screenshots?Looking for Messenger, Carried Across, Whisper, Getting what you want? Any help would be great!

Yes, I too have noticed there is very little on the internet about this case. I just listened to Crime Junkie on you tube regarding Karina Holmer. It is a very good podcast. He did his research well. However very little evidence to go on. I was living in Boston at this time and was horrified. The 90's were a big decade for murder in Boston.

 

[dotr]

Yes, I too have noticed there is very little on the internet about this case. I just listened to Crime Junkie on you tube regarding Karina Holmer. It is a very good podcast. He did his research well. However very little evidence to go on. I was living in Boston at this time and was horrified. The 90's were a big decade for murder in Boston.

Welcome to Ws ELIZABETH 0302!

 

[zuzuzumie]

Father of nanny slain in 1996 says case still stalled

Has anyone heard anything new about this case?

Susan's website is no longer functional??? any thoughts

 

[zuzuzumie]

Yes, I too have noticed there is very little on the internet about this case. I just listened to Crime Junkie on you tube regarding Karina Holmer. It is a very good podcast. He did his research well. However very little evidence to go on. I was living in Boston at this time and was horrified. The 90's were a big decade for murder in Boston.

 

[zuzuzumie]

this is what her website looks like now!!

 

[insatiable]

Decades later, few clues in Swedish nanny case > Detroit Legal News
“As was her practice, she met a few of her friends, all fellow nannies, in the loft, where they socialized and got ready to go out. A local club, Zanzibar, located at the top of Boylston Street across from the Boston Common, catered to a young and foreign crowd. It typically was hopping on weekends.

Arriving with three friends, Karina easily gained entrance using her fake ID. Once inside, the drinking, dancing and partying moved into high gear. Two of her friends met a couple of young men from the Mideast and left with them. A third friend, a stunning nanny from Medfield, drank too much, passed out, eventually recovered, and left with one of the bouncers.


Karina, who had also consumed a lot, left Zanzibar and milled around the large alley with hundreds of other partygoers, deciding where to go next. Trying to re-enter Zanzibar, she was fatefully turned away as it was closing.

As witnessed through the tired and drunken eyes of her alcohol-addled fellow bar-goers, people, like careening pinballs at an arcade, quickly popped in and out of Karina's orbit:

A homeless man with whom Karina briefly danced. An older large man dressed in a Superman T-shirt with a similarly attired large white dog. A muscular man from the club with whom she briefly spoke across the street. A man with a small dog. Two, or was it four, men in a car who either forced or didn't force her inside. Or was it a taxi?

The only thing certain was that Karina Holmer was alive at 3 in the early morning hours of Saturday and dead in a dumpster on Sunday morning around 11.“

 

[smur958]

Father of nanny slain in 1996 says case still stalled

Has anyone heard anything new about this case?

I have not heard anything new about this case. However, I lived in the area during this time period and frequented many local bars. I did not frequent Kenmore Square/ Lansdown clubs, but more often Allston/Brighton bars. Certainly, there were questionable characters hanging around but none I would ever suspect of such a horrendous act. I was an acquaintance of this person during my midteens and continued into my early adult life. I was beyond shocked by his crimes...Perhaps he should be considered for this crime. Somerville rape attack committed in 2004 brings man prison sentence up to 15 years - Cambridge Day

 

[MadisonS]

Thanks for both the article and your insight, smur958. It's always great to have Bostonians who know the area weighing in.
IMO, Carney might be too disorganized/sloppy for the Holmer murder. Karina was killed by someone very organized and meticulous. Nobody saw when her body was placed in the dumpster and no DNA evidence could be retrieved from Katrina's remains or from the garbage bag. I think whoever killed her had some knowledge of (and possibly experience with) forensics.

 

[insatiable]

Im not sure I agree about the person having knowledge about forensics, at-least not in a professional capacity. If there was no DNA or prints I’m sure the person went to great lengths to make sure they didn’t leave any behind.... doesn’t every killer who doesn’t want to be caught? Or maybe they just got lucky? I do always wonder why would he/they cut her in half? If it was to hide a pregnancy that would be stupid because a blood test would show that. Someone with forensic knowledge would be aware of that. Maybe whoever did it didn’t know that? Which makes me think it would be a younger male who might be ignorant to that fact....maybe they thought the only evidence of a pregnancy was the actual baby? Or maybe they were hiding the baby’s dna because they were the father? I do think it would of come out by now that she was pregnant if she were so I don’t think she was.
I lean towards it being for moving and transporting her body. But If she was cut just to be easier to transport why not put both halves in the same dumpster? Using two separate dumping spots increases the chances of part of her being found. Seems like a stupid move if they were trying to hide her body. If they dumped her upper half where they put the bottom half she wouldn’t be found to this day. Maybe the killer COULDN’T dispose of her top half in the same way they did her bottom half? Maybe they needed to hurry out of the place she was killed/cut and didn’t get to finish doing to the top what they did to the bottom? Maybe they tried getting rid of the bottom in a way that became not possible to do to the top?
I also think the killers DNA was in the bottom half of her body. Again...disposing of it in a way to make sure it was totally gone but in a way that would be difficult to dispose of the entire body in that way. This would be a reason to cut it in pieces and also to not place it all in the same place.
I really wish something would move forward so they could solve this case.

I thought I had read years ago there was a partial print found on the trash bag or on tape on the trash bag....am I imagining that?

 

[dotr]

Decades later, few clues in Swedish nanny case > Detroit Legal News
''A partial fingerprint was recovered from the two large industrial-sized 50- to 60-gallon bags that contained her body.''

 

[MadisonS]

Insatiable: Yes, they did find a partial print but couldn't match it to anyone. I wonder if the print was a red herring and placed inside the bag during the manufacturing/packaging process.

The reason that I believe the individual had forensic knowledge was due to their success in not leaving behind any DNA evidence. Karina's murder occurred in 1996 when DNA testing was becoming commonplace to solve crimes, but before TV shows like Forensic Files exposed precisely how investigators found DNA evidence (under fingernails, inside mouth, etc). If Karina had been murdered in the 2000s or later, I wouldn't be surprised by the lengths the killer went to destroy evidence, but in 1996, they either got very lucky or knew what they were doing before forensic investigation processes were taught to the public. Also, the internet wasn't anything like it is now back in 1996.

IMHO, I think the killer cut her body in half for transportation. If they had a way to destroy the lower half of her body, why not repeat the process for the upper half? It was by sheer luck that her upper half was found. It's possible that they planned to dispose of her lower half in the same dumpster but were interrupted and needed to find a new spot, and this new dumping location wound up being outside of the perimeter of the police investigation.

 

[Tony1902]

In the difficult thought of what happened...ughh.. would there not be some transfer of DNA of the killer inside the plastic bag? How, exactly, does one, sorry to be specific, put the upper part of a torso into a plastic bag without transferring DNA? You must use your arms & not just your hands. Sorry, this is disgusting but I welcome any critique.

 

[MadisonS]

In the difficult thought of what happened...ughh.. would there not be some transfer of DNA of the killer inside the plastic bag? How, exactly, does one, sorry to be specific, put the upper part of a torso into a plastic bag without transferring DNA? You must use your arms & not just your hands. Sorry, this is disgusting but I welcome any critique.

There probably was some DNA transferred, but not enough to be detected/analysed with the technology we had back in 1996. Perhaps the police should re-test the garbage bags for 'touch' DNA.

 

[insatiable]

With the OJ Simpson trial a year before in 1995 a lot of information about how LE was using DNA at that time was all over the TV.