Experts bewildered by spate of in-family killings

Couple die in shooting in Hattula

print this

A sudden surge in killings within families in recent months has surprised Finnish experts.
      The most recent case took place on Wednesday evening, when a childless couple died of gunshot woulnds inflicted after an argument in Leteensuo in the southern Finnish community of Hattula. Police found the bodies of the 35-year-old man and the 30-year-old woman at their home after the resident of the other part of their semi-detached house heard shots fired.
      Initial reports suggest that the man had used an unregistered handgun to kill his partner and then himself. Initial investigations do not point to the involvement of any outsiders in the incident.
     
The Hattula shooting is the fifth such incident in Finland this autumn.
      “I hope that this is just a coincidence, but I am afraid of the possibility that publicity might be causing people to behave according to a pattern”, says Jouko Lönnqvist, a research professor at the National Public Health Institute.
      Lönnqvist says that it has been seen that publicity stemming from killings creates pressures for new acts.
      Timo Peltovuori, the executive director of the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health, says that there is “something strange in the air”. He says that something can and should be done about the killings.
      He said that there are no easy ways to provide fast assistance for families suffering from economic difficulties.
      “How can resources be targeted better, and how can families who need help be identified?” Peltovuori asks.
     
Any problems that the couple in Hattula may have had were not recognised in time.
      Villagers interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat did not know the couple. Residents are not in close contact with each other, as the distances between houses are in the hundreds of metres.
      Police Constable Ari Pullinen would not give details of the case.
      “Nothing indicates that the shooting would have been agreed upon in advance by the two”, he noted. The couple had jobs, and police know of no mental health problems that they might have had.
     
Just over a week before the Hattula shooting, a married couple were found dead in their apartment in Havukoski in Vantaa. Police say that they had been dead for three weeks. Both were 54 years old. The exact cause of death was unknown.
      On October 28th, a couple was found dead in their home in Herttoniemi in the east of Helsinki. The husband, a 48-year-old man, had apparently used a military pistol to kill his 41-year-old wife, and had then shot himself.
      A day earlier, on October 28th, a police officer and his wife were found dead in their house in Porvoo on the south coast. Police say that the death was a double suicide.
     
In Oulu, a family of four died in their home on October 18th, when the family’s 43-year-old father first shot his 39-year-old wife and their children, aged 11 and 9, with a shotgun, and then turned the gun on himself. Both parents were local schoolteachers.
      On August 11th, a recently married 37-year-old man stabbed his 33-year-old wife in Viikinmäki in Helsinki, after which he jumped from the balcony of their apartment.
      On June 6th, an 88-year-old war veteran used a Russian revolver to shoot his mentally disabled twin daughters at home. He then shot his wife at the local public health centre, and finally went home to shoot himself.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Previous recession led to more violent deaths (21.10.2008)
  Family of four die in murder-suicide, Oulu neighbourhood in shock (20.10.2008)
  Gloomy economy not seen as reason behind recent domestic killings (30.10.2008)
  Police tight-lipped on reports that two other persons were present at time of Oulu shootings (23.10.2008)

See also:
  Finland: a nation armed to the teeth (16.11.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat