On 31 December 1966, Islanders were shocked to learn about the discovery of the battered body of a young woman in a field in St Clement. The gruesome find quickly progressed into a murder enquiry, with the victim identified as Tuula Höök, a 20-year-old from Finland who worked as an au pair and waitress during two spells in Jersey during 1965 and 1966.
The case baffled police detectives assigned to the case, and the mystery has persisted during several cold-case reviews, attaining the status of Jersey’s most notorious unsolved crime.
In summer 2023, Tuula’s story came to the attention of Mark Bridgeman, the author of a number of true-crime books, who became fascinated by the case, and resolved to seek support from both Tuula’s family and States of Jersey Police in turning it into a book. After extensive research, his work – Tuula, A True Crime Tragedy – is set for publication later this week.
In this second extract from the book, States of Jersey Police officers arrive at a difficult and very challenging crime scene, with the author spelling out previously unpublished details of their findings. An already difficult decade for the Island’s police, government and tourism industry was about to become even more problematic as Jersey’s dark underbelly of crime was laid bare.
All police leave cancelled as murder inquiry is launched
Rue Laurens soon became a hive of activity as investigators, forensic support, and the Jersey Fire Brigade attended the scene. French farmworker Andre Jeget, who worked for the Le Quesne family, had also seen the body along with [family member] Robert Le Quesne, and had assumed that the unknown woman had been the victim of a “hit-and-run” motor-car collision, due to her extensive facial injuries. Only later would it be established that this was a far more serious case.
An initial examination showed the victim to be a blonde female wearing a button-up black leather jacket, a light-blue turtleneck jumper, a maroon skirt, matching patent-leather shoes, black patterned stockings, and carrying a large, brown leather handbag. Despite the heavy rain and the time of year, there was no umbrella next to her body (nor was one found at or near the scene). Neither was the victim attired in a hat or headscarf, a commonly worn and fashionable accessory at the time. The contents of her large handbag lay scattered close by, although the strap of the bag itself remained hooked over her left arm.
News of the discovery of a young woman’s body soon spread among the Islanders as they joined together to celebrate the arrival of 1967. Meanwhile, crime scene investigators began an intensive search of the field and lane for a weapon, for the death was evidently a murder.
Head of the States of Jersey Police, Chief Officer James Axon, initiated a murder inquiry. He immediately cancelled all leave and the Island’s CID force was instructed to return to the office. The majority of Jersey’s 120 professional uniformed officers were assigned to the case. Around 11 am on New Year’s Day 1967, in an attempt to assuage public concern, James Axon stood alongside the experienced Centenier for St Clement, Ernie Watson, and announced to the press, “I am personally leading the hunt for the murderer.”
Mr Axon’s statement may have been either an attempt to soothe the public’s nerves or an effort to challenge the authority of the Honorary Police in the investigation. Nonetheless, with Jersey’s Chief Police Officer in charge, it was hoped that a quick resolution to the crime could be found and the killer quickly identified. Axon continued:
“Just over 24 hours ago, the body of a young woman was found by a farmer just inside a field along a lonely lane near St Clement’s Parish Church, about three miles east of St Helier. It is estimated she has been dead for about 36 hours. We are anxious for anyone who has any information to contact the Jersey Police as soon as possible. Thank you.”
As with all murder investigations, the first 48 hours are essential. Only by asking the key questions could detectives obtain the vital answers they sought:
Who was this young woman? Was she local or a visitor to the Island?
How did her body end up in a lonely, muddy field? Who could possibly have committed so brutal a murder?
In 1967, you might be forgiven for assuming that the shocking murder was greeted with disbelief and surprise by Jersey residents. Dubbed ‘the Holiday Island’ and ‘the Honeymoon Island’ by both the British public and press, this pocket paradise of just 46 square miles was a glamorous holiday destination and no doubt, the ‘Love Island’ of its era. In the years before low-cost package trips to the Continent were readily available to the masses, Jersey was branded to the UK holiday market as a cocktail of sunshine and sandy beaches, not mystery and murder. Yet, beneath the veneer of attractive pink granite cottages, vibrant flowers, and picturesque coastline, Jersey had been concealing a dark underbelly of crime. A string of unsolved sex attacks on children and young women, the scars of the occupation, a recent violent murder in St Helier, the infamous (yet-to-be exposed) child abuse scandal, and the shocking 1965 murder of an eleven-year-old girl. To fully understand the story behind the discovery of Tuula’s savagely beaten body, the subsequent murder inquiry, and the incalculable loss of a young woman who was undoubtedly destined to be a force of good in this world, our tale begins, not on a cold and wet New Year’s Eve in 1966, but several years earlier.
It was the spring of 1959, and hundreds of young couples arrived on the shores of Jersey to enjoy the continental sunshine, beaches and nightlife. Indeed, before more exotic honeymoon destinations were readily available, Jersey was the UK’s number one choice for newlyweds. The island quickly relished its new label, ‘The Honeymoon Island’.
But why did so many honeymooning couples choose to hastily flock to Jersey, and before the summer season had even begun? A flickering Pathé newsreel from the time can provide the answer:
“Here we see hundreds of newlywed couples at a Jersey hotel. Every room occupied and everyone on their honeymoon. The explanation, as unlikely as it seems, is income tax. To get married before April 5th, the end of the [UK] Government’s financial year, qualifies every happy pair for allowances against income tax of £320. Fancy romance getting a bonus from the government!”
This, not inconsiderable amount – the equivalent to almost £10,000 today – provided the strongest motivation (other than love, of course), for thousands of couples to take advantage of a generous tax provision, introduced after the Second World War, which allowed any couple marrying before 6 April, in any given tax year, to file a joint return in retrospect for the previous fiscal year.
Jersey’s huge popularity was accompanied by several unwanted side effects. A steady increase in the Island’s inhabitants brought with it a noticeable rise in crime. Jersey’s permanent population, approximately 60,000 in 1961, had reached 70,000 a decade later. An appreciable increase on an Island measuring just 46 square miles.
Alongside the permanent residents and throngs of tourists came an influx of casual seasonal workers, often from mainland Europe, who arrived in Jersey to fill positions at the island’s many hotels, bar, pubs and clubs. The Island offered excitement, nightlife, and perhaps even the promise of romance. It is unlikely that any of the young people, like Tuula, entering Jersey to work for the summer season (many of whom were undoubtedly using the opportunity to learn or improve their English) would have been aware of the recent spate of unsolved attacks on the island.
In the summer of 1965, the tall, attractive, blonde nineteen-year-old Tuula Höök travelled to Jersey to spend the summer working at a guesthouse, and to improve her already considerable language skills. Meanwhile, unknown to the hordes of tourists and workers arriving, Jersey residents remained baffled by an unsolved series of abductions, rapes and sexual assaults on the island, which had begun eight years earlier in 1957, and where the beginnings of Tuula’s story are rooted.
Tuula, A True Crime Tragedy will be published by Tippermuir Books on 21 May. An interview with author Mark Bridgeman is available via Bailiwick Podcasts.
