Crime that will not be be forgotten

Every piece of evidence has been examined, all leads have been followed and almost everyone who knew the Finnish au pair and waitress have been spoken to.

A cold case team set up in January to review the investigation have spent months sifting through the sizable bundles of evidence, and technology that was not available to the original investigation team has been harnessed, all to no avail.

Even the receipt of new information – most importantly that Tuula spotted someone in town who left her terrified in the weeks before she was killed – has failed to bring the States police closer to finding their man.

In announcing the end of the active and high-profile investigation last week, acting Chief Inspector Lee Turner acknowledged that although the case will never be formally closed, the killer may never be found.

And he accepted that, 47 years on from the murder, it is possible that the killer has already met his own end.

But it is equally as likely that the killer is not only still alive, but is living among us today.

For that reason alone it was entirely right that the States police set up its cold case review and dedicated its time, money and resources to one final attempt to bring this case to a close.

But there is another, much more important reason why the States police were unquestionably right to roll the dice one final time, and that reason lies hundreds of miles north of Jersey in a house in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

The Hoeoek family have suffered the sort of heart-wrenching grief felt by few others.

Not only was Tuula killed as she set out in her adult life but, as previously reported, her sister was murdered by her husband in Finland.

Tuula’s father died several years ago, never knowing the identity of the man who killed his daughter in the island she had come to love.

But her mother and two other sisters are still alive.

They are still seeking answers, but, as the years have ticked by, have come to accept that their daughter’s killer will probably never be found.

However, they are rightly grateful to the States police for trying one final time to crack the case, and for not forgetting about their girl.

And, we hope, they may have found at least some comfort in the knowledge that ordinary Islanders still feel a great deal of sympathy for them and, all these years on, are still troubled by this an awful tragedy that will not be forgotten.