AN author researching a 60-year-old murder case described as Jersey’s most notorious unsolved crime has now narrowed down a shortlist of suspects following a call for information.
Mark Bridgeman made a further trip to the Island recently as part of his investigation into the brutal killing of Finnish au pair Tuula Höök, whose body was found in a field in St Clement in December 1966 having been bludgeoned to death.
After liaising with police officers and talking to a number of Islanders with recollections and potential evidence from the time, Mr Bridgeman said he had a list of four suspects, including the man dubbed “the Beast of Jersey”, Edward Paisnel.
Sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment in 1971 after being found guilty of a string of sex crimes against children, Paisnel has been named on previous occasions, including in a front-page JEP article in 2006 by current editor Andy Sibcy.
Mr Bridgeman has written a number of true-crime books and aims to publish his latest work, examining the Tuula Höök case, next year. He said: “At this stage he’s definitely a suspect because of similarities in the way he operated, even though personally I have my doubts.”
Three other suspects are also on the author’s shortlist, although he said that he is not ready to name them at this stage.
Miss Höök first visited Jersey from Finland as a 19-year-old student in 1965, returning the following spring and working as a waitress and an au pair. Her killing shocked Islanders, as well as baffling the police investigative team assigned to the case.
During the course of his research, Mr Bridgeman hopes to clear up a number of questions, including:
- Why Miss Höök left the employment of the Chalet Hotel at Pontac just two weeks after arriving in Jersey in May 1966, having worked there throughout the previous summer.
- Whether the car that may have picked up Miss Höök from a bus stop in St Helier was a taxii or not, and whether the vehicle may have been stolen.
- The significance of a potential second sighting of the car near the St Clement field between 9pm and 10pm on the night of 30 December.
“I’ve definitely been drawn in further as I’ve researched this,” he said. “There are so many clues and theories about cover-ups, possible jealous boyfriends, vengeful employers or random strangers.”
As part of his ongoing research, Mr Bridgeman is displaying posters at all 12 parish halls, and has also issued an AI animation of Miss Höök.
The author has been working with the support of surviving members of the victim’s family in Finland, who still hope they may get closure by finding out what actually happened almost six decades ago.
Mr Bridgeman can be contacted by email: mark@markbridgemanauthor.co.uk
