A TRUE-CRIME author has unveiled the cover and title of his book investigating Jersey’s most notorious unsolved murder.
On what would have been Tuula Höök’s 80th birthday, writer Mark Bridgeman has shared an update about his forthcoming work about the killing of the 20-year-old from Finland, whose battered body was found in a field in St Clement in December 1966.
Mr Bridgeman is now ten weeks away from the publication of Tuula – A True Crime Tragedy.
The cover features a picture of the blonde victim, who spent almost a year in Jersey working as an au pair, waitress and chambermaid across two separate spells in the mid-60s ahead of the grisly events of 30 December 1966.
Having last been seen waiting at a bus stop in Georgetown at 7.45pm that evening, mystery surrounded the details of what happened to Miss Höök prior to the discovery of her body the following morning.
News of the murder came as a shock to Islanders when the details were reported on the front page of successive issues of the JEP, sparking a protracted police investigation that failed to yield a solution, in spite of multiple cold-case reviews across the past six decades.
Some of the press cuttings around the murder, many of them from the JEP, feature as part of the cover design.
The author said he had chosen Miss Höök’s birthday after working closely with surviving members of her family during the past 18 months.
“I’ve had a lot of discussions with relatives of Tuula’s, and it’s obviously a very significant day for them,” he said. “Every year on 12 March they light a candle which is kept next to her graduation photo.”
In addition to investigating the murder, uncovering multiple pieces of new evidence leading him to the man he believes was responsible, Mr Bridgeman will also be telling the personal story of the young woman who first came to the Island soon after her 19th birthday and had dreams of working in the fashion industry in Paris.
The book will also chronicle the journey made by the author during his time researching the case.
“There was a dark underbelly of crime in Jersey during that period and I also believe some elements of this were kept quiet because of fears that the attraction of the Island to visitors might suffer,” Mr Bridgeman said. “My parents were among those who came regularly as holidaymakers, but my trips over the past couple of years have had a rather different context.”
The launch event for Tuula – A True Crime Tragedy, by Mark Bridgeman will take place at the Harbour Gallery in St Helier on Thursday 21 May. For more information, and tickets (priced £5) email partintheframe@yahoo.co.uk.
