A RELATIVE of the Finnish au pair who was brutally murdered in Jersey 60 years ago is to travel to the Island later this month for the launch of a book about the unsolved case.
Having worked closely with the family of Tuula Höök during his research into the killing of the 20-year-old in December 1966, author Mark Bridgeman confirmed that Miss Höök’s niece Susan will attend the launch event on 21 May.
Publication of the book, titled Tuula – A True Crime Tragedy, comes three years after Mr Bridgeman first began looking into the case, which shocked Islanders when it was first reported on the front page of the JEP on New Year’s Eve 1966.
Miss Höök first came to Jersey in the summer of 1965, and returned the following year when she worked as an au pair, as a waitress and in hotels. Her battered body was found by a man walking his dog at Rue Laurens, St Clement at around 11am on Saturday 31 December, but the police investigation failed to solve the mystery in spite of several cold-case reviews.
Speaking to the JEP in a podcast to coincide with the build-up to the launch, he described his work on the book as a “roller-coaster”.
“First of all I thought there might not even be enough material for a book in this story,” he said. “There are a few articles and podcasts that have been done on Tuula’s case before, but they always tail off, so I felt the only way was to get the cooperation of the States Police and Tuula’s family in Finland.
“The police were genuinely interested, which I was actually quite surprised about, and they put me in touch with the family, who agreed to help me. They were very gracious about it, considering the things that have happened to them in the past, with approaches from sensationalist newspapers in Finland knocking on their door, and they’d had enough of that.
“But they were willing to help me and we agreed that I would make the story about Tuula [as a person], and not just about her case, which was something I wanted to do anyway– so she’s not just remembered as a victim of a murder, but as an amazing personality who would have gone on to achieve so many things.
“So her niece is coming along, which I’m so pleased about – she has helped me so much, and it’s been an emotional journey.”
Mr Bridgeman’s initial research was focused on the night that Miss Höök was last seen at a bus stop in Georgetown, particularly the type of car he thinks was involved, leading the identification of a suspect.
The podcast with Mark Bridgeman is set to drop on Wednesday 11 May, while on Saturday 16 May, the JEP will start a four-part series of extracts from the book.
The launch event at the Harbour Gallery on 21 May is sold-out, however Mr Bridgeman intends to hold an informal drop-in session at the same venue from 12pm to 2pm on Friday 22 May.
