Disappearances | A new twist in Piia Ristikanare's disappearance – The police searched the premises of Jehovah's Witnesses

Central Criminal Police according to HS's information, in the fall, conducted a search of premises managed by Jehovah's Witnesses in Varsinais-Suomi and Uusimaa.

The search was related to a 15-year-old who disappeared in Piikkiö in 1988 Piia Ristikankaren for a homicide investigation.

It was a special one home search, so the KRP had to apply for permission from the court. The court ordered a search of two facilities managed by Jehovah's Witnesses. In addition, it ordered permission to seize or copy any documents and information concerning Piia Ristikankaretta.

Based on the decision, the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Paimio and the archive of the Finland branch office of Jehovah's Witnesses in Vantaa were the target of a special home search.

Ristikanaree and his family have been publicly reported to have belonged to the Paimio Jehovah's Witnesses congregation at the time of his disappearance.

In the same context, the court also granted permission for a device search if the archival material was in digital format.

The KRP justified the need for a special home search by saying that there is reason to suspect homicide in the case. Krp suspects that Ristikankari was murdered in October 1988.

Piia Ristikankare disappeared on Friday, October 7, 1988, after leaving his family's detached house in Piikkiö around eight in the evening.

Before his disappearance, Ristikankarei had argued with his little brother about the remote control. The family believed that the girl had gone to her friend in the nearby town of Paimio after getting angry. However, he never visited his friend.

A family member reported Ristikankaree missing on Monday, when he did not return home or go to his vocational school in Turku.

On Sunday, he had also not arrived at the event organized by Jehovah's Witnesses in Paimio, in which he was supposed to participate.

Director of Investigation, crime commissioner Matti Airaksinen confirms that the special house search is related to the Ristikankaree case and that the police searched the premises under investigation in the company of a search officer.

According to Airaksinen, the search was carried out in the premises of an association unrelated to the criminal case.

“Therefore, it is not a question of the association or those in a position of responsibility being suspected of being somehow related to this case. They are not suspects in the case.”

The police searched the premises for possible information, evidence or documents related to the investigation of the Ristikanaree case. Airaksinen does not say in more detail what information was searched for in the premises of Jehovah's Witnesses in the fall or whether it was found.

“The issue here is that possible evidence or information related to the case could have been assumed with very valid grounds to be found in the premises that were the subject of the search.”

According to Airaksinen, it was mostly about verifying information and excluding things.

While the preliminary investigation is in progress, Airaksinen does not comment on whether the police currently have a suspect or suspects in the case.

“We are still actively investigating, mainly confirmatory and exclusionary measures. How, with what intensity and scope, it is not possible to clarify it in more detail.”

In public level, Jehovah's Witnesses are known to record a variety of information about their members, for example in the minutes of judicial committees.

The justice committees are the congregation's own “courts”, which deal with, for example, inappropriate behavior of members and violations of the community's internal rules, but also suspected violations of the law.

Hearing reports and reports on matters discussed in the judicial committee can be kept in the parish archives for decades.

Yle told in 2021 about a new tip related to a man who belonged to the congregation.

Mightily The last clue – podcast, according to the person interviewed, the Jehovah's witness in question once molested his sister.

The tip had also come to the attention of the police. The previous director of investigations Kimmo Heinonen was supposed to find out the man's identity and whether he is related to Ristikanare's disappearance, but the schedule was still open.

It is not known whether the KRP's autumn home search is related to this tip that came out earlier. Airaksinen, the new head of the investigation, does not comment on the matter.

According to Director of Investigation Airaksinen in the Ristikankaree case “various other investigative measures” have been carried out during the past year. However, he does not comment on what they have been about.

Last year, Airaksinen took over as the investigation director of the case after the previous investigation director retired. Researchers also changed.

With the police there have been several lines of investigation in the case over the years.

The case was investigated as a suspected murder already in the early 2000s. The police got at that time Police TV through a letter, the sender of which said he saw that the girl, who appeared to be unconscious, had been lifted into a white Volvo in Piikkiö on the night of Ristikankari's disappearance.

The writer of the letter used the pseudonym Tom on Borås. His identity has not been known.

According to Yle, the registration number mentioned in the letter would have been on a car used in 1988 by a man suspected of sexual crimes in the Turku region. However, according to Yle, the investigation would not have revealed anything other than the letter that would have connected the man to the disappearance.

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The garage of Ristikankaree's home was also investigated last September by tearing open its floor.

Over told in October The last clue podcast, that last summer the police investigated this car connected to the disappearance of Ristikanare.

The current owner of the station wagon told Yle that the police investigated the car for the first time already in 2002 and again in the summer of 2023.

Iltalehten according to the information previously shared, the Garage of Ristikankaree's home was also investigated last September by tearing open its floor. Before this, the krp had gone through the family's home and yard with cadaver dogs in 2018.

The former head of the investigation, Kimmo Heinonen, has previously told the media that there was no indication that the girl's family members had anything to do with the disappearance.

Heinonen has previously said that he considers it likely that Ristikankare would have gotten into or been lifted into a car shortly after leaving home. Hitchhiking was much more common then than it is today.

Ristikanare's body has not been found, but he has been declared dead in official records.