Court acquits Mika Moring after evidence fails to establish Arva’s death

The North Savo District Court has acquitted Mika Moring of all charges in the case involving Saara Arva, Yle reports. Moring was charged with manslaughter and aggravated deprivation of liberty.

Yle identified three key points behind the acquittal.

Arva’s cause of death remained unclear

Arva, who was from Helsinki, had been missing for almost five years when her remains were found in April 2024. The long passage of time made it difficult to determine the cause of death and may have destroyed potential evidence.

Her bones showed signs of external violence, including a serious skull fracture. However, an examination by Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation found that the fracture had occurred at least several months before her death.

Some of Arva’s teeth were also missing. A forensic dentist said one tooth may have come out in summer 2019 as a result of external violence.

Arva was wearing a bra and trousers when she died, as bones were found inside the clothes. A hoodie was found nearby and probably had not been on her when she died. Her shoes were not found.

The button and zip on the trousers were open.

Prosecutors said Moring killed Arva with a knife or by some other means. A folding knife found at the scene showed signs of blood.

The bra was one of the key pieces of evidence. It had a sharply defined tear in the centre, which the National Bureau of Investigation’s forensic laboratory said was consistent with a knife stab.

The laboratory found indications of blood on the clothes, but no human DNA. Rain and melting snow may have washed away the blood because the clothes had been exposed to the weather for a long time.

The court considered it possible that the tear in the bra had been caused by, for example, an animal’s claw or a bird’s sharp beak. The folding knife could not be conclusively linked to Arva’s death either.

According to the court, the evidence was insufficient to establish with certainty that Saara Arva had died as a victim of homicide.

It remains unclear how Arva reached the peninsula

It is not known how Arva ended up dead on a remote peninsula, where an ice fisher found her remains in April 2024. The location is difficult to reach and lies on Rutkonvuori, on the shore of Lake Iso Vesijärvi.

The court considered it unlikely that Arva had reached the peninsula voluntarily and without shoes. However, it could not rule out the possibility that animals had carried the shoes away.

On foot from the nearest road, the journey is more than one kilometre. Most of the route runs through rocky or bare-rock terrain and steep, very difficult forest.

The North Savo District Court carried out a site inspection at the location. During the inspection, the journey took half an hour on foot.

The nearest boat landing is in Väinölänranta, from where the peninsula can be reached by motorboat in about 10 minutes.

Arva’s card was used at an Otto cash machine in Vesanto at 6.11pm on 1 September 2019. The machine’s camera was not working, and the images did not show who used the card.

Prosecutors said Arva had been taken to the peninsula by boat, either alive or dead. A bank card found in the pocket of the trousers she was wearing was last used at the Vesanto ABC station at 6.13pm on 1 September 2019.

A witness saw Moring at the witness’s home and sent a message to a friend at 7.55pm saying that the man had been in the yard.

For the prosecution’s account of events to be possible, Moring would have had to drive about 12 kilometres from the village of Vesanto to Rutkonvuori in roughly 90 minutes, travel with Arva by water or on foot to the tip of the peninsula, kill her, return to his car and then reach the witness’s door.

The court found the time window too tight.

Telecommunications data placed Moring’s phone in Laukaa at 8.45pm on 1 September 2019.

Moring’s accounts were considered unreliable

The court stated in its judgment that the immediate circumstances of Arva’s death and the sequence of events that led to it could not be established at all.

Moring’s accounts changed several times.

He told one of Arva’s close relatives that they had argued and that Arva had left for Helsinki by train from Suonenjoki. To police, Moring said Arva had gone to Helsinki either by train or by hitchhiking.