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New details emerge in long-term missing person case as investigations continue for other disappearances

Thursday 11th 2024 on 10:40 in  
Finland

Most cases of missing persons reported to the police generally result in the quick discovery of the missing individual. However, some cases remain a mystery for many years, or even forever. New information has emerged regarding one long-term missing person case. It has been revealed that Veikko “Jammu” Siltavuori, who was once convicted of horrific child murders and linked to disappearances, was actually free at the time Piia Ristikankare went missing.

Ristikankare, 15, vanished in the Turku region of Piikkiö on the evening of October 7, 1988. Police suspect the girl was murdered. The Central Criminal Police had previously reported that Siltavuori had been in prison serving a sentence at the time of Ristikankare’s disappearance in October 1988.

This article also discusses the cases of three other women who remain missing. Birgitta Silander, a 65-year-old hairdresser, disappeared in Helsinki on Monday, August 24, 2015. She left her home for the city center in the afternoon and was to meet a colleague at a hair salon in Etu-Töölö at around 3 p.m., but she never arrived. Her last known movements are scant. Her travel card was used at a metro station at around 2:42 p.m., and her mobile phone connected to a base station in the heart of Helsinki’s city center a couple of hours later. After that, her phone switched off. In 2022, Silander was declared dead.

Marja Halme from Jämsä disappeared on October 21, 1998. At the same time, her husband Seppo Palenius also disappeared but was found dead the following spring. Halme’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Minja-Maria Savola from Joensuu disappeared on November 16, 2021, at the age of 32. She lived in Rantakylä, Joensuu, at the time of her disappearance, where part of the police searches have been conducted. Despite extensive searches and investigation, she has not been found.

In all cases, the investigations are ongoing, and the police remain interested in any new leads. They are all currently classified as investigations into missing persons, and no crimes are suspected in the cases.