Nearly 600 people remain missing in Finland

Finland currently has around 560 long-term missing persons cases on record, according to the National Bureau of Investigations (NBI), which maintains the country’s missing persons registry. The registry includes individuals who have been missing for at least one month.

The number of registered cases has risen by nearly 200 in recent years. In 2020, police databases held approximately 400 missing persons cases. Detective Commissioner Tiia Grönberg of the NBI attributes the increase primarily to the addition of older cases that were previously unrecorded. She notes that the actual annual number of disappearances in Finland has not grown unusually.

The registry includes cases dating back to the 1940s, and work to update it is ongoing. It stores identification data such as DNA and dental records collected by police departments, which can be compared with unidentified remains.

Grönberg emphasizes that even if a case is not in the registry, it may still be under police investigation.

Yle reviewed publicly available documents on several long-term missing persons cases, including one where a man and his car may have been buried beneath a motorway. In 1990, Antero Harju was reported missing in Hämeenlinna after last being seen in March. A decade later, a local man allegedly confessed to involvement in Harju’s murder and burial near the site of a future motorway in Miemala. A retired police officer also claimed the suspect had admitted to killing Harju and burying him with his car near Hattelmalan.

The suspect later refused to answer questions in interrogations, though his alleged statements were considered credible due to his criminal background and the timing of Harju’s disappearance coinciding with the start of motorway construction. Police searched the area using ground-penetrating radar and deep soil scanning but found no trace of Harju or his vehicle. In 2010, the suspect was charged with Harju’s murder but was acquitted due to insufficient evidence. Harju remains missing.