The Reykjavik Confessions: A case of false memories | Forensic Files

We deserve to know what we're putting in our bodies and why, especially when it comes to something we take every day. "Ritual's" clean,
vegan-friendly multivitamin is formulated with high quality nutrients in bioavailable forms your
body can actually use. You know what you won't find in a "Ritual" multivitamin? Sugars, GMOs,
major allergens, synthetic fillers and artificial colorants. They only include the good stuff.
Now available for men, women and teens, "Ritual" multivitamins are scientifically developed to help
support different life stages. A multivitamin should contain key nutrients in forms your body
can actually use to help fill gaps in the diet with no shady extras. "Ritual's" delayed release
capsule design delivers high quality nutrients including Vitamin D3 in just two daily pills.
Your multivitamins are delivered to your door every month with free shipping always. I'm still
waiting for my first shipment to arrive, but I can't wait to get started. Their website is super
easy to navigate and has so much information about choosing the right multivitamin for you.
Get key nutrients without the "bs". "Ritual" is offering Casefile listeners 10%
off during your first three months. Visit ritual.com/casefile to start your "Ritual" today
Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any
time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for
confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app, or on our website.
18-year-old Gudmundur Einarsson took a final swig from his bottle of brandy. He looked once more around the packed nightclub for his friends.
Located in the small fishing town of Hafnarfjordur, 17 kilometers south of Gudmundur’s home in Blesugrof, Iceland, the nightclub was buzzing for a Saturday.
Most of the town’s younger population were present, dancing and drinking their night away.
Gudmundur had been partying all day and when it was time to leave the club, his friends were nowhere to be seen.
Assuming they had deserted him for the company of a group of girls, Gudmundur left the bar.
Inebriated, Gudmundur was escorted outside by an older man he had befriended earlier in the night.
The weather changed considerably from the time Gudmunder entered the nightclub to his exit in
the early morning of Sunday January 27 1974. The light drizzle of rain had given way to
a furious snowstorm. Wind howled through the streets and the temperature dropped to below
freezing as snow blanketed the footpaths and the roads turned icy. Iceland was short on nightlife so Gudmundur had walked to get to the club. He was now facing
the prospect of a three hour return trip at 2AM in hazardous conditions. Gudmundur’s companion was wearing a bright yellow shirt that stood out amongst the white snowfall.
The pair decided to try their luck at attracting a vehicle to hitchhike home. Elínborg Rafnsdóttir and her friend Sigridur Magnusdottir drove past the men. Elinborg
recognised Gudmundur in his checkered jacket, green pants, and brown shoes. She pulled over to offer him a lift. As she slowed her vehicle, Gudmundur’s new friend
threw himself onto the bonnet of their Volkswagen in a drunken state. Deterred by his behaviour,
the two women changed their mind and refused to let them in. A few hours later, a driver passed Gudmundur walking on the main road out of Hafnarfjordur
towards his family home in Blesugrof. He was alone and stumbling, almost falling in front of the car
as it drove by. The man passed Gudmundur and kept his concentration on the road ahead
as it continued to snow heavily. Following this sighting, Gudmundur Einarsson vanished.
Initially assuming he was staying with friends, Gundmundur’s father was unconcerned by his son’s absence. When two days passed with no word from his son,
his feelings changed and he reported Gudmundur missing. In 1974, the population of Iceland was just over 215,000 people. Homicide was nearly an
unheard of event. Given the inclement weather on the night of Gudmundur’s disappearance
combined with his clean police record, police were quick to rule out foul play.
Rather, they assumed that Gudmundur had either gotten disorientated and lost or had injured himself, perhaps fatally, on the journey home.
A barren expanse of lava fields, the landscape outside of Hafnarfjordur was covered with
craters and crevices. Some reached a depth of 30 metres. Due to the snowstorm, 60 centimeters
of fresh snow had fallen in the past few days further concealing the fissures in the ground.
Over 200 people searched for Gundmundur in the less than favourable conditions.
Some waded waist deep in snow, while a helicopter circled the lava fields from above.
Isolated roads leading to his friends' houses were checked as well as sheds and
outhouses in case Gudmundur had sought shelter during the storm. Those who had seen Gudmundur
on the day of his disappearance could do little to shed light on his whereabouts.
A week after Gudmundur disappeared, the snow began to melt. The search party returned
to the lava fields to continue scouring the landscape. There was no sign of him.
The man in the yellow shirt who left the nightclub with Gudmundur was never identified.
Weeks and months passed by. It was not uncommon for people to go missing in the
unforgiving terrain of the Icelandic lava fields or accidentally drown in rough seas off the country’s rocky cliff faces.
As time went on, Gudmundur’s family came to terms with the fact that he was yet
another person who went missing amongst the unforgiving Icelandic wilderness. With no leads to go on, detectives also reached this conclusion and the case was closed.
In December 1973, a month before Gudmundur’s disappearance, 18-year-old Erla Bolladottir
attended a house party in Reykjavik. A free spirit enthralled by the recent hippie influences that
had reached the shores of Iceland, Erla often visited the communes around the area to party,
dance, smoke cannabis and listen to rock music with like minded teens. At the party, Erla was drinking a glass of cola when she began to feel strange.
She realised her drink had been spiked with the hallucinogenic drug - LSD. Erla explored
the house, looking for somewhere quiet to rest until the effects of the drug had worn off.
In a darkened room, she tripped over a man lying on the floor. He introduced himself as
18-year-old Saevar Ciesielski. He was also riding out an LSD trip after his drink had been spiked.
Together, the two lay in the darkness and spoke about their lives. Saevar was a child of an American/Polish father and an Icelandic mother. His foreign sounding name
combined with his slight frame and short stature made him a target for bullies during his school
years. With dyslexia and ADHD, Saevar had trouble concentrating at school. When he was 14,
a psychiatrist recommended that he be sent to a home for delinquent boys. At the home, the boys
were expected to do farm work, complete schooling, and return to their parents completely reformed.
After a few years, Saevar went back to his family in Reykjavik. The home did little to transform Saevar. Although very intelligent, he spent his late teen years
committing petty crimes such as theft and drug smuggling with his friend Kristjan.
Years later the boys home Saevar attended was shut down amid allegations from past
students about physical abuse and rape that had occurred behind closed doors. Erla was drawn to Saevar as he spoke of his history. She found his foreign look with
shoulder length brown hair, intense brown eyes, and delicate features mysterious and attractive.
Erla also opened up about her life. She was the middle child of three. As a child, her family
lived in New York where her father worked as a station manager for Icelandair at Kennedy Airport.
Her family returned home to Iceland when Erla was 7 and she spent her childhood years at
the local school. On school holidays she was sent to various farms around Iceland to assist as a farmhand - a common tradition for Icelandic families at the time.
After being touched inappropriately by a farmer, Erla returned home a changed girl.
She became withdrawn from her family and rebelled against her parents. Erla’s parents divorced,
and as a teen, after a fight with her mother about curfew times, Erla went to live with her father.
Erla empathised with Saevar and found his love of the arts, particularly film, music, and painting
fascinating and exciting. They spoke until morning. Erla later commented in the documentary
“Out of Thin Air”: “After that night, there was no other way to go forward but together.”
Erla’s mother was less than impressed that her daughter was dating a former student from a home for delinquent boys and forbade him from entering her house.
Despite warnings from her family that Saevar was a dangerous man, Erla quickly fell in love.
Saevar and Erla were inseparable. Saevar often spent time at Erla and her fathers
house in Hafnarfjordur - a small white and red roofed apartment on Hamarsbraut Road.
At the time, Erla worked for the telegraph service as a clerk. Shortly after moving in with her father in early 1974, he had a stroke and was hospitalised,
leaving Erla to live alone for the first time in her life. Working long hours, Erla
became profoundly depressed and lonely. Saevar would disappear for days at a time, refusing to
explain his absences to her when he returned. She was certain he was seeing other women.
Erla spent her time off work lying in bed staring out the window for the entirety of the day.
Her weight plummeted and her long blonde hair accentuated her pale face and dark undereye circles.
When Saevar was around, he spoke constantly about wanting to pull off the perfect
crime. He boasted about the joy he would get from the Icelandic authorities not being able to figure out who did it. Bank robberies, petty theft, smuggling drugs,
and introducing LSD into the water supply were some of the crimes he fantasised about.
Easily led by Saevar and wanting to impress him, Erla and Saevar hatched the perfect plan.
Erla’s work at the telegraph service gave her a thorough knowledge of the procedures in Iceland for transferring money over the phone.
Saevar obtained a fake woman’s I.D with a false name and photograph. Erla and Saevar
then picked apart the telephone receiver at her house, shoving a cloth into the mouthpiece.
When Erla then phoned the National Phone Company’s telegraph reception centre with a fake name,
her voice was muffled, giving the impression that the phone call was being placed from far away.
She told the operator that she was from a post office in the southwest of Iceland and was placing
a money order on behalf of a customer there. In a few days time, a female friend of Saevar’s
went to collect the money with a fake I.D showing the name Erla had given the telegraph centre.
Together Erla and Saevar made off with just under half a million kronur, or approximately 5000 Australian dollars in today’s currency.
Pleased with themselves, they repeated the scam. Erla dared to collect the money herself,
applying heavy makeup so she resembled the photo I.D she held. With shaking hands, she gave the
I.D to the post office clerk. After a few moments, the clerk smiled and went to retrieve the money.
Again, the pair had netted themselves just under half a million kronur. Unsure of what to do with the money, they stashed it in a cupboard in Erla’s bedroom.
However, it wasn’t long before the missing money was noticed and reported to authorities.
Tuesday November 19 1974 marked 10 months after the disappearance of Gudmundur Einarsson.
That day, 32-year-old Geirfinnur Einarsson finished work and headed to his home in
Keflavik: Iceland. A small fishing community, Keflavik lay approximately 40 kilometres west of where Gudmundur was last seen.
Although both men shared the surname Einarsson, they were unrelated and had never met.
Unlike Gudmundur - the 18-year-old apprentice carpenter who loved to party and whose friendly nature never left him short of friends, Geirfinnur was much more reserved.
Fourteen years his senior, Geirfinnur was a quiet man who worked hard as a manual labourer
and enjoyed spending spare time with his young family. Returning home, Geirfinnur and his family ate dinner together. Geirfinnur,
tired from a hard day's work, went to bed to read a book. His wife went to the library.
She returned home at approximately 8:30 to find Geirfinnur in the company of his friend
Thordur. Both men were watching television and drinking coffee. Geirfinnur told Thordur that he had some people to meet and asked if he could get a ride. He wanted
to go to a cafe near the Keflavik docks. The pair departed at around 10PM. Geirfinnur was quiet
during the car ride, declining to elaborate on who he was seeing or the purpose of the meeting.
As they drew nearer to Geirfinnur’s destination, he remarked to Thordur that he should be armed.
His friend took the comment as a joke and dropped Geirfinnur at the doors of the near deserted cafe.
Geirfinnur scanned the few patrons seated inside. The people he was looking for weren’t there.
Walking home in the cold, crisp air, Geirfinnur opened the front door and heard his son pick up the ringing telephone. It was 10.15PM. The deep male voice on the
line asked to speak to Geirfinnur and his son dutifully handed over the phone. Geirfinnur explained to the caller that he had already been to the cafe
before sighing and replying that he would return once again. Geirfinnur’s son asked if he could accompany his father who abruptly denied the request.
This time driving himself, Geirfinnur parked his red Ford Cortina 200 metres from the entrance.
He turned the engine off and left the keys in the ignition, before making his way back to the cafe.
His unlocked car was found the next day in the same position by detectives after Geirfinnur’s wife had reported him missing.
The investigation offered little more in the way of clues than Gudmundur’s disappearance had 10
months prior. However, unlike Gudmundur, Keflavik police believed immediately that Geirfinnur
had met with foul play due to his unexplained disappearance following a mysterious meeting.
Police appealed for those who had arranged to meet with Geirfinnur to come forward but
their requests went unanswered. A tracking dog latched onto Geirfinnur’s scent but stopped
abruptly outside the cafe, indicating that he had travelled in a car to another location.
Patrons in the cafe at the time of Geirfinnur’s disappearance were questioned. Several noted a man making a call from a phone booth inside the cafe at approximately 10:15PM.
Normally, this would not have drawn anyone’s attention. However, everyone in Keflavik knew one another and this man was an out-of-towner.
Investigators speculated that this was the man who had called to arrange the rendezvous
with Geirfinnur. The man in the phone booth was described as 180cm tall, slim, wearing a fake leather jacket, and light coloured pants. A bust was made out of clay depicting the
physical attributes of the unknown man. It was shown on national T.V and soon Keflavik
police were inundated with people reporting those who resembled a likeness to the image.
Meanwhile, detectives worked on the theory that Geirfinnur might not have been as reserved and innocent as people suspected.
In 1974, beer greater than two and a quarter percent in alcoholic strength was banned throughout Iceland and alcohol in general was very expensive. As a result,
beer and spirits would often be smuggled in. The most common exchange would take place offshore.
Watertight plastic containers were thrown from large ships into small boats who took it back to the mainland.
A person who knew Geirfinnur confessed that he was involved in smuggling alcohol into Iceland.
This theory was further bolstered when someone rang the police to say that a man they knew
resembled the clay bust. The man was local nightclub owner, Magnus Leopoldsson.
He had been seen speaking with Geirfinnur at his nightclub, Klubburinn, a few days prior to
Geirfinnur’s disappearance. Rumours circulated that Magnus also smuggled alcohol into Iceland.
Magnus Leopoldsson was questioned by police on January 25 1975, however he was free to go
after no association could be made between him and the disappearance of Geirfinnur.
Weeks went by. Desperate for a break in the case, a detective flew to Jordan with Geirfinnur’s wife
to visit a psychic who claimed he could help solve the case. The week-long trip,
funded by taxpayers, turned out to be a waste of time and money. Whilst police in Keflavik continued to investigate the disappearance of Geirfinnur,
police in Reykjavik were busy tracing leads in an elaborate fraud involving money transfers to local post offices. Officers questioned employees at the telegraph centre
and learned that one of their workers, Erla Bolladóttir, was dating Saevar Ciesielski.
He was well known to police for his past criminal history which included smuggling
cannabis from Denmark. Another time he had been arrested for stealing a large fish from
the wharves and parading around town with it. Saevar’s connection with the telegraph service
through Erla was an immediate red flag and investigators searched for their whereabouts.
The couple had spent a brief time in Copenhagen before moving into a flat on the outskirts of
Reykjavik. The now 20-year-old Erla was thrilled when she found out she and Saevar were expecting a
child. She told Saevar that her days of committing fraud were over and from now on she wanted
to live a life free from any crime. The most important thing to her now was being a mother.
Erla and Saevar’s daughter was born in September. Three months later on December 12, Saevar was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement regarding
the money transfer scam. He was taken to Sidumuli prison in Reykjavik for questioning. The next day,
Erla was also arrested for questioning. In disbelief that they had been caught,
she handed her 11-week-old daughter to her sister to care for her. On the way to prison she told the police that she had to be back soon because her baby needed her.
… Iceland’s Sidumuli prison was an historic building located in Reykjavik’s main shopping district.
The exterior, built centuries ago from large irregularly shaped rocks, housed the few prisoners in the Icelandic justice system. From the street,
it could have been any other building with no signage or fencing to indicate otherwise.
Erla was taken through the front wooden door and led down a corridor. The bright ceiling lights reflected off the linoleum floor. To either side of her,
Erla could see the white bars of cell doors and inside the cells, the walls were painted
a bright green. Each cell contained a concrete bed with a thin rubber mattress and a stool.
Erla was led into an interrogation room for questioning. The room was tiny and cold and
a small ceiling light shone onto the table where Erla was seated. Three detectives sat
opposite her. In the corner sat a policeman at a typewriter, documenting Erla’s every word.
Detectives told her that Saevar had come clean about the money fraud scam but had implicated Erla as the sole perpetrator in the crime.
Erla sat in silence. The detectives encouraged her to confess. Desperate to see her baby, Erla admitted her role in the crime.
She signed a statement outlining her participation in the money fraud. Confident the interrogation was over, Erla straightened in preparation to leave.
A detective then flashed a photograph in her face. It was of a young man with long black hair and dark eyes. He asked if she had known him.
Erla recognised the man in the photo - it was 18-year-old Gudmundur Einarsson. She had met
Gudmundur at a party years ago and remembered him because he was friendly and handsome.
The detectives latched on to this information and the questioning continued for hours.
Eventually Erla gave up a secret she had been holding onto since the night of Gudmundur’s disappearance nearly two years prior.
Erla remembered the night of Gudmundur’s disappearance. She was in the midst of a depressive episode. A friend invited her to a party and Erla went
reluctantly. Afterwards, she returned home to her father’s apartment. The violent snowstorm had
blanketed the ground outside the building in thick white snow - she remembered the scenery vividly.
Certain that Saevar was out seeing another woman, Erla lay in bed trying to get some sleep.
Later that night she heard voices outside her window. They were whispering but she could
recognise two of them. One was Saevar and the other was Saevar’s friend Kristjan Vidarsson.
Erla was intimidated by Kristjan. He was a petty criminal with a large, well-built frame and a reputation of being a tough guy.
As Saevar only weighed 50 kilograms, the brutish Kristjan acted as his bodyguard.
Erla didn’t recognise the third voice but was then startled when all the men came inside.
After hours of questioning, Erla was exhausted and struggled to collect her thoughts.
Detectives ceased the interrogation, offering Erla a night’s reprieve in a prison cell,
to resume questioning the following morning. From the book, “The Reykjavik Confessions,” the detectives listened the next day as Erla recounted
what happened next after the men had made their way inside her house. The police report read:
“She made her way to the storage room where she saw Saevar, Kristjan, and a third man with something heavy between them, covered in a sheet. Kristjan and Saevar tied each
end of the sheet with a knot. Erla hadn’t seen what was inside but she thought it was a body.
There was also a foul smell in the room and a strange wet patch on the floor. The three men picked up the body, pushing past her in the doorway and knocking her over.”
Erla recalled: “I couldn’t move. I was cold, but at the same time, I felt like I was sweating.
Later Saevar took me by the arms and put me to bed. I said I was going to deny everything.”
Erla told the detectives that the day after, she went to the garbage bin outside her house
and found a soiled bed sheet inside. It appeared to have been dumped there after Saevar,
Kristjan, and the third man had removed the body from the apartment. Over the course of the next few weeks, detectives continued to question Erla over the disappearance
of Gudmundur Einarsson. She remained in Sidumuli prison in solitary confinement.
Saevar was also questioned and verified Erla’s version of events. He told detectives that the third man Erla hadn’t recognised was his friend, Tryggvi Leifsson.
He told detectives that Gudmundur, Kristjan, Tryggvi, and himself had gone to Erla’s house.
There had been a physical altercation which resulted in Gudmundur’s death. Saevar called his friend Albert Skaftason to pick them up to dispose of Gudmundur’s body
under the pretence of having cannabis for him. Albert was arrested and confirmed that he had arrived on the night in question in his father’s
yellow Toyota. He recalled Saevar had asked him to open the boot of the vehicle. Watching from
the rearview mirror, he witnessed Saevar, Tryggvi, and Kristjan carry a large bag with difficulty out
of the front door. They pushed it into the boot, causing the car to rock a little. From there,
they travelled to the lava fields outside of Hafnarfjordur and dumped the large bag.
Saevar confided to Albert on the drive back that it contained a body. He said that he
and Kristjan had hacked the body into pieces to make it easier to dispose of. Kristjan, who was already serving a six month sentence in another Icelandic prison for theft,
was brought to Sidumuli for questioning. He also provided a statement confirming that he was at Erla’s house on the night of Gudmundur’s
disappearance and that a fight broke out between Tryggvi and Gudmundur resulting in his death.
Admitting that he was heavily intoxicated at the time, Kristjan could only recall fragments
of the rest of the night. He did remember getting into Albert’s yellow Toyota and going to the lava
fields to dispose of the body. After Kristjan had been questioned at 1:42AM, he was driven to
the lava fields in an attempt to jog his memory and show detectives where Gudmundur was buried.
They returned to Sidumuli Prison at 3am having failed to locate Gudmundur’s remains.
Tryggvi Leifsson was an athletic man. He was kind and gentle but also known to get into fights when drunk.
As the circumstances of Gudmundur Einarsson’s death unravelled, he too was questioned in relation to his involvement.
He initially denied everything, but after weeks of solitary confinement admitted that he had thought a lot about the case and was ready to talk to detectives.
On January 9 1976 he admitted to his part in Gudmundur’s death. Although he didn’t know the
man personally, telling detectives: “There was some disagreement, I’m sure, between Kristjan and
the man with no name. It started by them cursing each other but ended in a fight. Then the man hit
me, and I think I hit him, and he fell to the floor. Then I saw Saevar kick him in the head.”
Saevar, Kristjan, Albert, and Tryggvi were held in custody. Erla, after it was determined she played no part in the murder of Gudmundur,
was free to leave to await a court date for the money fraud case. 10 days after being
arrested, she went to live with her mother, ecstatic to be reunited with her daughter.
Although Erla was free from the confines of a jail cell, she continued to be visited regularly
by investigators who came around for coffee and cigarettes to discuss the Gudmundur case with her.
Over the time of her incarceration, these men had become Erla’s confidantes. She felt they were more like friends than detectives. She became particularly close
to Detective Sigurbjorn Vidir who was young, helpful and sympathetic to Erla and her ordeal.
One day, Detective Vidir asked Erla a question out of the blue - if she or Saevar knew anything about the disappearance of Geirfinnur Einarsson. She replied: “Maybe.”
Erla confided that she had been receiving threatening calls at her mother’s house
warning her that she had said too much to detectives. When asked who she thought was making the calls, Erla suspected it may have been her half brother,
professional basketball player, Einar Bollason. She also believed some of his friends were involved, including a man who ran a nightclub named Klubburinn in Reykjavik.
The man was Magnus Leopoldsson. Erla was not particularly close to her half brother Einar. Their relationship had soured
after Erla began dating Saevar, a man Einar despised for his involvement in petty crimes.
Following this, detectives questioned Saevar about Geirfinnur. He refused to comment initially but provided a statement to police on January 22
1976. He admitted he had seen Geirfinnur on the night of his disappearance. He had gone to the Keflavik docks with Kristjan, Erla, and some other men to
smuggle alcohol into Iceland. One of the other men met Geirfinnur outside a cafe
and brought him along. Saevar then said he went for a drive and when he returned
to pick up the men it was immediately apparent that their smuggling operation had gone awry.
Geirfinnur had fallen off the boat and drowned in the freezing waters. Erla shared a similar story. However, she implicated Saevar further in Gerifinnur’s death.
The police notes taken from Erla’s interrogation read: “On the night of 19 November 1974,
Erla and Saevar had been at Klubburinn and they were not having much fun. They decided to leave,
and got into a blue Mercedes with two others, taking off without a planned destination.
They headed out of Reykjavik… They drove past her home in Hafnarfjordur and on towards the airport
at Keflavik. Saevar held onto her hand the whole time, even when she tried to release his grip.
He spoke to the driver, she couldn’t remember the exact conversation. They were talking about
killing someone by taking him out to sea, pretending they were going to get something.
It was a last resort, they had tried to offer this man money but he wouldn’t listen, they would have to make him disappear. They were on a mission to murder.
When they reached Keflavik they stopped by the foreshore. It was a spooky place at night, littered with battered trawlers propped up on blocks
waiting to be repaired before being thrust back into the sea. When they got out of the car Erla saw the face of the driver who had been speaking to Saevar.
It was Magnus Leopoldsson from Klubburinn. There were other men there...Geirfinnur had promised the
men he could get hold of smuggled alcohol being dropped from a boat out at sea. Erla recognised
her half-brother Einar and Saevar’s friend and familiar partner in crime, Kristjan Vidarsson.
Geirfinnur was talking to Saevar and Magnus when a fight broke out. The others were preoccupied and didn’t see her inching away and then she ran,
she wanted to get away and hide. She found an abandoned house which was either still being built
or used for storage. She hid there in a corner, she couldn’t remember for exactly how long.
As she waited, she felt so bad that she threw up.” On January 23, Kristjan also confessed to being at Keflavik that night
and seeing Saevar, Erla, and her half brother Einar there. However, being under the influence of drugs for the latter part of 1974, Kristjan was hazy about the details.
Three days later, Einar and Magnus were arrested, as was Magnus’ nightclub co-owner,
Sigurbjörn Eriksson, and Valdimar Olsen, the brother of one of Erla’s friends. The arrest of these four men sent shockwaves throughout Iceland. They gained notoriety as
the Klubburinn Four, from the name of the nightclub owned by Magnus and Sigurbjorn.
Unlike Saevar and his friends who were involved in petty crimes, these men were well respected members of the community. Rumours circulated that these men
were part of an organised crime syndicate and were being protected from those in positions of power,
including the Minister for Justice. Despite long stints in solitary confinement
and hours of questioning, the Klubburinn Four continued to protest their innocence.
In an attempt to calm the public, police held a press conference. The Klubburinn Four had been in custody for two months. The investigation team
felt pressured to reassure the public that they were doing what they could to solve the case.
With over a year that had passed since Geirfinnur’s disappearance, detectives felt that it wouldn’t be long before the truth came out.
Basketball player Einar Bollason was sitting in his prison cell at Sidumuli, where he had been incarcerated for the last three months. He maintained his innocence,
certain that his half sister, Erla, had implicated him because of his dislike of Saevar.
As extra punishment by the prison guards, Einar had been moved into the smallest cell available.
It was barely high enough to contain his tall frame. His limbs hung over the hard rubber mattress that lined the concrete bed.
Einar had a revelation. The night of Geirfinnur’s disappearance suddenly came to him.
He had been watching television at home with his family. It was a documentary about Scottish
men participating in the Highland Games. He informed the investigators about his
memories of the program, who in turn took him to the television station to review the tapes.
The video was paused and Einar explained what happened next. He also remembered earlier in
the night that he had been fundraising for his basketball team. Other team members confirmed
his alibi. As did a babysitter hired to look after Einar’s children that night.
Upon investigating the other alibis, Magnus Leopoldsson also had someone to vouch for
his whereabouts. An employee at Klubburinn’s cloakroom kept a detailed log on the comings
and goings of various staff members. On the night of Geirfinnur’s disappearance,
she documented that Magnus had been at the club from early evening until midnight,
meaning he couldn’t have been at the Keflavik docks at the time specified by Erla and Saevar.
The Klubberinn Four were innocent. After four months in custody, Magnus Leopoldsson, Einar Bollason, Sigurbjörn Eriksson, and Valdimar
Olsen were released from Sidumuli Prison. Aside from the statements made by Erla, Saevar,
and Kristjan there was no evidence to connect them to the murder of Geirfinnur Einarsson.
The men were placed under police surveillance and warned not to speak to the media about the case.
Embarrassed, detectives zeroed in on Erla, certain she had implicated the Klubburinn Four as a ruse to take the heat off herself.
Now under more pressure than ever to solve the murder and to recover from the public shame
of arresting and holding four prominent Icelandic citizens, it was decided that
outside help would be enlisted to solve the Gudmundur and Geirfinnur disappearances.
In May 1976, the Minister of Justice hired prominent Detective Karl Schutz from Germany to assist. He assembled a team and in brusque German,
told the public through a translator that he would solve the crimes. Schultz poured over the
case and re-interviewed Saevar, Kristjan, and Tryggvi who were still in custody.
Albert, accused of driving Gudmundur’s body for burial in the yellow toyota, had been released.
On May 3, Erla Bolladottir was arrested for perjury in implicating the Klubburinn Four.
She was morose and detectives were concerned for her mental health. Erla sat with Detective Karl Schutz. Through the help of an interpreter,
he interrogated her as to why she had named them as suspects. Eventually, Erla opened up. The confession she gave to detectives explained her dejected state.
Erla confessed to shooting Geirfinnur herself at the Keflavik docks with a rifle.
From the book, “The Reykjavik Confessions,” The police notes read: “In the murky light Saevar handed her something heavy.
It was a rifle, although she couldn’t say exactly what it looked like. He showed her how to hold it but it wasn't there as a scare tactic; they intended to use it.
Geirfinnur was brought over and she had been so close to him she could see his face, etched with fear and horror as he realised what was about to happen to him.
They had come up with a solution for this annoying, unreasonable man. Erla closed her eyes as she pulled the trigger, the rifle jolted in her hands as the bullet
flew from the barrel into Geirfinnur’s body. Saevar immediately took the rifle from her
as they dealt with the man dying on the ground in front of them, his blood staining the snow.
It was only after the fact that Erla panicked and in the confusion she was able to sneak
away and hide in a deserted house close by, where she spent the night. When she
returned home the next day, Saevar was angry. He wanted to know where she had been all night.
He never mentioned Geirfinnur again and refused to talk about that night. They would banish it
from their minds, a secret they would keep for themselves. They would pretend it never happened.”
This confession contradicted Saevar’s who now said that he had killed Geirfinnur by hitting
him on the head with a wooden plank. Kristjan’s account recalled he had drowned in the ocean.
It was determined that Kristjan had been the man who had called Geirfinnur to the cafe.
Detectives were irritated at the perpetrators' ever-changing confessions. In desperation, they organised for Erla,
Saevar, and Kristjan to be interviewed together to find out what had actually happened.
After hours of questioning, a final confession was agreed upon and signed. Saevar and Kristjan
were responsible for Geirfinnur’s death, while Erla was an innocent bystander. Police agreed she was likely trying to protect the others by taking responsibility for the crime.
A search commenced for Geirfinnur’s body. Erla showed detectives where she believed Saevar and Kristjan buried him.
Raudholar, also known as the Red Hills, on the outskirts of Reykjavik, was a vast
rocky landscape where mounds of red dirt rose up from the barren ground. It was in this area
that Saevar and Kristjan confessed to burying Geirfinnur after setting his body alight and
then dumping it in a shallow grave. The area was excavated thoroughly but Geirfinnur wasn’t found.
When asked how his body was transported to such an isolated location, all three named 32-year-old Gudjon Skarphedinsson.
He drove them 50 kilometers from the Keflavik docks to the Red Hills. Gudjon, a former school
teacher and friend of Saevar’s, was placed under arrest. Given that he was a well regarded school
teacher and older than his counterparts, his confession was given the most credibility.
Gudjon had no alibi as he was not able to remember what he had done the night of Gerifinnur’s
disappearance. Initially denying any involvement, he confessed to Karl Schutz two weeks after being
taken into custody. As well as being the driver of the car that took Gerifunnur’s body to the
Red Hills, Gudjon also admitted to beating Geirfinnur to death with Saevar and Kristjan.
From the documentary, “Out of Thin Air,” Gudjon said: “The three of us fought with
Geirfinnur that resulted in his death. I don’t remember the body being put into the car,
but on the way back to Reykjavik, I remember I was sad that I was an accomplice to murder.”
On January 23 1977, Karl Schutz held a press conference to announce that all suspects had been detained for the murders of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson.
He explained that even though they had not located either body, the confessions were 95% of the
evidence and were plausible. Shutz outlined the attempts that Erla, Saevar, Tryggvi, Kristjan, and
Gudjon had made to complicate the investigation to shift the focus of guilt off themselves.
He concluded the conference by saying: “As we criminal investigators like to say,
this case is beyond reasonable doubt...it’s safe to assume it’s an open and shut case.”
He opined that Saevar was the ringleader with the street smarts behind the operation,
Gudjon was the brains and Kristjan was the braun. He painted Tryggvi and Albert as simply stoners
who were easily led by the other three. As was Erla, who would do anything for Saevar’s approval.
The Icelandic Prime Minister, Olafur Johannesson, praised Detective Karl Schutz’s work.
He told the public: “The nightmare is over.” The murder trial began on October 3 1977. Under the Icelandic system, an inquisitorial system,
the case had already been heard by district judges. They had returned a guilty verdict.
From there the case went to the Supreme Court, where instead of a jury, five judges were left to decide the defendants fate.
After 15 and a half hours of testimony from the state prosecutor, Saevar Ciesielski took the stand. Dressed in a velvet suit with flared pants,
aviator glasses, and his long hair loose, the thin and gaunt Saevar, professed his innocence.
He pleaded for his statements and those of his co-accused to be retracted. Kristjan sat
forward in the front row, eyes darting around the courtroom. Erla, wearing a pinafore with
her hair pinned to the side, looked childlike and contemplative, her head resting on her hand.
The trial lasted five days. Just over 10 weeks later, the group learned their fate. All were found guilty.
For his role in transporting the body of Gudmundur in his father’s yellow Toyota, Albert Skaftassson
was sentenced to 15 months prison. Although found innocent of any involvement in the murders
of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur, Erla Bolladottir was sentenced to 3 years for embezzlement in
the money scam and perjury for implicating the Klubburinn Four in a crime they didn’t commit.
Gudjon Skarphedinsson was sentenced to twelve years for his part in the death of Geirfinnur
and transporting the body for burial. Trygvvi Leiffson was sentenced to sixteen years for
killing Gudmundur and Saevar Siesielski and Kristjan Vidarsson were both sentenced to
life in prison for killing Gudmundur and Geirfinnur. This made Saevar and Kristjan
the first people in Iceland to be convicted of a double murder in more than 100 years.
None of the suspects were present in the courtroom when the verdicts were read.
They learned of their outcome as they read the newspaper in their cells the following morning
or being told by prison guards. One by one they were shipped off to various prisons around Iceland to serve their sentences, leaving the confines of Sidumuli Prison behind.
Icelanders rejoiced that those responsible for the deaths of two of their own were off the streets.
Problem was, they were all innocent. If you have 30 free minutes, you never have to worry about a break-in at home
ever again. That is how quick and easy it is to set up a security system from "SimpliSafe". It's
the kind of thing that is so easy to do, you can do it during a Netflix binge, watching the game
or listening to a certain podcast. "SimpliSafe" is incredibly easy to customize for your home.
Just go to simplisafe.com/casefile and you can easily choose the exact sensors you need
or get help from one of their experts. It'll get to your house in about a week which means by this
time next week, you and your whole family can go to bed knowing your home is being guarded.
It's easy to assume everyone in your house already feels safe, but they might not and it's worthwhile
to talk about it. "SimpliSafe" is a small easy step to make sure everyone feels safe at home.
Go to simplisafe.com/casefile today to customize your system and to get a free security camera.
You also get a 60-day risk-free trial so there's nothing to lose. That's simplisafe.com/casefile
Is there something interfering with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals?
"BetterHelp" wants you to start living a happier life today. "BetterHelp" will assess your needs and to match you with your own licensed professional therapist.
"BetterHelp" isn't a crisis line or self-help, it's professional counselling done securely online
and it's available for anyone, anywhere in the world. After filling out a quick and easy survey,
members of the Casefile team were matched with a counsellor best suited to them.
They began chatting with a professional counsellor less than 48 hours later. Their
responses have always been helpful, insightful and timely. Perfect for when you need someone to
bounce ideas off of, or just have a chat. Visit betterhelp.com/casefile, that's Better Help,
and to join the over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health
with the help of an experienced professional. In fact, so many people have been using "BetterHelp"
that they are recruiting additional counsellors in all 50 states. This podcast is sponsored by
"BetterHelp" and Casefile listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/casefile
Casefile team member Jess had a busy weekend planned doing household chores, cooking, doing some writing and going for a jog. Did she do any of these things? No.
Did she feel guilty? Also no. Instead, she spent the weekend relaxing and playing games, including
"Best Fiends" on her phone. "Best Fiends" is a match 3 puzzle game that's an endless source
of fun. With thousands of levels, Jess will have a reason to procrastinate for many weekends to come.
It's a challenge, but a doable challenge, so you're never stuck on the same level for too long.
She asked her daughter what she liked about "Best Fiends" and she said she loved how the
levels weren't timed so she could play at her own pace, perfect for smaller members of the family.
With "Best Fiends" there's something new today and tomorrow and every day after that.
There's literally thousands of levels to play and counting, plus tons of cute characters to collect.
So if you never get tired of solving puzzles, good news! With "Best Fiends" the fun
never ends - just don't blame me if you become slightly obsessed. Download "Best Fiends" free
today on the apple app store or google play. That's friends without the r, "Best Fiends".
If you sell stuff online, you're definitely in the right business. More people are shopping online
than ever. That means a lot of orders coming in and a lot of orders you'll need to ship out fast,
that's why online sellers like you need "Shipstation". No matter how much you sell,
"Shipstation" makes it super easy to manage and ship all your orders from all your sales channels
faster, cheaper and more efficiently, and now the number one e-commerce shipping solution
in the States is available in the UK, Australia and Canada. No matter where you're selling like
Amazon, Etsy or your own website, "Shipstation" funnels all your orders into one simple interface
making it really easy to manage, even from your phone. "Shipstation" also works with all the
major carriers, so you can compare and choose the best shipping solution for you and your customer.
It's no wonder "Shipstation" has more five-star reviews than any other shipping software.
Ship more in less time, just use offer code CASEFILE to get a 60 day free trial.
That's two months free of no hassle, stress-free shipping. Just go to shipstation.com,
click on the microphone at the top of the page and type in CASEFILE. That's shipstation.com enter offer code CASEFILE. "Shipstation" make ship happen.
Erla Bolladottir was nervous as she was escorted into Sidumuli prison for the first time on December 13 1975 after being arrested for the money fraud scam.
After confessing to the fraud, Erla stood up to leave. An investigator then waved a
photo in front of her. It was of Gudmundur Einarsson. She met him at a party years ago.
The detective asked her where she had been the night he disappeared. Erla remembered that night of January 27 1974. She had been at a party with a friend
and desperate to leave. Later, she lay in bed. The snow storm roared on outside,
as wild winds lashed the building, making the walls creak. Erla told the interviewing detective about a nightmare she had that night. It began with
voices outside of her window. In hushed tones, they discussed whether Erla was awake or not.
Erla was terrified. She got up to check who it was and saw Saevar, Kristjan, and someone she didn’t know.
It was then that she woke up. The detectives interjected, reminding her that Saevar was a petty thief and played on her worry that he was unfaithful to her.
After telling the investigators about her nightmare over and over, the lead detective leant forward. Erla later spoke on the documentary, “Out of
Thin Air.” According to Erla he said, “Something terrible happened that night in that apartment.
You witnessed it and you cannot recall it because of the trauma it caused you, so what we're going
to do now is get you back to your cell so you can try and remember as much as you can and then
we’ll talk about it some more.” They advised Erla they would resume questioning the next morning.
Erla lay awake in her cell trying to remember what had happened. She was saddened by Saevar’s betrayal implicating her solely in the money scam
and she thought of the times he had been unfaithful to her. Over the night, Erla came to think that perhaps Saevar had been involved in Gudmundur’s disappearance and death.
She searched her memory as to what had happened. Her head was full of images and she came to question whether her nightmare was real.
She thought harder. Now Erla remembered being at the door to the storage room and seeing the men with a bag.
It looked like it was in the shape of a body. She told detectives this the following morning.
They encouraged her, telling her how brave she was. When she failed to remember something, the investigators presented her with theories. Could
Gudmundur have been in a fight in the cottage? Could Saevar have taken his body somewhere?
The more she thought about it, the more Erla could see a picture in her mind. She told detectives she had found a sheet in the bin the next day but was too embarrassed to
admit that she had thrown it out after soiling herself during the night. Instead, Erla became
evasive and told them that she didn’t know how her sheet had come to be discarded in the trash.
Detectives mistook her evasiveness for guilt and interrogated her for hours about it.
She admitted it may have contained Gudmundur’s body. When she signed the confession and was let out of prison, Erla was relieved. She thought it was all over.
Days later, detectives phoned Erla to say that Saevar had confessed to killing Gudmundur with
Kristjan and Tryggvi. He admitted to cutting Gudmundur’s body into pieces, placing it into a linen bag, and then driving it away with Albert to dispose of it.
Erla was horrified but reassured. Now that Saevar had confessed, her memories must have been
correct. Erla couldn’t believe that she didn’t recall the dismemberment of Gudmundur’s body
but Saevar and Kristjan had confirmed she was present so she knew she must have witnessed it.
Erla concluded that she couldn’t trust her own memories. Meanwhile, Saevar, Kristjan, and Trygvvi were in solitary confinement at Simuduli Prison. Weeks
of hour long interrogations, many without their lawyers present had worn them down.
They were drugged four times a day with various sedatives and left to sit alone, reflecting on
what had happened. When Saevar heard that Erla had implicated him in the murder of Gudmundur,
he lay on his thin mattress racking his brain as to what had happened. When he really concentrated he thought that maybe Albert had driven the car to dispose
of Gudmundur’s body and perhaps Gudjon had driven the car after the murder of Geirfinnur.
After constant interrogating, Saevar gave the men up, desperate for the questioning to end.
The detectives placed a typed confession in front of Saevar, Kristjan, Tryggvi, Albert, and Gudjon.
All they had to do was sign it and the interrogations and solitary confinement would be over. Drugged and confused, they all signed on the dotted line.
In an early prison diary entry, Gudjon wrote: “The detective wants me to get used to the thought of being a murderer.
If they think I am going to confess to Saevar and Erla’s stories, then they are wrong.”
After a few weeks of solitary confinement and in a vulnerable state, Gudjon wrote the
following entry: “You get tired and you don’t know if you are dreaming or remembering things.
The same questions over and over. I get completely confused. It came like clips of a movie into your
mind. In the end you feel like you have been there. Like that this has really happened.”
Erla, Albert, Gudjon, Tryggvi, Kristjan, and Saevar were all eventually released from prison after serving their required sentences.
On August 9 1981, in what she later called the happiest day of her life, Erla was met
on release by her and Saevar’s five-year-old daughter holding a bouquet of flowers.
On release, Gudjon moved to Copenhagen to study theology. When he returned to Iceland he married and became a priest. His notoriety had him
sometimes snubbed by members of the Icelandic community but over time he became accepted.
Kristjan found work in manual labour but returned to prison for five years after physically assaulting his wife. Albert found work as a carpenter, married and had children,
completing charity work in his spare time. Tryggvi also found work as a decorator.
Of all six, Saevar struggled the most with life after prison. Released in 1984, Saevar married and had two sons. He struggled to find work and everywhere he went
people whispered and pointed to him as he walked past. He could go nowhere without being heckled.
Saevar also suffered from nightmares reliving his time in Prison. In 1993, Saevar and his family moved to Colorado in the USA for a fresh start.
But Saevar could not stop thinking about clearing his name and the need to be found
innocent by his Icelandic community consumed him. They returned to Iceland a year later.
Prior to being incarcerated, Saevar did not drink alcohol but on release he used it as a coping mechanism. It wasn’t long before Saevar became an alcoholic.
He often met with Erla and they would talk about what had gone wrong that led them to make the
accusations and confessions. However, Saevar was resentful of Erla for implicating him in
the murders and there was a rift in their relationship that could not be repaired.
Saevar hired a lawyer who poured over the case resources looking for evidence that Saevar was
innocent. He was shocked by the police notes in the case and how heavily they had relied
on confessions from the six when there were no bodies or evidence to link them to the crimes.
On February 21 1997, Saevar appealed to the supreme court to have the case reopened.
The judges ruled that there was not enough evidence to reopen the case, however they conceded that Saevar was badly mistreated in prison.
He appealed another two times to have his name cleared over the following years with no
success. The process was taking its toll heavily on Saevar, who drank to excess, became bankrupt,
separated from his wife and ended up on the streets. He had a following of people who believed
in his innocence and many of the Icelandic community had changed their minds about him.
Saevar Ciesielski died in July 2011 at the age of 56. His funeral was packed with all walks of life to pay their respects,
from high ranking politicians, to Saevar’s family, to his homeless friends. Following his death, Erla Bolladottir returned to the public eye.
Still largely outcast by Icelandic society who thought of her as a conniving liar,
Erla had moved to Hawaii with her daughter for a few years to escape. The difference between
life on a tropical island and the one she knew in Iceland was too great and she returned home.
Following a particularly distressing incident where a member of the public came up and spat in her face, Erla pleaded for the case to be reopened,
but, with a lack of new evidence there was little that could be done. In May 2009, Kristin Trygvadottir held the hand of her dying father.
Suffering from oesophageal cancer, Trygvvi Leifsson had led a full life after his prison sentence. He had become a decorator, been married, and had three children.
Kristin was close to her gentle and fun loving dad who always had time for her. She remembered
being called the daughter of a murderer by one of her school teachers as a small child.
But looking at her father now, she knew it wasn’t the truth. As she sat next to his hospital bed she had something to confess to him.
Kristin told her father that when she was a teenager she had found some of his diaries concealed in a box in the basement. Trygvvi knew of the diaries,
he had filled books and books documenting his arrest and interrogation in Sidumuli Prison.
A priest he had befriended in the prison smuggled them out and kept them until Tryggvi was free.
Tryggvi thought he had burned all of the diaries long ago. Kristin explained to him that she had
taken a few and hidden them under her mattress, only daring to read them when she knew she was
alone. He smiled, happy that she had read a part of his life he had kept so private from everyone.
She asked Tryggvi what he wanted her to do with the diaries. He told her to keep them, adding she would know what to do with them
when the time was right. A few days later, Tryggvi Leifsson passed away. Two years later in 2011, Kristin showed the diaries to journalist Helga Arnardottir who was
researching the case. Heart racing, she watched on as Helga leafed through the diaries. When she
had finished, Helga told Kristin she had something special. With Kristin’s permission, she contacted
Gisli Gudjonsson, a forensic psychologist and leading expert in false confessions.
Two days later, Helga and Kristin knocked on the door of Gisli’s home in South London.
Gisli studied the diaries cover to cover. The entries documented Tryggvi’s imprisonment in
solitary confinement, his daily druggings with sedatives, and how he questioned his sanity.
A common theme that arose was Tryggvi’s belief that if he confessed, his time in solitary confinement would be over.
Tryggvi thought he would have the chance to withdraw his confession, explain the truth
at the trial, and he would be found a free man. After studying the case further, Gisli could not
believe the hours of interrogation the six accused had gone through without their lawyers present.
He formed the opinion that five of the accused had what he termed memory distrust syndrome,
in which an individual does not trust their own memory and so comes to rely upon outside sources for information, rather than using their own ability to recall facts.
In the documentary, “Out of Thin Air,” Gisli Gudjonsson said: “This is the only case I know of where so many individuals have had their memories distorted to
this extent.. They were just trying to appease the police, they were trying to be cooperative
because they knew if they were not cooperative, they would be given more solitary confinement.”
Kristjan Vidarsson looked forward to the times he would be sent to scour the desolate landscape to
try and remember where the bodies of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson had been buried.
The brief moment of freedom, despite grim, was a welcomed change to his time in prison.
One time he was taken out of his cell was on January 23 1977. In a photo recovered
from the police files, Kristjan can be seen in the lava fields wearing a melancholy expression
with his left arm wrapped around a policeman's neck in a chokehold. The policeman was pretending
to be Geirfinnur, with Kristjan reenacting how how he had incapacitated him. Forensic psychologist
Gisli Gidjonsson noted the danger of reenactments in an individual with memory distrust syndrome.
Such acts might reinforce to the individual that the event actually occurred in that way.
Armed with this information, journalist Helga Anardottir compiled a special news report that ran
on national television. Later that week, the Ministry for Justice announced a review of the
case, to look into the methods used in the investigation and how the confessions were
obtained. It was quickly established that critical errors had been made in the course
of the investigation, even though many of the police files relevant to the case were missing.
Guards at Sidumuli Prison came forward with horror stories regarding what the six accused had been subjected to. One of the accused was hated by prison guards and officers
in particular. Nicknamed “The Rat” by those in charge of his welfare, it was Saevar Ciesieleski.
Often considered the ringleader of the group that murdered Gudmundur and Geirfinnur,
Saevar was subjected to brutal methods in order to obtain a confession. Along with being drugged with
sedatives Mogadon, Diazepam, and Chlorpromazine, Saevar was subjected to sleep deprivation.
An overhead light buzzed in his prison cell 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While the rest of
the cells had a period of lights out to mimic night, Saevar’s remained on. He once tried to
cover it with a woollen hat but it was removed instantly. When Saevar did drift off to sleep,
guards would bang on his cell with steel chairs to rouse him. If he refused to answer questions, he was strangled by his shirt collar until he passed out.
One day in July 1976, Saevar, who had a profound fear of water, was taken to the bathrooms of the prison. As water ran from one of the taps, filling a sink, Saevar had his
head held under water by guards who laughed to one another that they were drowning “The Rat.”
Completely broken and in a vulnerable state, Saevar confessed to the murders. Detectives
took Saevar to the sites where he claimed to have buried the bodies. His inability to find
them was seen as him deliberately obstructing the investigation, rather than him not knowing.
While other inmates were allowed books, pens, tobacco, and newspapers, Saevar was denied.
The guards reasoned that he should instead sit and think about his actions. He was also denied visits from family.
The other five accused also suffered from isolation and lack of human interaction,
which had a profound effect on their mental wellbeing. Kristjan wrote in his diary in prison:
“There was nothing but waiting, waiting for the next interrogation, wondering what I would say. In the cell I could do nothing but think. I grew into the walls.
I could not feel my body. I was just [a] head.” Two times while awaiting trial, Kristjan tried to take his own life.
Trygvvi recounted a similar feeling in his diary, stating: “I’ve got so many drugs,
so much medication that I can’t remember my name. I wake up and I can’t remember if my mother passed away or if I was dreaming it.”
The thoughts of reuniting with her baby were the only thing getting Erla through her isolation.
She told the documentary, “Out of Thin Air,”: “I wasn’t allowed to go outside, I was in complete isolation. Very soon you shrink down into this helpless baby and you’re in this
abstract world. I thought to myself did I really even have a baby? Or is that my imagination also?
Cause I swear that I feel like I do but no picture’s coming. You can’t trust your own mind.”
In the book, “The Reykjavik Confessions,” Erla detailed one night where she was raped
by a policeman in her cell. The policeman put his hand over her mouth to stop her calling out
while he lay on top of her on her prison bed. When he finished and prepared to leave,
he told her that he was taking great risks by being a friend to her and she should be grateful.
By the time Erla found the courage to speak up about the event, the statute of limitations had expired and it was too late for her to press charges.
Erla was also subjected to what was called a “memory injection” by police detectives under
the instruction of Detective Karl Schutz to try and jog her memory of what had happened
in the events of Geirfinnur’s death. Under the effects of the drug, Erla admitted that
she had made up what had happened from what she had read in newspapers and twisted the facts
to create a story that was entirely false. The detectives believed that she had been receiving
inside information from Saevar who was telling her what to say and refused to believe her.
On March 23 2013, the committee into the case of what has been termed “The Reykjavik
Confessions,” presented their findings. The key finding was that the confessions in all likelihood
were fabricated. The committee recommended that the state prosecutor reopen the case.
Five and a half years later, Erla Bolladottir and the families of Saevar Ciesielski
and Tryggvi Leifsson sat amongst the crowded courtroom in Reykjavik. Collectively they held their breath as the verdict was read.
44-years after the disappearances of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson - Saevar Ciesielski,
Kristjan Vidarsson, Tryggvi Leifsson, Gudjon Skarphedinsson, and Albert Skaftason
were found not guilty in the murders and disposal of the two men. In an unusual turn of events,
both the prosecution and the defense demanded they be acquitted. It was a bittersweet moment
for the families of Saevar and Tryggvi knowing that they weren’t alive to see justice done.
Erla Bolladóttir did not have her name cleared in relation to the perjury of the Klubburinn Four.
Some argued that she should be acquitted given that the whole case was built on
falsified confessions. She held her head high and returned to her job as a language teacher - helping those who recently migrated to Iceland to learn the language.
46-years after their disappearances, the case of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson
is as well known today amongst Icelanders as it was then. Despite the passage of time,
new leads occasionally trickle into police. In 2015, Stefan Almarrson was questioned by police after testimony from Stefan’s
ex-girlfriend shed new light on Gudmundur’s disappearance. Stefan was already known in
the case - in the early days of the investigation he was questioned and told police he thought that Saevar and Kristjan were responsible for Gudmundur’s disappearance.
For the sake of clarity, we will refer to Stefan’s ex-girlfriend as Helga. Helga came forward to say that she was a passenger in Stefan’s vehicle the night Gudmundur went
missing. According to Helga, the car struck Gudmundur while he was walking down the road.
She, along with, Stefan and his friend, Thordur Eyporsson, helped Gudmundur into the car.
He thanked them for picking him up. Helga was then dropped off home. As she left the vehicle, Gudmundur was visibly suffering from the collision.
Blood was coming out of his ear and nose. That was the last time Helga saw him.
Both Stefan and Thordur denied these allegations wholeheartedly. With no forensic evidence to prove the accusations, the investigation was dropped.
According to the Iceland Review, in 2016 a man contacted the police to say he had been holding onto information since Geirfinnur’s disappearance.
For the sake of clarity, we will refer to this witness as Jon. Jon claimed that the
day after Geirfinnur went missing, he and girlfriend were at Vestmannaeyjar. The small island was 190 kilometers east of Keflavik, where Geirfinnur’s car was found.
The couple witnessed three men dressed in civilian clothing arrive on a small boat and make their way to a fish processing plant on the island.
The man in the middle of the three seemed weak and appeared to be losing consciousness.
As Jon and his partner walked past, the man in the middle allegedly said: “Remember me.”
Shortly after, the men boarded another boat. Jon watched as the three men went out to sea.
He saw the boat return to the shore again, but only two men came back. Two days later, his girlfriend received an anonymous call
stating that she and her boyfriend would be killed if they spoke of what they saw.
As those come forward offering theories as to what did happen to Gudmundur and Geirfinnur,
so do those working to bolster the innocence of those accused of their murders.
At the time of Gudmundur’s disappearance, the phone at Erla’s apartment was disconnected due
to an unpaid phone bill. This was confirmed by the Iecalandic Telephone Company
and meant that Saevar couldn’t have used it to phone Albert to pick up Gudmundur’s body.
Furthermore, the yellow Toyota that Albert Skaftason said belonged to his father that
was used to dump the body of Gudmundur was not owned by his father at the time of Gudmundur’s disappearance. Albert said he watched from his rearview mirror as Saevar,
Kristjan, and Trygvvi put the body in the boot of the car. At the time, Albert’s father drove a tiny Volkswagen Beetle. The boot was at the front of the car.
From the book, “Out of Thin Air,” in 2016 journalist Jon Danielsson looked in to Saevar’s alibi at the time of Geirfinnur’s disappearance. Saevar
had given this information to the judges at the trial, however it was not investigated further.
Saevar alleged he had gone to his mother’s house to watch television. Saevar remembered the show.
It was a news report about a company in France guilty of tampering with red wine.
Jon Danielsson looked through the archives for the television guide for that night.
There was a news report from France titled, “Winegate,” which finished at 11PM, when Saevar was allegedly with Geirfinnur at the Keflavik docks.
Prior to his arrest, Gudjon kept newspaper clippings and notes about the Geirfinnur case in a small book in his study.
When it was found in a search by police, he explained that after being questioned in May 1976
as an acquaintance of Saevar’s he decided to take notes and keep up to date with the case.
Detective Karl Schutz thought it was so he could construct the perfect alibi if he were ever
arrested, a theory that fell through as Gudjon could give no alibi for the night in question.
In his first diary entry in prison dated November 18 1976, Gudjon wrote: “I know nothing about this case… Sometimes I feel guilty, that I’m guilty of something
but I can’t remember what happened… This is taking away all of my strength. I must be ill.”
Two days later he wrote, “New humiliation, disgrace and shame. I, who lived in the belief in the two years previously that I knew nothing about the matter
and now I have been involved in it… Am I insane or have I been there? I say yes to that. Much of what I have done in recent years was insanity.”
Erla continues to try and explain what led to her confessing to a crime she didn’t commit.
In the book, “The Reykjavik Confessions,” she says: “The detectives would explain
that we needed to get the confession done or I was risking that I would lose my child and
they didn’t want to see that happen. Somewhere, I always knew it didn’t happen. So I really needed
to believe that it had happened and they kept throwing me something to help me believe it.”
On January 29 2020, the state treasury dispensed a total of 815 million Icelandic krona,
the equivalent of nearly 8.2 million Australian dollars to Kristjan, Albert, Gudjon, and the
families of Saevar and Tryggvi as compensation for their wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
In the course of the investigation, Saevar Ciesielski spent 615 days in solitary confinement.
During that time he was interrogated 180 times for a total of 340 hours until he confessed to
the crimes to end his solitary confinement. Erla Bolladottir spent 241 days in solitary
confinement and was interrogated 105 times until she confessed to her involvement.
She is still campaigning to have her perjury conviction overturned. Tryggvi Leifsson spent the most time in solitary confinement at a total of 655 days, the longest
recorded period of solitary confinement endured by someone outside of Guantanamo Bay.
His diaries, later taken by his daughter Kristin were titled: “This is a diary that an innocent man is keeping in here regarding a big case
that he is wrongly accused for but the truth will always come out even if it is late.”
An entry dated April 25 1977 read: “So now, I have been here continuously for sixteen
months and eleven days in custody, including fourteen months in isolation, totally alone. I
shall hold fast. I don’t have to be afraid as I’m innocent and justice always prevails in the end.”

Case 168: Guðmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson

In January 1974, 18-year-old Guðmundur Einarsson went missing from Hafnarfjordur, Iceland following a night out with friends. He walked off into a wild snowstorm and was never seen again...

---

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn

For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-168-gudmundur-and-geirfinnur-einarsson

Brief Summary

The episode details the wrongful convictions in the cases of Gudmundur and Geirfinnur Einarsson, revealing systemic failures in the investigation.

Key points

Ritual Multivitamins. Ritual's clean, vegan-friendly multivitamins are designed for optimal nutrient absorption.
Gudmundur Einarsson's Disappearance. 18-year-old Gudmundur vanishes after a night out in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland.
Erla and Saevar's Crime. Erla and Saevar execute a money fraud scheme, leading to their eventual arrest.
Erla's Terrifying Discovery. Erla witnesses men carrying a body covered in a sheet, leading to a chilling realization.
The Klubburinn Four Arrested. Four respected men are arrested, shocking the Icelandic community amid rumors of organized crime.
Confessions and Contradictions. Multiple suspects provide conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the murders.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

After that night, there was no other way to go forward but together.

Erla reflecting on her relationship with Saevar after their first meeting.

12:05WatchMar 13, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Casefile

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.