Heidi Birgitta Paakkonen

Born 14 October, 1967, Heidi was the only girl of five children and, at 21, second youngest. Like all Swedish kids in the seventies, she began school at the age of seven, graduating from high school at 19. She dreamed of becoming a kindergarten teacher and planned tertiary studies to achieve that, but in her gap year had chosen to work at the cosmetics counter of a local supermarket, hoping to get some money in the bank. She became engaged to Urban Hoglin on the Spanish island of Mallorca in September 1986, a month shy of Heidi’s 19th birthday, and began living together back in Sweden that December. Their engagement rings were special, each wore a gold band engraved with the other’s name on the inside.Source: https://investigatemagazine.co.nz/3170/new-book-on-swedish-tourist-...

On 8 April 1989, backpacking tourists Höglin and Paakkonen from Storfors, Sweden went into the bush near Thames. They vanished and were reported missing in May. The disappearance led to an intense police investigation under the name Operation Stockholm, and attracted substantial media interest. Police, local residents, search and rescue and military personnel carried out the largest land-based search undertaken in New Zealand, performing grid-searches centred on Crosbie’s Clearing, 12 km from Thames.

Tamihere, a fugitive for skipping bail for a 1986 rape, admitted stealing the Subaru car belonging to the couple. There was only one known key to the car that was found in the possession of David Tamihere, and he claims to have broken into the car with a bit of #8 wire and found the key in the glovebox. He was arrested, and tried for their murder starting in October 1990. At the trial three witnesses (fellow inmates of Tamihere’s, granted name suppression by the court) gave evidence that Tamihere had confessed the murder to them. Two trampers also identified Tamihere as a man they saw with a woman believed to be Paakkonen in a remote clearing. The court also heard Tamihere tied Höglin to a tree and sexually abused him before raping Paakkonen.

In October 1991, ten months after the conviction, pig hunters discovered the body of Höglin near Whangamata; Paakkonen’s body has never been found. Höglin’s body was recovered 73 km from where police alleged the murders took place. With the body was a watch which police claimed at his trial Tamihere had given to his son following the murders. Discovery of the body also contradicted the testimony of a (secret) prosecution witness who said Tamihere had confessed to cutting up the bodies and throwing them into the ocean.