bimminglemur
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Antti Hanhivaara's disappearance - his sister tells more about strange happenings
A Young man disappeared into thin air 11 years ago - Searches in Inari's Angeli
Antti Hanhivaara disappeared in Angeli, a small village in Finnish Laplands close to the Norwegian border. His case is one of Finland’s most known cases. He was last seen on 14th of October 2006 walking on a rural road out into the wilderness. His car, a 1982 Toyota Carina had been seen early that morning in Angeli, but has later been found destroyed along Angelintie.
Timeline of disappearance
Friday 13.10.2006
Antti Hanhivaara is spending the evening with a friend at his own house in Ivalo. There is information that there were other people at some point as it got loud at the house at some point, prompting Antti’s neighbour to go and tell them to be quiet, otherwise she’d call the police.
The neighbour had seen two women and ‘a large-sized man’ in the house. When Antti’s disappearance came to light, the neighbour contacted the police herself to tell them about what she had witnessed, she noted that the police had seemed disinterested in her statement.
Later that night, around midnight, Antti and his friend headed to Karigasniemi to attend a houseparty. This is a drive of almost 2 hours (137 km).
Saturday 14.10.2006
In Karigasniemi Antti spent the early hours of Saturday at a houseparty among people he knew, it is not stated if they were friends or just acquaintances.
Early in the morning Antti is giving a couple a lift to Angeli. The drive from Karigasniemi to Angeli is about 60km. After arriving in Angeli they spent some time in the couple’s apartment.
After this the information differs from source to source. Some say he left Angeli around 8 am, some by 9-10 am. Some state he left by himself, some say he left with his friend. But there were sightings of Antti’s car at a gravel pit, where parts of his car and license plate have since been found. At some point Antti’s car is seen driving recklessly on the road, and multiple people talk to the drivers of the car when they spot them having stopped at the side of the road. None of them are completely sure it was Antti driving.
There is no definite info of where Antti disappeared to or at what time. The last time he is believed to have been seen is around 11 am on 14th of October 2006, when two woodworkers saw a man resembling Antti Hanhivaara walking into the wilderness with his hands in his pockets.
Thursday 18.10.2006
After not being able to get in contact with Antti for four days his mother reports him missing.
Before Antti went missing
His mother and sister have told the media that Antti had been acting strangely before his disappearance. His mother and sister lived in Laitila in southern Finland, and Antti had recently started visiting home more. This was odd to them as gas was quite expensive at the time. They also said that Antti would beg them not to tell anyone that he was visiting them.
His mother has talked about his last visit to Laitila. Antti had given her the keys to the childhood home in Laitila, and when he was leaving he had even turned back and ran up to give her another hug.
His sister has learned that not everything was going great for Antti. A couple of months before his disappearance Antti had voluntarily gone to the police and confessed to having been a participant in a couple of cottage break-ins.
Odd things since Antti has gone missing:
What happened to Antti?
There is no sure answer. There are multiple different theories going around.
A Young man disappeared into thin air 11 years ago - Searches in Inari's Angeli
Antti Hanhivaara disappeared in Angeli, a small village in Finnish Laplands close to the Norwegian border. His case is one of Finland’s most known cases. He was last seen on 14th of October 2006 walking on a rural road out into the wilderness. His car, a 1982 Toyota Carina had been seen early that morning in Angeli, but has later been found destroyed along Angelintie.
Timeline of disappearance
Friday 13.10.2006
Antti Hanhivaara is spending the evening with a friend at his own house in Ivalo. There is information that there were other people at some point as it got loud at the house at some point, prompting Antti’s neighbour to go and tell them to be quiet, otherwise she’d call the police.
The neighbour had seen two women and ‘a large-sized man’ in the house. When Antti’s disappearance came to light, the neighbour contacted the police herself to tell them about what she had witnessed, she noted that the police had seemed disinterested in her statement.
Later that night, around midnight, Antti and his friend headed to Karigasniemi to attend a houseparty. This is a drive of almost 2 hours (137 km).
Saturday 14.10.2006
In Karigasniemi Antti spent the early hours of Saturday at a houseparty among people he knew, it is not stated if they were friends or just acquaintances.
Early in the morning Antti is giving a couple a lift to Angeli. The drive from Karigasniemi to Angeli is about 60km. After arriving in Angeli they spent some time in the couple’s apartment.
After this the information differs from source to source. Some say he left Angeli around 8 am, some by 9-10 am. Some state he left by himself, some say he left with his friend. But there were sightings of Antti’s car at a gravel pit, where parts of his car and license plate have since been found. At some point Antti’s car is seen driving recklessly on the road, and multiple people talk to the drivers of the car when they spot them having stopped at the side of the road. None of them are completely sure it was Antti driving.
There is no definite info of where Antti disappeared to or at what time. The last time he is believed to have been seen is around 11 am on 14th of October 2006, when two woodworkers saw a man resembling Antti Hanhivaara walking into the wilderness with his hands in his pockets.
Thursday 18.10.2006
After not being able to get in contact with Antti for four days his mother reports him missing.
Before Antti went missing
His mother and sister have told the media that Antti had been acting strangely before his disappearance. His mother and sister lived in Laitila in southern Finland, and Antti had recently started visiting home more. This was odd to them as gas was quite expensive at the time. They also said that Antti would beg them not to tell anyone that he was visiting them.
His mother has talked about his last visit to Laitila. Antti had given her the keys to the childhood home in Laitila, and when he was leaving he had even turned back and ran up to give her another hug.
His sister has learned that not everything was going great for Antti. A couple of months before his disappearance Antti had voluntarily gone to the police and confessed to having been a participant in a couple of cottage break-ins.
Odd things since Antti has gone missing:
- The day after Antti disappeared his neighbour saw a girl arrive at his house in Ivalo by bike. She left the bike at the house.
- When Antti’s car was found it was destroyed. The bumper was found hidden behind a pile of wood. His mother and sister have said that this was very odd, as the car was very important to Antti and he would always take good care of it. The police did not take the car in as evidence for some time, as they didn’t believe any crime had been committed. The car was later moved to a garage that was owned by Antti’s father’s friend, but soon the passenger side seat was stolen from inside the car.
- During one of the search missions in 2008 a searchdog marked on a firepit. Bone fragments, clothing and buttons were found. Antti’s sister says the Lapland police did not want to take these in for investigation, so she brought them with her to Turku in southern Finland where she lived at the time. When she brought them to the police there, the police in Ivalo were now wanting the evidence back for testing. His sister says that since then the bone fragments have gone missing. The Ivalo police are saying that the bones were from an animal, and did not have any traces of Antti on them.
- Since Antti’s disappearance his sister Elina has been up to Angeli and Karigasniemi to search for her brother. She has been told by a man who owns a cottage close to where Antti went missing that “the villagers know what happened to him” and even gave her names. Another time when a volunteer went up to Karigasniemi to search for Antti he was pestered to search in Ivalo. When he refused and still wanted to search in Karigasniemi he started receiving messages on his phone to “leave Karigasniemi in peace”.
- Antti’s mother kept calling Antti’s phone after his disappearance, and it wasn’t until almost a year had passed since his disappearance before his phone was disconnected.
What happened to Antti?
There is no sure answer. There are multiple different theories going around.
- Some say he committed suicide, but his family refutes this as he was about to start a new job as a tourguide in the wilderness of Lapland.
- The family also doesn't believe he would just walk into the wilderness. He was a trained wilderness guide, he knew the dangers of the Lapland wilderness.
- His family wonders how he had so much money, how he could afford to drive from Ivalo to Laitila and back. It’s a drive over 1 000 km. Was he perhaps involved in something illegal, and was there someone who wanted him to keep quiet?
