Finland Finland - Karf family, Nykarleby, 15 May 2024

[bimminglemur]

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The finnish police is looking for a family, where the parents are suspected of parental kidnapping.
The children had been removed from the parents care and re-located to Nykarleby.

Police suspects that the parents removed the children from their new home and left the location with a van. The family has been missing since 15 May 2024 and are now wanted internationally. Finnish police has been in contact with other Nordic government agencies, but because there hasn’t been any sightings of the family yet they have chosen to publicly ask for assistance by sharing a picture of the parents.

The family consist of parents Karoliina (40) and Tommy Karf (46) and they eight children. Four boys, ages 6, 9, 11 and 15. Four girls, ages 3, 14 and 17. At the time of disappearance Karoliina was pregnant.

The Finnish police’s priority is the safety of the children. The reason why the children had been removed from their parents' care had been the neglect of compulsory education for the children. The children were being homeschooled by their parents, but the authorities had not been satisfied with the level of education, leading to reports to social services.

The parents of the family have earlier been in the news. Back in 2020 they contacted a journalist from MTV Uutiset, and had a piece made about them and their case with their local children's services. They were themselves confused why they were being investigated so thoroughly, and the journalist agrees that it is confusing after reading the charges from the authorities.

There have been no physical or digital footprints of the family since their disappearance, and police believe that the family is being helped by a network of family friends and family in southern Finland but do not exclude that they have left the country.

If you have seen the family or know who can be helping them, Poliisi is asking to let them know. You can e-mail them on [email protected] or by the tip-line +35829 5 415 501.

 

[bimminglemur]

CPS in court: Removal from the home was not because of homeschooling. ​

Published 9 June 2025.
Rough translation by me

Only two days after the Karf family disappeared the Osterbothnia district court handled the case that had already started earlier, where one of the family's children had been ordered to be removed from the parents' care.

In court we heard two social workers who knew the family's case well. They told the court, how the children had disappeared from their carehome on the evening of the 15th may last year. The children had been moved there on short notice.

This is evident from the public court documents.

According to the social workers the parents had planned the escape with the children. According to them (the social workers) it happened in a blink of an eye, when the children were left alone and staff were for a short moment in another room.

The parents and children ran over a neighboring field and disappeared in the parents' car, according to the social workers.


The claim that it was a joint plan between the parents and children is based on the fact that the children had packed their backpacks, but in the hurry they forgot them in their rooms.

The police had searched through the family's rented house in January of last year, a few months before the family disappeared.

The social workers told in court about the parents' previous cases, that the parents hadn't worked together with CPS to place their children in care homes. They had not been taking the children's needs into consideration.

The parents, against what CPS are stating, said that the children's schooling is going very well. CPS did note that homeschooling was not the reason they had to remove the children from their care, but the home situation and healthcare of the children.

At the time of the court case the court ordered that the attorney would be in charge of the decisions over the children, something the parents were strongly against.