Finland Finland - Karf family, Nykarleby, 15 May 2024

[bimminglemur]

Family of ten missing – this is how the parents managed their secret plan
Police: Family of ten from Osterbothnia have been missing for a year - now internationally wanted
Journalist Outi Airola who interviewed the missing family received strange emails before disappearance: "Quiestions arise"

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.

 

[bimminglemur]

MTV Uutiset was contacted by the contactperson of Karf Family
Pub. 19.06.2025
Roughly translated by me

MTV Uutiset received contact from the Karf Family's contactperson and representative, an attorney from the USA named Kevin Boden.
Boden is the representative for the homeschooling association HSLDA International. He wanted to give information about the family's status through MTV Uutiset. The contact was made, according to Boden, because media [in Finland] has been reporting their case wrongly.

- The Police has said that they are not in immediate worry for the family's well-being. But the police has still caused a mediastorm and invaded the family's privacy in a way that will leave severe consequences for the family, Boden says.

[a few parts have been skipped, because I have deemed it not relevant to this case]

Boden will not reveal where the family is at the moment. But he claims that the family's life is now back on track.
– The eight child had been born, and the whole family is well, Boden says.

Boden claims that he is in regular contact with the family via phonecall as well as messages. He has also met the family's support system in Finland outside the country.

Karf Family contact person to MTV Uutiset: The winter [weather] surprised the family.
Pub. 21.06.2025
Roughly translated by me

[Part of the beginning has been skipped as it is a refresh of the case]

According to Boden the immediate replacement of the children in January 2024 was because of the assumed isolation and poor living conditions of the family house.

- The original publications state that the relocation was because of homeschooling. But according to one socialworker this wasn't the cause for the immediate replacement.

An immediate replacement is a temporary solution that can be made by the state, if it is deemed that the children are in immediate danger.

[parts has been skipped as there is no new info]

Boden explains in his letter to MTV Uutiset about the reasons for the previous replacements. The cold winter had surprised the family.
– The family was forced into a surprise of an especially cold and long winter. Water pipes froze and caused a waterleak in the house.

The neighbour for the Karf family has previously told Iltalehti that the family had fortified themselves in their own house during the coldest times, even up to a month at a time.

-There were no visible marks in the snow, no one had seen them leaving the house, the neighbour had told the papers.

Boden agrees that the living conditions had been poor.
- The living conditions were in no way good. The parents did notice this first and tried to solve the issue, Boden tells in his letter.

When social services arrived, the family had already found two optional new houses according to Boden. According to him the options laid out by the father had not been satisfactory to social services, even though the houses were in good condition according to Boden.
- Social services did not have any housing available for the family.

This is already getting very long so I'll put some points of info that I have shortened for ease of reading:
- According to Boden, Finnish CPS have informed that they are not suspecting the children to be in danger of abuse, whether physical or mental.
- According to Boden the parents have not been interrogated or heard by police when the children were relocated.
- According to Boden the parents were not informed of resources or need to be rectified in the home before the children were taken from them.
- According to Boden the parents had not been informed of the reports that had been made about them in November and December of 2023.

 

[bimminglemur]

Yle - District court have ordered the Karf parents to be arrested in absentia - making it possible to apply for an europea warrant of arrest.
Pub. 08.07.2025
Yle - The parents of missing family are filing a complaint against their warrant to the Court of Appeal - does not hinder the european warrant.
Pub. 14.07.2025
Iltalehti - Karf parents have been ordered to be imprisoned - Lawyer reacts
Pub. 14.07.2025
I will summarise the newest info from the linked articles

- There is now an active warrant for the parents Tommy and Karoliina Karf. They are being suspected of a crime called "vapaudenriisto", which according to Wikipedia would be the finnish equivalent of False imprisonment.
- The fact that there is a warrant for their arrest means that now there is a possibility to also create an european warrant for the parents. This makes it easier for them to be arrested and then transported back to Finland to face authorities.
- Tommy Karf does not have a lawyer according to the info I could find, he has instead been assigned a legal aid attourney, I think it's the finniss equivalent of a public defender. His name is Robert Slotte.
- Karoliina Karf does have her own solicitor, Matti Sankamo.
- Both parents have filed complaints to the Court of Appeal against their warrants.
- Slotte did tell finnish press that "the family is well and is at home", but claimed that he does not know where this "home" is.

 

[Hexe]

How can anyone be surprised by a long and cold winter in Finland?

 

[bimminglemur]

How can anyone be surprised by a long and cold winter in Finland?

That's the thing, it doesn't make sense. They lived in Pedersöre, which is not far north in the country, but they according to google the winter temps avarage between 32F to 28F, which still isn't that cold even. I myself live in an area where it easily gets down to -13F in the winter.

I checked on the history of how cold it got during January of 2024, and it did go down to 23.4F at the start of the year, before it pivoted up to 39F the second week. According to data temperatures would then continue to dip down toward just a couple of degrees during the nights. Overall, it seems like it was a winter where weather did shift quite rapidly from day to day.

Pedersöre is a very small town, almost a village. I drive by it whenever I drive south to family, and it takes just two minutes and you've passed it. And from what I have seen about the house the family was living in the house was very old so might not have had great insulation for the winter, their waterpipes froze and caused waterdamage.