The night air was still, save for the ghostly clanking of the boats in the harbor as they bobbed gently up and down in the ice cold water. Up above, thick dark clouds swelled as a ceaseless barrage of snow fell steadily onto everything in sight. Just then a door swung open, rupturing for a moment the silence of the sleepy Icelandic fishing town with a blast of ecstatic rock music. Two young men stumbled out of the doorway onto the snow covered pavement as the door whipped shut behind them,
muffling once more the music from inside. Laughing together, one of the men, eighteen year old good munda Insen, took a swig from a bottle of brandy, while the other up a cigarette and gazed out across the harbor for a moment, before the pair then headed off into the snow elsewhere. In the early hours of that Sunday of January nineteen seventy four, in half naft Jordia, a quiet port town ten kilometers south of Reikyevik, eighteen year old
Urdla Boladotte was returning home. Urdler had been out with friends at Kluberin, a popular nightclub in Reikyovik, before getting bored and deciding to head back to her apartment. Urdler shared the flat with her boyfriend's Civar, but since he wasn't home at the time and also had their only key, she made her way to the basement window, prized it open, and squeezed inside. Finally in, Urdler stumbled toward her bed
and collapsed exhausted. It was sometimes time later when Urdler was stirred from sleep by the sound of voices speaking in hushed tones right outside her apartment. Alone in the darkness, an anxious Urdler strained to hear what they were saying, Though she couldn't be sure, it sounded like Christian, Albert and Trigvey, friends of her boyfriend Cyber. From what little snippets she could make out, they seemed to be talking about Urdler, speculating whether she might be in or not.
Urdler froze in fear. Though she knew them well enough, she'd never spent time with them without Cyber, who told her in the past to be wary of them. Unsure what on earth they might be doing there, Urdler could only listen in terror as she heard the men's footsteps edging closer to the apartment. Just then, Urdler bolted up, gasped for air in the dark and silent, her hair thickly matted with sweat, She scoured the flat for any sign of intruders as her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness.
It was only then that she realized with relief it had just been a bad dream. There had been no voices outside her apartment. Then she noticed the damp warmth under her bed covers and realized with horror that she'd soiled herself. In shame and embarrassment, Urdler quickly cleaned herself up and stripped the bed, checking that the coast was clear. She ran to the outside beIN and threw away the bed sheets before returning to her apartment. As all about
the snow continued to fall. By the following day, Monday, January twenty eighth, good Munda had yet returned to his home on the eastern fringes of Raikyevik. Having not heard from his son since Saturday night, Guthmund's father called his friends to see if they might know where he was, but each of them gave the same dispiriting answer they hadn't heard from him either. The next day, guthmund Ineson was declared missing. Over the next few days, police worked
hard to retrace the young man's steps. Some friends had seen him leaving the club with another man who they didn't know. That pair had then later been seen by two young women who were driving back to Raykyevik at the time. The women had pulled over to give the men a lift, but having seen how drunk they were
in the end, decided to head off without them. A few hours later, guthmund was seen again, this time on his own, walking unsteadily along the main road out of Harnaftjorda in the direction of ray Yevik, much as it is now. Back in the nineteen seventies, Iceland, with a population of roughly two hundred thousand people and with one of the most equitable societies in the contemporary world, also had one of the world's lowest rates for violent crime,
with murder being virtually non existent. With it also having been snowing and below freezing the night Gudmunda disappeared, the police had good reason to assume that he'd simply got lost on his way home, somewhere between hannaf Giorda and Raikyevik, though there was a main road joining them, Officers turned their attention to the lava fields that surrounded the small fishing town, a perilous, other worldly stretch of moss covered
crags and deep fishes hidden under the snow. For the next week, over two hundred people, marshaled by Gudmunder's brother, joined the police in their search for the young man's body, aided by a number of Coastguard helicopters. However, with over sixty centimeters of snow being dumped in the area since Gudmunda had disappeared, it was effectively hopeless. By the following week,
the search was called off. It was a few days later in February that Ertler's boyfriend, Cyver Sizelski, arrived home from a trip abroad, only to be confronted by the burly figure of Christian Peterson, head of customs at Iceland's Kevlevik Airport. Peterson seemed to be unusually fixated with the eighteen year old Cyvre, who he believed was a key figure in what he considered to be a rapidly expanding
drug problem in Iceland. Just a few months before, Peterson had stopped both Cyber and Ertler on their return home from a joint trip to the US. Both had been strip searched as a result, with Ertler being allowed to go home straight after but Cyver being kept behind. It wouldn't be until a week later that Urtler saw him again.
As Cyver later explained, Peterson had accused him of smuggling morphine, but when he couldn't find anything, had taken him to Siddhamuli Prison, a holding prison in the center of Reikyevik. Once there, Cyber claimed he was routinely beaten up and kept in solitary confinement, until finally being released a week later when the police couldn't keep him any longer. Though this arrest of Cyber had undoubtedly been heavy handed and
without justification, Peterson's suspicions weren't entirely unfounded. Crime related to alcohol, which was heavily regulated by the government, and other drugs, had been increasing in recent years as a result of the expanding communication and tourism industries, which were exposing more people than ever to other ultures and ways of life.
Just as beer, of which any with an alcohol content higher than two point twenty five percent was banned by the government, was becoming more popular so too were people becoming interested in fashionable drugs like LSD and cannabis. Though Cyver didn't drink or take other drugs himself, he had dabbled in selling stolen alcohol, which in his capacity as a customs officer, had first brought Cyver to Peterson's attention. He also often traveled abroad to buy cannabis to sell
back in Iceland. However, when Peterson picked Cyver up that February, it wasn't for either of these things, but rather for a recent jewelry heist that he was convinced Cyver had been involved with, just as before. Having denied all involvement, Cyver was once again taken to Siddamuli Prison, only this time he was kept in solitary confiman for a month, only being allowed to leave when he gave police incriminating
details about a friend of his. Civa and Ergler had first met in the early seventies when Civar was going out with a friend of Ergler's called Hulda, not thinking much about him at the time, The pair later became close when Hulda pulled out of a trip that she and Urdler had planned to take to America and Civar took the ticket instead. Though the pair had separate plans to visit people in the US, Civar eventually followed Urtler to Washington, d C. It was there at a party
one night that Ergla's drink was spiked with LSD. Feeling suddenly anxious, Urdler stumbled into a dark room in the hope of finding somewhere to lie down when she tripped over somebody's legs. It was Cyvar, who had also inadvertently drunk some of the l s D. After suggesting that he and Urdler try and ride the trip out together, the pair spent the rest of the evening lying next to each other as they proceeded to recount the story of their lives. Erdler would never again see Cyvar in
the same light. That night, the cocky, seemingly self assured Saivar told Erdler all about his time growing up the only family in his neighborhood that owned a t V and how all the kids in the street used to come and crowd around it, about those happy days when as a young boy he used to play act and mess about with his siblings, and about his Polish American father who used to beat him mercilessly with a belt
whenever he stepped out of line. At school, Civar, who had Jewish routes and had inherited his father's Eastern European looks, was bullied for being different, and before long he was skipping school. After befriending Albert Scarfteson and Chris jan Vedersen, a tall boy with a reputation as one of the harder kids at school, Civar, along with the other two, spent more and more time playing truant and soon began stealing from local shops, all the while at home, his
parents marriage was falling apart. Cyvar's father, Michael, had originally come over from the US and had always felt an outsider in Iceland. Becoming increasingly depressed and dissatisfied with his work, he started to drink more and take his frustrations out on the family and on Civar, especially. At fourteen, the young Civar was sent to a boarding home for what
the state considered to be problem children. Many years later, that same school would become the center of a horrific social services scandal involving the physical and sexual abuse of many of the boys who were forced to stay there. Saivar told Ertler about all of it. It was while he was staying at the boarding school that Saivar's father was killed in a car crash. When the pair returned home a few months later, Ertler got her first taste of what being in a relationship with Saivar would entail,
being strip searched on arrival. However, despite all of that and her family's concern at the burgeoning relationship, she'd fallen completely in love with him after moving in together soon after their return from the US. It wasn't long before Ertler was being drafted in to Saivar's illicit schemes. With her job at the Icelandic Post and Telephone company, Ertler took the ounity to help move on or the alcohol that Civar and his friends had stolen from the docks
by selling it to her colleagues. Meanwhile, Civar was devoting more and more time to selling cannabis, often having to leave Ertler for days on end for the pickups. In July, Ertler discovered that he'd been cheating on her. When she told him she was leaving him, he assaulted her, kicking her in the stomach. Undeterred, Ertler followed through with her decision, but before long the young couple were back together, with
the repentant Civar promising to be a better partner. To that end, he wanted out at the drugs trade, which had only ever really been just a way to make money. His dreams, he explained to Ertler, was to one day become a filmmaker, but to do that would need a lot more money. Having grown increasingly angry since his last arrest, he also wanted to find a way to get back at society after all the years of abuse and harassment he'd suffered at its hands. Before long, he and Ertler
had devised a plan. One evening, after tampering with their phone to make it sound as if they were calling from abroad, the couple contacted the Icelandic Post and Telephone company and requested half a million krona equivalent to fifty thousand US dollars in today's money, to be sent to a depot in Raikovik. A few days later, with a simple false id, Ertler traveled to the depot and collected
the cash. The pair spent the night in an upmarket hotel and treated themselves to room service to celebrate Over the next few days, Sivar spent three hundred thousand krona on film equipment, and Urtler bought a car. The rest they saved careful not to draw too much attention to themselves. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you.
You deserve it. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a week from seven a m. To nine p m. Local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a personal or family issue,
teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy to change counselors if needed. For free. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visitteldoc dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started that's teladoc dot com slash
Unexplained podcast. On November nineteenth, nineteen seventy four, in Kevlevic, fifty kilometers southwest of Raikyevik, Thorda Ingamarsen arrived at the home of his friend Geffener Ineson with the intention of taking him out to watch a film. However, by the time Thorda had made it to Geffner's house, his friend's plans had changed, explaining vaguely that he wouldn't be able to go now because he'd just been summoned to an impromptu meeting at a cafe in Keflevik Harbor. Geffner apologized
for wasting his friend's time. Alarmingly, Geffner wouldn't say exactly who he was meeting, only that he'd been asked to come alone and on foot, and that he wasn't allowed to tell anyone about it. Confused and concerned for his friend, Thorda offered to drive Geffenner close to the cafe to make sure nothing bad was about to happen. Having dropped him off and satisfied that all was okay, Thorda returned home.
Moments later. The cafe's owner watched as Geffner entered the building, clearly annoyed that whoever he was there to meet was not there. Also, after buying a pack of cigarettes, he promptly left. Fifteen minutes later, the owner watched as a second man entered her cafe and asked to use the pay phone. When the owner pointed out the phone at the back of the room, the man duie headed over
to it and proceeded to make a phone call. Around the same time, Geffener, now back at home, was overheard by his wife and son taking a phone call from someone they didn't know. In the ensuing conversation, Geffener's wife, Goodney, later stated that she heard him say something about already having been there before. He relented, saying he will go again, hanging up the phone without any explanation to Goodney, Geffenner collected his car keys and drove off into the night.
The following day, Geffenner's abandoned red Ford quartina was found parked two hundred meters from the Harbor Cafe with the keys still in the ignition, but Geffner was never seen again. A week later, Urdler and Civar were watching TV when the story of Geffenner's disappearance came on the news. Civar was unimpressed. Clearly, he said the man had just said something he shouldn't have and had been bumped off because
of it. Urdler hadn't thought anything of it at the time, since Ivar often liked to sound as if he had first hand knowledge of such things. The couple had been laying low for the last few weeks, waiting for any heat from their crime to blow over. However, with Ertler's connection to the post and telephone company, it hadn't taken the police long to figure out who might have been involved. A few days later, Erdler discovered that a warrant had
been issued for her and Civar's arrest. Knowing it would only be a matter of time before they were pulled in, Civar made the drastic suggestion that they flee immediately to Copenhagen to stay with friends until the whole thing died down, packing what few bits they had and changing what was left of the money. In December, the couple, traveling separately so as not to arouse suspicion, made their way to Denmark. Back in Kevlovik police station, detective Voltire Sigurdson was looking
forward to a long needed break. As the lead investigator into the disappearance of Geffener, Einesen Voltaire had overseen a rather stilted operation that had been slow to get on top of the case. Despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding the man's disappearance. The team had failed to confirm if the mysterious call he took shortly before he went missing had
indeed come from the cafe. Other lines of inquiry, such as men whom Geffener's wife was having an affair with, were not followed up, and a variety of conflicting eye witness reports all contributed badly to the clumsy investigation. Relieved to be taking a break from it all, Sigurdson was only too happy to hand the reins of the investigation to his colleague Halker Goodmanson and head of Customs Christian Petersen.
Petersen had been brought in due to his suspicions that Geffener's disappearance might in some way be linked to the illegal alcohol trade, which Sigurdson had dismissed. With Sigurdson now out at the picture, Goodmanson and Peterson decided to pursue the alcohol angle, following a tip that Geffener had once been asked to suggest people who might be willing to smuggle alcohol into the port. The police discovered he'd spent
a night at Kluburn nightclub in Reikyevich. Since he rarely went out, there was reason to think this a little suspicious. The link was also significant since one description of the man who made the phone call from the Harbor cafe on the night of Geffener's disappearance bore a striking resemblance to one Magnus Leopoldsen, the manager of Klubrin. This line of inquiry was quickly snuffed out, however, when it emerged that the Klubrin building was leased from the ruling political
party at the time. Embarrassed by the connection, the Justice Department, led by former Prime Minister to Olafur Johannassen, lent on the Kevlovik police department to leave Kluburn alone. With no other major leads, in June nineteen seventy five, the investigation was effectively wound down. In Denmark, things had been good at first for Urdler and Civar, with Urdler enjoying the relative sense of freedom the move had afforded. Before long, however, their money had run out and Urdler had begun to
suffer regular bouts of sickness. When she missed her next period, she knew instantly she was pregnant. By March, with no money to speak of, Urdler had been reduced to stealing tomatoes just to keep from starving. Worried for the health of the baby, Urgler had little option but to return home, whatever the consequences. But when she told Civar of this vision, he demanded she stay, having only heard recently that the
police were still looking to arrest them. When she refused, he attacked her again, kicking her hard in the stomach. Though she couldn't be sure, Urdler suspected he'd done it deliberately to harm the baby. Urdler left the next day and moved back in with her mother in Raikiavik. In September, Urdler gave birth to a girl, whom she named Julia. By then, she and Civar were back together and living in a property in copper Vaga, just south of the capitol.
Two months later, Civar and his friend Gujon were arrested and put into custody after attempting to smuggle cannabis from France. As the police worked to strengthen their case against them, they were given some interesting news. A prisoner currently serving time with SI's friend Christian, had learned from Christian that Sivar and Ertler had been responsible for the theft from the post and telephone company. One day in December, while Ertler was feeding her baby, there was a knock at
the front door. She opened it to find two police officers with a warrant for her arrest. After arranging for her sister to take care of Julia, Ertler was led out to the waiting police car and driven the short distance to Siddamuli Prison. On arrival, she was led straight into the prison interrogation room, a small space at the entrance of the prison known to the officers as the Corner.
The room had been strategically chosen to give arriving interviewees a glimpse of the prison beyond a reminder of what they could look forward to should they fail to comply, but Ertler had no intention of giving them what they needed. Over the next few days, but by then, twenty year old Urtler was brought in and out of solitary confinement and placed in the dull, smoke filled interview room without a lawyer, as the police, led by the investigating magistrate
Born Hoskuldsen, tried desperately to extract a confession. Only after drawing on a letter they had found in her and Sivar's apartment in which Ertler had detailed her many grievances with him, did they begin to get somewhere. Look how dangerous Civar was, they insisted, how bad he was for her and the baby. Clearly he didn't care about them, and what would grown up Julia think about her mother
refusing to cooperate with the police like this. After spending almost a week in solitary confinement undergoing twenty five hours of interrogation, Ergler couldn't stand it any longer. Desperate to see her baby again, she finally confessed to it all, giving the officers a full statement of what happened, with Magistrate Hoskuldson smiling at her and congratulating her on doing the right thing. Ertler sat back in her chair as a wave of relief washed over her. It seemed so easy.
In the end, all she had had to do was tell them exactly what they wanted to hear, and it was over. Ertler had just stood up to leave, with her thoughts only about seeing her baby again, when Hoskuldsen called out to her. Just one more thing, he said. Then he pulled a photo from a file on the table and showed it to Ertler. You don't happen to recognize this man by any chance, he said. Ertler, caught
a little off guard, looked at the photo. She recognized him immediately as good munder Ineson, the eighteen year old boy who'd gone missing back in January nineteen seventy four. Urgler, as she explained, had met him a few times when she was just sixteen. They chatted once or twice on nights out, but nothing more than that. Raskoldsen looked at his colleagues and motioned for Urtler to sit down again.
Gripped by a sudden panic, Ertler looked toward the exit now firmly closed, and slowly sat back down in the chair. What were you doing on the evening of January twenty sixth, nineteen seventy four, the night good Munda went missing, asked Oskoldsen. Were you with Civar by any chance? Ertler's mind went blank. Then, thinking for a moment, she slowly began to remember where
she'd been that night. It was the night of her peculiar dream, being woken up by what she thought was the sound of three of Sivar's friends whispering conspiratorially in the dark outside her apartment. She proceeded to tell the officers everything she'd done that night, how she'd come home exhausted from Klubrin nightclub and gone straight to bed. She even told them about the nightmare, but not about how
she soiled the sheets. That she'd been too embarrassed to say out loud to the numerous older men crowding expectantly around the interview table. Instead, she explained that at some point she'd gone outside for some fresh air and found herself standing next to the bin where she'd seen a sheet deposited at the bottom of it, and that was all of it. Hoskuldson leant back in his chair and
thought for a moment something clearly bothering him. He asked Urtler to go through it again, and again something seemed strange to him, This business with the sheet. It was such an unusual detail, he thought, Why did Ertler include it. But Ertler wouldn't say it was obvious. He said something terrible had happened that night, something so traumatizing that Ertler could no longer remember it. Not to worry, he explained, he would help her remember what it was, and she
wouldn't be leaving until he had the answer. You've been listening to part one of Unexplained Season four, episode seventeen, appearing as being Part two, will be released next Friday, October eighteenth. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so via Patreon to receive access to add free episodes, discount or merchandise, as well as brand new video and audio content exclusive to
Patreon members. Just go to patron dot com, forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up, or if you'd like to make a one time donation, you can go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward Slash support. All donations, no matter how large or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones.
Among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us on line at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com.
Forward slash Unexplained Now, it's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit telldoc dot com,
Forward slash Unexplained Podcast Today to get started. That's t e la d oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast