Finland: Dane acquitted of 1987 ferry attack on backpackers

In one of the oldest unsolved criminal cases in Finland, a Finnish court has acquitted a 52-year-old Dane of murder and attempted murder over an attack on two German backpackers on a Baltic Sea ferry more than 30 years ago

HELSINKI -- In one of the oldest unsolved criminal cases in Finland, a Finnish court on Wednesday acquitted a 52-year-old Dane of murder and attempted murder over an attack on two young German backpackers on a Baltic Sea ferry more than 30 years ago. Klaus Schelkle, aged 20, was killed and his 22-year-old girlfriend Bettina Taxis severely injured in a brutal attack while they were sleeping on the outer deck of the Viking Sally, en route from Stockholm in Sweden to the Finnish port of Turku in July 1987. The crime took place on Finnish waters near the Aland Islands archipelago. The ship was later sold and renamed, and sank seven years afterward with great loss of life in one of Europe’s worst peacetime maritime accidents. Following decades of investigation, Finnish police concluded last year that the Danish man, at the time a 18-year-old boy scout going to an international jamboree in Finland and who allegedly arrived first at the scene to help the victims, was the key suspect in the complex case.