Karina Holmer

Sometimes the most disturbing cases begin with a simple night out. A young woman goes dancing with friends. She laughs, drinks, maybe stays out a little too late. And then… she disappears. But what happened next in this case would shock an entire city. In June of 1996, a man searching through a dumpster in Boston made a horrifying discovery: inside a trash bag was the upper half of a woman’s body. Her killer had strangled her, cut her in half, and discarded her like garbage. The rest of her body was never found. That victim was 20-year-old Karina Holmer, a young woman from Sweden who had come to the United States only months earlier to work as an au pair and experience life in a new country. She had dreams of travel, independence, and adventure. Instead, her story ended in one of Boston’s most brutal and baffling unsolved murders. Karina was last seen in the early morning hours of June 22nd, 1996, leaving a nightclub in downtown Boston after a night out with friends. What happened after that moment remains a mystery. Nearly three decades later, investigators still don’t know who killed her. Someone out there knows exactly what happened to Karina Holmer. And today, we’re going to try to find them. Find My Killer is a Rockefeller Audio Production. The show is written and produced by Courtney Fretwell. If you have any information regarding this case, please contact the Boston Police Department. If you would like to support the show, please consider joining the show’s Patreon page. To learn more, please visit Patreon.com/FindMyKiller. Your support helps to fund research, production, and editing costs. You can also support the show by subscribing, leaving a positive review, and telling friends and family. Sources for this episode include multiple articles from the Who Killed Karina Holmer website, True Crime News, Boston 25 News, Reddit, and private blogs. Thank you so much for listening. Subscribe to Find My Killer on Spotify or wherever you get your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices