Karina was from a small village named Alaryd in Sweden, and after winning the lottery with about $1,500 in U.S Dollars she decided to use her winnings to move to America for a summer. She had big dreams and was excited for a new atmosphere, to meet new people, explore new places and live the city life.
She decided she would go to Boston. There she worked as an Au Pair for Frank Rapp and Susan Nichter who had two young children, they were in the suburb of Dover right outside of Boston. Karina not too long after being in the US started writing letters home stating this trip wasn’t what she had in mind and she was tired of cleaning all the time. Which to me is interesting because she had a pretty sweet setup. Her employer Frank Rapp allowed her to stay at his studio in Boston on the weekends when she was off. It was right in the middle of where she wanted to be, it was close to all the sights and the night life she dreamed of.
In the weeks leading up to her death her friends claimed to receive letters from her stating “something terrible had happened and that she would reveal more when she returned home.” She didn’t disclose an idea of what she was talking about.
On June 21st, 1996 Karina was set to go out with friends that evening. Karina and three of her friends met up in the Boston studio and then made their way to Zanzibar, a popular club on Boylston Place. Karina was about 19 at the time, but despite being underage she had no issues getting into the clubs with her Fake idea and charming looks.
It was an evening filled with lots of drinking and dancing, she eventually split up from her friends. After that the story gets crazy.
There are witnesses that state she was in the bar until she passed out in the bathroom and was kicked out at 3am, Karina found herself wandering, drunk and alone, but still in the mood to party, she came across a homeless man, whom she danced with for a while.
There were quite a few supposed sightings of Karina by different witnesses after she left the club. People claimed to have seen her getting into (or being forced into) a grey Mitsubishi with a group of men. Some say they saw her getting into a taxi. Others say they saw her walking along different streets near the club.
Several witnesses stated they saw Karina talking to a man named Herb Whitten. All of them said he was large and would frequently dress up his dog and self in Superman T-shirts, supposedly as a way of attracting the ladies.
What we do know for sure is that she was found in a dumpster by a homeless man that was looking for bottles in the Fenway neighborhood. He went and reported what he found to the police.
When the police arrived they were horrified by what they found. It was definitely Karina, but only the upper half of her. From her waist down was missing and no where to be found.
The part of her body that was discovered was in pristine condition; there was no dirt or anything of the sort found on her body. The makeup she had been wearing was completely scrubbed off.
They were able to determine that Karina’s cause of death was strangulation, by the markings she had on her neck. There was some redness on her wrists in which suggested she may have been tied up. they were hoping to find more on her that would help find her killer, but there were no signs she had fought her killer off.
There were few suspects for investigators to really focus on.
Herb Whitten (Superman) was briefly considered as a suspect, but he had a pretty strong alibi. On his way driving back home after talking with Karina he received a speeding ticket and it wouldn’t have fit the timeline. A year later he committed suicide.
Police also looked into Karina’s employers, Frank Rapp and Susan Nichter. Other nannies had word out that Frank was creepy. Neither one of them an alibi for the night Karina was murdered. The Monday following there was a fire that started in a dumpster on their property. The police were called out and they tested the ashes for any trace of human remains, but it came back negative. They were ruled out.
Detective Tommy O’Leary, who lead the case in 1996 says that he still to this day will look into new leads in search of her murderer/murderers. He told The Boston Globe, “I don’t want to say it would take a miracle, but it would take an extraordinary piece of evidence to charge someone, let alone prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Here’s to hoping that one day that piece of evidence is discovered and Karina can get her justice.
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