Jarno Elg
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jarno Sebastian Elg (born 1975) is a Finnish
Satanist Satanism refers to a group of religious, ideological, or philosophical beliefs based on Satan—particularly his worship or veneration. Because of the ties to the historical Abrahamic religious figure, Satanism—as well as other religious ...
and murderer. He was sentenced to
life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...
for murdering a 23-year-old man in
Hyvinkää Hyvinkää (; , ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Hyvinkää is situated in the northern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Hyvinkää is approximately . It is the most populous municipality in ...
,
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
on 21 November 1998, eating some of the body parts and instigating others to participate in a Satanistic
ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
that included torturing the victim. The case has been described as the most gruesome homicide in Finnish history.Jon Kristiansen: ''Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries''. Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 435.


Murder

On November 20 of 1998, the 23-year-old Jarno Elg was accompanied by his 17-year-old girlfriend Terhi Johanna Tervashonka from
Järvenpää Järvenpää (; , ; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Järvenpää is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region in the immediate vicinity of Lake Tuusula. The population of Järvenpää is approximately ...
, 20-year-old Mika Kristian Riska from
Mäntsälä Mäntsälä () is a municipality in the province of Southern Finland, and is part of the Uusimaa region. It has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finni ...
, a 16-year-old boy from
Kerava Kerava (; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Kerava is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region. The population of Kerava is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality ...
, as well as the 23-year-old victim. They spent Friday evening drinking alcohol in Järvenpää as part of a larger group. They visited the local congregation and debated about Satanism and
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
before the five left for Elg's apartment in Hyvinkää. At the apartment, Elg punched the victim in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. He was tied using duct tape, and his entire head was taped over. Elg and Tervashonka then proceeded to hit him with scissors around different parts of the body. As the victim was being tortured, the group reportedly listened to '' The Cainian Chronicle'', an album by the Norwegian
black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...
band
Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...
. The victim eventually died of suffocation due to his face being covered with duct tape. After this, cannibalistic and necrophilic acts were performed on the body by Elg and Tervashonka, as well as
genital mutilation Genital modifications are forms of body modifications applied to the human sex organs, human sexual organs, including invasive modifications performed through genital cutting or surgery. The term genital enhancement seem to be generally used for ...
and tearing out the victim's intestines. The victim's head was "severed and disgraced", before the rest of the body was dismembered and dumped into separate waste containers.


Criminal investigation

The criminal investigation began when a leg was found on a
landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
on November 24.''Worship Him!''. In:
Jon Kristiansen Head Not Found is a Norwegian record label, a sublabel of Voices Music & Entertainment, specializing in various heavy metal subgenres. They describe the genres as Black, Death, Doom, Thrash, Gothic, Viking Metal and Ambient. Their parent label is ...
: ''Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries''. Brooklyn, NY: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 466f.
After a week of searching the area, a part of the victim's torso was found. An examination of the torso allowed the authorities to determine the victim's approximate age and lifestyle, including frequent use of alcohol. This lead the police to believe that the victim was a recipient of
social welfare Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance p ...
benefits, which in turn lead to the discovery of the victim's name. The victim's identity was positively confirmed through
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
testing. The rest of the group who had spent the evening at Elg's apartment were suspected of the murder and apprehended on December 8, 1998.


Trial and aftermath

Jarno Elg was sentenced to life in prison. The accomplices Terhi Johanna Tervashonka and Mika Kristian Riska were sentenced to eight years and six months and two years and eight months in prison respectively by the Hyvinkää District Court of Southern Finland. The 16-year-old boy's charges were dropped completely, as the court found that he had been forced by Elg to participate in the events. It was said that the three people sentenced "were strongly influenced by Satanism". The court declared most of the details of the case to be sealed for 40 years. For this reason, only a limited amount of information is available. After the sentences, the media was accused by
black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...
musicians of trying to "raise up black metal as a scapegoat for the events in Hyvinkää". Demonos Sova of
Barathrum Barathrum is a Finnish black-doom metal band, formed in 1990. The band's name is Latin for ''pit'' or ''abyss''. The first letters of their eight full-length albums spell "HEIL SOVA" - referring to the band's frontman, Demonos Sova, who is the o ...
"tried his very best not to involve Black Metal and Satanism with the murder" and called the murderers "some nutcases", whereas the ''I Return to Darkness''
fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...
"fully supports the murder of Hyvinkää and would like to hail in honour all those who participated in it". An article printed by the Norwegian ''Slayer'' fanzine stated that " 's amazing how Satanists are always so full of strength and never forget to remind us that the weak must be weeded out., yet when someone does actually weed out some weak hypocrite - they are the first to mourn in public to save their precious Satanism from the terrible Devil Worshippers who ruin the whole name and essence of
Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
which actions that, of course, don't have anything to do with 'real' Satanism", and told Sova to " ck off and die". The article also questions why some people within the scene were "so fucking protective concerning black metal's 'good reputation'" although "black metal was the only form of 'music' where the music itself doesn't come as the first priority", whereas musicians now would seem to "care more about their guitars than the actual essence onto which the whole concept was and is based upon". In ''Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries'', the fanzine's author
Metalion Head Not Found is a Norwegian record label, a sublabel of Voices Music & Entertainment, specializing in various heavy metal subgenres. They describe the genres as Black, Death, Doom, Thrash, Gothic, Viking Metal and Ambient. Their parent label is ...
stated that it was a "stupid article" and people gave him "lots of shit for printing the article, especially because the point of view tended to support the attackers". In an interview given in 2000, Tervashonka explained that she did not consider the case murder. She said that she and her friends, completely intoxicated, had tied and silenced another member of the group who had become noisy by using a duct tape without realizing that he would suffocate as a result. Tervashonka denied that the case had been related to devil worship.


Release

Tervashonka was paroled in the spring of 2003. In 2007 she was sentenced to another ten years in prison for killing a 47-year-old man by using a
billhook A billhook or bill hook is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs, small trees and branches. It is distinct from the sickle. It was commonly used in Europe with an important var ...
. In 2018 ''
Ilta-Sanomat is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid-size evening newspapers and the largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is '' Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019, ''Ilta-Sanomat'' is also the bi ...
'' reported that she had no longer had criminal convictions in the recent years. Elg was released on parole in February 2016, after serving 17 years in prison.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elg, Jarno 1975 births 20th-century Finnish criminals Black metal Cannibals Crimes involving Satanism or the occult Finnish male criminals Finnish people convicted of murder Finnish prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Finnish Satanists Living people Necrophiles Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Finland People convicted of murder by Finland People paroled from life sentence