1965 Gothenburg Disappearances
On July 29, 1965, four men went missing from the city of Gothenburg, Sweeden. Three of them, Gay Karlsson, 22, Jan Olof Dahlsjö, 21, and Kjell Åke Johansson, 16, were friends who worked at a local shipyard together. They were last seen together in a blue Volvo PV444 owned by Dahlsjö's brother. On the same day, Hübner Lundqvist, an 18-year old art student from Stockholm, also went missing. He had been traveling through Gothenberg to get to the city of Lysekil. To this day, no trace of the missing men or their vehicle has ever been found.[1]
On the same day the four men disappeared, a violent failed bank robbery took place in Gothenberg, resulting in the arrest of the two robbers and an accomplice. This has lead to speculation that perhaps the disappearances and the bank robbery were connected. To this day, the case remains the only unsolved mass disappearance in Swedish history.[2]
The Disappearances[edit]
Karlsson, Dahlsjö, and Johansson were local residents of Gothenburg who worked together at a shipyard. All of them had records for petty crimes, but had never been in serious trouble with the law. At the time they went missing, they all had salaries waiting for them that were never collected. Though none of them were married, all three had girlfriends and Johansson had recently become a father. They were all reported missing at different times by different people, resulting in the authorities taking months to determine they were all together when they disappeared. Eventually, it was determined they were last seen on the morning of July 29, 1965, in a blue Volvo PV444 owned by Dahlsjö's brother, even though none of the three men had a driver's license. Where they intended to go remains a mystery. They had been heard planning to go on a camping trip together to the village of Åsa south of Gothenburg. But the weather was rainy that day, and they didn’t tell anyone that they were leaving.[2]
Shortly after Karlsson's disappearance, his sister reported she had gone to his apparent to find a stranger inside wearing a sweater she had made for Karlsson. When she asked who he was, he claimed to be a friend of Karlsson and said he could be found in the pub district. This tip lead nowhere and it was never determined who the man in the apartment was.[3]
On the same day, Hübner Lundqvist, an art student traveling through Gothenberg, also went missing. He had been traveling by train or hitchhiking, leaving open the possibility that he had joined up with the three missing local men at some point.[3] The last trace of him was a letter received by his family, postmarked from Gothenburg on July 29, stating “All is well, don’t worry”.[2]
The "Frogman Heist"[edit]
On the same day all four men went missing, there was an attempted robbery of a local bank in Gothenburg at approximately 2 PM. Two men burst into the bank, one of them dressed as a woman, firing wildly into the air and demanding money. One of the robbers was tackled by a bank customer, resulting in a brief struggled in which the robber accidentally shot himself in the leg. Eventually the robbers fled the bank with stolen money while being chased by bank employees, before driving off their pursuers with a barrage of gunfire. Then they ran to a nearby river, where they tore off their clothes to reveal they had been wearing scuba gear underneath. They attempted to swim away, but both men were caught by the police, along with a third accomplice. All three of them were Hungarian citizens who fled to Sweden after the unrest in Hungary during the 1950’s.[2]
Since it occurred on the same day as the disappearances, there has been some speculation that the "Frogman Heist", as it was dubbed, was connected to them in some way.[1][3] It was theorized that perhaps the missing men ran into the robbers as they were prepping for the robbery and were murdered by them to prevent being reported to the police. Another possibility is that they were involved in the robbery and fled the country to avoid prosecution.[4] Finally, it is theorized that perhaps the men had nothing to do with the robbery and simply crashed their car into a river or precipice where it has never been found.[1]
Ultimately, no trace of the missing men or their vehicle were ever found. Whether or not the three men were connected to the missing art student, and whether any of them were connected to the robbery remains unknown.[4]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Hur kunde de bara försvinna spårlöst? - Minnenas Journal".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mystery, Strange. "The unexplained mystery of the Dahlsjo disappearances – Strange Unexplained Mysteries".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "The Mystery of Sweden's Bizarre Mass Disappearance". Mysterious Universe.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Dahlsjöfallet – ett unikt massförsvinnande: "Saknaden går inte att beskriva"". www.expressen.se.
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