96. The Unsolved Murder of Karina Holmer – Part 1

The Consult: Real FBI Profilers

PodcastOne

Talk Radio, True Crime

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we begin our examination of the June 1996 murder of Karina Holmer, a young au pair from Sweden working in the United States. Karina was last seen alive in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 22, in downtown Boston. The next day, her torso was discovered in a trash bag inside a dumpster, about a mile from where she was last seen. She had been severed at the waist. We discuss the known facts and the evidence recovered in this still-unsolved case.

If you have any information about Karina's murder, please call the Boston Police Department Unsolved Homicide Unit at (617) 343-4470. If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call the CrimeStoppers tip line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS (8477) or text the word "TIP" to CRIME (27263).

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For additional information and resources, please visit our episode website: https://www.truecrimeconsult.com/96-the-unsolved-murder-of-karina-holmer-part-1/

Music “Light in the Basement” by John Hanske. Listen to more of John’s music on Spotify.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the consult.
0:32.6	I'm Julia Cowley, retired FBI agent and profiler, and I'm joined by my colleagues.
0:38.9	Susan Costler, Drew. And Bob Drew. Susan and Bob are also retired FBI profilers, and we work
0:46.2	together in the FBI's behavioral analysis unit. Before we get started on today's case, I just
0:52.1	want to let you know that we will be doing a follow-up on Brian Coburger.
0:57.8	We've got a lot of requests for that now that more information has been released regarding the investigation.
1:03.4	When we recorded our initial episodes, we didn't have access to that additional information.
1:09.6	So we are reviewing it and we will do a follow-up in the
1:15.0	near future. What I will say is that from what I've read so far, I don't think our observations
1:22.5	or profile is going to change much, but I do think we'll be able to put a finer point on some
1:29.8	things that we didn't know at the time we were initially discussing the case. So today, we'll be
1:38.3	analyzing the 1996 unsolved murder of 20-year-old Karina Holmer in Boston, Massachusetts.
1:49.5	This is one of those cases that has really resonated with me and stuck with me over the years,
1:56.8	and I have wanted to do it since we started the show.
1:59.9	I first became familiar with Carina's case
2:02.5	when I moved to Boston in 1999 to begin my career as an FBI agent.
2:09.1	Karina's case received a lot of media attention, and I think it was in large part due to the
2:14.8	gruesomeness of the crime. But also there were some unusual due to the gruesomeness of the crime.
2:22.7	But also there were some unusual aspects to the case as well.
2:29.3	You know, Karina was from Sweden and working as an au pair in the United States.
2:37.0	The crime scene was never located and only the upper portion of her body was ever found and Karina's case has often been compared to the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles
2:45.6	and what has become known as the Black Dahlia case because Elizabeth was also bisected. And someday we do
	...

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