Investigators re-examine mystery of six people who confessed to a murder they may not have committed… and there was no physical evidence to prove they did
The eye-opening documentary asks more questions about the killings that shook Iceland
SIX people confessed to the killings of two men in 1974, despite allegedly having no recollection of the crime.
Decades after the gang was sentenced without any physical evidence linking them to murder, experts are re-examining the mysterious case.
BBC Four documentary Out Of Thin Air: Murder In Iceland, takes a look back at the baffling case.
In 1974 Iceland, the population was around 200,000 people and there was a low crime rate.
When two people who shared the same surname, despite not being related, mysteriously vanished, the public began pressurising investigators for answers.
Teenager Erla Bolldottir was questioned for an unrelated petty crime in December 1975.
But before she left the interrogation room, she had confessed to playing a part in the murder.
Bolldottir recalled having a strange dream on the night of Gudmunder Einarsson's disappearance.
In this dream, she remembered hearing her boyfriend Sævar and his friends muttering outside her window.
Investigators latched onto this shred of information, suggesting that her memory could have been hazy because of the trauma of witnessing a murder.
Sævar Ciesielski and his friends Kirstjan Vidarsson, Tryggvi Leifsson, Albert Skatason and Gudjon Skarphedinsson were called in for questioning.
During this time, the suspects were questioned for prolonged periods of times.
According to the BBC investigation, Sævar spent 615 days in solitary confinement and was interrogated for 340 hours in total.
Disturbingly, officers are also accused of inflicting sleep and water torture on the inmates.
After giving confessions, the suspects later retracted them and claimed they had no memory of the crime.
So could it be possible that the six suspects were wrongly convicted?
Ciesielski's family are working to clear Sævar's name, after the convicted killer died on the streets in 2011.
The other five charged prisoners are out of jail, but they're yet to prove their innocence.
Decades after the supposed crime, the case remains highly controversial.
To find out more about the Geirfinnur case, tune in to Out Of Thin Air: Murder In Iceland on BBC Four tomorrow evening at 10pm.