Karina Holmer was 20 years old when she came to Massachusetts from Sweden in 1996, hoping to work, travel, and prove she could make her own way. Three months later, after a Midsummer night out at Zanzibar in downtown Boston, she vanished into a few unexplained hours that investigators still cannot fully reconstruct.

In this episode of Under the Pines, we go beyond “the Swedish nanny” and remember Karina as a person first: one of four sisters, a young woman who studied the restaurant business, cared for two children in Dover, spent weekends with other au pairs in Boston, and was thinking about returning home to Sweden later that summer.

Karina was last reliably seen in the early morning of June 22, 1996. The next day, part of her remains were found behind 1091 Boylston Street. Her lower remains have never been recovered, the location where she was killed has never been identified, and no one has been charged. Thirty years later, the case remains active.

We examine the verified timeline, the unexplained letter Karina sent home, the uncertain later sightings, the missing crime scene, the investigation, and the theories that have followed the case for decades, while keeping the daughter, sister, friend, caregiver, and young traveler at the center of the story.

Sources:

1996 Unsolved Homicides - Boston Police Department

The murder of Karina Holmer remains unsolved 30 years later; police asking public for help - The Boston Globe

The murder of Karina Holmer remains unsolved 30 years later; police asking public for help - Boston.comhttps://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2026/07/07/the-murder-of-karina-holmer-remains-unsolved-30-years-later-police-asking-public-for-help/

Who killed Karina Holmer? Twenty-five years later, Swedish nanny’s grisly murder remains unsolved - The Boston Globehttps://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/22/metro/who-killed-karina-holmer-twenty-five-years-later-swedish-nannys-grisly-murder-remains-unsolved/

Remembering Karina Holmer By Name, Not Just By The Crime That Killed Her - GBHhttps://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2019-06-24/remembering-karina-holmer-by-name-not-just-by-the-crime-that-killed-her

Decades later, few clues in Swedish nanny case - Massachusetts Lawyers Weeklyhttps://masslawyersweekly.com/2020/01/23/decades-later-few-clues-in-swedish-nanny-case/

Who Killed Karina Holmer?https://whokilledkarinaholmer.com/

Victim regarded as upbeat, good with children - The Boston Globe, June 26, 1996

Dover-based employer questioned; police trace events at loft, nightclub - The Boston Globe, June 26, 1996

Additional archival reporting: The Patriot Ledger, Associated Press, and United Press International, June 1996, accessed through Newspapers.com.

#KarinaHolmer #BostonTrueCrime #UnsolvedMurder #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast

On Halloween morning in 2025, Joanna Lynn Brown left the Bean Counter Bakery Café in Worcester, Massachusetts, expecting to return for her next shift. She didn’t. Her absence unsettled people who had come to count on seeing her.

Joanna was an older sister, an artist whose painting Broad Meadow earned a 2013 Scholastic Gold Key, and a familiar face to bakery regulars. They remembered her humor, kindness, and the little routines they shared.

Under the Pines follows her Halloween disappearance, the police search and later court proceedings involving Donovan Foster, who pleaded not guilty. We separate allegations from established facts and keep Joanna’s life at the center.

Sources and further reading

Joanna Lynn Brown:

2013 LISTING OF ALL ART AWARDS BY SCHOOL:

2013 Boston Globe Scholastic Art & Writing Awards results:

Local student wins national prize for artwork on poverty:

Worcester bakery mourns death of ‘beloved staff member’ as police continue to investigate:

Worcester police find missing woman Joanna Brown dead in car:

WPD Investigating the Death of Joanna Brown:

Details on Worcester woman found dead in her car:

Murder Indictment Returned in Death of Joanna Brown:

Former boyfriend charged with murdering Joanna Brown of Worcester:

With Joanna Brown's family in courtroom, Foster arraigned on murder charge:

No bail for Worcester man charged with murder in mysterious death of Joanna Brown:

Music: Yoza, Broken Wings.

#JoannaBrown #WorcesterMA #TrueCrimePodcast #MassachusettsTrueCrime #UnderThePines

Who killed Johnny Donaldson? On April 6, 1979, 20-year-old John Royal “Johnny” Donaldson was found shot to death inside his orange Ford Pinto in the driveway of his family home on Lovers Lane in Harvard, Massachusetts.

Hours earlier, Johnny had finished a late shift at the Sheraton Boxborough, spent time with young coworkers, and driven home. A local patrolman saw him alive around 4 a.m., sitting in the car and finishing a cigarette. By 6:45 that morning, Johnny’s brother Jim had found him dead.

The case soon widened beyond one driveway. Investigators looked at other .22-caliber shootings around Boxborough, a possible witness later located in Los Angeles, an accessory-after-the-fact charge that collapsed in 1984, old bullets recovered during a 1998 search, and later reviews of leads that never produced a proven killer.

But this episode is not just about a gun, a timeline, or an unresolved file. It is about Johnny: the youngest of four siblings, a young man home from college, remembered as friendly, easygoing, a dreamer, a “good kid,” someone who loved his dog Heidi and his orange Pinto and was still trying to figure out where life was going.

Was Johnny deliberately targeted, or did he die because somebody recklessly fired at a parked car without realizing he was inside? Nearly five decades later, that question remains unanswered.

If you have information: Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office can be reached at 508-453-7589 or WorcesterDAunresolved@mass.gov.

Sources:
Unresolved Cases - Worcester County District Attorney’s Office https://worcesterda.com/prosecution/unresolved-cases/
After drinking beer with co-workers, he was shot dead in his parents’ driveway in Harvard. His murder was never solved. https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2024/11/15/after-drinking-beer-with-co-workers-he-was-shot-dead-in-his-parents-driveway-in-harvard-his-murder-was-never-solved/
The trauma of the unsolved murder of my brother https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/08/opinion/cold-case-unsolved-murder-brother/
New England’s Unsolved: The murder of John Donaldson https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/worcester-county/new-englands-unsolved-murder-john-donaldson/Z5TVOHRHMFC45NJLLHHGSRXKIA/
The Murder of John Donaldson (Massachusetts) https://darkdowneast.com/johndonaldson/
Susan Donaldson James - Finding Johnny https://www.susandonaldsonjames.com/
Newspapers.com archive: contemporary Massachusetts reporting, 1979-1999 https://www.newspapers.com/

Under the Pines
#JohnnyDonaldson #UnsolvedMurder #MassachusettsTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast