Mikko Alanen was killed violently in his boat shop (Princess Boats Finland) in Katajanokka, Helsinki, in August 2010. He was married to Maria Alanen and had two kids with her, but, according to the police, after they bought a ferrari in Spain, the couple constantly had fights, among other things, the car was constantly a reason for the fights.
In october of 2009 Maria and Mikko Alanen together with their, at the time four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter moved from Finland to Spain, even though they were meant to stay in Spain only for about 6 months they sold the family home in Helsinki before the trip and in addition to this, they bought two tax-free luxury cars to take with them, the Ferrari California was for Mikko while the Porsche Cayenne was for Maria.
In April of 2010, Maria reported her husband to the police claiming he had abused her for five years, starting from when they had been married for six months. She also told to the Spanish police that Mikko had called her a w**** threatening to destroy her and saying she was of no use as she doesn’t work.
However, when questioned later, Maria denied everything that was on the report, stating that it was complete lies, and that according to her, there was a language barrier which made the police misunderstand things, she also denied that there was any talk about a divorce.
Mikko Alanen, the conturbed life before the end
It was when the family bought those new cars that Mikko’s and Maria’s relationship slowly started deteriorating. At the time, Mikko started to fell anxious and did not enjoy his time at Spain probably in part because of the fights the couple was having. Maria later stated that it was because he did not have a job at the time while she was a stay at home mom.
Only for a few months after initially arriving in January of 2010, Mikko heard that an important company providing boats was about to go bankrupt, he saw there a great opportunity, and it was able to come up with a deal that gave him the right to represent Princess Motorboats in Finland, along with an acquaintance of his, Mikko decided to set up company in Helsinki.
All of this however meant that he would be moving back to Finland
and Maria did not want her husband getting involved in the boat business, the two fought about the matter but eventually, Mikko returned to Finland that same month in January of 2010, while the rest of the family, Maria and the kids stayed behind in Marbella and the couple’s relationship only seemed to go downhill from there and they did not talk to each other for a month after Mikko had left Marbella even though they sometimes discuss the possibility of a divorce they ended up staying together.
In the spring of 2010, Maria received the proposal to star in the series that would showcase her and her family’s life in Spain called Millionaire Mothers, at this time Mikko told Maria that he want to sell the Ferrari that they had brought with them to Spain when they first moved, the sale was going to be to a man who had a car business in another city about 150 km away from Helsinki.
Mikko said that the sale had already been agreed on and told Maria that someone would arrive tomorrow to pick the car up, however Maria (Maria Alanen’s Instagram social media account) had also previously asked Mikko if she was allowed to use the car in the filming of the tv series.
This Ferrari turned out to be one of the bigger contention issues in the relationship, even though Mikko had already agreed on the sale of the car, Maria later claimed no one had a ride to pick it up and he had in fact canceled the trade because he didn’t receive the boat in exchange for it.
It was true that Mikko had canceled the trade but it was said that he had been forced to do when the car did not arrive to Finland as planned, as a consequence he had to pay five thousand euros in compensation to the buyer. It was in April of the same year that Maria goes to the police and accuse her husband of abuse. According to the report, he had abused her for five years, also Mikko had allegedly asked her if she and the kids would return to Finland with him and proceeded to grab her wrists thicker and push her around. Which later, when questions come over, she denied everything and said that was a language barrier.
Maria Alanen in court with her lawyer.
Mikko had told his friend that he was afraid that the two might split , and he also seemed very worried about the custody battle that could happen sooner or later regarding the children. He explained to the friend that he thought Maria was very different from before and figured she might be going through some sort of soul-searching. He wrote to his friends he couldn’t sleep and that the divorce was near because there was too much lying, fighting, and misbehavior.
While in Finland, waiting for his wife and kids to return to live with him, he texted her “even a beach house in Helsinki wouldn’t be enough for you, you’re a movie star now you should probably go …, me and the kids will live in a nice apartment.’’
He patiently waited until mid-summer which was when he started seriously questioning why Maria still had not returned. Whenever Mikko asked her about it, there always were some reason or excuse, like there were no good flights available, the kids were sick or something else, so in the beginning of July Mikko decided to fly to Marbella with his mother to finally get the kids and the Ferrari.
Maria promised that she would drive it to a transportation company and from there it would make its way to Finland at last. Towards the end of that same month on the 29th of July, Maria finally fulfilled her other promise and flew to Finland with the kids in order to celebrate their son’s fifth birthday
The idea was for Maria to move back to Finland permanently but she and the kids were only carrying a hand luggage.
Despite this, things seemed to be going fine until the party was over. Mikko and Maria started fighting once again and as a consequence Maria flew back to Spain pretty much right after she had arrived on the 2nd of August leaving her kids behind.
A few weeks later at 1 in the afternoon on Monday the 16th of august in 2010 Mikko had a scheduled meeting at the luxury boats shop but only a few hours later at 2:50 p.m. he was found deceased in his office. Initially the police suspected it had been an accident when investigating the scene further though. They have uncovered signs of a struggle, but it was determined that the cause of death was a seizure that was a consequence of a violent attack on him.
What the police say, and his wife as the mains suspect
Maria Alanen and the Ferrari in Spain in front of the dealership.
The case was being investigated as an aggravated assault and aggravated involuntary manslaughter. The police found blood at the crime scene and were able to extract the DNA from it, they discovered two profiles, one that belonged to the 34 year old and another that belonged to an outsider, a male.
Based on the blood marks, the two had apparently suffered some sort of injuries during the attack, it was possible this was the person who Mikko has been scheduled to meet before his death, but the police have not been able to figure out who this meeting could have been with, investigators subsequently started collecting samples from anyone who had a connection to all on it, but they were not able to match the DNA.
After years of investigation, the matter has finally progressed to the point where the district court organized a preparatory session. The preliminary investigation material became public with the trial.
Maria Alanen is charged with aggravated embezzlement. Another tv Millionaire Mother, Nina Grekin , and her husband were both charged with aiding and abetting felony embezzlement. The woman is also accused of aggravated forgery.
BASED ON THEIR INVESTIGATIONS, THE POLICE ended up suspecting that they fights were more violent than the woman herself let on. A lot of messages between the couple were found on Miko’s computer, the tone of which was blunt.
“If there is such a fight over my car, then what kind of fight will there be over the children,” Mikko wrote in one message.
“I will talk to Joonas soon and announce that my car will not be in the series,” came another message.
It appears from the messages that the couple argued about things other than the car. At its most heated, the exchange of words was rude.
“Do you feel that the recent smelly fuck was necessary? I wouldn’t want to break up, but yes, this conversation between us is really stupid. You just shout and curse,” Mikko wrote.
The police also unearthed the criminal report that Maria had made about her husband to the Spanish police in April 2010.
– We had language problems when this announcement was made and things have been misunderstood. This information is not true, this announcement is complete nonsense, Maria Alanen acknowledged the matter.
Now the district court is trying to find out what happened to the Ferrari around the time of the man’s death. According to the prosecutor’s view, it was embezzled from the estate in a conspiracy involving Maria Alanen, Nina Grekin and Grekin’s husband.
According to the indictment, the man had forged a fake deed of sale, with which Mikko Alanen would have sold the car to him and he would have been its legal owner. He exchanged the Ferrari for a Bentley car and received an additional 5,000 euros in the trade. The Bentley was registered in Nina Grekin’s name and later sold for 120,000 euros.
The prosecutor has the handwritten statements of the Finnish and Spanish police as evidence of the forgery, according to which it is highly unlikely that Mikko Alanen would have written his name on the suspected forged sales deed.
THE TRIO denies criminal suspicions. During the preliminary investigation, Grekin’s was remarkably quiet. He was questioned twice in 2013 and 2014.
Both interrogations took place in prison. The man had been handed over from Estonia to Finland to serve his prison sentence, which he served in Vantaa and Helsinki prisons.
In the first interrogation, the man’s standard answer to the questions was “I will not comment”. In the second interrogation, he answered all questions “I think the police have no right to question me in this matter”.
Nina Grekin also had a bad memory during the interrogations. He said that he fell off a horse during the filming of Millionaire Moms, when the horse kicked her in the head. Her facial bones were lifted in an operation in Spain. According to Grekin, this event caused amnesia, which she said also extends to things after the accident.
According to his memoirs, he has not owned a Bentley car.
According to Finnish police, solving this case is only a matter of time
The keys to the luxury boat dealer’s fate lie in the blood trail, from which the recorded DNA identifier has remained a mystery for more than 10 years.
Finnish police believe that Mikko Alanen’s fate will be resolved when they get a name for this so far unknown DNA identifier. It’s a matter of time. About 150 samples have been taken. There hasn’t been a hit yet, but they’re waiting for it, says crime police constable Mika Tauru from Helsinki’s “Murharymmä” who investigated the case from the beginning.
Updates from one of the court hearings can be seen here.
Many in Finland remember the Miljonääriäidit reality TV series that ran on the Liv channel in 2010. The series followed the lives of two attractive and rich housewives, Maria Alanen and Nina Grekin, in Marbella, Spain.
Now Maria Alanen has changed Marbella to Monaco.
From her Instagram account, it can be concluded that she lives a wonderful luxury life in Monaco with her children. Maria’s Instagram also reveals that she sometimes attends VIP parties.
Maria is now involved in the diamond business
From her Instagram account it seems that Maria is no longer – at least full-time – a housewife. She is now the CEO and founder of a diamond jewelry company called Ehthele and Darmar -1828. This is evident from a magazine called Luxury, where there is a photo interview with Maria.
Sources: https://podtail.com/en/podcast/true-crime-finland/episode-073-mikko-alanen/ and Finnish newspapers.
