Leaving the garrison
Muranen was serving as a conscript in Hamina when, after returning from leave in April 1994, he took an RK 62 assault rifle from the garrison and left without authorization. He returned toward the Kotka area, where police soon began searching for him.
The events escalated rapidly. On 18 April, two of Muranen's neighbors, a married couple in their fifties, were killed with a crossbow. During the following night and morning, a 45-year-old newspaper delivery worker was shot dead with the stolen assault rifle.
The manhunt
Muranen remained armed while police searched wooded areas around the neighborhood. Yle's retrospective reporting describes further gunfire toward homes and confrontations during the pursuit, creating a prolonged danger to residents and officers.
After roughly a day-long search, police wounded Muranen in the shoulder and he surrendered. The killings and manhunt became a major national news event and prompted debate about military weapon security and the screening and supervision of conscripts.
Conviction and life sentence
The courts convicted Muranen of three murders together with multiple attempted killings and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Yle's archival account states that, although he had been found seriously disturbed, the court considered him criminally responsible for the offenses.
Muranen later made repeated attempts to obtain release. Applications were rejected in 2008 and 2010, but the Helsinki Court of Appeal approved conditional release in 2013, with the release taking effect in September 2014. He had then served approximately twenty years.
Legacy of the case
The case remains one of Finland's best-known armed manhunts of the 1990s. Its unusual combination of a stolen military rifle, multiple weapons, three killings and an extended police pursuit made it a lasting reference point in discussions about access to service weapons and risk assessment in the armed forces.
Later interviews with people who survived encounters during the episode underline that the consequences extended beyond the three fatalities, affecting families and residents long after Muranen's release.