Finland's first openly gay hockey player Janne Puhakka allegedly ...
The boyfriend of Finland’s first openly gay pro hockey player allegedly confessed to gunning down his much younger beau with a hunting rifle over the weekend — just weeks after they called it quits on their relationship.
Janne Puhakka, 29, was found dead Saturday night inside his home in Espoo where he had been living with his 66-year-old partner, Rolf Nordmo, prior to the break-up, Finnish news outlet YLE reported.
The ex-hockey pro, who previously starred on the Finnish version of “The Traitors” reality show, recently moved out after the relationship ended but had remained “somewhat involved” with his former lover, investigators said.
When he returned over the weekend to discuss “practical matters” and tie up loose ends, cops said Nordmo allegedly grabbed the shotgun and opened fire.
Nordmo, a veterinarian originally from Norway, was taken into custody when cops arrived on the scene.
He allegedly copped to pulling the trigger while he was being interrogated, according to the outlet.
Nordmo was initially arrested for manslaughter but the charge has since been upgraded to murder because “the act is suspected to have been committed with premeditation and in a particularly brutal and cruel manner,” according to a police statement.
Police haven’t officially released the names of the victim or suspect.
They did, however, confirm that the pair “had been in a relationship” and “the motive for the crime was the ending of the relationship between the victim and the suspect.”
It wasn’t immediately clear why the couple called it quits.
The couple, who started secretly dating in 2014 when Puhakka was 19, made headlines after the hockey pro opened up about his sexuality following his retirement in 2018.
In an interview with South West News Service, Puhakka recalled being “frightened” about coming out to family, friends and teammates.
“I didn’t want people to know about my sexuality,” Puhakka said in the 2022 interview. “I was scared of the way I would be perceived in the ultra-masculine sporting world.”
He also confessed that he initially lied and told some people that Nordmo was his uncle so he could evade questions about their relationship.
“I had to keep him a secret — and it isn’t a nice thing to hide the person you love,” Puhakka said.
After going public, the couple acknowledged that some often mistook them for father and son — although they, themselves, never noticed their almost-four-decade age gap.
“I often say Janne is an old soul in a young body and I’m a young soul in an old body,” Nordmo swooned in the interview.
Puhakka, who launched his pro hockey career in 2015, played for the Espoo Blues and Espoo United in Finland’s Liiga hockey league.
He later joined the Rapaces de Gap side in France’s Ligue Magnus league in 2017 before hanging up his skates.
The investigation into his death is still ongoing.
