The book Leitin að Geirfinni (The Search for Geirfinnur) traces the movements of Geirfinnur Einarsson on the evening of 19 November 1974 — and the movements of those who have tried to cover them up ever since. All of the police reports about the events of that evening are a diversion from what actually happened. The book lays out the testimony of witnesses who either heard or saw the events of the evening of 19 November.
Where to buy
Fifty years ago, Geirfinnur Einarsson disappeared in Keflavík. He was 32, a married father of two who operated heavy machinery and had earned everything he owned honestly. He was well liked by his colleagues — easy to talk to, played chess and bridge, read books, would have a drink with friends but always showed up for work on time and did careful work. Geirfinnur was considered a level-headed man, the least likely of anyone to do something reckless — the kind of man who does not simply vanish without a trace on a Tuesday evening. It was Geirfinnur's fate to become a bit player in his own disappearance.
Along the way he was unjustly linked to smuggling and other criminal cases for which there was never the slightest basis. His name became attached to one of the most squalid miscarriages of justice in the Icelandic legal system, in which a number of people spent long periods in prison under suspicion of involvement in his disappearance, and several were convicted of killing him. For years the Supreme Court and the State Prosecutor stood against reopening those cases. When the Supreme Court finally acquitted those previously convicted of killing him, the legal system was left with an unsolved disappearance — and let the matter rest there.
This book is about the search for Geirfinnur. The goal was to solve a disappearance, not to find the individuals responsible for it. Yet it was clear that if the disappearance could be solved, a criminal case would likely emerge as a result of the investigation.
The mystery is solved!
The first book published by Icelandia Publishing is Leitin að Geirfinni (The Search for Geirfinnur) by Sigurd Björgvin. Sigurd's investigation took seven years and reveals Geirfinnur's fate on the evening of 19 November 1974. The author did something the police never did — he actually spoke to Geirfinnur's neighbours, and he spoke to witnesses the police had ignored or ordered to keep silent about the case. By the end of the book it becomes clear who was responsible for Geirfinnur's death.
Leitin að Geirfinni is meant to make it easier for the police and the courts to "investigate" what became of Geirfinnur after 50 years of inaction. The word "investigate" is deliberately in quotation marks — something that explains itself in light of the news coverage, the public debate, and the publication of a book that solves a murder case the Icelandic police do not want solved.
Map key — English
The map above is in Icelandic. Street names are unchanged; the key below translates the labels. Points A–G and routes 1–4 are marked on the map.
Locations
Routes (marked on the map)
Distances
Estimated times
Notes
The tracker dog followed Geirfinnur's trail, marked in green on the map (no. 3 and no. 2). It runs from Geirfinnur's car, which had been planted at the curb in front of Járn & skip (E), and from there to Hafnarbúðin (C) and on to Vatnsnesvegur (B), where Þórður had let Geirfinnur out of the car. This track is described backwards in time because Geirfinnur started his walk from Þórður's car at (B).
* Geirfinnur may have got out of the car at the corner of Faxabraut and Hringbraut. Had he been dropped off at the door, the driver would have had to take Hringbraut or another cross street to Vatnsnesvegur (Hafnargata) or Sólvallagata, because Brekkubraut is a dead-end street.
Sigurd Björgvin
Sigurd Björgvin, author of Leitin að Geirfinni, is a graphics journalist at Morgunblaðið with decades of experience in the media in Iceland and Denmark.
What began as a hobby, rooted in Sigurd's interest in history, grew into a forensic investigation that became the book about Geirfinnur's disappearance. Nearly ten years have now passed since Sigurd began systematically gathering material for the book, which was published in November 2024, fifty years after Geirfinnur's disappearance. Sigurd is now working on a second volume about the aftermath of the Geirfinnur and Guðmundur court cases — a more harrowing book than the first, dealing with the efforts of the accused, their families, and politicians to have the entire case reopened, and the system's resistance to letting the truth come out.
Jón Ármann Steinsson
Jón Ármann Steinsson is the publisher and founder of Icelandia Publishing, which published Leitin að Geirfinni by Sigurd Björgvin. He is one of many who experienced the Geirfinnur case firsthand as it took shape into Iceland's greatest miscarriage of justice. Jón Ármann has repeatedly demanded that the Geirfinnur case be reopened, and has discussed it in newspaper articles, television programmes, and interviews. He is now working on a scripted series about the case in collaboration with international partners.
What happened?
How does one create a work of fiction? That question doesn't involve the book Leitin að Geirfinni, which is a documentary. The question is about the fictional tale the Keflavík police constructed in the first days after the disappearance of Geirfinnur Einarsson on the evening of 19 November 1974.
The police investigation team consisted of two men. The highest-ranking official in the district at the time was Valtýr Sigurðsson, deputy to the town magistrate of Keflavík. Assisting him was Haukur Guðmundsson, a detective. Everything documented about the investigation was Valtýr's responsibility. It then turns out that what was not put on record was far more interesting than what was.
There, at the police's old manual typewriters and an electric golf-ball typewriter in the office of the Keflavík town magistrate, the work of fiction that would later be named the Geirfinnur case began. Close ties in a small community like Keflavík in the mid-1970s gave the figures and players in the Geirfinnur case the incentive to put together an account entirely different from what actually happened that evening. The version of Valtýr Sigurðsson and the Keflavík police is the story that other policemen then took to the highest reaches of fiction — about the "serial killer" Sævar Ciecielski, who was tortured into confessing to crimes that had never taken place.
Newspaper articles about the case — click to read (PDF)
- 26.5.2026DVSays Geirfinnur had been left behind when he died – The widow launched a major fundraising drive (Segir að Geirfinnur hafi verið skilinn þegar hann lét lífið – Ekkjan réðst í mikla fjársöfnun)
- 15.5.2026DVUrges Valtýr to sue him for defamation, because then the truth in the Geirfinnur case will come out (Hvetur Valtý til að fara í meiðyrðamál við sig því þá muni sannleikurinn í Geirfinnsmálinu koma fram)
- 15.5.2026VísirWants a parliamentary committee appointed to review the investigation of the Guðmundur and Geirfinnur cases (Vill að skipuð verði þingnefnd til að fara yfir rannsókn Guðmundar- og Geirfinnsmála)
- 14.1.2026DVThe Geirfinnur case: Accuses Valtýr of interfering with witnesses and parties to the case for 50 years (Geirfinnsmálið: Sakar Valtý um að hafa haft afskipti af vitnum og málsaðilum í 50 ár)
- 24.12.2025DVCriminal cases of the year I: The health-insurance fraudster, the alleged killer of Geirfinnur named, and what you didn't know about the Gufunes case (Sakamál ársins I: Sjúkratryggingasvindlarinn, meintur banamaður Geirfinns nafngreindur og það sem þú vissir ekki um Gufunesmálið)
- 30.11.2025VísirValtýr Sigurðsson: Rejects the accusation of a cover-up in the Geirfinnur case (Valtýr Sigurðsson: Hafnar ásökuninni um yfirhilmingu í Geirfinnsmáli)
- 15.11.2025Útvarp SagaThe nation needs to hear the truth in the Geirfinnur case (Þjóðin þarf að heyra sannleikann í Geirfinnsmálinu)
- 13.11.2025Útvarp SagaGeirfinnur's killer is alive, yet the legal system's silence and unaccountability prevail (Morðingi Geirfinns á lífi en samt ríkir þöggun og ábyrgðarleysi réttarkerfisins)
- 12.11.2025DVSays Geirfinnur's body was transported in Svanberg's car (Segir lík Geirfinns hafa verið flutt í bíl Svanbergs)
- 12.11.2025Útvarp SagaJón Ármann: Geirfinnur was murdered in the garage at his home (Jón Ármann: Geirfinnur var myrtur í bílskúrnum heima hjá sér)
- 12.11.2025Útvarp SagaNew evidence sheds light on a cover-up in the Geirfinnur case (Ný gögn varpa ljósi á yfirhylmingu í Geirfinnsmálinu)
- 29.10.2025DVSoffía responds to Valtýr: Finds it odd that a friend of Geirfinnur's wife never met him (Soffía svarar Valtý: Þykir sérstakt að vinkona eiginkonu Geirfinns hafi aldrei hitt hann)
- 11.10.2025VísirThe Keflavík police's investigation of the Geirfinnur case (Rannsókn lögreglunnar í Keflavík á Geirfinnsmálinu)
- 11.10.2025VísirValtýr is baffled by the siblings' slander, defamation, and insinuations (Valtýr furðar sig á óhróðri, níði og aðdróttunum systkina)
- 8.9.2025DV"After several years of research I reached the conclusion that a certain individual was Geirfinnur's killer" („Ég komst að þeirri niðurstöðu eftir nokkurra ára rannsóknir að ákveðinn einstaklingur væri banamaður Geirfinns“)
- 6.9.2025DVThe Geirfinnur case: Haukur accuses Soffía of lying – "Valtýr was a very conscientious and reliable official" (Geirfinnsmálið: Haukur sakar Soffíu um lygar – „Valtýr var mjög vandaður og ábyggilegur embættismaður“)
- 29.8.2025DVSays major revelations in the Geirfinnur case lie ahead – "Then we'll go public with this" (Segir miklar afhjúpanir í Geirfinnsmálinu framundan – „Þá förum við út með þetta“)
- 27.8.2025VísirYour tracks, Valtýr (Sporin þín Valtýr)
- 21.8.2025mblMore than one witness on Brekkubraut (Fleiri en eitt vitni á Brekkubraut)
- 21.8.2025mblTurning to the State Prosecutor (Leita til ríkissaksóknara)
- 25.6.2025VísirSays nothing has happened at the police since the evidence on Geirfinnur's disappearance was handed over (Segir ekkert hafa gerst hjá lögreglu síðan gögnum um hvarf Geirfinns var skilað)
- 6.12.2024VísirHas received threats since the book about Geirfinnur came out (Hefur fengið hótanir eftir útkomu bókarinnar um Geirfinn)
- 22.11.2024Útvarp SagaNew witness accounts shed new light on the Geirfinnur case (Nýjar frásagnir vitna varpa nýju ljósi á Geirfinnsmálið)
- 19.11.2024VísirClaims to know who killed Geirfinnur (Segist vita hver vó Geirfinn)
- 19.11.2024mblBelieves he knows what happened (Telur sig vita hvað gerðist)
- 11.4.2023VísirWho will be crucified next? (Hver verður krossfestur næst?)
Where to buy
Available in Icelandic only.
Háskólaprent
Sold online only. Orders can be collected from Háskólaprent, Fálkagata 2, Reykjavík.
Open Mon–Fri 9:00–16:00. Also shipped via Dropp to pickup points across Iceland.
Bóksala stúdenta (University Bookstore)
Sæmundargata 4, Reykjavík (next to the main University of Iceland building).
Open Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00. Also shipped to your home via Iceland Post (Íslandspóstur).