She lived together with her husband, Pentti Frans Olavi Saarinen, in a large, historic wooden house, her childhood home which she had inherited from her grandparents.
Hilkka and Pentti had five children, who, due to family trouble and the father's violent tendencies, were adopted by the state and placed in foster homes.
[2] According to the children and village neighbours, Pentti was extremely jealous and violent toward Hilkka while under the influence of alcohol, and he had repeatedly threatened to kill his wife in a way that could not be traced.
[2] On 25 December 1960, Hilkka and Pentti's eldest son arrived to visit his parents' house for the holidays together with his schoolmate, one day earlier than he had previously said.
However, the boys saw that all the miscellaneous junk that had accumulated on top of the large oven over the years had been thrown onto the floor.
He inspected the basement at the end of the house, with a ground bottom and stone walls, and the outdoor toilet and its surroundings a short distance apart.
He began inspecting the house's plank floors, its large attic, and the stone foundation that the building rested upon, aided by a flashlight.
On Hilkka's name day, 27 November 1972, 12 years after her disappearance, the Turku district commissar Gunnar Kivelä and his assistant arrived in Kokemäki with a document that authorized them to dismantle the Saarinen family oven.
At one point, he said that Romani people had broken into his house shortly before 23 December 1960, but the theory was immediately rejected.
Many witnesses told the court how Hilkka had complained about her husband hitting her, as well as the resulting injuries, which she had repeatedly visited the doctor for.
The Kokemäki local court decided that Pentti had not caused Saarinen's death on purpose, and sentenced him to eight years' imprisonment for manslaughter.
They each claimed that neither the cause nor manner of Hilkka Saarinen's death was known, and one could no longer be sentenced for accidental killing after 12 years.