The Killer on Smuttynose Island: A Terrifying True Crime Story Off the New Hampshire Coast
The terrifying true story of the 1873 Smuttynose Island murders near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
I'm learning about Smuttynose Island murders. According to the Smuttynose Island Murders website, ,n 1873, three women were alone on a remote island off the New Hampshire coast. Before sunrise, two would be dead, and the only survivor would be hiding among the rocks, terrified that the killer was still looking for her.
There are plenty of creepy stories about New England. Haunted houses, mysterious disappearances, ghost sightings, and legends that have been passed down for generations.
But sometimes, the scariest stories are the ones that actually happened.
And one of New England's most disturbing true crime stories unfolded on a tiny island just off the New Hampshire coast.
It's called Smuttynose Island, part of the Isles of Shoals, roughly 10 miles from Portsmouth. Technically, Maine, but anyway...
Today, it's a beautiful, rocky island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.
But in March 1873, it became the scene of a horrifying double murder.
And what happened to the one woman who survived sounds like something straight out of a horror movie.
Three Women. One Island. Nobody Coming to Help.
Picture this. It's March 5, 1873.
Back then, there are no cell phones. No electricity. No police department around the corner.
And you're spending the night on a tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean.
Inside a small house on Smuttynose Island are three women: Maren Hontvet, her sister Karen Christensen, and her sister-in-law Anethe Christensen.
The men in their family have traveled to Portsmouth to prepare fishing equipment. A delayed shipment means they'll be working through the night.
The women are alone.
Or at least they think they are.
Sometime after midnight, as March 5 becomes March 6, someone enters the house.
And everything changes.
You know how sometimes you hear a noise downstairs and convince yourself it's just the refrigerator? Yeah, they didn't have that luxury. Or a refrigerator.
A Killer in the Darkness
According to historical accounts, Karen Christensen is sleeping near the kitchen stove when an intruder enters the home.
She wakes up.
The intruder attacks her with a wooden chair.
Her screams awaken Maren and Anethe, who desperately try to figure out what's happening.
Imagine that moment. You're half asleep, it's pitch-black, and someone has broken into your home.
Except there's one enormous problem.
You're on an island.
There's nowhere to run.
As the women try to escape, Anethe climbs through a bedroom window.
That's when she reportedly recognizes the attacker and cries out his name.
Louis Wagner.
Anethe is killed with an axe.
Karen is also murdered.
But Maren manages to escape through the window and run into the darkness.
The Most Terrifying Game of Hide-and-Seek Imaginable
Now comes the part of this story that gives me chills.
Maren is outside.
It's the middle of a March night in New England.
She's injured, terrified, and surrounded by freezing Atlantic water.
And the killer is still somewhere on the island.
Historical accounts describe Maren hiding among the cold rocks while the murderer searches for her. Footprints discovered in the snow would later become part of the evidence.
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Think about that.
Every sound could be him.
Every shadow could be him.
And screaming for help?
Who's going to hear you?
Maren remains hidden until morning.
She survives.
A Norwegian family from neighboring Appledore Island eventually helps rescue her.
But when she finally reaches safety, the nightmare is far from over.
The Killer Was Someone They Knew
Investigators focused on a man named Louis Wagner.
And here's the detail that makes the story even more disturbing.
Wagner wasn't a stranger.
He was a fisherman who had previously worked for the Hontvet family and lived in their house.
He knew the island.
He knew the layout of the home.
And according to testimony, he had learned that the men wouldn't be returning that evening.
Investigators believed Wagner had traveled from Portsmouth to Smuttynose intending to steal money from the house.
Instead, two women were murdered.
Wagner was arrested in Boston, convicted of murder in Maine, and executed in 1875.
He maintained his innocence until his death, and questions about the case have persisted.
There have been books written about this incident. Here's one... "Mystery on the Isles of Shoals"
The Island Is Still There. And So Is the Axe.
Here's what separates this story from the ghost stories we hear every Halloween.
Smuttynose Island still exists.
The story is documented in historical records, court testimony, and newspaper accounts.
And an axe identified as the murder weapon is preserved in the collection of the Portsmouth Athenaeum.
Let that sink in.
More than 150 years later, a physical artifact connected to that terrifying night remains in Portsmouth.
The victims, Karen and Anethe Christensen, are buried in Portsmouth's South Cemetery.
This wasn't an invented Halloween tale.
Two women lost their lives, and another survived a night of terror on an isolated island off our coast.
A Beautiful Island With a Dark Past
It lies within the Isles of Shoals, just across the state line in Maine, although Portsmouth and the New Hampshire Seacoast are closely connected to its history.
It's the kind of place that looks peaceful from the water.
But once you know what happened there in 1873, it's difficult not to imagine Maren Hontvet hiding among those rocks, waiting for sunrise.
And personally?
If somebody invites me to spend a weekend on a remote New England island with no cell service, I'm going to need to ask a few questions first.
Starting with whether anybody named Louis has a key.
Your turn: What's the creepiest place you've ever spent the night?
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