Janne Puhakka, one of the very few male professional hockey players to come out publicly as gay, was found dead at his home in Finland on Sunday.
Puhakka’s partner has been arrested on suspicion of murder, according to numerous Finnish media reports.
Puhakka played professionally for teams in his homeland, Canada and France before retiring in 2018. The following year, he came out publicly as gay in an interview with Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and received an outpouring of public support.
According to local police, he was fatally shot in the semi-detached house in which he lived with his partner Rolf Nordmo in Henttaa, a district situated between the capital Helsinki and the city of Espoo. He was 29.
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Nordmo is a 66-year-old veterinarian who is originally from Norway. He was arrested at the scene and was being interviewed by police on Monday, reported newspaper Iltalehti.
Puhakka was a well-known media personality in Finland and had been appearing on national TV in a version of the show “The Traitors.” The final episode of the series, due to air Thursday, will not now be broadcast.
The Scandinavian nation’s former prime minister, Sanna Marin, was among those who paid tribute to Puhakka on social media.
When he came out publicly, Puhakka explained that he had known by the age of 16 that he was gay.
He struggled with the hypermasculine locker room culture but did feel able to tell his then team captain and a couple of close teammates about his sexuality.
As reported by Outsports at the time: “He mostly kept his then-boyfriend a secret, avoided questions about his love life and worried that his other teammates might one day run into him and his boyfriend in the city. Over time, the secrecy started to negatively affect his partner.”
It had only been in more recent years that Puhakka had shared details of his relationship with Nordmo, posting a photo of the couple together on Instagram at Christmas 2021 and then writing about them in his memoir “Ulos Kopista” (“Out from the bench”) which was published in 2022.
In the book, Puhakka described how the couple originally met online 10 years ago when he was playing in a junior league in Quebec.
They gave interviews in 2022 to various media outlets about being in an age-gap same-sex relationship, including with the New York Post and the Daily Mirror in the U.K. They also marched together in Helsinki Pride, with Puhakka taking part in activations to promote LGBTQ inclusion in hockey and wider sports.
Writer Risto Pakarinen helped Puhakka with his autobiography. “I got to know Janne in connection with the book project and it quickly became clear that he was a brave young man,” he told Iltalehti.
“I’m sad and I share in the bottomless grief of the family members and Janne’s other loved ones.
“With his book, Janne wanted to give hope to other representatives of minorities in hockey and other sports, and to offer them an example and someone to talk to.”
Iltalehti also reported that mourners were leaving memorial candles outside Puhakka’s home on Monday.
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