The Unsolved Disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen that rocked Norway
Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen, a 69-year-old woman, went missing in October 2018 from her luxurious home in Lørenskog, a suburb of Oslo, where she lived with her billionaire husband Tom Hagen, a property and energy magnate. Despite investigations, the case remains unsolved, and her husband was convicted but later released.
Events leading up to Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s disappearance
On the night of October 30, 2018, Tom Hagen and Anne-Elisabeth Hagen went to the theatre with a few friends.
On October 31, Tom Hagen left for work at 9 o’clock in the morning and arrived at his workplace after around 15 minutes. Tom tried to phone his wife, but he was concerned when she didn’t answer.
At 1:30 pm, when he got home, he could not find Anne-Elisabeth Hagen at home and felt something wasn’t right. There were indications of a scuffle and there was a ransom letter kept on a chair in the hallway. He was threatened with not involving the police until he paid the desired ransom of around $10 million, which was to be made in the cryptocurrency Monero.
Tom, however, wasted little time in calling the police. The police made the decision to conduct the investigation undercover because they believed that making it public may be fatal for Anne-Elisabeth. The police also advised Tom not to inform the public about his wife’s disappearance for 10 weeks while they investigated.
Investigation into the disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen
Although there were no indications of a forceful entry into the home, there were traces of a struggle in the corridor, when Anne-Elisabeth may have attempted to flee her captors. No forensic evidence was found on the scene.
The phone logs suggested that Anne-Elisabeth had gotten a call from the electrician who was scheduled to perform some work for the Hagens after Tom had left the house. Around 9:48 a.m., he called her, but she didn’t answer.
It is thought that Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was kidnapped between the hours of 9:15 and 9:48 in the morning. When the police performed a forensic examination of the crime site, they discovered Anne-Elisabeth’s phone, a plastic strip, a shoe print, and some blood stains.
The investigators were unable to cordon off the site, ask neighbors, or call for suggestions from anybody who might have seen something in order to keep their participation in the case secret.
The undercover investigation into the disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen continued for about ten weeks. However, the police found their work to be severely hindered and they eventually decided that taking the matter to the press would be best.
The Ransom Letter
The ransom letter demanded $10 million in an obscure cryptocurrency for her release.
The investigators noted that the ransom letter was created with WordPad for Windows, using the default settings. It was painted on Clas Ohlson copy paper, made in Portugal but widely available in Norway, which means it was probably purchased locally. The note was written by someone fluent in Norwegian but who had faked it to appear like someone who was illiterate in Norwegian.
In the ransom letter, the kidnapper reportedly threatened to kill Anne-Elisabeth Hagen if the case was revealed to the police or the media. The police operated covertly because Anne-Elisabeth’s life was at risk.
The needle of suspicion turns on Tom Hagen
The case was ultimately made public, but the investigators still had difficulty getting any leads into her disappearance. The investigators used a cryptocurrency code to communicate with the alleged kidnappers, but their delayed, evasive responses raised questions about the entire incident.
Friends informed the investigators that the Hagen marriage was about to fall apart. Despite a rigorous prenuptial agreement, Tom Hagen might have lost up to half of his vast fortune in the event of a divorce.
Tom Hagen was arrested on the suspicion of killing his wife but vehemently denied his involvement in her disappearance. Despite police requests to the public prosecutor, Tom was soon released. His arrest revived interest in the case and led to wide coverage in Norwegian publications.
Tom Hagen and Ole Hendrik Golf investigated
Without any clear leads or sightings of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, 18 months went by. However, in April 2021, the police detained her husband Tom Hagen and charged him with killing or abetting the murder of Anne-Elisabeth.
The investigators tracked the route through the technology that was used in the money transfer, and the money trail led them to a passport with the name of Ole Henrik Golf.
Who was Ole Henrik Golf
The investigators discovered that Ole Henrik Golf’s passport was used to open the cryptocurrency account after following the trail left by the kidnappers. Golf was investigated and watched for a time before the police hauled him in and questioned him on the incident, which he was unaware of.
It was assumed that between 2013 and 2016 someone may have stolen a duplicate of his passport, which was then sold on the dark web. It is unknown how many times it was passed from one person to another, but it ended up in the hands of the kidnappers who used it to open an account to collect funds from Tom Hagen. The passport was then sold once more after that. An unidentified individual who is alleged to have been convicted of minor criminal charges and baguette theft purchased a copy of the passport in Oslo in 2016.
Tom Hagen received instructions in the ransom letter to transmit payment in cryptocurrency to a particular address, which he followed. The directions took him to 12 further bits of information, each of which required payment in cryptocurrency.
He also received another crypto address in case he wanted to pay the ransom in full but Tom did not do so. Instead, cops assisted him in making a $1.45 million payment, at which point all contact ceased. Police are seeking to get closer to the true story of the millionaire and his wife by reopening the lines of contact for information.
Any information, from an email address to a cryptocurrency address, may be useful to the police in their search for anybody who could identify the prior purchasers of the passport. Golf has been exonerated from any wrongdoing in the inquiry. However, the authorities are still actively pursuing the crypto-trail in the hopes that it may help them figure out who abducted Anne-Elisabeth Hagen and what happened to her.
The Lorenskog Disappearances — The Netflix Series
The high-profile disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen inspired “The Lorenskog Disappearances” — The Netflix crime drama, a dramatic semi-fictional retelling of a high-profile case that shocked Norway.
Where is Tom Hagen now?
Although Tom Hagen was arrested in April 2020, he was released 11 days later and has not been charged with any crimes. He denies any involvement with his wife’s disappearance. However, the police still believe that they have strong reasons to suspect him of murder or complicity in murder.
Hagen can remain charged with murder for the rest of his life if the police do not close the investigation because murder has no statute of limitations in Norway. According to the human rights convention, Hagen will be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Tom Hagen has maintained his innocence all along but Tom Hagen remains under the watchful eye of the authorities to date.
The disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen continues to haunt investigators and the public alike, as her fate remains a baffling mystery. Despite all efforts, her body has never been found, leaving her loved ones to grapple with the agonizing uncertainty and the world to ponder the chilling possibility that her killer may still be out there, waiting to strike again. The search for answers continues, and the quest for justice remains unfulfilled, leaving us all with a sense of unease and a reminder that the truth may be elusive, but it will always remain worth pursuing.
Originally published at https://owwlogy.com on November 20, 2022.
