Isdal Woman: The mystery death haunting Norway for 46 years

BBC ^ | 13 May 2017 | Helier Cheung

[csvset]

It's a mystery that has intrigued Norway for nearly 50 years.

In November 1970, the badly burnt body of a woman was found in a remote spot in Norway's Isdalen valley.

Someone had cut the labels off her clothes, and scraped distinctive marks off her belongings - as if to stop her from being identified.

And as police started investigating her death, they uncovered a trail of coded messages, disguises, and fake identities - but never cracked the case.

Forty-six years later, Norwegian police and NRK journalists have decided to reopen the investigation.

This is the story of the Isdal Woman - and the perplexing trail of clues she left behind.

[csvset]

Spy of some sort is my guess. The dental work might provide a clue ?

[PLMerite]

Most important question: Where was Donald Trump?

[pepsionice]

Who would go and use eight different aliases over a six-month period at hotels in the region?

The other odd thing...she visits the region in March/April....then disappears, and reappears in late October. So where was she for seven months? She comes right back to the region for what purpose?

My bet is that she was a Stassi (DDR) agent. She failed them in some way, and was terminated.

[Enchante]

Certainly sounds like a spy, hard to imagine any more “normal” life could result in this fact pattern. Now the study of isotopes in her teeth has led to a couple of further developments:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39978131

Sounds like she was sent/brought from eastern Europe to somewhere near the France/German border when she was an adolescent (they don’t narrow down the age range). Was she recruited super young as a long-term penetration agent????

[Enchante]

Interesting possible witness report recounted in a Norwegian article that is quoted in Wikipedia:

"According to a brief and vague article in a Bergen tabloid, a 26-year-old local man said he went to police after recognising the composite sketch of her.[12] He told the officer on 24 November that he had been hiking with friends in the area when he encountered the woman and two men of "foreign appearance" wearing coats. She was elegantly dressed in clothing that was not appropriate for the outdoors or hiking, and her face was "distorted" with apparent fear. As they passed each other, he said, she formed her mouth as if to say something, but appeared intimidated by the men. The witness said the policeman told him, "Forget her, she was dispatched. The case will never be solved." The man waited for over 30 years before going public with the story."[12]

[sodpoodle]

State sponsored sex worker.

[PghBaldy]

An excellent (fictionalized) movie was made (which I just watched again a few weeks ago) which was loosely inspired by this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Lives_(film)

[vladimir998]

No wonder so many people think she was a spy:

Police find the woman had stayed in the following hotels, under these names:
Genevieve Lancier, from Louvain, stayed in Viking Hotel, Oslo from 21-24 March 1970
Claudia Tielt, from Brussels, stayed in Hotel Bristol, Bergen from 24-25 March
Claudia Tielt, from Brussels, stayed in Hotel Skandia, Bergen from 25 March to 1 April
Claudia Nielsen, from Ghent, stayed in KNA-Hotellet, Stavanger from 29 -30 October
Alexia Zarne-Merchez, from Ljubljana, stayed in Neptun Hotel, Bergen from 30 October to 5 November
Vera Jarle, from Antwerp, stayed in Hotel Bristol, Trondheim, from 6-8 November
Fenella Lorch, stayed in St Svithun Hotel, Stavanger from 9 to 18 November
Ms Leenhouwfr, stayed in Hotel Rosenkrantz, Bergen from 18 - 19 November
Elisabeth Leenhouwfr, from Ostend, stayed in Hotel Hordaheimen, Bergen from 19-23 November

[csvset]

So where was she for seven months?

Having the love child she had with she fell in love with the handsome double agent ?

I can sell this idea as a screen play ! Two lovers caught between ideology and love !

[Born to Conserve]

Crazy nut suicide.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

My guess also.

[PAR35]

I thought this was the most interesting clue:

“she may have moved just before or during World War II”

1)Father was involved in the occupation, and she was killed in revenge by the Communists or Mossad.

2)Eastern European girl who looked Aryan enough to re-assign to a German childless family.

3)Less likely - Eastern European family hiding in plain sight, later recruited by one side or the other because she could ‘fit in’ on either side.