Double murder comparable to jigsaw puzzle

Jigsaw PuzzleJigsaw Puzzle. Photo: Pixabay.com

Murders in Kristiansand are like a jigsaw puzzle

The case where a 43-years-old woman is tried for a double murder in Kristiansand in Agder is nearly concluded. Kristiansand is probably best known as an entry point to Norway via the ferry links to Denmark.

 

The woman’s defence lawyer, Olav Sylte, told NTB on Tuesday that he hopes she will use her prerogative to make a final statement after the procedures have finished. If so, it will be the first time she speaks out in court after the case started in Kristiansand District Court on November 12th.

On Tuesday, the defender opened the proceedings with several pieces of evidence related to the case, considering that the charge was recently changed from intentional to premeditated murder.

The 43-years-old is charged with two murders committed twelve years apart. In 2002, the woman’s father was found dead in a bathtub in his home in Kristiansand. Twelve years later, her former cohabitant was also found dead, this time in a hotel room in the city centre.

A jigsaw puzzle

Police attorney, Ragnhild Helgesen, compared the double murder with a jig-saw puzzle when she initiated the prosecution’s procedure on Tuesday.

“It is a jig-saw puzzle – and not one for seven-year-olds either,” she remarked, punning at the charges in the case.

Helgesen thought it was almost impossible to comprehend how the 67-years-old ex-cohabitant should have ingested 15 sleeping pills in the hotel room by accident. In her procedure, she states that it makes far more sense that the scene was staged.

Knowledge of pills

Among the points Helgesen will mention in her procedure, is what the prosecuting authority calls: «the defendant’s ability to plan and bide her time, her knowledge of pills, her ability to handle conflict and the absence of anything that suggest that the ex-cohabitant took his own life.»

The prosecution authority believes the murder was carried out after careful planning and deliberation.

State Attorney Leif Aleksandersen will continue the procedure for the prosecution on Wednesday – when he will address her father’s deaths and state their claim. The defence procedure will begin the same day, time permitting.

Involuntary lab rat

When the trial started two months ago, the woman answered no to all seven charges. It also includes three instances of drugging and use of the former cohabitant’s credit card.

In its procedure, the prosecuting authority will state that the defendant may have used him as an involuntary lab rat and as a possible diversion manoeuvre in the event of a murder investigation.

There are many years of investigation behind the case that is now approaching a conclusion in the Kristiansand District Court. During that time, the woman has been through forced psychiatric observation.

The case is very extensive. The documentation alone is around 5,500 pages and the material includes a total of 85,000 text messages. There have been more than 120 witnesses involved.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
RSS Feed