So far in 2020, there were 27 murders in Norway. Here’s what we know about the cases

So far this year, the police in Norway have started investigating 27 murder cases with 30 victims.

Here’s what we know about the cases.

January 10: Just before midnight, 21-year-old Halil Kara was shot by a masked perpetrator at Prinsdal Grill in Prinsdal in Oslo. In addition, a man was stabbed in a scuffle with the perpetrator but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. Five men have been charged with murder or complicity with murder. One of them is 18 years old, while the others are in their 20s.

January 13: A 43-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman were found dead along with bloody objects at Osavatnet in Bergen. Both are known to the police from before. The police’s theory is that the two were killed at a hospice in Møllendalsveien and transported to Osavatnet by car. According to several media, the victims had extensive stab wounds. Five men, three in their 30s, a 57-year-old, and a 22-year-old, are charged with murder or complicity with murder.

January 17: 34-year-old Roar Engelund died after a violent incident at an institutional home for patients with substance abuse and psychiatric disorders in Hov in Søndre Land. A 42-year-old man was charged with murder. He was then found dead in Oslo prison in March. Another three men who were first accused of assault have been released. Engelund was a resident in the institution, and both the murder suspect and the three who were released are connected.

February 2: 31-year-old Thea Halvorsen Braavold was found dead in an apartment near Sandefjord center. Her 45-year-old boyfriend is charged with murder. He was convicted of murder in the 2000s and was released in 2018.

March – May 2020

March 16: A man in his 40s died after a fight in a house in Lisleby in Fredrikstad. A man, also in his 40s, has been arrested and later charged with murder. The cause of death is stated to be suffocation and/or limited air supply.

March 24: A German man in his 50s was found dead in a building with several housing units in Skolegata in Gjøvik center. A woman in her 20s was arrested on the spot and charged with murder.

March 27: 33-year-old Tirhas Tekle Kifllay was found dead on the shore at Trolla in Trondheim on April 7. The woman’s 34-year-old husband was arrested the same night and charged with murder. Police believe the murder took place in their home and that a knife was used either in the evening on Friday, March 27, or the night before Saturday, March 28. The woman came to Norway as an asylum seeker from Eritrea in 2011. In October, the man was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He has taken some time to consider whether to appeal the verdict.

May 19: 24-year-old Ørjan-Helmer Gundersen Solum was found dead in the Steinsås mines in Arendal after being missing for almost two months. The autopsy report states that he probably died of drowning but that the cause of death was uncertain. On December 1, the police reported that the hypothesis is that Solum had been subjected to a serious criminal act. On December 8, a man in his 30s was arrested and charged with murder or complicity with murder.

May 28: 34-year-old Kristian Løvlie was found dead from stab wounds in a car outside a shopping center at Rotnes in Nittedal. A man in his 40s living in Nittedal has been arrested and charged with murder. The deceased was involved in a family business that owns the home that the accused was renting out.

May 30: A woman in her mid-50s was found dead in a detached house on Brattholmen on Sotra in Øygarden municipality. Her son, who is in his early 20s, was arrested shortly after by the police and charged with murder.

June – August 2020

June 9: 35-year-old Kjartan Slettemoen Hodne was stabbed in Haraldsgata in the center of Haugesund. A 37-year-old man is charged with attempted murder. The injured man died at the hospital, and the charge was changed to murder.

June 24: A woman in her 20s and a man in his 30s were found dead in a house in the Storhaug district in Stavanger. A man in his 40s is charged with the murder of both. Police information indicates that all three are Syrian asylum seekers. According to newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, the dead couple are the murder suspect’s ex-wife and her new boyfriend.

July 1: A woman in her 60s died after being stabbed in a house in Balder’s vei in Halden. The woman’s son, who is in his 30s, is charged with murder. The prosecution believes that he was in a psychotic state when it happened and warns that a claim will be filed for transfer to a compulsory mental health care institution.

July 12: A male, foreign citizen was found dead at a private address at Fergeland in Steinkjer. Police consider the death suspicious, and a man is charged with murder. The two belonged to the same circle of friends.

July 12: 43-year-old Christian Halvorsen was found lifeless outside his home in Askim and declared dead shortly after. According to the preliminary autopsy report, he was shot. Two men aged 49 and 32 have been charged with murder or complicity with murder.

July 14: 54-year-old Marianne Haugen was stabbed with a knife while she was sitting in a car waiting at the bus terminal in Sarpsborg. She died from her injuries. A 31-year-old Norwegian citizen with a Somali background has been charged with the murder of the woman, with whom he has no known relationship. He is also accused of the attempted murder of two other women with whom he has had relationships.

July 18: A 54-year-old woman and her 28-year-old son were found dead in an apartment in Askøy municipality. Police believe the son stabbed the mother before he took his own life.

July 19: Two children, both under the age of ten, were found dead in an apartment at Skårer in Lørenskog. The 35-year-old mother was found critically injured. The next day, the police stated that she would be charged with murder.

August 18: A 73-year-old woman was found dead in a home on Jeløya in Moss. The woman’s 80-year-old husband, who himself reported her death to the police, has been charged with murder.

September – November 2020

September 9: A 60-year-old woman was found dead in a home on Byåsen in Trondheim. Her 33-year-old son was first charged with deadly violence, but later the police charged him with murder. The woman is said to have been subjected to blunt force trauma.

September 18: A woman in her 60s was found dead in a home on Tøyen in Oslo. Her son, who is in his 40s, has been charged with murder.

September 23: A man in his 50s was found dead in his apartment in the center of Sarpsborg. According to the police, it is clear that the man had been dead for several days. On September 25, a man in his 30s, connected to the dead man, has been arrested and charged with murder.

September 26: 20-year-old Sofie Vo Nguyen was found dead in an apartment in Åsane. A 19-year-old man, who was found apparently lifeless in the apartment, has been charged with murder. The two lived together but were not romantically involved. According to newspaper Bergensavisen, she was probably strangled.

September 30: A man was found dead after a fire in a commercial building in Moelv in Ringsaker municipality, Inland. The next day, another man was found dead. One was a 43-year-old man, who was reported missing from his home in Gjøvik two days before the fire, while the other man was in his 40s. On October 16, the man in his 40s was charged with murder. The police’s main theory is that the case is a murder and a suicide. They think the motive may have something to do with a conflict between the two. The 43-year-old probably died of blunt force trauma.

October 3: 48-year-old Dan-Eivind Lid was found dead in his apartment in Suldalen in Kristiansand. Lid had been active in the “Stop the Islamization of Norway” organization for several years. The case is being investigated as a murder. On October 20, the police stated that they arrested three men. They are all charged with murder or complicity with murder. The motive is unknown, but police say there is no reason to believe it was a politically motivated murder.

October 30: 22-year-old Cansel Godek was found dead in her apartment in the center of Evje in Agder. Her ex-boyfriend in his 20s, who himself alerted the police, has been charged with murder. The accused man is from Afghanistan but has lived in Norway since 2015 and has a temporary residence permit. The woman was a Norwegian citizen and was raised in the country.

November 12: A woman in her 70s was found dead in her apartment on Åssiden in Drammen. A woman in her 30s has been charged with murder. According to newspaper Drammens Tidende, the police have found a pillbox with the deceased’s name in a pair of trousers in the building where the murder suspect lives.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today