UPDATED: Police are investigating what they believe was a murder-suicide involving a man and woman living together in the woman’s fashionable villa on the island of Ulvøya in Oslo. Police found their bodies in and near the villa on Sunday and preliminary autopsy results support their murder-suicide theory.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported that worried relatives had called police Sunday after they had failed to come in contact with either the man or the woman for several days. Neither was initially identified publicly in keeping with Norwegian press tradition, but police later identified the woman as Sivje Schjærven, co-owner of Schjærven reklamebyrå, a large Norwegian advertising agency.
Schjærven, age 44, was a wealthy business owner who also sat on several boards of directors of Norwegian companies. The 47-year-old man, whose identity was not reported, moved into her home on Ulvøya last year. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that police think he killed Schjærven and then himself but had not established a motive.
TV2 reported, meanwhile, that Schjærven had a taxable net worth of more than NOK 55 million while the man faced numerous financial problems. According to TV2’s report, he listed neither income nor net worth on his publicly available tax forms last year, had been convicted for deficient accounts of his sole proprietorship and owed NOK 700,000 to 28 creditors.
Both had children from earlier relationships. The woman had a teenage son and the man had two daughters aged 22 and 11.
Shocked neighbours described the deaths as a “tragedy” and “incomprehensible.” Police released few details from the scene, declining to say how the two persons died or where exactly the bodies were found.
newsinenglish.no staff