Four men arrested last month in a 15-year-old murder case were released on Friday, and their defense attorneys now expect the so-called “Tina case” to be dropped once again. Police, however, said they all remain charged.
Newspaper VG reported that police lack hard evidence that the men abducted and murdered 20-year-old Tina Jørgensen when she was on her way home from an evening out in downtown Stavanger on September 24, 2000. Her body was found a month later, stuffed under a manhole cover at a church parking lot in Jæren.
An autopsy showed she’d been beaten to death and her live-in partner at the time was eventually charged with her murder. He was later released and the investigation dragged on for years until police believed they had a breakthrough earlier this year. It led to the arrests of the four men, all in their mid-30s, and at least one of them reportedly confessed, only to change his story.
The men are all childhood acquaintances of Jørgensen from summer holidays in Lyngdal on the south coast of Norway. Her former partner was said to be stunned by the releases, and disappointed that the case hasn’t been cleared up yet this time either.
newsinenglish.no staff
