It’s been a year since the wife of a wealthy Norwegian businessman disappeared from their home northeast of Oslo. Police continue to investigate the case as a kidnapping, while Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s family clings to hopes that she’s still alive.
“The family keeps hoping but they don’t know whether Anne-Elisabeth is still alive,” said the family’s lawyer, Stein Holden, at a press conference on the first anniversary of her disappearance. He said the family has responded to all of the few cryptic contacts they’ve had from alleged kidnappers, to no avail. The last contact they had was on July 8.
Holden said the family has also attempted to contact the kidnappers themselves, as late as this past month, and hopes there will be continued communication. “The family is willing to go to great lengths in order to get a good answer as to what has happened,” Holden said, while declining to elaborate.
Police believe Hagen was killed, either accidentally or intentionally, when she apparently was seized in the couple’s bathroom and spirited out of the house at Fjellhamar in Lørenskog. They believe she was taken from the scene in a car and confirmed this week that they have questioned the owners of several cars known to have been in the area on October 31 last year, based on data from surveillance cameras and road toll stations.
Police Inspector Tommy Broske told state broadcaster NRK on Thursday that “we believe there are possibilities to solve this case.” Holden told reporters that “nothing would please us more than having this case solved,” as the family enters its second year of uncertainty over what happened to Hagen.
newsinenglish.no staff
