It’s been six years since Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, wife of a wealthy Norwegian businessman, disappeared from the family’s home in Lørenskog, northwest of Oslo. Now state prosecutors have finally dropped their case against her husband Tom Hagen, while police continue to investigate what’s still believed to be a kidnapping and murder.
Tom Hagen has himself spent the past four years facing charges of murder or being an accessory to murder. His attorney Svein Holden said Hagen was “naturally relieved” that police have dropped their case against him, but made it clear that it’s all been a huge burden for him and his family.
“There isn’t a shred of evidence that he (Hagen) had been involved in the kidnapping,” Holden said at a press conference on Friday. He was clearly critical of the police investigation so far, claiming that police also leaked information that made Hagen look bad in the media, calling that “a severe violation” of confidentiality rules.
Tom Hagen has claimed all along that when he came home on October 31, 2018, his wife was missing, their bathroom was in disarray and a cryptic ransom letter had been left in their house at Fjellhamar. The case was hushed up for 10 weeks, for fear the alleged kidnappers would harm or kill Anne-Elisabeth Hagen. They’d reportedly demanded a ransom payment of around EUR 9 million in the form of crypto currency that would be difficult to trace.
Police later came to believe that the 68-year-old woman had already been killed and her husband became their prime suspect, until last week. Now it’s likely he’ll demand compensation for his ordeal, while police claim they have conducted a broad investigation that will continue.
The case raised new issues and awareness of crypto crime and security concerns for other wealthy Norwegians who may be targets of kidnappers. Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, meanwhile, simply disappeared and there’s been no trace of her since. Her alleged abductors also eventually went quiet, but police claim they still have some leads in the case, which also resulted in thousands of tips from the public.
NewsinEnglish.no staff