The Tom Hagen case has been fully investigated – NRK Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country

According to what NRK learns, at least parts of the proposal in the Lørenskog case are about the police proposing to drop the case against Tom Hagen on the state of the evidence.

It is the East police district that has sent its recommendations in the case to the state attorney, but the police district does not want to comment on NRK’s ​​information on Thursday evening.

– We can confirm that the recommendation in the Lørenskog case has been forwarded to Oslo’s public prosecutor’s office. In addition to this, we do not have the opportunity to comment on our recommendation as this is now with the state attorney for assessment, says head of prosecution in the East police district, Vibeke Schøyen.

– I have no comment now beyond the fact that we have received a recommendation from the East police district, says state attorney Kari Hangeland Buvik to NRK.

In October, it will be six years since one of the biggest murder mysteries in Norwegian history, when Anne-Elisabeth Hagen disappeared without a trace.

Sunday 28 April marks four years since her husband, Tom Hagen, was arrested and charged with murder or complicity in murder.

Something he has always denied.

Schøyen adds that the police have no further comment beyond the confirmation of the setting.

– This is now with the state attorney for assessment. For the same reason, we cannot offer interviews in the case either, says Schøyen.

State prosecutor Kari Hangeland Buvik tells NRK that she has no further comment beyond the fact that they have received the recommendation from the East police district.

– Expect closure

Hagen’s defender, Svein Holden, tells NRK that he is satisfied that the police have now sent a recommendation to the state attorney.

– We naturally expect the result to be that the case against Hagen is dropped, he says.

Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s legal aid lawyer, Gard A. Lier, tells NRK that he is not aware of anything other than that a recommendation has been sent.

– I am not informed about its contents. It means that the case is entering a new phase and not necessarily that it will end, but that there will be a closure or an indictment, he says.

Missing since 2018

Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was abducted from her home in Lørenskog on 31 October 2018. She is said to have disappeared sometime between 09:15 and 13:30 and has not been seen since.

Despite extensive media attention and a lengthy police investigation, Hagen has still not been brought to justice.

The police believe the 68-year-old woman was killed before she was taken away from the house in Lørenskog.

On 28 April 2020, the husband Tom Hagen was arrested and charged with murder or complicity in the murder of his wife.

Tom Hagen, who is one of Norway’s richest people, found a threatening letter in the couple’s home on the day the spouse was reported missing.

The sender claimed that Anne-Elisabeth Hagen had been abducted, and that she would only recover if the family paid the kidnappers 9 million euros in ransom.

The letter has been checked for DNA, fingerprints, print, paper, envelope, printer, linguistics

The case did not become known to the public until January 2019, ten weeks after the abduction.

The investigation

At a press conference in August 2019, the Hagen family’s lawyer stated that the other party had made contact on 8 July and that the family still believed that she was alive.

The fruitless investigation and the lack of response from the alleged kidnappers led in June 2019 to the police now considering the case a case of murder.

The police have not changed their main hypothesis that she has been killed, and in January 2020 the case was included in Kripos’ statistics on unsolved murder cases.

In September 2022, it became known that in May the police had charged a previously convicted man in his 30s with complicity in murder.

In addition to Hagen, three other men have been charged in the case. All deny criminal guilt.

Hallvard Helle at Advokatfirmaet Schjødt defends one of them, who has publicly become known as the “cryptoman”.

– For my client, it is good that the case has now been fully investigated. For my part, I expect that it will now be abandoned, says Helle to NRK.

NRK has been in contact with Marius Dietrichson, the defender of one of those charged with complicity. He says that he does not know the content of the setting.