Mother and daughter died at home at Christmas: Lung disease found in both

No definite cause of death has yet been established, after mother and daughter were found dead in Kragerø on Boxing Day. But lung disease has been found in both of them, which can be significant.

This is stated by police prosecutor in the South-East police district Ingrid Wiik in a press release on Wednesday.

Tone Løvåsen (61) was found dead and her 28-year-old daughter Elin Sofie Løvåsen was found lifeless in their home at Levangsheia in Kragerø on 26 December last year. The daughter was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

The preliminary autopsy report does not specify what type of lung disease was found.

Examined by ambulance

Five days before, the mother had been examined by the ambulance service, which had been called following a report of concern. Relatives have told Kragerø Vestmar (KV) that they had fallen ill in mid-December.

Ambulance manager Knut Inge Brekka Skoland tells the local newspaper that his personnel found no reason to admit the woman to hospital and encouraged her to call 113 if her health condition worsened.

– But we never heard anything more, says Skoland to KV.

He tells NRK that the course of the illness may have developed quite a bit after the ambulance was on the scene.

Does not create a supervisory case

Relatives are critical of the assessment that was made on 21 December. The ambulance manager tells KV that they will internally review the incident when the cause of death is clear, to see if they could have done anything differently.

Police attorney Wiik states that it may take months before the final autopsy report is available.

County doctor in Vestfold and Telemark Sigmund Skei will not open a supervisory case for the time being:

– Our experience is that the best thing is for the services themselves to carry out a thorough and good analysis of what has gone wrong and propose improvements, says the county doctor to VG.

– Unresolved questions

South-East police district is investigating the deaths as suspicious.

There are discoveries in the apartment that have led the police to determine December 23 as the mother’s date of death and December 26 as the day the daughter died.

– There are many unsolved questions in this case, says Wiik.

One of these is linked to the time of death.

– We hope that the further investigation will give us an explanation for this, says the police attorney.