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NOT IMPRESSED: Assistance attorney Ståle Kihle says the police investigation is full of blind spots and will be canceled. Photo: Frode Hansen, VG
Assistance lawyer Ståle Kihle says that the three adult children of Anne-Elisabeth and Tom Hagen have “lived in a cruel situation for two years”. They describe the missing mother as “the heart and center of the family.”
The disappearance of Anne Elisabeth Hagen has been under investigation for two years. Police still have no answer on what happened when he disappeared from the house in Sloraveien in Lørenskog on October 31, 2018.
Anne-Elisabeth and Tom Hagen’s two daughters and son are losing hope of getting an answer to what happened, Ståle Kihle tells VG.
– This case goes against suspension and a dispute over the suspension code.
He has been involved in the case since he was appointed as an assistant attorney for Hagen’s adult children in May of this year. He took on the role when Svein Holden became Tom Hagen’s advocate and could no longer represent the entire family.
Tom Hagen is charged with murder or complicity in the murder, but he denies having anything to do with his wife’s disappearance.
– The three children perceive the accusation against Tom as a detour, they know that he is innocent. They’ve known it all along, says Kihle.
Background: The disappearance of Lørenskog month by month
The children of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen and Tom Hagen fear that an answer will never be obtained to what happened to the mother. Photo: Private
– The police are not around
Assistance attorney Ståle Kihle has always been clear that both he and his clients have been skeptical of the police investigation. He has been clear about this to both the police and the press.
– In the opinion of my clients, the investigation is a scandal. The police have charged a man with murder, who will be marked for life for this. This will also apply to his family, Kihle tells VG.
Listen to Lørenskog’s recognition recordings at Krimpodden:
He is not impressed with what has come to the police so far after two years of investigation, where the police have used everything they have of tools, including the secret interception of Tom Hagen.
– Despite this, the police are far from having conclusive evidence for his assassination hypothesis. Police have no evidence that Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was the victim of a murder, which took place in Sloraveien, much less that Tom Hagen was behind it, they believe.
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After learning about much of the investigation in August, nothing he has seen will contribute to any solution, as he sees it. He believes the case is littered with blind spots and non-driving work.
– My clients think the police are misguided. Nothing they’re doing now will make them find their mother. What they fear most now is that the police will never be able to solve the case. It’s no secret that your hopes for a solution are now very small, Kihle tells VG.
– Never getting an answer is the worst for them, says the assistant attorney.
Did you bring it with you? Here is the whole threatening letter
The three adult children have made it clear that they have full confidence in the father, and that they have no trace of suspicion that he is behind the mother’s disappearance.
– This is still the case, Kihle tells VG.
TOTAL CONFIDENCE: Tom Hagen’s children still have full confidence in their father. Photo: Gisle Oddstad
In connection with the second anniversary, the assistant attorney has also sent a press release. There they accuse the police of having turned the case into a “media circus”, where the victim Anne-Elisabeth Hagen has gone.
– All of them have lived in a cruel situation for two years. First the shock of October 31, 2018, then the uncertainty and despair. As the situation has persisted, it has only gotten worse and worse for them.
She further claims that the children are more concerned that the police will find Lisbeth, or “Mimmi” as they call her.
– Mimmi is the heart and center of the family, a source of warmth for all. A wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. Mimmi has always stood up for everyone. She is the one who comforts, carries and cares for everyone who is on the way.
He goes on to say that the family “misses the daily telephones, the many good conversations, the reunions, the mother and the grandmother, the big things and the little things.
– They miss everything.
The family reacts, among other things, to why the police did not call the cars that have been observed in Sloraveien, and the red BMW that has been the subject of the TV 2 program “Åsted Norge”.
For VG, Kihle does not hide the fact that there have been frictions between his clients and the direction of the police investigation along the way.
Both the family and their lawyers reacted, among other things, when the police said it was difficult to cooperate with Tom Hagen and called him an “idiot” after an interrupted interrogation in June. It ended up that Tom Hagen would not go for further questioning. There has also been controversy over whether Tom Hagen should be allowed to return home, something he received in September.
Tom Hagen in a new message to the other party: I want to pay
Not yet to question
However, it is still out of the question to advise the three Hagen children to go to further police interrogations, as the police want. It was a more recent issue when the three Hagen children met with police at the Lørenskog bailiff’s office last month.
Ståle Kihle has always advised them not to talk to the police any more than they have.
– Why not?
– My clients have been questioned repeatedly by the police. They have no further information that can help shed new light on the disappearance and who abducted his mother. Also, there is the fact that in their last and very extensive interrogation in August 2019, they reacted strongly to police behavior and interrogation methods, Kihle says.
This has also been expressed in a letter written by one of the children and previously published on TV2, among other places.
Read also: Tom Hagen was allowed to move home
Assistance attorney Ståle Kihle believes the investigation is headed for closure. – The police are not around, he says. Photo: Frode Hansen
Taxable charges
– The manner of the interrogation and the strong accusations and insinuations from the police in this regard were very stressful, in a very difficult situation in which his mother had disappeared without a trace for almost a year, says Kihle.
When asked how he thinks it is externally perceived that he has advised his clients not to go for further questioning, Kihle replies that it is basically completely irrelevant.
– I have noticed that some have stated that this means that my clients will not contribute to solving the case. Such statements are simply embarrassing and show a lack of empathy for victims in a serious criminal case, Kihle says.
– In addition, it shows a total ignorance that my clients cannot contribute anything else to solve the case, and what they have happened in the police interrogation, he continues.
He has no comment on how long he anticipates the police will investigate the case now, before closing.
– Are there any separate measures that your own clients are considering to help resolve the case?
– I have no comment on that either, says Kihle.
Police Inspector Agnes Beate Hemiø. Photo: Vidar Ruud
VG has presented the assistant attorney’s criticism to the police, who responds in an email:
– Close relatives of the accused are not obliged to give explanations in the case, which the police, of course, respect, says police inspector Agnes Beate Hemiø.
He notes that the case is being investigated and there are still a number of key issues on which the police have not concluded.
– The assassination hypothesis appears as we see it as the most probable, but the kidnapping hypothesis has not been abandoned. Based on the police assessment, there are good reasons to suspect Tom Hagen of complicity in the murder, something the court also agreed to until June 2020, Hemiø says.
She notes that the Nedre Romerike District Court in June gave police the green light for further searches of the Hagen family’s cabins. The decision was not appealed to the Court of Appeal, which has previously ruled that there is no reasonable reason to suspect.
In a press release on Friday afternoon, police write that they have “a strong understanding that the case is a very heavy burden on Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s family,” but that beyond that they have no further comment on the assistant attorney’s press release.
