Disappearance of Lørenskog – Police theory: planned for at least half a year

What happened in the months leading up to October 31, 2018, the day Anne-Elisabeth Hagen disappeared from her home in Fjellhamar?

When the police still believed the 68-year-old woman was more likely to be kidnapped, extensive investigations were conducted to find possible leads for the kidnappers.

In recent months, the investigation has focused so much on what Tom Hagen, the husband who was arrested last week and accused of killing his wife, did.

Did you live like always? Was your relationship with your wife the way it used to be?

Or was he secretly planning to kill his own wife, as the police now believe is more likely?

Union problems

To get to the bottom of the questions, the police have questioned several people in the circle of friends and neighbors around the couple, and according to information from Dagbladet, Tom and Anne-Elisabeth’s marriage must have been one of the main problems. . In the interrogations, you must have asked, among other things, whether there were conflicts or other problems in the marriage.

Dagbladet is informed that the people in the circle around the couple should not have been aware of any marital problems in recent years, and that the disagreements that had existed between the two were many years ago.

Several in the couple’s social circle have also expressed that Tom and Anne-Elisabeth had a good relationship. In conversations with Dagbladet, friends of the 70-year-old missing are concerned that Tom Hagen will not be charged in light of the media. This is because they themselves have feared that it could happen in such a case.

At the same time that the circle around the couple has been questioned, the police have carried out extensive electronic investigations.

The most concrete clue that the planning has revealed is linked to the ransom demand for about NOK 90 million in cryptocurrencies, which was presented through the threat letter that Tom Hagen told police he found at his home.

Police Inspector Tommy Brøske told Dagbladet in October last year that they had found what they believed to be preparatory actions related to the cryptocurrency route in the early summer of 2018, half a year before the 68-year-old woman disappeared . When the revelation about long-term planning came, the police had already assumed that Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was likely killed. However, they kept a close eye on who they imagined as a possible perpetrator.

“Although the main hypothesis has been changed to murder, we cannot exclude that money was part of the motive,” said Brøske.

On Monday, the Eastern Police District was not available to respond if these are the first known suspicious preparatory actions in the investigation.

Can accumulate indices

Former chief of Oslo’s police violence section, Finn Abrahamsen, is convinced that the murder has been planned for a long time, regardless of who is behind it.

– Someone decides to get rid of it and thinks about how to do it without suspecting it. On the web you will find a lot of information. Here, the author may have had contact with people who can help carry out such an operation, he tells Dagbladet.

With the ransom requirement found in the home, instructions on communication via Bitcon were given and, according to VG, 12 specific codes were revealed in the letter. When making the transfer to the counterparty, the different amounts would have a meaning that only the counterparty and those who read the letter can understand, such as “I confirm that I will pay.”

Abrahamsen says he appears to have failed to follow up on the operation. He notes that a hijacker would be concerned about obtaining a settlement, while in this case it has been difficult for the police and the assistance attorney to contact the so-called counterpart.

– A kidnapping can be motivated by revenge, political or financial. Now the police believe that this has not happened and now they must find the new reason.

VG has previously written that the police are looking for Hagens notebooks. The former police chief says this is of great interest to the police.

– This is an area that is extremely important. Police can build a strong index and strong indexes can eventually become evidence. Police are working intensively now and conducting forensic investigations of the scene.

Zoomers data

Abrahamsen says that all the data is going back in time and that the police green crime unit will control the economy several years back in time.

Police have investigated and confiscated the couple’s joint home in Sloraveien in Fjellhamar, Tom Hagen’s workplace, and the luxury cabin in Kvitfjell.

– Now they are going to have a good time in these places. They will also question the witnesses again. Now that he is suspected, they can target the questions in a completely different way, says Abrahamsen.

He also points out that we must respect family and friends who are unaware of the arrest. Abrahamsen points out that the police should investigate innocence on par with guilt.

– I think they were too late for a murder investigation. The garden was offended for a long time and included in the team. In this way, he obtained updated information through the assistance attorney throughout the journey.

Reject criminal charges

Tom Hagen denies the criminal charges. His advocate Svein Holden told Dagbladet that one of the elements that speaks to the police theory that he ordered a murder is that, according to Holden, he is very little computer savvy.

The police have already spoken openly about other preparatory actions, such as the purchase of shoes, straps, envelopes and stationery. The police have been sending information from Sparkjøp and Clas Ohlson looking for possible aides when they have been looking for possible kidnappers or perpetrators.

When Tom Hagen was detained in custody at the Lower Roman District Court last Wednesday, the court concluded that there was reasonable cause to suspect Hagen of murder or complicity.

The court considered that there were likely to be several people involved in the case, and noted that documentation of the circumstances of the case showed part of the “professionalism that has been required.”