You have found Therese’s DNA profile – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

– After all these years, Cold Case has found Therese’s DNA. It is completely amazing. And they worked really hard to find it, says Inger-Lise Johannessen.

He has never stopped waiting for an answer to what happened on July 3, 1988. On that day, his nine-year-old daughter, Therese Johannessen, disappeared from Fjell in Drammen. Over the years, various theories have emerged. There have been fewer actual clues or evidence.

Now, however, the police have received samples that confirm Therese’s DNA for the first time. Appears in the new documentary series “Therese – The Girl Who Disappeared.”

– Therese’s DNA has been found on a pillowcase and on a draft, and it is these two who together have given us a profile, says Kjell Johan Abrahamsen, prosecutor for the southeast police district.

The fact that a DNA profile has been found means that the police can identify Therese if she should show up or if the police should find her remains, Abrahamsen explains.

– I’m very happy about that. That DNA is kept in the police record. If you find her alive, or not alive, at least we know that it is Therese who has been found, says Inger-Lise in the documentary series.

Can be applied more precisely

The case is now obsolete. In 2017, however, what was once the most comprehensive criminal case in Norway was resumed by Kripos’s section for unsolved cases, also known as the group of unsolved cases. They analyze serious unsolved cases, such as unsolved murders, suspicious deaths, and missing person cases. After two years, the group again dropped Therese’s case and did not recommend further investigation.

The finding of Therese’s DNA profile does not change the case in criminal law, Abrahamsen tells NRK. Furthermore, the police have always had his mother’s DNA available.

– In this way, we have had the opportunity to search for unidentified dead for a long time, says Abrahamsen.

Explain that different countries have different types of records for unidentified deceased persons. Not everyone has the opportunity to use DNA profiles of close relatives to search for such records.

– In that sense, this changes the situation a bit. Since we now have a DNA profile, you can request something more accurate. But we don’t have much hope that he can deliver a coup.

Jonas Fabritius Christoffersen, a communications consultant at Kripos, says DNA is one of three things that can be used to identify people according to Interpol and Norwegian standards. The other two are fingerprints and dental information.

– Typically you want dental health information from dental visits before someone disappears, says Christoffersen, noting that Kripos most recently identified the remains of a person who disappeared in 1955 this winter with such information.

Technological development

The first criminal case in Norway to be solved with the help of DNA took place a year after Therese Johannessen disappeared. That one can find a DNA profile more than thirty years after the disappearance says something about the “violent development” that has taken place in DNA technology, Abrahamsen believes.

Senior Engineer Eirik Natås Hanssen is an expert in forensic genetics at Oslo University Hospital (OUS). He also says that the technology has developed enormously since the 1980s.

– We have reduced the analysis time to approximately one business day and the sensitivity has been greatly increased. Before, it was necessary to have a large blood stain to obtain a profile. We now have ten cells. It’s an extreme improvement, he says.

He was involved in obtaining Therese Johannessen’s DNA profile and says DNA is difficult to find after so many years.

– Biological material breaks down and DNA breaks down. But it happens at different speeds depending on the environment in which it is stored. If allowed to dry, it can last for months and years, says Natås Hanssen.

At OUS, they have received various personal effects that belonged to Therese. Natås Hanssen says that it is important that objects are protected from other people.

– We expanded and sampled many of the objects. Some gave no DNA result, others gave a mixed result. Some of the samples showed a profile, he says, noting that it was on an eraser in a pencil case and a pillowcase that they found DNA to derive a profile of Therese.

The DNA profile they’ve found is now accurate, he believes.

– So precise that you will not find two with the same profile in the world.

Close the Pakistani track

The new documentary series on the Therese case also reveals that the police have closed a door in the previous investigation: The much-discussed Pakistani lead.

Inger-Lise Johannessen was in a relationship with a Pakistani man before meeting Therese’s biological father. The Pakistan Trail is about someone who believes Therese was the Pakistani man’s daughter and that her family abducted the girl.

In the early summer of 1990, the police worked with Kripos to investigate this theory, among other things, checking passenger lists for flights to Pakistan on the day Therese disappeared and six months earlier. On the passenger list of a plane from Copenhagen to Islamabad just two days after the disappearance, police found a woman with the same last name as the Pakistani man’s family. With her was an unidentified child.

In connection with the recent Kripos investigations, the passenger lists for the flight between Copenhagen and Islamabad on July 5, 1988 have been recovered. And the woman who traveled has been identified, says Espen Erdal, leader of the Cold case group.

The woman is not related to the Pakistani man Inger-Lise Johannessen was previously in a relationship with, she claims in the documentary series.

– There is also no reason to believe that this unidentified child could be Therese. We found no indications, or objective evidence, that she was abducted and kept alive over time, says Erdal.

The Pakistani man who was in a relationship with Inger-Lise denies having anything to do with the disappearance. He and his family have experienced the kidnapping allegations as a burden for several years, the documentary series claims.

Have a hope

The unsolved disappearance case has been ended, police say, who will also be careful to express optimism that a DNA profile has now been found. This in itself is not a new clue or evidence.

However, for Inger-Lise Johannessen, the work has yielded important results.

– Because possibly if Therese should be alive, and there is a suspicion of it, you can take the DNA and find out if it is her. If you find Therese dead, then you may find out that it is Therese you have found.

– Is there a part of you that thinks is alive?

– I hope so … I hope so.

“Therese – The Girl Who Disappeared” is a five-episode documentary series. The series is produced by Monster and will be available on NRK on Sunday, November 8.