A Death in Oslo - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

mphs95 · 10-19-2020, 06:58 PM

I do there is a strong possibility that this lady was either in espionage or something clandestine, which eventually got her killed. Things that stuck out for me:

1. The Plaza Hotel was the top hotel in Oslo (attracting international foreign relations, celebrities, etc) with top notch security, yet this woman was able to check in w/o any ID, passport, or a credit card. It wasn't discovered for three days, and when it was finally discovered, the person who went up happened to hear a gunshot.

2. While just because her being born in East Germany doesn't make her Communist, she came of age during the Cold War. The Berlin Wall had come down only 6 years before.

3. Per the intelligence guy, the numbers on the gun were filed away professionally.

4. She disappeared for 20 hours in Oslo before returning to her room.

5. She gave her info as this small town in Belgium, but no one had ever heard of her or recognized her.

What kept coming back to me was the fact that she was alone in her room was according to the bellhop, who stated he heard the gunshot, then hid and watched for someone to come out. He waited for a short time then finally went down to get security. WHY THE HELL DIDN'T HE GET HELP ASAP! Yeah, she was dead, but he didn't know that.

I think this was an inside job within the hotel. How else would she be able to get a room w/o any ID and mode of payment for 3 days? How did that hotel not pick up any images of her anywhere? Only security could get in past both locks. So the murder (yes, I'm calling it murder because it makes the most sense) had to be done by either a professional who could penetrate two locks, or had help by someone at the hotel.

I did like the reporter, who always called her Jennifer and has worked for 25 years to identify her. He cares about her having a name and a family to mourn her.

BDR · 10-19-2020, 09:23 PM

Man this is a real weird one. The way the gun was found in her hand was odd. Where the hell was she for those 20 hours?

drew790 · 10-20-2020, 12:23 AM

I'm struggling to finish this one. There's a reason unidentified deaths only got 2 minute segments on the original show. Padding this out for 45 minutes is a mistake.

Zero · 10-20-2020, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew790

I'm struggling to finish this one. There's a reason unidentified deaths only got 2 minute segments on the original show. Padding this out for 45 minutes is a mistake.

I thought it was good. They go a bit into the forensics, that she may have worked in intelligence and been executed, etc. I also thought the ghastly composite drawings ended with the old UM. I was wrong.

At least her postmortem picture wasn’t as bad as the steamer trunk corpse!

TheCars1986 · 10-20-2020, 08:43 AM

A 45 minute episode dedicated to try and make a suicide look more mysterious than it is, instead of trying to find out who this woman is it's just mind boggling to me.

ETA: There is little doubt in my mind that Jennifer Fergate is Camilla Steinaa, a woman who disappeared off the face of the earth in 1987. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance, and had started to indicate to her friends that she wanted to live a life "off the grid" so to speak. She is a dead ringer to Jennifer Fergate, IMO. And her age would align with the estimate given by the medical examiner.

sdb4884 · 10-20-2020, 11:49 AM

Really good segment, I thought Lars was a great narrator of sorts for the segment.

bigted12 · 10-20-2020, 01:16 PM

you've missed out maybe 90% of the case, how she was found, the strange room service, noises people heard coming from her room, theres many many many things

TheCars1986 · 10-20-2020, 03:02 PM

Here is a lengthy article about this case. I may have missed it, but did UM mention that both key cards given to her were found inside the double-locked room? I know they didn't touch on gunshot residue, which the original investigators did:

Quote:

We considered whether someone else could have done it. There are cases where the person shot has had the weapon placed into their own hand. We took samples from the skin near the weapon to look for gunshot residue, but it’s not a given that you find it. With the way the victim held the weapon in this case, most of the residue would have been on the other side, where the hand would be with a normal grip.

They also do not mention that the trigger, with her thumb still on it, was depressed.

Quote:

The right thumb of the corpse lay against the trigger, which was thus held in the posterior/fired position. When the weapon was released from the corpse’s hand, a ‘click’ could be heard as the trigger moved towards the forward position.

I have no idea how someone could have staged this.

There was no signs or evidence of a struggle. The security guard who heard the gunshot heard complete silence in the immediate aftermath. How would a killer/s know when the guard (or anyone else for that matter who heard the shot and may have came out into the hallway) would be gone to where they can make an exit undetected? I find it hard to believe that an assassin or some sort of intelligence agent was sent on a mission to drink sodas and eat potato chips and lounge around in a room from 11:03 a.m. Friday until the fatal shot at 7:50 p.m. the next day?

Zero · 10-20-2020, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

A 45 minute episode dedicated to try and make a suicide look more mysterious than it is, instead of trying to find out who this woman is it's just mind boggling to me.

ETA: There is little doubt in my mind that Jennifer Fergate is Camilla Steinaa, a woman who disappeared off the face of the earth in 1987. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance, and had started to indicate to her friends that she wanted to live a life "off the grid" so to speak. She is a dead ringer to Jennifer Fergate, IMO. And her age would align with the estimate given by the medical examiner.

They did try to find out who she was, going to the little village in Belgium she gave as her address. That turned out to be bogus. No one remembered her from the village.

They drew a composite drawing. They exhumed her body to collect DNA. They mentioned that she had no change of clothing for her lower body. I would assume that means no extra skirts, dresses, pants, shorts. So that is weird all by itself.

Anyway, it's not like they didn't try to find her identity.

When you say the medical examiner's age estimate, which one? The first said she was in her early 30's. The second around 24.

rusty spike · 10-21-2020, 12:42 AM

Very strange case. I can't make out the lack of bottom garments. That's extremely bizarre.

I think there are people who know everything about this woman. Someone paid for hotel room and routine protocols aren't routinely ignored unless an authority issues orders. Most likely an intelligence carrier.

TheCars1986 · 10-21-2020, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero

They did try to find out who she was, going to the little village in Belgium she gave as her address. That turned out to be bogus. No one remembered her from the village.

They spent about 5 minutes going over how they tried to figure out who this woman was. The last 15 minutes or so were just ridiculous speculation from an intelligence expert as to how he believed she was either a spy, or in intelligence. It was kind of insulting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero

When you say the medical examiner's age estimate, which one? The first said she was in her early 30's. The second around 24.

The first one put her age as high as 40.

zack007attack · 10-21-2020, 10:00 PM

First off, I actually like how the new episodes are focusing on one case each because they provide more in-depth pertinent details necessary to explore the case to the fullest extent possible.

I strongly believe this was a homicide, based on how the weapon was found in addition to the serial number being removed the way it was.

I think "Jennifer" was either:
1) Involved in or connected to clandestine operations somehow, either as an operative or informant and might have either had her cover blown or 'knew too much'.
2) A victim of human trafficking and tried to run away but was found by her captors and silenced to prevent her from reporting to the authorities.

Even if this did turn out to be a suicide (which there is plenty of reason to doubt), the evidence at the scene still indicates some kind of secretive connection, considering the fact that the handgun serial numbers were grinded down deep enough that would inhibit them from being revealed by chemical milling or magnetic particle inspection.

As for her connections to the village in Belgium, here are some possibilities:
1) Maybe the location held some kind of sentimental value for her, in case she spent a significant part of her childhood there.
2) It was a place she visited often but didn't necessarily live there.
3) She may have met a close friend or significant other there.
4) The Swedish professor indicated she may have been born in East Germany in the early 70s when the Cold War was still in full swing. Maybe she got inadvertently separated from her family as a child and was somehow able to determine that the Belgian village is where her family fled to, but they never got the chance to know what she looked like as a grownup which could be why she wasn't recognized by any locals.

Appliance · 10-22-2020, 12:45 AM

That Ola Kaldager guy is one of the most terrifying men, the way he casually describes his work as: "It was collecting information, having people say things they don't... want to say".

Zero · 10-22-2020, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

They spent about 5 minutes going over how they tried to figure out who this woman was. The last 15 minutes or so were just ridiculous speculation from an intelligence expert as to how he believed she was either a spy, or in intelligence. It was kind of insulting.

The first one put her age as high as 40.

I’m no expert but I don’t even think she looked that old. The use of postmortem pictures in this case were not as gruesome as in some other shows I’ve seen. The woman had a sad look on her face I think. But even then, I wouldn’t say 40. She looked better than that composite drawing. Yeeeeeesh!

Guitar · 10-22-2020, 06:27 AM

I like that they glossed over the fact that the gunshot was heard almost immediately after the security guy knocked on the door.

Would an assassin be like, "yeah, let's make EXTRA certain that they know that someone fired a gun here."
...or would the woman think, "the jig is up. Checkout time"?

The older guy who knew about espionage secrets seemed very credible to me, though. I detected no b.s. He believed that it was a state hit, so to me it's truly a mystery.

10-19-2020, 06:58 PM	#1
mphs95 Remember me? Forum Regular Join Date: Jan 02, 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 790	A Death in Oslo I do there is a strong possibility that this lady was either in espionage or something clandestine, which eventually got her killed. Things that stuck out for me: 1. The Plaza Hotel was the top hotel in Oslo (attracting international foreign relations, celebrities, etc) with top notch security, yet this woman was able to check in w/o any ID, passport, or a credit card. It wasn't discovered for three days, and when it was finally discovered, the person who went up happened to hear a gunshot. 2. While just because her being born in East Germany doesn't make her Communist, she came of age during the Cold War. The Berlin Wall had come down only 6 years before. 3. Per the intelligence guy, the numbers on the gun were filed away professionally. 4. She disappeared for 20 hours in Oslo before returning to her room. 5. She gave her info as this small town in Belgium, but no one had ever heard of her or recognized her. What kept coming back to me was the fact that she was alone in her room was according to the bellhop, who stated he heard the gunshot, then hid and watched for someone to come out. He waited for a short time then finally went down to get security. WHY THE HELL DIDN'T HE GET HELP ASAP! Yeah, she was dead, but he didn't know that. I think this was an inside job within the hotel. How else would she be able to get a room w/o any ID and mode of payment for 3 days? How did that hotel not pick up any images of her anywhere? Only security could get in past both locks. So the murder (yes, I'm calling it murder because it makes the most sense) had to be done by either a professional who could penetrate two locks, or had help by someone at the hotel. I did like the reporter, who always called her Jennifer and has worked for 25 years to identify her. He cares about her having a name and a family to mourn her.

10-19-2020, 09:23 PM	#2
BDR Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jan 23, 2017 Posts: 35	A true unsolved mystery Man this is a real weird one. The way the gun was found in her hand was odd. Where the hell was she for those 20 hours?

10-20-2020, 08:43 AM	#5
TheCars1986 #VLSKMS Forum Fanatic Join Date: Nov 22, 2008 Location: Maryland Posts: 8,611	A 45 minute episode dedicated to try and make a suicide look more mysterious than it is, instead of trying to find out who this woman is it's just mind boggling to me. ETA: There is little doubt in my mind that Jennifer Fergate is Camilla Steinaa, a woman who disappeared off the face of the earth in 1987. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance, and had started to indicate to her friends that she wanted to live a life "off the grid" so to speak. She is a dead ringer to Jennifer Fergate, IMO. And her age would align with the estimate given by the medical examiner.
	Last edited by TheCars1986; 10-20-2020 at 09:43 AM.

10-21-2020, 12:42 AM	#10
rusty spike Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 08, 2015 Location: Southwest Posts: 1,124	Very strange case. I can't make out the lack of bottom garments. That's extremely bizarre. I think there are people who know everything about this woman. Someone paid for hotel room and routine protocols aren't routinely ignored unless an authority issues orders. Most likely an intelligence carrier.
	Last edited by rusty spike; 10-21-2020 at 11:29 AM.

10-20-2020, 12:23 AM	#3
drew790 Member Forum Regular Join Date: Jul 17, 2017 Posts: 847	I'm struggling to finish this one. There's a reason unidentified deaths only got 2 minute segments on the original show. Padding this out for 45 minutes is a mistake.

10-20-2020, 11:49 AM	#6
sdb4884 UM Meme Guy Senior Member Join Date: Sep 01, 2008 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 1,234	Really good segment, I thought Lars was a great narrator of sorts for the segment.

10-20-2020, 01:16 PM	#7
bigted12 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Aug 07, 2019 Location: NY Posts: 247	you've missed out maybe 90% of the case, how she was found, the strange room service, noises people heard coming from her room, theres many many many things

10-21-2020, 10:00 PM	#12
zack007attack Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jan 30, 2009 Posts: 402	First off, I actually like how the new episodes are focusing on one case each because they provide more in-depth pertinent details necessary to explore the case to the fullest extent possible. I strongly believe this was a homicide, based on how the weapon was found in addition to the serial number being removed the way it was. I think "Jennifer" was either: 1) Involved in or connected to clandestine operations somehow, either as an operative or informant and might have either had her cover blown or 'knew too much'. 2) A victim of human trafficking and tried to run away but was found by her captors and silenced to prevent her from reporting to the authorities. Even if this did turn out to be a suicide (which there is plenty of reason to doubt), the evidence at the scene still indicates some kind of secretive connection, considering the fact that the handgun serial numbers were grinded down deep enough that would inhibit them from being revealed by chemical milling or magnetic particle inspection. As for her connections to the village in Belgium, here are some possibilities: 1) Maybe the location held some kind of sentimental value for her, in case she spent a significant part of her childhood there. 2) It was a place she visited often but didn't necessarily live there. 3) She may have met a close friend or significant other there. 4) The Swedish professor indicated she may have been born in East Germany in the early 70s when the Cold War was still in full swing. Maybe she got inadvertently separated from her family as a child and was somehow able to determine that the Belgian village is where her family fled to, but they never got the chance to know what she looked like as a grownup which could be why she wasn't recognized by any locals.

10-22-2020, 12:45 AM	#13
Appliance Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Feb 08, 2010 Location: Canada Posts: 37	That Ola Kaldager guy is one of the most terrifying men, the way he casually describes his work as: "It was collecting information, having people say things they don't... want to say".

10-22-2020, 06:27 AM	#15
Guitar Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Jul 27, 2017 Posts: 43	I like that they glossed over the fact that the gunshot was heard almost immediately after the security guy knocked on the door. Would an assassin be like, "yeah, let's make EXTRA certain that they know that someone fired a gun here." ...or would the woman think, "the jig is up. Checkout time"? The older guy who knew about espionage secrets seemed very credible to me, though. I detected no b.s. He believed that it was a state hit, so to me it's truly a mystery.