| Isdal Woman The Isdal Woman is the most fascinating unsolved mystery I’ve stumbled across in recent years. I say ‘stumbled’ as like many I first came across it on a special feature on the BBC...more Advert: The Isdal Woman - Operation Isotopsy: Death in Ice Valley @ amazon.co.uk (direct link to book) Affiliate/Advertising policy I say ‘stumbled’ as like many I first came across it on a special feature on the BBC website(they do do compelling and in-depth articles from time to time) entitled Isdal Woman: The mystery death haunting Norway for 46 years (The podcasts mentioned below would make the case famous with the title: Death in Ice Valley). Reading through it I came compelled to find out what actually happened to this unknown woman in such a remote location. Mountains, vast lakes, tall pine trees...and lost for we don't know precisely how long but discovered by walkers on a sunday is a beautiful woman's badly burnt body whose story, life, we know little more than the day she died nearly 50 years ago. Anyone have any details or photos of her they would like to share here? . Please email anything here (ihuppert5@aol.com) and I will add it. Remote but not that remote, within a few kms of Bergen, Norway. Near enough on the aerial map to see in the same shot Bergen Hospital, the Funicular, the market place, the outline of historic Bergen city as it stands, rugged but picturesque, against the North sea. Near to life but a wild, stark landscape nonetheless and forever now connected as a backdrop for the final moments of the Unknown Woman. I read all the BBC's article hoping there would be some kind of conclusion by the end but obviously there wasn't. I was drawn to a link to the NRK site (Norway’s licence-funded, public-service broadcasting channel) and realised that many of the facts reported on the BBC site came from here and that this mystery must of been part of Norwegian folklore since 1970 and only now, via the BBC, was it entering the wider world. The facts and the police photos just added to the mystery. So startling was that photo (original on this page - scrowl down to about half way to see it - under the photo is the description: "The police are met by this sight as they arrive on the scene on November 29, 1970. The Isdal woman is lying on her back between big rocks in the steep, wooded terrain." Photo © Bergen State Police) of her corpse (from the Bergen State Archives) it was astonishing to see really; the video of a drone taking you across the valley to where she died; the NPK piece (in English) was at times troubled and troubling. There was so much info ... you'd think, somehow, somewhere, there would be some clue, something. And yet at the end .... nothing. That is the thing you have to accept in investigating the case - nothing and nothingness. There is no quick-fix for any armchair enthisiast; there's is nothing even approaching any kind of closure. I then returned to the BBC's piece and through that discovered the now massive (in terms of popularity) podcasts. As of June 2019 there are 11 of them and consist of a British journalist (Neil McCarthy - BBC) and Norwegian one (Marit Higraff - NFK) travelling to Bergen and beyond, interviewing witnesses, scientists and journalists and trying against all odds to piece together all the info to find out who she actually was and how did she come to finish her life (or be finished) in such a desolate place. The first 10 are excellent and must-hear - the latest whilst good tends to pad it out a bit. I was hooked and the eerie music of the podcasts took me to the Isdalen Valley, in my mind's eye, to a place in 1970 across the lake, to the burning flames obscuring just what went on and to muffled voices, cries and whispers, just too far away for the wind to carry for me to make out what was said. Below are the facts and for what it's worth, my conclusions. I can say here that I know alot less that many experts and the conclusions are only my gut instincts. Oh, and regarding the Podcasts: whilst fascinating I can't help but thinking that the eerie music isn't eerie enough. Here's something you can try: Close your eyes and think of a frightened, possibly fragile, woman as she approaches death in a remote land of creaking winds, overpowering landscapes of water and mountains, of tall trees that envelop you and cold stone beneath. And whilst you do this play this on YouTube for its 2 minutes or so duration. It is David Sylvian's Answered Prayers from 1986. Then, I hazard, you will have an idea of just what it feels like to enter that Chamber of Death the Isdal Woman found herself on that cold, forbidden day all those years ago. Advert: The Isdal Woman - Operation Isotopsy: Death in Ice Valley @ amazon.co.uk (direct link to book) 29th November 1970: An unidentified woman is found dead at Isdalen (“Ice Valley”) in Bergen, Norway. A man and his two young daughters discover her whilst hiking in the foothills of the north face of Ulriken. Neither of the daughters will speak about it publicly from that day to this. Found in a scree. Body charred and a burning smell (see NFK for picture). Body in a supine position. Bergen Police contacted. Full investigation launced. Case name: 134/70 Police find no nearby campfire. Front of body and clothes severely burned. Body & face unrecognisable. Photo © Bergen State Police. Items found by body and affected by the fire: Around the body were traces of burned paper, and beneath it was a fur hat which was later found to have traces of petrol. All identifying marks and labels on these items had been removed or rubbed off. 2nd December 1970: Two suitcases belonging to the woman found at Bergen Railway Station. In the lining of one was 5 100 Deutsche Mark notes. Other items found: Any possible identifying information had been removed. Autopsy revealed the woman had died from a combination of incapacitation by phenobarbital and poisoning by carbon monoxide. Soot was found in her lungs, indicating she was alive as she burned. Her neck was bruised, possibly from a fall or by a blow. Analysis of her blood and stomach showed that she had consumed between 50-70 Fenemal brand sleeping pills. Found next to her body were a further 12 sleeping pills. At autopsy, her teeth and jaw were removed due to her unique gold-filling dental work and tissue samples of her organs were taken. Police launch an appeal for information in the Norwegian media regarding the case. Last time seen alive was on 23 November. she checked out of room 407 of the Hotel Hordaheimen. Physical description revealed. Roughly 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) tall. Good-looking. Dark brown hair. Brown eyes. Hordaheimen staff she kept mainly to her room and seemed to be on her guard. Paid her bill in cash and requested a taxi whem leaving the Hotel. The four days between this and the discovery of the body remain unaccounted for. Police decode the notepad entries. They discover thus: Dates and places the woman had visited. Based on handwritten check-in forms, police determined that the Isdal Woman had travelled around Norway (i.e. Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger) and Europe (Paris) with at least eight fake passports and aliases. She claimed to be Belgian. She had previously stayed at several hotels in Bergen, and was known to change rooms after checking in. She often told hotel staff that she was a travelling saleswoman and antiquities dealer. One witness said that she overheard the woman talking to a man in German in a Bergen hotel. Others who met her mentioned she also spoke Flemish and broken English. Witnesses state shesmelt of garlic. From the Podcasts I learn that garlic was a rare smell in Norway at the time. People who saw or met her also commented that she wore wigs. Composite sketches, based on witness descriptions and analysis of her body, were then circulated in many countries via Interpol. Despite the significant police resources deployed, the unknown woman was never identified and the case was quickly closed. I recall from the Podcast that it was actually closed within three weeks which seems incredibly quickly. Authorities concluded that she had committed suicide by ingestion of sleeping pills. Many believe that there is evidence that she was murdered. 5 February 1971: the Isdal Woman was given a Catholic burial (based on her use of saint’s names on check-in forms) in an unmarked grave within the Møllendal graveyard located in Bergen. Funeral attended by 16 members of the Bergen police force she was buried in a zinc coffin to both preserve her remains and for ease of disinternment. Her ceremony was also photographed in case relatives came forward at a later date. This is the most fascinating point in the case for me. In 2005, a Bergen resident who was 26 in 1970 told a local newspaper that after seeing the sketch circulated, he had suspected that the dead woman was the woman he had seen five days before the body was found, when he was hiking on the hillside at Fløyen. Surprisingly, she was dressed lightly for the city rather than a hike, and was walking ahead of two men wearing coats who looked "southern". She appeared resigned and seemed about to say something but didn't. He went to someone he knew at the police to report this, but was told to forget about it. Therefore, neither his name nor his alleged sighting was recorded at that time. Was it her? If the dates are correct, then after this sighting she would have returned to the Hotel so why would she been travelling with two ominous ans strange men, dressed inapproriately and yet the men are not, looking fearful as though she knew her fate but all the while knowing she was returning to the safety of her hotel room? Doesn't make sense unless they were searching for somewhere to die at a later date. Sounds inplausible but then alot sounds like that in this case. 1) Took an age in buying boots at a shoe shop in Stavanger. 2) Travelled at least 2 times between Stavanger and Bergen by ferry. 3) Where there is now lockers for luggage at Bergen Railway Station in 1970 it was a manned property section. 4) The first local newspaper report of the Isdal Woman suggest she was a 'young woman'. 5) A few weeks after her body was fund, the head of the Bergen Criminal Investigation unit, Oskar Hortines held a press conference on the case. BBC have a 2 minute clip of it here (English subtitles). 6) Hortines completely rules out the premise that she was a spy. 7) Hortines seems to have some evidence at that stage that she was from France, possibly Paris. 8) Body was found on a Sunday. 9) Visited Norway in March. 10) Case has amazing similarities to the Tamám Shud case in Adelaide, Australia some 22 years previous. It's as if the Isdal Woman was some kind of daughter to the Somerton Man. Surely she or someone with her at the time of her disappearance and then death was aware of the case? |
