Isdal Woman

The Isdal Woman (, 1930–1945 – November 1970) is a placeholder name given to an unidentified woman who was found dead at Isdalen ("The Ice Valley") in Bergen, Norway, on 29 November 1970.

Although police at the time ruled a verdict of likely suicide, the nature of the case encouraged speculation and ongoing investigation in the years since. Half a century later, it remains one of the most profound cold case mysteries in Norwegian history. purse, and a matchbox. There was also a watch, two earrings and a ring. 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.

Three days later, investigators found two suitcases belonging to the woman which had been abandoned at Bergen railway station. Among other items, they also found clothing, shoes, wigs, makeup, eczema cream, 135 Norwegian kroner, Belgian, British and Swiss coins, maps, timetables, a pair of non-prescription glasses, sunglasses with partial fingerprints (which matched the woman), and found next to her body were a further twelve sleeping pills. At autopsy, her teeth and jaw were removed due to her unique dental work, and tissue samples of her organs were taken. As a result, based on handwritten check-in forms, police determined that the woman had travelled around Norway (i.e. Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger) and Europe (Paris) with at least eight fake passports and aliases. While details such as birthdays and occupations changed from one form to another, she consistently gave her nationality as Belgian; the forms were filled out in either German or French. 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 that she also spoke Flemish or broken English and smelled of garlic. People who saw or met her also commented that she wore wigs.

Composite sketches of the unknown woman, based on witness descriptions and analysis of her body, were circulated in many countries via Interpol. Despite the significant police resources deployed, the woman was never identified and the case was quickly closed.

Burial

On 5 February 1971, the woman was given a Catholic burial (based on her use of saints' names on check-in forms) in an unmarked grave within the Møllendal graveyard located in Bergen. Attended by sixteen members of the Bergen police force, she was buried in a zinc coffin to preserve her remains and for ease of disinterment. Her ceremony was also photographed in case relatives came forward at a later date. given the Cold War context of the period. Norway had experienced other strange disappearances in the 1960s, close to military installations, which traced back to international espionage. The declassified records of the Norwegian Armed Forces also reveal that many of the woman's movements seem to correspond to top secret trials of the Penguin missile. A fisherman is also reported to have seen the woman in the area of Penguin missile testing in Stavanger; her presence in Stavanger is corroborated by a shoe salesman who sold her a pair of rubber boots.

In 2005, a Bergen resident, who was aged 26 in 1970, told a local newspaper that after seeing the sketch circulated, he had suspected that the Isdal Woman was a woman he had seen five days before the body was discovered, 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". The woman appeared resigned and seemed about to say something to him but did not. He went to someone he knew at the police to report this incident, but was told to forget about it. Therefore, neither the man's name nor his alleged sighting was recorded at that time.

After the case was reopened in 2016,

In 2017, stable isotope analysis of the woman's teeth (taken from her unburied jawbone This reinforced earlier analysis of the woman's handwriting, which suggested that she had been educated in France or a neighbouring country.

In 2018, NRK and the BBC World Service published a podcast series titled Death in Ice Valley, which included interviews with eyewitnesses and forensic scientists, also suggesting that the Isdal Woman's birthplace may have been southern Germany or the French-German border region, and that she was probably born in or around 1930. She was also probably raised in French-speaking Belgium. In June 2019, the BBC revealed that listeners of the podcast had given more clues. Further, Colleen Fitzpatrick, a geneticist with the DNA Doe Project, contacted the Death in Ice Valley team to offer her help in identifying the woman through genetic genealogical isotope testing of autopsied tissues.

Author Dennis Zacher Aske proposed that the Isdal Woman was a sex worker, based on the way that her route was planned (goal-oriented and always returning to the same point, probably her home), her wish to remain anonymous, her behaviour at hotels (including marking the doors in different ways) and the fact that the different men she was witnessed meeting never came forward. Aske argued that another person was probably at the crime scene when the woman died, based on evidence from the scene and her medically intoxicated condition in the hours before her death. He noted there were arguments that supported the death being either murder or assisted suicide, believing murder to be most likely.

In 2019, after a publication of an article in the French newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain, a resident of Forbach claimed to have had a relationship with the Isdal Woman in the summer of 1970. According to this informant, the woman was a polyglot with a Balkan accent who often dressed herself up to look younger than her age (between 36 and 44), refused to share personal details and often received scheduled phone calls from abroad. Looking through the woman's belongings, the informant found various wigs, colorful clothes and a photograph of the woman riding a horse. Suspecting she was a spy, he considered contacting the authorities but was afraid to do so. Both the informant's story and the photograph were published in a subsequent issue of the newspaper.

On June 12, 2023, an article in Neue Zürcher Zeitung suggested that the Isdal Woman may have had connections with the Swiss banker François Genoud, and that Norwegian Intelligence Service (E-tjenesten) interfered with local police investigations. The newspaper sourced the suggestion to a "professional fact-checker".