Norway Norway - Isdalen, WhtFem 503UFNOR, multiple aliases, multilingual, Nov'70

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LINKS

'Major breakthrough' in Norway's 46-year-old Isdal woman mystery

Isdal Woman - Wikipedia

Isdal Woman

Death in Ice Valley: New clues in Isdal Woman mystery

 
I wonder if she was forced under some type of threat, to take the amount of pills from which the suicide ruling comes.

I think that after doing that, her fingerprints were sanded, as well as being set on fire while alive.

Just a thought.
 
The isotope analysis for IW should be good. This would have been before the popularity of bottled water and imported pops. The data suggest she was most likely born in Nuremberg and then moved to the French border. If she's Jewish, there are good records to peruse, and they're free.

Edith Marianne Kohn, pictured below against the artist sketch and a blurry death photo, was born in Furth, Germany, in 1930, and immigrated from Paris to Brazil in 1946 with her brother, Richard, and her widowed mother, Elisabeth. This is her immigration photo so it was taken when she was 16. She was married to Claude Benard by 1958 and was connected to the art world.

Inquiries were made to the Jewish community in Sao Paulo and someone did post a "partial" civil death record saying she died in 1973 in Brazil. It was taken off the same day or the day after and few saw it. I didn't. Then a Facebook user found her mother's 1974 obituary suggesting her daughter was still alive in 74. So it looks suspicious.

Very intriguing info!
I've been perusing some of Claude Benard's paintings and although I'm not at all well-educated in art... the Lady in The Yellow Dress (50s), and Lady with the Red Skirt (70s) caught my eye with regard to the UID being a possible muse of sorts. * Or maybe I have the wrong artist!?
 
Here she is mentioned in an Arts magazine with her husband circa 1961.

" the Museum...organizes temporary exhibitions of painting, sculpture, drawings, prints and industrial design. In the same way, courses and conferences are held. Regardless, the Museum will have a library and will continue to publish various publications on art.»...NEW MEMBERS IN THE RUN OF THE YEAR 1958....BENARD, Claude BENARD, Edith Marianne"

http://www.revistasdeartelatinoamericano.org/items/browse?collection=15&output=omeka-xml

Is her last name Benicio in the link??
 
Commas are missing in the transcript. The surnames are listed first with no comma after the previous person's name. So her last name is Benard, even though it looks like Benicio.

Very intriguing info!
I've been perusing some of Claude Benard's paintings and although I'm not at all well-educated in art... the Lady in The Yellow Dress (50s), and Lady with the Red Skirt (70s) caught my eye with regard to the UID being a possible muse of sorts. * Or maybe I have the wrong artist!?
I didn't think it could be the same Claude Benard because the painter always lived in France. But he did go to abroad for a time before becoming an art professor in France in 1957. And the only other candidate in the Brazilian records is a Mexican chemist named Claudio Zapata/Benard. So maybe it IS the painter.
 
Commas are missing in the transcript. The surnames are listed first with no comma after the previous person's name. So her last name is Benard, even though it looks like Benicio.


I didn't think it could be the same Claude Benard because the painter always lived in France. But he did go to abroad for a time before becoming an art professor in France in 1957. And the only other candidate in the Brazilian records is a Mexican chemist named Claudio Zapata/Benard. So maybe it IS the painter.

Thanks! My first google searches suggested "Bernard" rather than Benard" so I wasn't sure if I'd misspelled his name.

Also, of note, I wasn't familiar with this site (and searchable database) but stumbled upon it today. I don't know that it helps with this case but it does have a great deal of info.

International center on the Nazi era | Arolsen Archives
 
I wonder if LE can reach out to a genealogy agency such as Othram or the DDP, and use the IW’s DNA to solve her case.

As far as I’m aware, Norwegian Police have samples of her organs.
 
This Brazilian corporate information site says EMK was a partner in a technical company starting in 1985 with her partner/husband Claude Lucien Benard. The painter was Claude Leon F Benard. So her husband is another person, not the painter.

I was told on FB the civil death record said she died in 72 or 73. They must have been mistaken about the date because the record was removed by the poster before they quoted it.

The company was liquidated in 2000. Her name is still listed. So I guess we have to rule her out as the Isdal Woman.

Google Translate
Google Translate
 
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This Brazilian archives book shows that Claude Lucien Benard had a surname change from Blum. Maybe this leaves room for identity changes and impersonators, as I am aware of or believe is true in another Doe case. Or maybe not.

Arquivos - Issues 35-38 - Page 53
books.google.ca › books

1950 · ‎Snippet view
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 53
Claude Lucien Blum, citizen of France, who arrived in Brazil in February 1948 and later authorized to remain permanently, requires a change of his name in the Register of Foreigners to Claude Lucien Benard, as it would have been granted to him in France by executive decree.
 
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I got a reply from the artist Claude Benard's daughter. She confirms that her father was not married to Edith Marianne Benard and so Claude Lucien Benard is another person. He's the servant who arrived in 47 under the name Claude Blum and became a trader named Claude Benard.
... it shows this woman was probably in France sometime during that period where Claude Benard was living.

I have Claude Lucien Benard immigrating back to Brazil in 1971, the year after IW was found dead, so he was in Europe at the time, and perhaps so was his wife. It says he's married but I don't have an immigration record for her for that year.

Claude Lucien Benard
Brazil, São Paulo, Immigration Cards, 1902-1980
Immigration Date: 1971 •
Immigration Place: São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil •
Birth Date: 1922 •
Birthplace: Paris •
Marital Status: Married
Nationality: French
Certificate Number: 1580666
Registration Number: 1105277

 
I'm ready for art ties to the Eastern Bloc! Helmstedt-Marienborn crossing? Will there be more Trimboli connections? And, Varvin link?! It all makes for an excellent read.
I'm now interested in the "Varvin link". I know his missing wife is supposed to be 3 inches taller and, since the dental analysis, 8 years younger. But could IW still be her or are we looking for someone working with her who could be mistaken for her?

"Only in February 1973, the KuA GmbH (Kunst und Antiquitäten Art and Antiquities GmbH) was founded in East Berlin. This company continued to operate as a "seller" via the former Yugoslavia until well into the 1980s. Years ago, a trace had already been revealed to an artist who lived at that time in Norway and in the south of France. To a certain Kjell Varvin, to whom the trail of the Isdal woman now led, also in other contexts."

Google Translate KuA GmbH


Kjell Varvin (googleusercontent.com)

Kjell Varvin: Norwegian Minimalism - Magnetic Magazine
 
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A Foreign Artist Looking for his wife in Tønsberg

A young man an art painter currently resides in Tønsberg where he is looking for his wife. The Wanted Woman is the 32-year-old French citizen Jeannine Fort Varvin, and her last known whereabouts is Tønsberg. Last weekend Saturday or Sunday she sent a telegram to the man who was in Venice that she was sick and needed help.
The woman travelled from Venice 1 June and she has had regular contact with the man. She has visited as well Fredrikstad as Sarpsborg, but the last known whereabouts were Tønsberg. The aforementioned telegram got the man Monday -- a week ago -- and the following day he traveled north, but before he left, he also sent telegram (moneygam) as money to his wife. The husband came to Tønsberg on Friday, but all attempts to find the wife have been in vain. He has examined as well at accommodations as at the Central Hospital and hospitals in other cities, but everything has been in vain.
Jeannine Fort Varvin spoke little Norwegian. She was born if France, also spoke English and some German. She should be wearing dark long trousers and an olive-coloured paracoat. She has long black hair, gray-brown eyes. She is 178 cm tall. [actually 172 - conversion error]
The woman should have been in Tønsberg last weekend, but after this, there is no trace of her. She also travels with paintings, and carries on a backpack and a large white drawing carton.
After what it stated, the money the man sent from Venice a week ago was not collected.

August 1970

Isdal Woman
 
French woman disappeared after visit / Tonsberg.

The 32-year-old French national, Jeannine Fort Varvin, has disappeared in Vestfold without leaving a trace. Her last known abode is Tonsberg. The last sign of life she has left behind is a telegram that she sent to her husband in Venice last Saturday or Sunday. In the telegram, the woman explained that she was ill and needed help. As soon as the man received the telegram, he sent both a telegram and money to his wife and traveled north himself. The man, who is an artist, is currently staying in Tonsberg, where he has carried out a number of investigations without finding traces of his wife. The money that he sent her was not collected.


Aug 1970
 
David Morgan, who is following up the Varvin link, mentions a Jean-Francois Pierre Fort who disappeared on the submarine Minerva in 1968. Isdal Woman, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com)
As it turns out, he did have a sister named "Jeannine":

Jeanine Marie Anna FORT
1936–?

BIRTH 10 SEPT 1936 • Fort-National devenu Larbâa Nath Irathen, Tizi Ouzou, Kabylie, Algérie
DEATH Unknown

Ancestry Public Trees
 
Meersburg is definitely close to, if not on the border, of IW's main teenage isotope map area. Most people focus on the Piramens to Baden area in Germany and Metz and Bitche in France.

I'm not sure where she was born but she almost surely grew up in Germany as her German was said to be "almost perfect" but not her French. Meersburg is also across the water from Switzerland where she spent a lot of time.

There's some script analysis that said she used French workbooks, but she wasn't as good at French. Where can you use a French style script but speak good German v French. Maybe in Switzerland where they have three languages or close by?
 
Meersburg is definitely close to, if not on the border, of IW's main teenage isotope map area. Most people focus on the Piramens to Baden area in Germany and Metz and Bitche in France.

I'm not sure where she was born but she almost surely grew up in Germany as her German was said to be "almost perfect" but not her French. Meersburg is also across the water from Switzerland where she spent a lot of time.

There's some script analysis that said she used French workbooks, but she wasn't as good at French. Where can you use a French style script but speak good German v French. Maybe in Switzerland where they have three languages or close by?
Belgium, perhaps? They speak French, Flemish and German.
 
Belgium, perhaps? They speak French, Flemish and German.
Yes then, that would be another good possibility.

The last (12th) episode of Death In Ice Valley makes a good case that she’s Ukrainian or at least Russian. She wore a “fur hat”, her breakfast was Ukrainian or Soviet, and she had an address in a Ukrainian neighborhood in Belgium. I know they said she had an Asiatic look.

I still think that she might not have been drinking imported beverages so the isotope maps might be useful. Nothing on it puts her anywhere in the Ukraine. The closest is Yugoslavia. But she might still be locatable in the displaced person’s records.
 
Yes then, that would be another good possibility.

The last (12th) episode of Death In Ice Valley makes a good case that she’s Ukrainian or at least Russian. She wore a “fur hat”, her breakfast was Ukrainian or Soviet, and she had an address in a Ukrainian neighborhood in Belgium. I know they said she had an Asiatic look.

I still think that she might not have been drinking imported beverages so the isotope maps might be useful. Nothing on it puts her anywhere in the Ukraine. The closest is Yugoslavia. But she might still be locatable in the displaced person’s records.

Ah, fur hats were super stylish in the 1960s allover the world. Had nothing to do with Ukraine. Besides that, Ukraine for the most part has a fairly temperate climate, its not Siberia!
And what is an "ukrainian breakfast", anyways?
 

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