Norway Norway - Oslo, WhtFem 20-30, Fake Name, shot in hotel room, Jun'95

[MudaMudaMuda]

Great work, Muda! Are you ok with it when I share them on our board in Germany as well?

Thank you! Of course, go ahead!

 

[madamx]

Bump

 

[Marantz4250b]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here (I've only read the first page so apologies if I'm repeating stuff) but I wanted to talk about the gun which was used. Some of this is actually mentioned in the additions to the VG article which I've literally just read but I'll post my thoughts anyway.

Mystery at the Oslo Plaza

The pistol

The police at the time said that it was produced in 1990 or 1991. That gun is clearly much older though. You can see significant corrosion pitting on the off-side of the slide which has resulted in the Browning Herstal address being rendered partially illegible. That is the type of corrosion which takes a long time to happen and is the result of it being in contact with moisture - probably damp material or leather - for a significant amount of time.

The slide has significant wear to the blued/blacked finish along the top from around the area of the ejection port towards the rear and to the flat side to the rear of the cocking serrations. That wear is of the type which results from chemical/liquid contact and has effected only the finish and not the metal itself. This, I believe, is probably caused by sweat and other human skin secretions. It is in the correct place for it as it's where one would grip the slide to charge the pistol. This would tend to suggest that the gun has been well used.

The lower frame also exhibits similar removal of the finish in the area immediately above the wooden grip panel and corrosion has set in there.

There is visible corrosion emanating from the hole through which the locating pin of the slide-stop passes (immediately under the ejection port) which appears to be relatively recent.

The retaining screw for the magazine release button (the tiny screw at the front of the "pear" shaped part immediately behind the lower trigger guard where it meets the grip) appears to be significantly corroded and has clearly been removed numerous times going by the burring of it's slot. Also, the screw retaining the grip panel is corroded and shows signs of having been removed and replaced several times.

The varnish or paint or whatever was applied to the wooden grip panel is cracking and wearing in places.

The photo of the near side is a "photo of a photo" and isn't nearly as good as the one of the other side. However we can see similar corrosion, the slide-stop lever seems to have quite a bit, and the wooden grip panel also exhibits cracking and loss to the finish. Interestingly, the stamping on this side of the slide has the USA and Canadian address applied to it. US law stipulates that a commercially imported firearm must have the name of the importer applied to it. This stamp would indicate that the slide was originally fitted to a gun exported, or intended to be exported, to the USA. Perhaps it was fitted to one sent elsewhere if Browning happened to have a production overrun of those parts though.

The expert who VG talked to said that the gun was actually a copy (licensed or otherwise) made by FEG in Hungary. I think he was referring only to the lower/frame part of it, not the slide. FEG would not produce a slide with Belgian markings along with the North American address - what would be the point?

I concur entirely with the VG collector that that pistol (or at least major parts of it) was not produced in 1990 or 1991.

Very interestingly, although probably nothing more than coincidence, is this; in her excellent documentary on the case, Stephanie Harlow mentions that although the Belgian address Jennifer gave on her registration card was fake, the postcode she provided, 7968, did match somewhere in Europe - a small town in Hungary!

The Oslo Police seem to have fixated on the barrel alone when trying to identify the gun and concluded very firmly that it was produced in 1990 or 1991. I find this strange. No forensic firearms examiner would look simply at the barrel when dating a gun. Barrels are easily swapped. There should be a number on the lower frame somewhere. Possibly on the slide as well.

Norway has a high level of firearms ownership and knowledge in the form of recreational shooting and military service so I find it very surprising that a police firearms examiner would have done such a cursory investigation the gun and would have failed to notice the various inconsistencies that the collector VG spoke to pointed out.

Did she hoot herself?

It seems to be commonly accepted that it is highly unlikely that she inflicted the wound herself due the gun being particularly powerful and, consequently, it generating significant levels of recoil such that it would have left her grip upon discharging. I disagree with that opinion.

The pistol is chambered for the 9mm Parabellum round, it is also known as the 9x19mm (9mm bullet diameter with the cartridge case having a length of 19mm), 9mm NATO and 9mm Luger. This is NOT an especially powerful round. It is ballistically very similar to the .38 special round but is more compact. The 9x19 is probably the most common service pistol round in the world at present; it is used by the majority of police forces, is the standard military pistol round of every NATO member state and is extremely common for civilian defence and competition. Very powerful, hard recoiling rounds are not conducive to these uses. Indeed, it has become as popular as it has because it ISN'T overly powerful or hard recoiling!

I think that the assumption that this is powerful round is being confused due to the model name of the pistol, "Hi-Power". It's proper model designation is GP-35. GP stands for Grande Puissance, and 35 for it's year of introduction, 1935. Grande Puissance does indeed mean "High Power" but in the case of this pistol that refers to firepower, rather than any allusion to the nature of the ammunition is uses; ie, it's ability to deliver a lot of fire relatively rapidly. The magazine holds thirteen rounds which was an unusually large amount in 1935. More on the magazine later.

The GP-35 is not a lightweight modern gun made from large amounts of Polymer or aluminium alloy. It is made entirely from high quality steel with wooden grip panels. It is on the heavier end of the scale as far as service pistols go today. More weight acts to reduce recoil.

People have said that her unusual grip on the pistol - with her thumb on the trigger and her other fingers around the backstrap - does not accord with someone shooting themselves in the forehead. I disagree. It is entirely consistent with someone doing that.

It's much more comfortable to hold a pistol in this manner rather than taking a conventional grip as if you did that you are straining your wrist around towards your head in a very unusual manner. The GP-35 is not a modern compact pistol and you have to twist your hand significantly whilst it's quite far away from your head to get the muzzle against your forehead. For an example of this (and, yes, I realise it's from a work of fiction but it illustrates the point) anyone who's seen Lethal Weapon will recall Martin Riggs using exactly this hold on his Beretta (a similarly sized, large capacity 9mm) when considering ending his life near the start of the film.

It is also claimed that the place where her hand with the pistol in it came to rest (on her chest) was unnatural. I don't see the argument for this - it seems perfectly natural to me, especially as we know that she still had a very strong grip on the gun when it was removed so her muscle tension would have prevented her arm from moving too far.

There is a much more convincing reason to believe that she did indeed shoot herself. The police stated that when they removed the gun from her hand they heard a click as the trigger moved forward as her thumb was holding it in the fully rearward position. The click is the sear (the internal part which moves to release the hammer on firing) resetting itself for the next shot. Moving the trigger rearward after that click would have discharged the round which was in the chamber. If someone else had fired the fatal shot then he or she would have had either to have their hand over hers (which would presumably have resulted in a struggle) or they would have had to discharge the weapon themselves and transfer it into her hand without releasing pressure on the trigger - a virtually impossible course of action, especially after just having shot someone and all the stresses that incurs. In fact, why would you even bother with such level of detail?

What I don't understand is the two shots. I don't buy the theory that she tried a "test" shot in the pillow before hand. Why would anyone do that? The gun wasn't some home made or clumsily reactivated piece which was of doubtful serviceability. It is a modern, well made arm in good serviceable condition. Yes, it had had a bit of a hard life but it was obviously in good working order. The ammunition was clearly serviceable too judging from the photos and looks relatively new. It would be interesting to know the maker of that ammo but I'm not sure if the info is out there.

I mentioned the magazine previously. Several sources have stated that the magazine in the pistol was "fully loaded" with nine rounds prior to the two rounds being discharged. As mentioned previously though, the GP-35 has a thirteen round magazine as standard. This raises two possibilities; either the reports of the magazine being full were incorrect or, the particular magazine used was one which was built as a restricted one or had been restricted at some time in its life. either of these are likely as several jurisdictions have limits on magazine capacities; during the Clinton administration the US enacted a ban on the production or importation of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds, for instance. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that some other jurisdiction has or had a law preventing the gun as a whole being capable of holding more than ten rounds so a magazine of nine would be legal so as to allow one in the chamber of the gun to make ten rounds available. Finding out more about whether the magazine was indeed restricted might give some clue as to where the gun originated.

 

[Marantz4250b]

How do you explain the nato browning?

It doesn't mean that the gun was made for a NATO member nation. That is just the calibre designation. 9x19 NATO just refers to the cartridge it fires. The gun was almost certainly built from parts of other guns.

 

[Marantz4250b]

I agree, if this were a spy removing tags from clothing, the tags that remained would have been removed. I know it was pointed out that the blazer's tag was on it in a way making removal destroy the jacket (and why it remained) - but I think a professional spy would not be deterred by the more difficult tag IF that were the purpose for removal. Life or death in that hypothetical, and wouldn't be hindered by keeping a tag to avoid ruining a piece of clothing. Either don't buy that piece of clothing, or get a stitch ripper & get to work.

If the reason the tags were removed were done by someone bothered by the fabric of the tag, OR, by a regular citizen trying to prevent identification (either after suicide OR murder), that could explain the presence of tags more difficult to remove, but the removal of all others.

I don't buy the clothing tag removal as being indicative of spying. There is a very obvious reason; if this is a common "spy" thing to do then it marks you out as a spy straight away! Espionage agents are supposed to blend in, not to do things differently to everyone else. If the people you are spying on have suspicions about you and decide to check your wardrobe and see that all your tags are missing then it kind of proves their case for them.

It was said that her clothes (the few that she had) were of good quality. If they originated from a high-end maker they could have been "seconds" that the makers let go at a discount to the likes of TK-Maxx because they don't want to to sell them under their brand name in less than perfect order. I have often seen tags removed by manufacturers under these circumstances.

 

[Marantz4250b]

Well here's my thinking outside the box theory.
"Jennifer" was eliminated by an Israeli Mossad agent, and then a suicide was hastily staged to make it look like a depressed woman (bottle of men's cologne on the table, dressed in black, last meal etc)
That BHP copy found in her hand could actually be an Israeli Kareen MK1. I'm working on asking some real experts based on the limited photos we have. Most think it is for sure a Hungarian FEG clone, and the Kareen is the same clone made for the Israeli police and Mossad.
Here's something that makes me think this theory could hold water. At the time Oslo was the scene of the ongoing Israeli/PLO talks. Many of the negotiators apparently stayed in the Oslo Plaza hotel during these months. Jennifer was most likely from East Germany. A little too young to have been working for the East German Stasi which disbanded in 1989, but she could have been affiliated with some Anti-Zionist- pro PLO organization gathering intel on Israeli guests at the hotel. Mossad doesn't mess around, and sometimes are a little sloppy compared to the CIA/MI6 etc. The gun was a throwaway since it was impossible to trace, so what would they care?
Thoughts?

The gun DID have what appears to be a genuine Browning made slide though. It even has the North American addresses on it which are requirements for import to the USA. I think that only he lower/receiver is made by FEG.

 

[Marantz4250b]

Apologies for the long post, I was taking notes while watching and reading media about this case. Here some random thoughts and observations, split up in several posts due to length:

* Since two different women called to make and change the reservation, one with perfect English (maybe Jennifer, common North American name) and another one with perfect German (maybe Lois), could it be two women in that room, with very similar physical characteristics? One could have been the main operator, and the other one a decoy, that got eliminated (or instructed/forced to be self-eliminated) at the end?
* Could the dead woman be Lois, rather than Jennifer? in her signature, it looks like a weird L, instead of a J, or is it a distorted X similar to the one in other boxes, made by the front desk agent? Anyways, wondering if two similar looking females used these names interchangeably?
* I read somewhere the habds of this lady did not have burn marks. The barrel in a pistol like that, would not burn skin (not with two shots, it does not get that hot); since the barrel is inside the slide, and after firing the gun, the gases get expelled to the side.
* Some investigators said the pistol would have left this lady’s hands. Well, the recoil on a 9 mm pistol, is definitely manageable (compared to a .45 ACP or a 10 mm, I know since I train and compete with pistols), and recoil management can be accomplished even with a strange grip: holding the pistol high on the beavertail and pushing the lower part of the hand (the ball of the hand) into the lower front of the grip.
* When the police examined this woman, the trigger clicked when taking the pistol out of her hand, which is an indication of the trigger reset, confirming that she fired the shot. People who commit suicide with a shot to the head, keep a strong grip on the firearm. However, no blood in her hands is really suspicious. Did someone had their own hands wrapped around this lady’s hands? Were her hands covered with something (i.e. black handkerchief) that fell on top of her after the firearm was shot?

I agree entirely with your thoughts here!

 

[Marantz4250b]

Just a correction, in my previous post a got Stephanie Harlowe's name wrong - missed the "e" off the end. Sorry!

 

[Marantz4250b]

I've been thinking more on this and I think that the fact that she was armed (if indeed it was her gun) actually points away from her being any sort of espionage agent.

In the movies international agents are always armed and seem to engage in gun battles every twenty minutes or so, they always manage to evade capture and their gun never gets accidently discovered by the plod or the local busy-body. However when you research actual, real life espionage agents they are rarely, if ever, armed. Espionage, from the documentaries I've seen and things I've read is rarely undertaken by people sent in to do a particular job - it's usually someone who's been in place for a long time, has lived the life of the host location and feeds information back over a period of years. Yes, agents have been dispatched to kill people over the years - the Israeli Mossad hunting down and killing the terrorists who carried out the Olympic massacre being a case in point. They are also reckoned to have killed Gerald Bull, the guy who designed Saddam Hussain's "Super Gun", in Switzerland by shooting him on his doorstep.

These are very specific incidents though and ones where the weapons were required to accomplish the task. They were not possessed by undercover agents for their own protection and the people who did have them were not "espionage" agents at all, they were assassins. As with my point in a previous post about removing tags from clothing; if you're a recently arrived foreigner with no or faked documentation then being in possession of a Browning pistol built from parts of other guns which has had its numbers scrubbed off along with a bag of ammunition is going to raise flags all over the place if it's ever discovered! If that's a common "spy" thing to do then it marks you as one straight away. Without the serious hardware you could at least claim amnesia or something if anyone started asking uncomfortable questions. Very few places in the western world allow civilians to carry firearms and being caught with one would immediately screw your mission and would result in a very serious prison sentence.

If an agent had to use it in defence then, ultimately, what purpose would it serve them? What I mean is that if you, as an undercover agent, actually had to use it in somewhere like Oslo (or any part of the civilised world) all hell would break loose! There would be police everywhere, your cover would be blown and the authorities would surely rapidly conclude that they had a dead spy on their patch - either the other guy or you.

In the highly unlikely event that you thought it necessary to arm an espionage agent then you certainly wouldn't use a full sized, high capacity, pistol like a GP-35. There is a reason why James Bond carried a Walther PPK - it's small and easy to conceal. Indeed the "K" in the model name represents the German word "Kurtz" which means "short". It's the short version of the PP which was already a fairly compact gun. Even then, you'd probably try to go for something even smaller chambered in .25 ACP or something, or even .22rf which is, I believe what the Mossad like to use.

I think that some involvement with crime is a far more likely explanation as to why she had that gun. It may simply be the case that she was mentally unhinged and felt the need to have it for some reason or other. I don't think that the gun points to her being any sort of foreign agent though.

 

[branmuffin]

Most labels are on the foot sole,if you enlarge the picture of the shoes that were found you can only see that it was manufactured in Italy.and that was on the outside of her shoes.

Source: Mystery at the Oslo Plaza

I think the enhanced picture is of the shoe's interior. You can see the words 'made in italy' on the shoe's interior of the right shoe.

 

[branmuffin]

Hmm....Re: the discrepancy in height: "she weighed 67 kilograms (147 lbs) and was 159 centimetres (about 5 ft 2)"

Does this correspond to the clothing sizes found? It is a little bit on the heavier side for being 5 ft 2. (Certainly possible. I am NOT implying anything, or making rude remarks, just wondering since clothing was found, and wondering what we might know about it aside from the quality and tags removed.)

Might a height around 5 ft 7 (i.e. Camilla) be more likely for a weight of 147? Could they have made a mistake?

I agree that the height dimension seems to be off. Her legs appear slim and her face shape is quite narrow which suggests she wasn't carrying extra weight, although some people can carry extra weight on their torso only. The lingerie also seems to be for someone who is quite slender.

The receptionist swears she saw Jennifer Fergate at check in with a male around 35 -40 years of age. She said he was a little bit taller than the woman about 185 cm which is just over 6 feet tall. If she had the same shoes on when she checked in that were found on the body that would put her height around 5 feet five inches which is over 7 inches difference.

 

[branmuffin]

I listened to the Trace Evidence Podcast episode of this.

A few things really stood out to me regarding two people in the room, which leads me to believe two women where sharing it and/or an identity:

The calls were made by two different languages and accents. Yes, bilingual people can speak very well in two different languages, but it made me think maybe two different women called.

The eyewitness accounts according to TE made it sound very conflicting. Two people saw her at two different times and places that would be impossible. This lead me to believe that two women that looked a lot alike where with each other.

The name Lois was referred to as masculine by TE, like Luis (spelled different but pronounced the same as) Gonzales. however, I think of Lois like the Lois and Clark, or Family Guy Lois.

There was evidence that a shower had been taken very recently to Jennifer's death. To me, this is a strong indicator that a female may have committed the shooting and showered off shortly after.

The ID, makeup, cosmetics, and women's items that where missing at the crime scene could have all been taken by the other woman.

There are points I am forgetting, but these are a few of the reasons why I think there was two women in that room.

If it was two women, the big question would be why the women where meeting. Could they have been twins? Lovers? Maybe some kind of plot for fraud with forged ID?

Almost all Norwegians are fluent in English just like many other Scandinavians. It's possible that a huge hotel that received many English speaking visitors had bilingual staff who had a habit of answering the booking number using English so the UID answered in English but had a German accent. We don't know what language she spoke went she registered at the check-in, whether that was in German which is why she was described as speaking both English and German.

As for the name Lois, it can definitely be a masculine name. It can be short for Alois. It's pronounced like Laws, or rhymes with boys.

It's possible that all the personal grooming items were taken because they would not match the DNA that was taken from the deceased but I have a funny feeling at the time no swabs for DNA were taken since the death had been ruled a suicide. It's also possible that the deceased was waiting for someone to come back to the hotel room because they were going to leave quickly and all the rest of her personal belongings were already packed away in the missing rolling suitcase.

 

[SimplyCass]

I think that some involvement with crime is a far more likely explanation as to why she had that gun. It may simply be the case that she was mentally unhinged and felt the need to have it for some reason or other. I don't think that the gun points to her being any sort of foreign agent though.

[Snipped for focus]

You seem to know a lot about firearms, so what do you make of the serial number being professionally erased? I know the authorities recently tried (with more current methods) to recover it, but had no luck still. If it was a suicide, it seems highly improbable that Jennifer would have bought/taken such a firearm from the street.

Also, what is your take on the gunshot residue? Would it have been possible to fire the GP-35 in such a way where there was no residue on her hands? Or do you think LE made a mistake in their analysis and conclusions.

A reason why I can't quite buy into a foreign agent/assassination theory is just how sloppy it seems. It seems very lucky/coincidental that the hotel didn't ask Jennifer for any ID and let her have a room without putting any cash down - a serious breach of procedures. She was gone from the room for long periods and ordered room service, meaning there were witnesses/staff who would see her. If this was some kind of targeted killing, why would they do it in a hotel and in such a mysterious manner that raises so many questions?

 

[Marantz4250b]

[Snipped for focus]

You seem to know a lot about firearms, so what do you make of the serial number being professionally erased? I know the authorities recently tried (with more current methods) to recover it, but had no luck still. If it was a suicide, it seems highly improbable that Jennifer would have bought/taken such a firearm from the street.

Also, what is your take on the gunshot residue? Would it have been possible to fire the GP-35 in such a way where there was no residue on her hands? Or do you think LE made a mistake in their analysis and conclusions.

A reason why I can't quite buy into a foreign agent/assassination theory is just how sloppy it seems. It seems very lucky/coincidental that the hotel didn't ask Jennifer for any ID and let her have a room without putting any cash down - a serious breach of procedures. She was gone from the room for long periods and ordered room service, meaning there were witnesses/staff who would see her. If this was some kind of targeted killing, why would they do it in a hotel and in such a mysterious manner that raises so many questions?

I do not buy into the "professional" removal thing for one minute. The word "professional" in relation to crime is used either by the police when they are up against something unusual that they can't solve (or can't be @rsed to investigate) or by the media in an attempt to "sex-up" a story to make it more appealing. There is no standard qualification for removing serial numbers. There are not legions of professional criminal armourers removing serial numbers for a living. The VG article mentions that this gun was marked for destruction but was kept by the police as they wanted an example of a gun with its numbers removed - it's rare, which says a lot as to how many "professionals" there are out there removing numbers from guns!

Even if we accept, for the sake of argument, that there is a proper way in which to remove serial numbers then whomever did it didn't do it to a particularly high standard as the police have recovered all bar three digits. I think that these are the last three so if they really wanted to find the full number they'd just need to look through the Browning records. That, at most, could be 999 guns which is probably a couple of pages of numbers. Moreover, it's highly likely that guns were shipped to various locations in batches so it shouldn't be a great deal of work to find out the likely destination of this gun. In their defence, I can appreciate why they probably don't want to do this as I suspect that it is unlikely to tell them much even if they find out where it was eventually sold as they are simply concentrating on the number on the barrel (which may correspond to the gun it was originally fitted to, or not) and the gun is made from disparate parts.

The barrel might have been original to the slide. Some Hi-Powers have the number on the slide too (a mate of mine's does) but some don't. The slide bears the North American Browning addresses so was probably destined to be shipped there but US law requires the number only to be marked on the lower (the receiver, as that is the part which is a "firearm" in law there) so there would be no reason to put it anywhere else. Again though, this is why I think that the barrel is probably not original to the slide; also it's calibre designation is 9x19 NATO - if the barrel, as part of a completed gun, originally went to the US it would be unlikely to have been marked in this way. Marking it like like that may class it as a "military" pistol under US law and importation of foreign made military pistols (possibly all firearms) to the US is strictly prohibited. *cool story about that below

I am highly suspect of the policework as regards this gun - at least the work done at the time of Jennifer's death; an apparently skilled police firearms investigator (and Norway is a very "gun savvy" country so there would be no shortage of people with extensive firearms knowledge the police could employ) attributed it as having been produced in Belgium in 1990 or 1991 when the evidence seems to agree that it's actually a "Frankenstein-gun" made from parts including by FEG in Hungary almost beggars belief, quite frankly. Again, in their defence, they were investigating a suicide, not international espionage.

My best guess at the origin of the barrel is that it was originally fitted to a military gun which was "liberated" by some soldier who then ground off the number so it couldn't be traced back to his unit and potentially to him.

The notion that the numbers were "removed with acid" doesn't really hold water either. I don't believe that you can do that, it's probably an invention of the press or, again, a case of the police just can't be @rsed so say something which makes investigation look impossible. Strong acids are used on firearms (and other things) all the time to remove corrosion and to strip old blueing before refinishing. I've never seen acid eat away at steel. You can purchase really strong acid for clearing drains, I have done and my drains haven't dissolved. The serial number on a gun is stamped into the steel under great pressure. It's not very deep but in terms of eroding it with acid it would take a LOT of doing. Also the steel used in barrels is really hard, I mean really, really hard. The 9x19 round is designed to operate at pressures of 35,000psi, it's proof pressure (the pressure each gun must withstand as it's mandatory test before sale) is 25% more than that, so somewhere north of 40,000psi. Steel designed to repeatedly withstand that sort of stress isn't something you can easily erode with acid. Even grinding or filing the numbers off wouldn't be easy.

What we REALLY need to know is the number on the receiver applied by FEG when they made it. Then again, what's it going to tell us? Very little and probably nothing at all as the gun is made from bits. It's certainly not going to lead to a paper-trail ending with "Purchased by Jennifer Fergate at Bob's House of Guns on X date", anything gleaned from it's serial number will be completely unrelated to her.

Gun Shot Residue: I don't know enough to comment in detail but I'd offer the following observations; firstly, we don't know whether she was tested for it. If she was and the test was negative then I'm not sure of the significance of that. I'm not at all convinced that there is some "magic" test that proves beyond doubt that someone has discharged a firearm recently. It all seems very sketchy to me, to be honest. Also, what actually is "Gun Shot Residue", what precisely are they testing for? Is it remnants of the propellant, the primer, metallic substances from the bullet or it's jacket or coating, or.....? If it's propellant or primer residue then how do you test for something which is essentially the product of combustion - and combustion at very high pressures? It would surely be similar to testing the ashes in a fireplace and concluding that the wood came from a particular tree species? Firearms and all things related to them seem to hold some strange mythological lore to the majority of the population, they seem to be so unique that they almost exist in some parallel reality that is so different to actual reality that anything related to them can immediately be identified by an "expert". The fact is that they are simply a collection of metals, polymers and chemicals and not very different from the rest of the world at all. How do we know that someone who definitely hadn't fired a gun recently would not test positive? There is precedent for this; there was a very famous case here of IRA "terrorists" (Birmingham Six, I think) who were sent down for life largely on the basis of testing positive for explosives. It was proved years later that the positive test could have been possible due to the coating on playing cards they said they'd used around the time.

I'm highly sceptical of the whole notion of GSR testing - like lie detectors, I think it's highly dubious and is bordering on pseudo-science.

Anyway, if we assume that you can test for this and that she she was tested and that that test was negative then I'm not sure that that means anything. There were two shots fired, one into a pillow and one into her forehead. Both shots were close contact so anything expelled from the gun would have been contained. What residue would there have been to get onto her hands or other body parts?

The question of GSR testing is an interesting one. I think I'll investigate it and do some practical tests to see just how effective it is.

I entirely agree with you that the idea that she was some sort of espionage agent is beyond credibility. It's ridiculous, quite frankly. If she was then whichever country sent her must employ the Marx Brothers to run their security agency! Totally amateurish. My suspicion is that it wasn't mere luck that the hotel didn't ask her for any ID or security deposit - I think that they (or more likely whomever was on the desk that night) knew her and knowingly let it slide. My guess is that she was a travelling escort who probably stayed there regularly and the hotel won't admit it - I mean a 50Kr tip for a meal, come on! She clearly had money to burn and obviously had no small notes. That would easily explain her lack of clothes and the absence from the place for nearly a day (visiting a client - perhaps the "Louis" Fergate chap was her client, perhaps he was the one who knew the hotel staff and was the one picking up the bill?). It also explains why she checked in when she did - if you needed to be checked in by a specific person you wouldn't go when it was empty as you might get anyone. Many hotel staff are remarkably "dodgy" and being so often sets you up for a profitable career. There was also a large international summit in town around that period, I believe. Perfect business opportunity. I reckon that hotels around around any large conference in most of the world contain an unusually large number of escorts at the relevant time.

Just to point out that in saying the above I'm in no way judging her or her lifestyle or her choice of employment if that's what she was doing.

Yes, the circumstances of her death are most bizarre and raise multiple questions. I think it was suicide but I'm not convinced the gun was hers or if it was that she had it for long. If she was foreign then crossing international borders with a pistol and a bag full of ammo would be extremely risky and flying would have been essentially impossible. Why would she even have it though? Just makes no sense. The attaché case the ammo was in (and presumably the gun originally) is not something a woman would usually have, especially such an expensive one. I think that the gun was a recent acquisition and was provided to her by a client, pimp, etc. Even if she felt the need to have a gun for whatever bizarre reason then a big Browning Hi-Power is not really something a slightly built woman who had a propensity to wear very little clothing would want to acquire, in my opinion. It's not something you can slip into your bra.

*Anyway, enough rambling - the cool story I mentioned. Foreign military guns are prohibited from importation into the USA and have been for a long time. I was told a story (which may or may not be true) a while back which is that a gun belonging to Elvis Presley is stuck in limbo here in the UK as it can't be imported back to the US. The story goes that his daughter, Lisa Marie, lived in the UK for a time. When she came here her "people" chucked one of her dad's guns into her luggage. She obviously had no authority to possess it here so it was seized. That gun was a Walther PPK, apparently engraved or gold plated or something. However, as it was originally supplied for military use it can't be taken back to the US as the ATF has no authority to issue an import permit.

 

[branmuffin]

As lots of images posed previously timed out by now here are photos and details from her Doe Network link just for recoup
===

View attachment 268570
(Click on image to enlarge)

Date of Discovery: June 3, 1995
Location of Discovery: Oslo, Norway
Estimated Date of Death: Minutes prior
State of Remains: Recognizable face
Cause of Death: Suicide by gunshot

Physical Description
Estimated Age: 21-35 years old
Race: White
Sex: Female
Height: 159 cm (5'2")
Weight: 67 kg (147 lbs.)
Hair: Black and short, possibly dyed.
Eye Color: Blue
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Identifiers
Dentals: Available. Relatively expensive dental work (gold and porcelain), widely used in the U.S., Switzerland, The Netherlands and Germany.
Fingerprints: Available.
DNA: Available.

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Black clothing. Long blouse, bra, long silk underwear, stockings and high-heeled shoes made in Italy. Three light-colored bras were located in her travel bag. Four jackets were also found. One was black and leather, another was a light-colored wool material. All but one label from the clothing had been removed.
Jewelry: Gold ring on right middle finger. Citizen Aqualand diving watch. It held three 370 batteries manufactured in late 1994, marked with "W395." The etching was possibly done by the merchant who changed the batteries. The watch appeared to have been manufactured around 1992.
Additional Personal Items: Ungaro Pour L’Homme 1 cologne (made for men). Turquoise-green cloth travel bag. Black Braun Büffel attaché case with eliphant logo.

Circumstances of Discovery
The woman checked into the Oslo Plaza Hotel on Wednesday, May 31, 1995 accompanied by a male companion at about 10:44 PM. She used the alias name "Jennifer Fergate" (or "Fairgate," as the room was assigned) and the man used the name "Lois Fergate." She claimed to be 21 years old and native to Belgium. The pair stayed in room 2805, which cost 1845 Kroner per night (2,900 today).

"Jennifer" spoke fluent German and English. The pair stayed in the room for three nights and did not pay for their stay, despite warnings from hotel staff that were acknowledged. "Lois" was not in the room between Thursday and Friday morning. The "do not disturb" sign had been placed on the door on those days as well.

On June 3, a gunshot (later discovered to be a "test firing" into the woman's pillow) was heard by a security guard at about 7:50 PM and a second shot was soon heard later. After a few minutes, the guard entered the room and discovered "Jennifer" lying supine on the bed with a gunshot wound to her forehead. The gun rested in her hand; held to her chest. The suicide was likely planned, according to police.

The weapon was a Browning 9mm pistol. The gun was manufactured in Belgium in 1990 or 1991. The serial number had been dissolved in acid. Some numbers were later discovered after examination. There were 32 live rounds for the gun in the woman's briefcase.

The woman had no passport with her or any identifying characteristics. Both of the hotel keys were in the room, indicating "Lois" did not plan to return after departing.

Police and witnesses theorized the woman could have been anything from a secret service, flight attendant, high-end prostitute, participant in a major drug opperation or an assassin. There is no evidence supporting any theory.

The woman was buried on June 26, 1996 in a pauper's grave.

Link to her Doe Network profile - 1420UFNOR

Edit to add - there is also link there to click under the images which will lead you to her retouched post mortem photos

I'm wondering how they know the first shot they heard was the test shot into the pillow? If it was a murder it's possible it was the other way around; that someone shot the victim then shot into the pillow. I also don't see if it was suicide why an individual would shoot a test shot into a pillow. I mean if she was planning to kill herself what would it matter? Firing a test shoot could have but the kibosh on her plan by alerting security. LE recovered both casings but there are no images of where the second bullet was located, if I recall correctly.

There are images of blood spatter on the wall to the right of the bed. It's not a lot of blood, maybe about 8 or 9 droplets. It's pretty high up the wall and doesn't line up with the angle the deceased was found on the bed. If the bullet that killed the UID went through the mattress and ended up on the concrete floor under the bed where was the second bullet found? I haven't found reference to it unless I skimmed by it.

I have a few theories regarding this woman's nationality. After WW2 there was a huge influx of Turkish citizens into Germany. They came during the 50s, 60s and early 70s under a work permit called Gastarbeiter, which was a treaty to get people affected by unemployment in countries like Italy, Greece and Turkey to find work in Europe where the economy was booming . The largest group of Turks outside of Turkey are in Germany. Another large group are in Belgium. Initially the workers were usually single men but later to deal with low populations, families were encouraged to come to Belgium or to reunite families with the original workers. I bring this up because the isotope findings based on the UID's teeth show that some of the places that were highlighted for possibilities of residency coincide with the areas that Turkish workers arrived.

Now someone might say her physical features of blue eyes and pale skin don't support their preconceived notions of what a Turk looks like. But blue eyed blondes, pale skinned redheads with green eyes are not really a rare sight especially those from mountainous areas just north east of Istanbul which is where the first mutation of blue eyes originated.

So my thoughts are if our UID is part of that Turkish diaspora it's quite possible that she is fluent in many languages including English, German, French and possibly Turkish. I don't think that is necessarily the case since many migrants back then really did embrace their new home, especially those who arrived as young childen.

So there's a lot of careers that can use a person's multi-lingual skills, one of them being a flight attendant. When I look at those shoes they fit the role of a flight attendant: to look feminine and pretty enhancing the shape of the leg but also very serviceable allowing someone to be on their feet for hours and hours. And the monochromatic black outfits. When you travel a lot one of the rules is to coordinate and travel light. You can wear your jackets, pack your lingerie and personal items and have one pair of serviceable shoes and one for dressier events. There was a couple of airlines back in the 1990s whose flight attendants wore black uniforms, Swiss Air and Air France. If our UID was a flight attendant it doesn't necessarily mean she traveled to Oslo from a flight she worked on. It would be too easy to check if she didn't show up for her next shift. She could however, travel to Oslo from an alternate location.

Continuing with this speculation, I wonder if she was having an affair with someone, perhaps a pilot. I wonder about the man in the room across the hall "Mr. F" or the person who was in room 2816. When the UID kept leaving her room it doesn't necessarily mean she left the hotel, she may just have scooted across from her own room or to room 2816 further up the hall. The occupant in either of those rooms could have also gone into her room. According to maid service her room looked unlived in, that the bed hadn't been used.

As an aside, I found that the name "Stahde" is a German name that is fairly uncommon. There are several Germans who emigrated to the US in the 1800s and early 1900s with that name.

https://www.myheritage.com/research...+ln.Stahde+lnmo.3+lnmsdm.1+lnmsmf3.1+lnmsrs.1

<modsnip>

I have a few other ideas as to what occurred to the UID but this post is getting really long!

 

[Beekarina]

This case makes me so uneasy.

If this was a suicide, I personally think there was something else involved rather than depression, etc. Consider the publicity this has received, an no one has come forward and suggested she is their long missing daughter, friend or even colleague? It just feels very wrong to me. To the point I'm almost not comfortable throwing out suggestions about who she was, where she was from, etc anymore. If you just wanted to take your own life, this is a damn strange way to go about it......

I spent a lot of time in Scandinavia in the 90s, and a bit in Germany as a woman around the same age as "Jennifer." No one paid any attention to me. I favored similar dark clothing, as did the majority of people walking around in urban areas, and I really don't think young European appearing, woman were being profiled by anyone. If you looked "down & out" and like you might be working under the table or up to something sketchy, maybe, but I drove across borders, took trains, etc and no one cared who I was. So I wouldn't rule out "Jennifer" doing the same, and bringing the weapon and ammo along. Same with hotels. They barely looked at me. I remember paying with cash. I think people were a lot more trusting? Maybe a cultural difference too, like of course , have a nice stay, we are all very proper and nice and very, very bored, take a coffee over there by the window if you like one.

The 90s were a different time.

 

[Marantz4250b]

This case makes me so uneasy.

If this was a suicide, I personally think there was something else involved rather than depression, etc. Consider the publicity this has received, an no one has come forward and suggested she is their long missing daughter, friend or even colleague? It just feels very wrong to me. To the point I'm almost not comfortable throwing out suggestions about who she was, where she was from, etc anymore. If you just wanted to take your own life, this is a damn strange way to go about it......

I spent a lot of time in Scandinavia in the 90s, and a bit in Germany as a woman around the same age as "Jennifer." No one paid any attention to me. I favored similar dark clothing, as did the majority of people walking around in urban areas, and I really don't think young European appearing, woman were being profiled by anyone. If you looked "down & out" and like you might be working under the table or up to something sketchy, maybe, but I drove across borders, took trains, etc and no one cared who I was. So I wouldn't rule out "Jennifer" doing the same, and bringing the weapon and ammo along. Same with hotels. They barely looked at me. I remember paying with cash. I think people were a lot more trusting? Maybe a cultural difference too, like of course , have a nice stay, we are all very proper and nice and very, very bored, take a coffee over there by the window if you like one.

The 90s were a different time.

It's strange that no one recognises her for sure. Having said that, I'm not sure how much publicity her case has had until recently, especially outside of Norway. I hadn't heard of it at all until I saw the Netflix documentary a few months back. I've been into firearms for well over thirty years and I would definitely have remembered it had I heard about it at the time it happened. She was also reckoned to be around the same age as me (born 1971) so that's another reason I'd have remembered it. I really don't think it's had much publicity at all until the documentary came out.

It's been suggested that she may have been East German; if that's the case then it's quite possible that she had little or no family who'd ever heard about her death. Eastern Europe was undergoing enormous changes at the time and people were flowing back and forth across what was the old Iron curtain and a lot of people travelled without proper documentation. It's also possible that her family were dissidents who fled prior to 1989 and wanted to keep a low profile - hearing that their daughter/sister/cousin, etc had been found shot dead under mysterious circumstances would have been a very good reason to keep quiet. Her immediate family may have been killed or imprisoned by the Stasi. We are simply guessing.

Yes, it's possible that she could have travelled with the gun but I don't think it's too likely and I doubt she had it for any length of time. If she did then she almost certainly didn't fly with it. As I say previously - why would she even have it and even if she did want one then why something like that? It's not a small gun and it's not as though she had lots of luggage in which to hide it. Carrying a pistol around in a small attaché case which contains only it and some loose ammo really isn't a very clever thing to be doing. Looks like a very good way to get such a thing spotted. I appreciate that you travelled all over the place without being stopped or checked but you might have been and it would only take one check for her to be arrested for possession of the gun or even shot by a nervy cop. She was either given it by someone like a customer or had some sort of criminal involvement and was holding it for someone or was taking it somewhere for someone. Attractive, well presented mid-20's women are not the types who regularly travel with illegal, high-capacity military handguns.

I'm quite convinced that someone at the hotel, probably whomever checked her in, knew who she was or who was picking up the bill for her. That's not to say that they knew her real name but I'm sure that she was allowed to check in without ID or a security deposit intentionally and not merely due to an oversight. She may have been an escort but she may also have been the mistress of a well known wealthy customer or of some diplomat at the conference.

It's a desperately sad case all round, to be honest. Norway really needs to find a way round their ridiculous laws preventing them using her DNA to find who she might be.

 

[Beekarina]

Re:
It's a desperately sad case all round, to be honest. Norway really needs to find a way round their ridiculous laws preventing them using her DNA to find who she might be

100% agree!

 

[Beekarina]

And as has been mentioned numerous times: where were all of her bottom garments. No underwear, except the one pair. No pants. No skirt. So....how did she get rid of her extra clothing? Run out pants-less, wearing just the silk shorts? That would draw so much attention....

 

[Beekarina]

I was re-reading the VG piece about her, and reminded the estimation of her height was actually changed a bit.

* In addition, at VG’s request, the Oslo police have had new height measurements performed on the woman at Oslo University Hospital, based on the remains exhumed from the grave. At the autopsy, the woman’s height was measured at 159 cm. The new calculations, using two different systems, reached a similar conclusion, but suggested she might have been slightly taller. One put her height at 160.8 cm and the other at 161.8 cm, both with a margin of error of four centimetres.

Mystery at the Oslo Plaza