The court was able to see the Baneheia crime scene – adressa.no

Jan Helge Andersen himself was not present at the inspection. However, it was not only judges and other legal actors, but also the girls’ mothers and the press. Most press people had to keep a certain distance during most of the round.

The inspection began with a round in the neighborhood Eg, where both the accused Jan Helge Andersen and the now acquitted Viggo Kristiansen grew up and lived in May 2000. Thus, they also began with the links in their explanations that match.

Both Andersen and Kristiansen agree that the latter met somewhere in the forest near Svarttjønn, and that from there they went to a playground at Eg, where they sat on a fence for a while. After this, the two explanations differ.

Changes

According to Kristiansen, he went home when he had run his errand, which was to borrow a key to a store. For all these years, Andersen has maintained that Kristiansen parked his bicycle at the barrier at Svarttjønn, and that they then entered Baneheia.

In almost a quarter of a century, several things have changed in Baneheia. Among other things, there is an area not far from the crime scene which in 2000 was a bog you could walk across, but which is a body of water today. Barriers, fences and other things have also been replaced in 24 years. The amount of vegetation has changed, there is more in many places.

Most of the inspection was expertly led by police chief constable Turid Meisingset from the Oslo police district. When the court, the victims’ mothers and the press arrived at the scene of the murders, they were also met by former crime scene investigators Gøran Dyvesveen and Tom Luka from Kripos. These two were at the scene 24 years ago.

Forest floor

The duo not only showed the location where the girls were found, but also the locations of other clues. The review began at the dam where the swimwear was found, hours before the bodies of Stine Sofie Sørstrønen and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen were found just a few tens of meters away on 21 May 2000. The scene was marked with letter signs for various pieces of evidence, just as it was in 2000.

The crime technicians spent a lot of time talking about the forest floor and the vegetation on which the tracks were found, but here too it had to be emphasized that a lot had happened in a quarter of a century.

– A lot has happened in those years, emphasized Luka.

Pointed out houses in the distance

After a lunch break, the visit continued down to Grim, where 10-year-old Paulsen and 8-year-old Sørstrønen lived when they visited their fathers. The two fathers lived in the same house, which the inspection did not visit, but rather pointed out from a distance.

The trip then went back up into Baneheia, past several places where witnesses believed to have observed the two girls on their way up.

Finally, the inspection went through the places that Andersen has explained are relevant in the aftermath of the murders. This involved, among other things, walking over the gravel track Fant Olsen’s piece, where witnesses observed Andersen that evening.

– We got to see what we wanted to see, says state attorney Johan Øverberg to NTB.