Baneheia murders

The murders

Sørstrønen lived in the town of Grimstad while Sløgedal Paulsen lived in a different neighborhood within the city of Kristiansand. They were visiting with their fathers who both lived in the same block of flats within the residential area of Grim. On the evening of 19 May, they were going swimming together at a small lake called "stampe 2." in the popular recreation area of Baneheia, which was not very far. They left home at approximately 18:30 and were last seen alive at. 19.30, when they left the lake heading for home.

On their way home, the girls ran into the two assailants, Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen, who had been bicycling around the area looking for potential victims. They were lured by Kristiansen, who pretended to be looking for lost kittens, up to a more secluded part of the terrain. At the trial, the court established that both girls were at this point first ordered to undress, then sexually assaulted by Kristiansen. Andersen contributed to this act by subduing the girls, as well as later sexually molesting Sørstrønen. After Kristiansen had raped Sløgedal Paulsen, he killed her by stabbing her three times, once in the abdomen/chest and two times in the neck, severing her right carotid artery.

After briefly arguing over who was going to kill the remaining child, Andersen proceeded to stab Sørstrønen once in the neck, also severing her carotid artery, while Kristiansen was holding her arms and legs. The two men then covered the bodies with vegetation, and stuffed their bodies between the slab rocks before throwing the girls' blood-soaked swimsuits in the muddy waters of the lake. After walking back towards the neighborhood of Eg, in which they lived, the two men planned to feign an alibi for the time of the murders. Kristiansen was to say he was in his workshop, while Andersen was to say he was jogging. Later in the day, the two met up at Kristiansens house, where they called up two other friends, in an attempt to bolster their alibi.

Search

When the two girls had not returned home by 23:00, the parents reported them missing, and a major search operation was launched. Immediately, police together with canine units began searching the area. By the next morning, over 50 volunteers from the Norwegian Red Cross were participating in the search. This number soon swelled to the hundreds, as Sea King and special police helicopters and were called in along with rescue divers and civilian divers who trawled the lakes and ponds in the area. Volunteer mountaineers also climbed the steep cliffs bordering Baneheia, while the fire department surveyed the shorelines. On Saturday night 16 listening posts were set up around the terrain, which could detect any sounds in the stillness of the night, in case the girls were injured somewhere in the hills.

Two days after the disappearance, the police expanded the search to include all of the woodlands and lakes adjacent to Kristiansand, collectively known as "Bymarka". Authorities also mobilized the military in the efforts to locate the missing children, with hundreds of troops from the Home guard joining in, canvassing gardens, garages, boats, sheds, hedges and kindergartens. Helicopters applied heat-seeking cameras, all tunnels in connection with road construction in Baneheia were scanned, and all buses, ferries, trains and taxis were checked by armed police, but gave no clue as to the whereabouts of the girls.

Two days after the disappearance, police announced the discovery of a human skeleton near the river Otra, outside of Baneheia, but quickly declared it to be a missing German tourist, unrelated to the case. on the evening on the same day, police cordoned off a large area by the lake known as "2. Stampe". Police later that evening declared that both girls had been found murdered at that site. Upon receiving the news, the reaction among the hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel on site was one of enormous grief, many breaking down and weeping inconsolably, others walking around in a state of shock.

The bodies of the two little girls were found hidden under pine branches in a small slab rock crack a few dozen meters west of the pond, which is one of several ponds that constitutes a much frequented bathing area for the populace in Kristiansand. Traces of blood were also found across the scene along with the girls' clothes and shoes. They had been sexually assaulted, tied-up, strangled and stabbed to death.

Early investigation

After the discovery of the bodies, the police opened a murder investigation. Despite having received about 150 tips in the case, they were practically without leads. Kristiansand Police however stated that they were "optimistic and confident that this case, we will be able to resolve fairly quickly". Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Justice Hanne Harlem both stated that everything would be done to get the murders solved.

On a normal Friday night there tended to be around 200 people jogging and strolling around in Baneheia. On the night of the crime, approximately 100 people were either jogging or walking through the area. A fixed abode for drug users that for years had been colloquially referred to as "acid peak" was only 200 meters from the place where the two little girls were found murdered. Police interviewed large numbers of individuals known to frequent the area in order to learn of any possible witnesses. The area was also formerly known as a place where exhibitionists and voyeurs have operated.

Other possible suspects that were questioned by police included former sex-offenders, local convicted rapists, convicted murderers and even two psychiatric patients who had escaped from a psychiatric institution adjacent to the area. Similar crimes, such as the murder of a 13-year-old girl in Sweden were matched along with the brutal rape of two young girls in Oslo in the case of an eventual serial-offender. Even cases of child-murders in England were re-examined. Friends of the victims told police investigators that the two girls had previously experienced a mysterious man following them during a swimming trip. Police initially theorized that the same man was in-fact the murderer.

The acting chief of the Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) Håkon Skulstad said that worst-case scenario was a travelling perpetrator who was just passing through, just as Norway had experienced in the case of Thomas Quick However professor and leading forensic psychiatrist Berthold Grünfeld stated that this was unlikely. According to him, the murderer was most likely a man, in his 30s and without prior criminal record. This was echoed by expert forensic psychiatrist Kjell Noreik who added that the perpetrator most likely was without any serious mental illness, and was "aware of his actions".

Investigators concluded that they were most likely facing two perpetrators, who had meticulously planned the murders in advance, due to the difficulties a single perpetrator would face in controlling both girls. As he attacked one, the other would have an opportunity to escape. In Baneheia, people are always close by, and there are plenty of hiding places among the pine thickets and rocks. The odds were good that a lone assailant would fail.

Expert analysts from Kripos stated that they were tasked with hunting two "stone-cold psychopaths, loners, without a wife or children, who lives either alone or with their mothers. They are socially maladjusted." as specialist-agents struggled to compose a profile for the killers. By this time, police were actually closing in on a circle of about five unidentified suspects who police believed could be sufficiently disturbed to be able to commit such brutal and heinous crimes. All of them had ties to the local community.

Arrests

From as early as June, the police had begun matching the DNA results found on the crime scene to list of suspects they had complied. On September 13, after keeping him under surveillance for 48-hours, they arrested 19-year-old Jan Helge Andersen and charged him with the double murder. According to police, his DNA was a perfect match with pubic hairs found on the scene. He had no criminal record. Hours later police also arrested 21-year-old Viggo Kristiansen

The two suspects were close friends, had served in the military Home Guard together and had been seen by witnesses near the crime scene on the day of the murders. Upon his arrest, and confronted with DNA evidence Andersen delivered a full confession.

He explained that the two men had plotted to commit rape and murder in detail for some time, and had bicycled around in Baneheia on the day of the murder looking for random victims when they spotted the two girls swimming. After luring the girls into the woods by claiming to have kittens, Andersen said that he acted as lookout while Kristiansen raped the two girls, and that he was forced to kill Sløgedal Paulsen after fearing she would scream. Kristiansen then stabbed Sørstrønen to death when she tried to escape. He said Kristiansen was the dominant one, and that it was he who gave the orders, which he felt compelled to follow, as he was intimidated by Kristiansen.

Kristiansen however, vehemently denied having anything to do with the murders. Both men were subject to evaluation by court appointed psychiatrists, and both men were subsequently declared to be legally sane and fit to stand trial.

On 28 September, Kristiansen was evacuated to a prison outside the city after an internet-organized vigilante mob started gathering on the street outside the courthouse. On the same day, the Kristiansand Police Commissioner Ansten Klev, publicly appealled for people to remain calm throughout the city.

Trial

On April 23, 2001 the trial against Andersen and Kristiansen began. By order of Prosecutor-General Tor-Aksel Busch, both men were charged with identical crimes of rape and premeditated murder. In addition, and unrelated to the murders, Kristiansen was charged with rape and sexual abuse against a girl under the age of 10, indecent assault against a boy under the age of 10 and for looking at a woman through her window while she was getting undressed. Kristiansen confessed that he had sexually abused the girl several times when he was between the age of 15 and 17 and she was between the age of 6 and 8. Kristiansen also confessed to the charges of the woman, but not for the charges of the boy.

Kristiansen pleaded not guilty to the charge of two counts of premeditated murder and rape. Andersen pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one count of 2nd-degree murder. The court heard 49 witnesses, 30 for the prosecution and 19 for the two defendants.

During her testimony, Kristiansens mother described his childhood as one with a lot of tantrums and rage. In elementary school he would frequently get into fights, as well as having verbal outbursts with his teachers. She also stated that they had a "hard-time" teaching him to read and to write. She said that he struggled with sports, before eventually quitting due to problems adjusting as well as being bullied. The mother said his hot temper made him a target for the older kids to pick on, and during the eight grade he had enough. He would leave home for school in the morning like usual, but it turned out later that he had not been in school for half a year. He dropped out of school altogether in the ninth grade, and was since then involved with child psychiatric services.

During the trial, prosecutor Edward Dahl painted Viggo Kristiansen as an extremely violent psychopath who was obsessed with pornography and rape. Psychiatrists testifying for the prosecution concluded that he had insufficiently developed mental faculties, and a community worker described him as a "ticking time-bomb" based on his gut feeling. The prosecutor also cast serious doubts on the veracity of Jan Helge Andersen's version of events. Amongst other things, Andersen had no explanation for why the girls were wearing each other's clothes when they were found.

Furthermore, Andersen had changed his story several times during interrogation, and only when confronted with evidence had he admitted to the molesting the girls, as well as covering the bodies with pine branches. He never showed any signs of remorse, seeing himself as another victim of his co-defendant. Court psychiatrists noted his striking tendency to blame every aspect of the crime on Kristiansen, but could not agree on a definite diagnosis. In the end, it was Andersen's statement which was the main pillar in the verdict against Kristiansen.

Verdict

Viggo Kristiansen was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment (containment, equivalent to a life-sentence). Jan Helge Andersen was found guilty of one count of murder and rape, and sentenced to 19 years in prison According to the verdict, Viggo Kristiansen was the leading force behind the crime. The court established that Kristiansen and Andersen both had "subnormal" IQ of 83 and 84 respectively, that Kristiansen "is to be considered dangerous", has "paedophile tendencies", "small or no possibility of improvement" and that it is "a reasonable danger that he might again commit violent acts and sexual abuse".

The presiding judge Asbjørn Nes Hansen wrote in his sentencing : "Each of the victims has been subjected to the extreme burden of having been forced to listen to the other being raped while moaning in pain. Lena must have had thoughts about what would happen to her while Stine Sofie was being raped. After Lena was killed, Stine Sofie must have heard the defendants quarreling about who was going to kill her. Jan Helge Andersen explained that Stine Sofie took Lena's arm and later peered onto her. She probably understood at that time that Lena was dead. As the District Court has referred in its judgment, it is not possible to comprehend the fear and the suffering that the two girls went through before they finally died."

Immediately after the sentencing inside the courtroom, news channel Tv2 recorded Kristiansen reaction while he was giggling and chewing chewing-gum. They later aired the video-tape during the evening news, after Kristiansens lawyer told the media that Kristiansen had been "absolutely devastated" by the verdict. In a 2008 interview, Kristiansen explained his reaction, saying that he was smiling at the mere "absurdity of the situation", he also accused the media of using the clip to portray him as a "cold-blooded monster without emotions". This incident sparked a long legal conflict between TV2 and the court, due to a law, banning recording of defendants inside court-rooms. Tv2 was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.

Viggo Kristiansen was not given an ordinary prison sentence, but rather sentenced to containment (the Norwegian legal term is forvaring), a form of special protective custody which means he may be held in prison indefinitely and is subject to release only at the discretion of a judge after his sentence is served. Containment is roughly comparable to a life sentence in many other European countries. Kristiansen is serving his sentence at Ila Prison, while Andersen was serving his sentence at Telemark Prison in Skien up until 2012, when he was transferred to a minimum security prison, in order to better prepare him for his eventual release on parole, possible from April 2013.

Challenges to the conviction

Viggo Kristiansen has always maintained that he had no involvement in the murders. In 2014, he stated that he plans to refuse being released from prison, or apply for parole, unless being acquitted in a new trial. No technical evidence has been presented against him, and the murder weapon has not been found, despite extensive searches. The only evidence tying him to the crime was Andersen's testimony which was questionable and weak at best.

Suggestive interrogation of Andersen

During initial interrigations without a lawyer, the police used suggestive question techniques to introduce Andersen to the idea that Viggo Kristiansen was a participant and even the leading force of the crime. The interrogater wrote the following in the police rapport: "I explained for Andersen that the police now knew he was one of the perpetrators. I also told Andersen about the advantages he would get by explaining everything", and furthermore: "I asked Andersen if he himself could be a victim in some sense since his best buddy Viggo Kristiansen could have been the most active participant. When I said this, it was obvious that Andersen got something to think about. We talked a little bit back and forth about the relationship between Andersen and Kristiansen, and there was no doubt that Kristiansen was the strong one, the one in charge". Gregg McCrary from the FBI testified in court in 2011 and said the following about this interrogation: "It's a very alarming way to interrogate a witness. The police must never give the name of possible perpetrators or ask leading questions". McCrary also said that it seems obvious that Andersen had been guided since the details changed from interrogation to interrogation.

Telecommunication alibi

Representatives from Telenor and Teleplan testified that Kristiansen's phone could not have been in the vicinity at the time of the murders. This gave Kristiansen an alibi since he was using the phone several times. The report from Telenor stated that Kristiansen had an alibi without reservations, while the report from Teleplan opened up "a small possibility that the cell site connected to Kristiansen's mobile phone could reach the crime area under extraordinary circumstances". The report from Teleplan was only presented in the second trial, and the exception was included in the report due to uncertainty since the conditions had changed since the time of the crime. When sources in the police spread the word that "a new report had destroyed Kristiansen's cell pone alibi", Telenor decided to perform additional measurements, but they got the same results as they got before the first trial and before the conditions had changed. Nonetheless, the alibi was "roughly dismissed" by the judges in the first trial, and in the second trial, the judge said that "the telecommunication evidence must be weighted against all other evidence". A senior consultant from Teleplan, Inge Schøyen, later said that the court had misunderstood the report if any part of it had been used to convict Kristiansen. A new 30 page report from 2016 written by the experienced telecommunication engineer Halvard Sivertsen, confirmed the measurements presented in the trials as correct, but described Teleplan's note that there was a small possibility of Kristiansen's cell cite to cover the crime area as unfounded. The report from Sivertsen concluded by saying that "the cell phone data seems to give Kristansen a clear alibi for the timeframe of the murders".

Witness alibies

Kristiansen's mother testified that her son was at home during the time of the crimes. This statement also matched the measurements in the telecommunication reports since the cell cite connected to Kristiansen's phone was close to his home. Furthermore, a witness saw Andersen together with the two girls right before the crime, but he did not see Kristiansen. This witness, a commercial airline pilot, was not called as witness to the trials, and Kristiansen's lawyer was not informed about this person by the police. In addition, 5 people that heard or saw relevant activity that did not fit the timeline created by the police were not called as witness to the court.

Small likelihood of two perpetrators and unrevealed suspect profile report

There has never been a record of two perpetrators in similar cases, neither in Europe nor the United States, and a survey from 2008 says that only 2% of all American murder cases had more than one perpetrator. Furthermore, a suspect profile report created by the National Criminal Investigation Service in Norway (Kripos) concluded that there was only one perpetrator since both victims were killed in a way that could not be copied by another person. In the interrogations with the police, Jan Helge Andersen had described in detail how the girls were killed, a method he had learned by watching reality TV, but he was only sentenced for killing one of the victims (Kristiansen was sentenced for killing both). The report was neither presented for the court, nor for the lawyers. It was not known for the public until 2010 when Kristiansen's lawyer Sigurd J. Klomsæt got hold of it by appearing personally at Kripos after several failed written requests. FBI expert Gregg McCrary agreed with the conclusion of the report.

False DNA evidence presented in court

The court of the two trials had been informed that there existed two set of DNA profiles from the crime area, one profile that matched Jan Helge Andersen, and another profile that matched half the Norwegian population, including Viggo Kristiansen. In 2008, three independent laboratories in Sweden, Norway, and England retested the original biological samples stored at Santiago de Compostela-institute in Spain and the Forensic institute in Norway, material that had been reported dispatched by Norwegian authorities. All laboratories reported the same result. The first sample gave a positive DNA-profile from Jan Helge Andersen, but no match from Kristiansen. The second samples gave no match from either suspects. The second DNA match was either not reported, or reported to be a contamination, and in addition so small that it would be illegal to present in court in other countries. Dr. Susan Pope from the Forensic Science Service in London believes the prosecutors had received an erroneous translation of the report since the second match was presented as "incriminating evidence" in court, and the Santiago de Compostela institute in Spain had denied that their report described the second match as incriminating evidence. State prosecutor Jostein Johannesen wrote in 2010 that "it's unfortunate that the police presented this as incriminating evindene against Viggo Kristiansen". In a trial from 2011, Gregg McCrary from the FBI testified that the lack of DNA trace excludes Viggo Kristiansen as suspect.

Timeline after the initial trials

In 2008, Kristiansen filed a motion to re-open his case.

In 2010, the motion was denied by the authorities, stating that the case was not sufficient for re-opening.

In 2011, Kristiansen appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as well has hired leading international forensic biologist Greg Hampikian in order to firmly exclude the possibility of two assailants, with the hopes of exonerating Kristiansen.

In 2011, Kristiansen sued the no:Kommisjonen for gjenopptakelse av straffesaker(Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission) for not granting a retrial. He lost the case.

In 2012, Kristiansen appealed this to the Supreme Court of Norway. His lawyers hoped that he would be granted a new trial since they had additional case evidence which were not considered during the first court proceedings. Viggo Kristiansen argued that new evidence would acquit him. On March 27 the supreme court rejected his appeal.

In 2014, Viggo Kristiansen sues Jan Helge Andersen for false statements. The case was dismissed.

In 2014, Kristiansen's prison psychologist for 10 years said that he thought Viggo Kristiansen was innocent of the crimes, and that this could be proven.

In 2016, Arvid Sjødin, Kristansen's lawyer, sent a request for new trial based on a new law called "objektivitetsplikten" (objectivity duty). The new objectivity duty law was created by the government due to cases of miscarriage of justice in Norway, and says: "if it appears clear for the prosecutor that there is insufficient proof for conviction, the prosecutor must drop charges or request the accused to be acquitted."

In 2017, the state attorney rejected the request for a new trial. Arvid Sjødin thought the decision was incomprehensible since the State attorney now seems to considers himself a bigger expert on cell phones than Telenor and Teleplan.

Legacy

The case traumatized the Norwegian society, and making headlines for several consecutive months. The crime created great anger in the Sørlandet district and across Norway, so much that one early suspect, a formerly convicted murderer, had to flee his home and sleep outside in a tent out of fear of vigilante violence. Other clients of Andersen's lawyer Ben Fegran threatened to cut all connection with him unless he stopped representing Andersen.

Ten years after the murders, the name 'Baneheia' is still synonymous with the crime. On the first anniversary for the murders, a huge outdoor memorial service was held in Sørstrønens hometown of Grimstad. Artists including Bjørn Eidsvåg, a-ha, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Morten Harket celebrated the victims' lives from the scene at the granite quarry in Fjæreheia.

The mother of Sørstrønen, Ada Sofie Austegard founded Stine Sofie's Foundation, a charitable foundation that will fight to preserve the rights of children when they are exposed to violence and sex crimes, as well as work to increase the minimum penalty for child abuse. She has ever since been active in promoting laws to protect children on the national level.

Sponsoring among others legislation guaranteeing children the right to a public attorney in cases where they are victims of violent or sexual crimes, as well as starting the first national helpline for children. Former Minister of Justice Knut Storberget called the murders "the decisive watershed moment in terms of turning the police effort against the violence that affects women and children".