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WORLD NEWS Saturday 12 January 2019

Norway: Private tycoon goes public with wife’s disappearance

By MARK LEWIS ing woman’s release was in his wife’s whereabouts his throat smashed his teeth camp run by the left-wing
Associated Press demanded with “seri- as well as the trauma of and broke his jaw. But Osen Labor Party’s youth wing.
STAVANGER, Norway (AP) ous threats,” police said. not knowing himself if she is managed to flee before Anders Behring Breivik is
— Tom Hagen and his wife serving a 21-year prison
expected to celebrate sentence for carrying out a
their 50th wedding anniver- terror attack.
sary in 2019. Today, one of Two days before she van-
Norway’s wealthiest men ished, Anne-Elizabeth
just wants to know that Falkevik Hagen was serv-
Anne-Elizabeth Falkevik Ha- ing a friend coffee at her
gen, the childhood sweet- and her husband’s home
heart he married at age 19, in Loerenskog, east of Oslo
is alive. and some 50 kilometers
Her disappearance and (30 miles) from the Swedish
suspected abduction from border.
the couple’s home on “She is a very nice, charm-
Halloween has gripped ing, decent and beautiful
a small, wealthy Scandi- woman, and they had a
navian country with the good relationship in their
fourth-lowest homicide rate marriage, where she en-
of 36 European countries. couraged him in his life
Some argue that violent and his work,” Glenn Hart-
crime happens infrequently mann-Hansen, a former
enough among the 5.3 mil- colleague of Tom Hagen’s
lion Norwegians that police who has known the couple
are unprepared when it for half of their marriage.
does occur. Nestled between a seclud-
The family and local po- ed forest and more densely
lice investigators kept the built housing blocks, the
case secret for more than house they have lived in
a month. But with leads Police cordon off the home of Norwegian billionaire Tom Hagen and his wife Anne-Elisabeth since 1982 is modest by
drying up in the discreet Falkevik Hagen in Fjellhamar, Norway, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. multimillionaire standards.
probe, no suspects and the Associated Press Tom Hagen isn’t one to
risk of witnesses forgetting flash his fortune, Hartmann-
vital information as more They declined to give the safe or suffering. his abductors received the Hansen said.
days passed, the family amount, but Norwegian He and the couple’s three 2 million kroner ($200,000) “He is a normal guy with a
gave police the greenlight newspaper VG said it was children “are dealing with ransom they demanded. normal house ... who walks
to go public with the case for 9 million euros ($10.3 mil- the fact that this is the main The three suspects also es- to his work and brings his
on Jan. 8. The following lion) to be paid in Monero, topic in all of Norway, and caped. Osen says his kid- packed lunch in his pock-
day, word was out. a cryptocurrency consid- that is what they are feel- nappers spoke through et,” he said.
“It has been a topic for ered popular among cy- ing,” said Holden, the law- their ski masks with accents The property seemed to es-
some time,” Svein Holden, ber-criminals. yer. “It is an extra burden that sounded eastern Eu- cape notice even though
the Hagen family’s lawyer, Tom Hagen, the second- but they rely on the po- ropean. He felt badly let the people who lived there
told The Associated Press. oldest in a farming family of lice. They have to put their down when police failed to were rich. Many Norwe-
“When the police came 12 children, struck it rich in own feelings in the back- catch them and feared the gians would recognize it
to us saying this is the next the real estate business he ground.” image of law enforcement now from news coverage
necessary step in the inves- started in 1978. Last year, Police have informed in- inaction or ineffectiveness about the woman of the
tigation, the family trusted financial magazine Kapi- ternational police agency would embolden potential house who went missing on
the police.” tal estimated his fortune Interpol, which on January copycats. Halloween.
The revelation turbo- to be worth nearly 1.7 bil- 10 put Anne-Elizabeth on “I was worried that simi- Holden said his client now
charged the investiga- lion kroner ($200 million), the list of missing persons, lar things could happen hopes the extra attention
tion. Police released secu- wealthy but not uber-rich raising fear she might have again,” Olsen told the AP. might persuade the people
rity videos of men walking in Norway. The magazine been taken out of Norway. “I knew it would.” believed to be holding her
back and forth outside Tom put Hagen 172nd on its list Four years ago, Reidar The same had been said to make contact.
Hagen’s workplace. More of the country’s wealthiest Osen, a wealthy Norwe- after a right-wing extrem- “Their aim is to get a proof
than 200 tips poured in. Of- people. gian art dealer, was kid- ist killed 77 people in 2011, of life, and if they get proof
ficers and police dogs were Known for being a modest napped in Bergen, south- eight with a car bomb he that she is alive then they
seen scouring the grounds and private man, Hagen western Norway. He was set off in Oslo and another are prepared to start a pro-
around the couple’s home. has had to cope with the beaten and partially bur- 69 when he opened fire at cess to get her back safe-
A ransom for the miss- glare from public interest ied. The gun jammed down the nearby island summer ly,” Holden said.q