Tistedalen Murders

The Tistedalen Murders happened in the period of 1991 and 1992. The murders case has gone down in history as one of the most brutal in Norway. In total four people were killed by Roger Herbert Haglund in the space of one year.

On 3 September 1991 the siblings Aase Helene and Arne Odvar Nordby, aged 78 and 74, were murdered by numerous knife wounds all over their bodies and then robbed in their home in Tistedalen.^{[1] [2]} In spite of a massive and prolonged criminal investigation, which included the arrests of two innocent persons, the case looked set to remain unsolved.^[3] There were few traces and no witness observations. A few days previous to the crime however, the siblings had become worried when they came across an unknown man in their garden. It was dark and they had been unable to recognize the man, who claimed to be looking for a dog.^[4]

One year later, on 1 September 1992, a 71 year old pensioner in Tistedalen, Per Rød, was hit in the jaw with an iron bar, then stabbed to death and dumped in a compost pile in his garden.^[5] He was reported missing, but the police was unable to find a dead body, and so it remained a disappearance case for a long time. The victims car was found in another, remote area and his hunting rifle was no longer hanging on the wall in his livingroom. It wasn't until March 1993 that two neighbours by accident uncovered the body of Per Madsen. It was established that he had been stabbed repeatedly. By now the police had four unsolved murders on their hands, as in the meantime, on 23 December 1992, the 54 year old food store manager Karl Johan Hagevik was found shot in the back of his head in his car. The murderer had not taken the profit money, but instead grabbed Hagevik's bag consisting of three liters of milk.^[6] From now on this small urban area near Halden became the focal point of one of the most extensive police investigations in post war Norway. When darkness fell Tistedalen was transformed into a ghost town, the population seemingly living in fear.^[7]

The police soon established a connection between the three murder cases, as the crimes obviously had been motivated by money. Evidence also suggested that the killer was also behind a recent bank robbery in Låby outside Halden. After months of painstaking investigation, carried out in cooperation with National Criminal Investigation Service, the police was able to apprehend Roger Herbert Haglund, a 55 year old family man from Tistedalen, on 1 May 1993. The evidence against him was strong even from the onset. ^[8] It was proven time and again that Roger Haglund's story did not hold water. Haglund was also in dire financial straits. To the police investigators who interrogated him, Haglund came across as an unusual cold person. Confronted with the evidence Haglund later confessed, then retracted his confession, claiming that the infamous murdered and sex offender Edgar Antonsen, who had taken his own life the same year, had forced him to falsely confess to the crimes. When the trial began Haglund walked in the trap that the prosecutor had carefully prepared for him, and he chose to confess again. ^[9] Public prosecutor Lasse Qvigstad presented the accused as an ice cold and calculating man who murdered his defenceless victims, then taking his time to look for valuables in their homes.^[10] Roger Herbert Haglund, who the court described as an "ice cold psychopath," was found guilty and on 26 April 1994 sentenced to 21 years in prison and 5 years preventive detention. The day after the sentencing it was uncovered that Haglund was planning to take a hostage and escape from prison armed with a fake dynamite stick, and he was immediately moved to a maximum security prison.^[11]

Haglund served 13 years of his sencence before being released on parole. By that time he was at poor health. He settled in Skedsmo, then moved to Strømmen, where he died, at the age of 73, on 9 December 2011.^[12]

During the investigation Roger Haglund was connected to an unusual brutal double murder in Sweden, committed a few years previously, but Haglund was never prosecuted.

References

Bibliography

• Kåre Hunstad & Harald Haave: Drapene i Tistedal (Oslo, 1993)