For six years, Bjørn Eivind Aarskog has tried to find an answer to one question: What happened when Tina Jørgensen was killed on her way home on 24 September 2000, after a night on the town in Stavanger.
During the spring will be released the documentary series “Who killed Tina?” – the result of hundreds of hours of interviews, investigations, confrontations and reading documents. The goal and desire have been the same since day one.
– Our hope is that someone who knows something will now start talking, so that this matter can be clarified and relatives can get the answers they never got, says Aarskog to Dagbladet.
– Goes into a trance-like state
– More new discoveries
For more than 22 years, the murder of Jørgensen has been a headache for the police in Stavanger. The 20-year-old disappeared without a trace after spending the evening on the town with his girlfriend and some friends.
A large-scale search operation was carried out in the Stavanger area. Only a month later, the body was found by chance in a drainage basin at Bore church in Jæren – several miles away from the crime scene.
MURDERED: Tina Jørgensen was killed on her way home from a trip to the city in Stavanger. Photo: Private
sea view
Aarskog has included Erlend Frafjord, who has written a book about the murder of Jørgensen, and says that they have made several new discoveries during the production of the documentary series.
– We believe we have made several new and potentially decisive discoveries. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that we have linked the findings together, and in that way seen connections that have not previously been as clear, says Aarskog.
Watch the trailer for the documentary series “Who killed Tina?” under.
Pointed out again
Johny Vassbakk, who this week was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of Birgitte Tengs, is also highlighted in “Who killed Tina?”. The police confirmed last autumn that he had status as the accused in the case.
During the production of the new documentary, Aarskog went to great lengths to find out as much as possible about Vassbakk. The work led to what the producer describes as new and very interesting details about the 52-year-old’s past.
– When we worked on the documentary “Who killed Birgitte?”, Bjørn Olav Jahr and I came into contact with several people who had had a relationship with Vassbakk. Among these was one with whom Vassbakk lived and worked during the period Tina disappeared. She experienced that he changed after Tina’s disappearance, and that he became very concerned about the case, says Aarskog.
On the same day that he met the woman, the police’s Cold Case team came up with the hypothesis that it could be the same killer who was behind both the murders of Tengs and Jørgensen. The information led Aarskog to seek out Vassbakk together with Bjørn Olav Jahr.
– We were shaky when we met outside his work. Among other things, I had let my beard grow to look a bit tougher, which was otherwise a total failure. I also brought pepper spray, in case it became a physical situation, because we didn’t know how he would react, says the producer.
Sent letter after letter: – Very urgent
Frustrated defender
Ever since he was arrested in September 2021, Vassbakk has denied any connection to the two murders. However, he has admitted that he was in Stavanger to visit a relative on the same weekend that Jørgensen was killed.
According to his defenders, the police have insisted that he not be prosecuted for the murder of Jørgensen. The case is now with the Attorney General for a final decision.
Defense attorney Stian Kristensen is very unhappy that the producers choose to highlight and identify Vassbakk in a case where charges have not even been brought.
– I don’t think anything of that. A technical charge has been brought against him, which has only been used as a tool to take specific investigative steps. That they choose to hang him out in this way is a really inappropriate thing to do, says Kristensen to Dagbladet.
The taxi mystery solved
– Three highly relevant people
Aarskog denies that the documentary series will help to give an enhanced and unrealistic image of Vassbakk, despite the fact that the police have decided to close it down.
– Why do you choose, despite the police’s recommendation to drop the charges, to identify Vassbakk as a potential murderer in the Tina case?
– For us, it is completely natural, because so much coincides in the two cases. It concerns, among other things, his modus operandi, that in a sexually excited state he attacks girls who are on their way home alone, the method of killing and signs of so-called first-degree murder – more damage than necessary. We believe that even more investigations should obviously be carried out, now that he has been convicted of Birgitte’s murder, says Aarskog, and reveals that a total of seven people will be presented as potential perpetrators in the documentary series.
– Much also points in the direction of others. At least three of them stand out as highly topical, the manufacturer states.
