Author of a book about the Tina murder: – Can be difficult for the police without a confession

On Friday, it became known that a man in his 50s has been charged with the murder of Birgitte Tengs on Karmøy in 1995 and suspected of the murder of Tina Jørgensen in Stavanger in 2000.

– I understand that he is an important candidate in the Tina case, but I do not think that the police will reach the finish line without a confession. I can not quite see how they should do it, says Erlend Frafjord to NTB.

Frafjord has been a journalist for many years in Stavanger Aftenblad and NRK. He has written the book “When Tina was killed” about the Tina murder, but has also covered the Birgitte Tengs case for a number of years as a crime journalist.

There are DNA traces from the Birgitte case that led the police to arrest the man, but so far there is nothing to indicate that they have similar evidence in the Tina case.

The man denies criminal guilt in both cases.

– When the police have now found a DNA match against him for a similar murder as the Tina murder, in the same region five years earlier, he is much more interesting in the Tina case, of course. But then I can say it: It is more difficult to link him to the Tina case, because the technical evidence here is much more deficient.

Shredded evidence

Frafjord says there are two reasons why the technical evidence in the Tina case is poor:

– One is that the police shredded a lot of the evidence at one point. Considering the technical quantum leaps that have been made in DNA analyzes in recent years, it can prove to be a rather fatal decision, he says.

The second is that Tina Jørgensen was first found in a manhole over a month after the murder.

– So the environment for technical evidence was not so good, and much had been washed away, he says.

Was in Stavanger

Frafjord is not immediately surprised by the breakthrough, which now came in the Tengs case.

– I already realized a couple of years ago that they had gotten a flap in the DNA analyzes. It was quite obvious from the message they sent out that they would continue with them, he says.

The 50-year-old who has now been arrested in connection with the two murders, lives in Haugalandet. He has previously been questioned both in the Tina case and in the Birgitte case.

– When I was working on my book, he was interesting because he had been in Stavanger the same weekend as Tina was killed, without having any good explanation for why, says Frafjord.

Similarities

He sees several similarities between the killings.

– Tina Jørgensen was hit in the head with a sharp object, and in the Birgitte case it was a bit the same. She was hit in the head with a stone. Birgitte was also sexually abused, but this was impossible to establish in the Tina case, he says.

Frafjord points out that this type of assassination occurs very rarely.

– Most murders in Norway take place in close relationships and at home. This type of murder, in which a woman is killed and left outside, and with an unknown perpetrator, is very rare. Then it is very special that two such murders take place in the same county every few years.

He points out that an important difference is that Tina Jørgensen was transported away from the scene.

– Many have pointed this out as a sign that the cases differ from each other, but I think this may be more about Tina Jørgensen being killed near a large residential area not far from Stavanger city center, while the Tengs murder happened on a more deserted place.

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