MJØNDALEN: On Thursday last week, a woman was found dead in her flat in Mjøndalen. It was immediately suspected that she had been the victim of a criminal act and a man who was also in the apartment was charged with the woman’s murder.
Police now confirm it is 44-year-old Siw Karlsen who was found dead in the apartment.
Vibeke G. Bille has been appointed counsel for survivors.
She says mourners are grieving after what happened and asks that they be given peace to process their grief.
also read
Woman found dead, man charged with murder
Found dead in his own apartment
Karlsen was found dead after police were alerted and rushed to her apartment on Thursday morning.
A man in his 40s who was inside the apartment was arrested at the scene.
The man was jailed the next day for four weeks and is charged with Karlsen’s murder. At the same time, it is clear that the defendant was interrogated twice and that in both interviews he denied his guilt.
– As he explained, he did nothing punishable, says the man’s defender Tom Barth-Hofstad.
The defendant in his 40s lives in the Drammen district.
also read
The Mjøndalen murder investigation: – Have some assumptions
Holds cards close to chest
On Wednesday, the defendant underwent another interrogation, the second since the incident, at his request.
Despite the man’s explanations, police still believe there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Karlsen was killed.
– The man is accused of murder. The grounds for suspicion against him have not weakened after his new explanation, says police attorney Ole Jacob Garder in the Southeastern Police District.
Karlsen was autopsied, and according to Garder, the preliminary autopsy report supports the police theory.
– It supports our hypothesis that the woman was raped and killed. But I don’t want to go into what kind of violence or what the specific cause of death was, Garder told Drammens Tidende on Monday.
Police are so far reluctant to release details of the ongoing investigation.
According to Drammens Tidende’s knowledge, Karlsen and the defendant were lovers. Neither the police nor the defense want to comment on how close the relationship was between them.
– Tragic accident
The crash scarred Mjøndalen in the final week.
– This is a tragic event affecting the local community. It is now important that next of kin are well cared for in what was a difficult time before Christmas and that the police can carry out the investigation, Mayor Monica Myrvold Berg wrote in a message.
also read
Man accused of murder believes he did nothing criminal
also read
The defendant and the deceased were lovers