The Lørenskog case – The use of money is plummeting

LØRENSKOG (Dagbladet): From the outside it may have looked quiet, but the police are still working between 20 and 30 people to solve the Lørenskog case. The big question of what happened to Anne-Elisabeth Hagen when she disappeared from her home in Sloraveien 4 three years ago, is still unresolved.

But during the three years the investigation has been going on, the bill has become enormous. The extra costs associated with the investigation alone have exceeded NOK 27 million. But in the last year, something has happened in the search for an answer to what happened to the wife of billionaire Tom Hagen. Now the spending of money with the police is plummeting.

Figures Dagbladet has been given show that so far in 2021, around NOK 700,000 has been spent on overtime and extra costs in connection with the case.

The contrast to the initial phase and last year is enormous. In both 2019 and 2020, the annual additional costs were just over NOK 10 million.

– Another phase

Prosecutor for the Lørenskog case, Gjermund Hanssen, emphasizes that the sharp decline in extra costs does not mean that the investigation has in any way stopped.

– It is a consequence of the phase we are in, which is far more pointed than the initial phase. In the beginning, we worked with kidnapping with an unknown perpetrator as the main hypothesis. Now we are in a different phase, and a more focused investigation, Hanssen explains.

The costs associated with the enormous investigation of the Lørenskog case have almost been a topic at the Eastern Police District since its inception. Already six months after Anne-Elisabeth Hagen disappeared from her home, the police district applied for NOK 18 million from the Norwegian Police Directorate to finance the investigation.

– Previously, we worked with obtaining and reviewing material, reviewing video, surveys and the like – it is far more extensive and generates additional costs to a far greater extent than the work we do now, Hanssen adds.

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New needs

Crime writer and former head of investigation in the police, Jørn Lier Horst, has himself been involved in investigations that have stretched over several years.

He is aware that his experience with long-term cases cannot be compared with the unique Lørenskog case, but still has some thoughts about what the enormous change in extra expenses may be due to.

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– This is a sign that in the investigation there is no need to work outside fixed working hours to the same degree as before. It may be that you work less in the field, no longer work with reconnaissance or have less need for travel, says Horst, and adds:

– But it can also be linked to the fact that there is a lesser need to hire external expertise in the form of consultants with a high hourly rate.

Elden and Horst at the scene: Doubts clarification

– Not much urgent

The fact that the investigation has been going on for three years also has an impact on the working methodology and the time perspective the police are now working on, according to the former head of the investigation. Horst explains that the need to work evenings and weekends will often diminish as the investigation drags on.

– In a case that is approaching three years, it is not so much urgent anymore. Now it’s more about gnawing through the pile of routine tasks and working with the material you brought in in the initial phase, Horst tells Dagbladet.

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– Do you have any idea what the approximately ten million in extra costs that were used annually in both 2019 and 2020 may have gone to?

– In an intensive phase with the use of, for example, communication control, there is a requirement that this must be staffed 24 hours a day. But it still does not draw ten million, so exactly what the extra costs are linked to here, is not good to say without more detailed insight into the cost overview, says Horst.

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