Torger Tengs was 37 when his daughter Birgitte was brutally killed. Now he is 65 years old. The case is still not closed.
Torger Tengs (tv), father of Birgitte Tengs, took the witness stand in the appeal case in Stavanger district court on Wednesday. Photo: Annika Byrde / NTB
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Published: 06/09/2023 10:09
Updated: 06/09/2023 14:40
If Birgitte Tengs were alive, she would have been 45 today. But she was only 17. She was killed at Sund near Kopervik on Karmøy on 6 May 1995. The murder 28 years ago is one of Norway’s most talked about crime cases.
On the first day of the appeal hearing, her father Torger Tengs sat in the courtroom. He has experienced every parent’s nightmare. On Wednesday, he sat in the witness box at the Court of Appeal.
– Birgitte was a great girl. She wanted a lot. She was fearless, the father described to the judges.
When he received word of the murder, he was on board a boat bound for Rotterdam.
– I was alone in the wheelhouse. You become completely numb. Gets lots of thoughts. I went out on duty and explained what had happened, the father said.
He told about the shock when Birgitte Tengs’ cousin was arrested, convicted and later acquitted of the murder.
On 1 September 2021, the police arrested the man who is now being charged. In court, the father described the phone call from the police the day before.
– I received a phone call that they had something they wanted to tell. It was a shock when they told what they had found, said the father.
In court on Wednesday, defense lawyer Erik Lea explained how the parents Torger and Karen Tengs have experienced the time after their daughter was killed. Birgitte Tengs was their only child. They accompanied her to the grave on May 12, 1995.
– There is hardly anything worse that one can experience in life as a parent than losing a child. It is completely impossible to understand for those of us who have not experienced it. Life is put on hold, one is eaten up inside by grief and paralyzed. There is shock, disbelief and tears, Lea said in court.
25 years ago, the father sat in the same courtroom in Stavanger when Teng’s cousin was acquitted of his daughter’s murder. This week he is back. A new man is on the dock.
– They have lived with this case for almost two-thirds of their lives, Lea reminded the court.
The memorial stone for Birgitte Tengs on Sund near Kopervik on Karmøy, the place where she was found murdered on 6 May 1995. Photo: Heiko Junge, NTB
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The 52-year-old man, who is now charged, denies having anything to do with the murder. In the district court, he was unanimously sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder. He appealed.
When Tengs was found, her pantyhose had been pulled down to her ankles. DNA, a Y chromosome, from the 52-year-old was found on these tights at the part of the panties below the waistband. This discovery is the case’s most important and only conclusive evidence.
His DNA is nowhere else, neither on the pantyhose nor in the case in general. But the prosecutor believes there is only one way this Y chromosome could have ended up on Teng’s pantyhose:
The man was there and killed her in 1995. He touched Tengs with his fingers stained with her blood.
To attack new discoveries
In his introductory speech on Wednesday, Stian Bråstein defends the court that this case is characterized by everything one does not know. Everything that does not was examined in the investigation in the years following the murder.
They believe the evidence will show that there is no basis for the prosecution’s claim that the defendant’s Y chromosome is deposited in Birgitte Teng’s blood.
– There is no basis for concluding that it is a stain left by a bloody finger, Bråstein said.
Defending Stian Bråstein in the court in Stavanger Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten, NTB
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Before the appeal, new, thorough DNA tests have been carried out on the much-discussed pantyhose Tengs was wearing when she was found.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor said that new clues have been found from the accused 52-year-old. There are 11 markers on the tights that match the defendant, according to the public prosecutor.
– In some samples, very small amounts of male DNA have been found. The amounts found are below the limit of what is usually analyzed, Grande said.
State’s Attorney Grande said she doesn’t think it’s enough to point to another person.
– We cannot find another perpetrator in the new tests, she says.
The man’s defenders completely disagree. On Wednesday, he told Bråstein that they believe the new findings support the defendant’s explanation that he has nothing to do with the case.
– The way we read the new results, there is reason to believe that more than one male person’s Y chromosome has been found in the area in question on the pantyhose. There are findings where the defendant can be excluded as a contributor, Bråstein said.
He pointed out that the judges must see whether the evidence provides grounds for disregarding his explanation.
Fact
The accused 52-year-old
Raised and lived most of my life in Skudeneshavn on Karmøy.
Questioned in the investigation all in 1995 and in 1996 as a witness.
Arrested in September 2021, accused of killing Birgitte Tengs on 6 May 1995.
Denies having anything to do with the murder. Says he was not in Kopervik that night. Says he has never killed anyone.
No witnesses have seen him in Kopervik or with Tengs.
Convicted of several acts of violence and immorality in his youth and in the 1990s.
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2023-09-06 12:38:07
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