THIS IS A DRAMA SERIES BASED ON REAL EVENTS.
VIEWS EXPRESSED REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF THE INDIVIDUALS FEATURED.
SOME NAMES, INCIDENTS AND LOCATIONS,
AND DIALOGUE HAVE BEEN FICTIONALIZED FOR DRAMATIC PURPOSES.
Yeah. All right. Yes.
Yes, that's great.
Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.
Exactly.
Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, we will. Bye. Okay, bye.
[door opens, closes]
Fuck! No! [screams]
[zipper closes]
[engine starts]
Two minutes, 40 seconds.
[investigator] Okay. You can stop now.
EPISODE 1 THE INVESTIGATORS
[phone ringing]
[operator] Police. How can I help?
OCTOBER 31, 2018
- Hello? Hi. - [person] Yes, hello.
Yes, hello? It's, uh, my wife.
- She's gone. - I see. Can I take your name?
Yes, it's, uh, Tom Hagen.
They... They've taken her. I'm in quite some shock.
I understand. Where are you calling from, Tom?
- Well, I'm at home. - Right. You're at number 4 Sloraveien?
- Yes. - In Lørenskog. Is that right?
- Yes, that is right. - Okay, Tom.
We'll send a patrol car straight over to you.
No, no, don't send them here.
Because there is a note.
A note?
Yes. A ransom note.
I'm sure that must sound strange, but it says in the note
that I cannot contact the police.
So she's been kidnapped?
Yes, she's not here. Someone's taken her.
[indistinct]
Yes, I'm sorry. I apologise. There was obviously a miscommunication.
- [chattering] - [car door opens, closes]
I said to them, "You can't come in-in uniform".
That should've been easy to follow.
They came in uniform.
They were talking loudly on the telephone.
And they said my name.
And... [inhales]
...if...
If the kidnappers realise that I've contact... contacted the police...
[breathes deeply] ...they will kill Lisbeth.
- You understand? - [investigator] Yes, I understand.
He got worried when she didn't pick up, so he went home and found the house empty.
Where did he find the ransom note?
On a chair in the hall.
They're asking for nine million euros for her safe return, and to pay it in Monero.
- What is that? - Cryptocurrency that can't be traced.
- Right. - Didn't you know that?
- Did you? - No, but you should have.
Oh, really?
- Eva? - Yeah?
Anything on the ransom note?
Mm-mmm. No, I still have work left to do.
- Okay. - I'll come back to you.
- [investigator 1] Yeah. - [investigator 2] Yeah.
[investigator 1] "If you involve police and media, you put pressure on us.
Too much pressure on us, we will choose freedom above money.
We lower our risk if we kill and then drop off
the body of Anne-Elisabeth and disappear.
Maybe you think you can involve police secretly,
help to find her, without pressure on us.
Bad idea.
We have long watched everybody,
Anne-Elisabeth and more family a long time,
and we all still keep eye on you".
Right.
Holger and Anne from Kripos will work with us from the East region.
- Hey. - Jorunn and Michael.
- [person] Hi. - Hey.
As our police prosecutor, Haris is formally in charge of this case.
I'm the watchdog.
How seriously should we take this threat?
Uh, until we've established otherwise,
we'll assume that the kidnappers are watching the whole family.
If we follow that,
it means that the kidnappers surely know that Hagen has been in contact.
So every fucking hour and minute matters to us.
But we can't risk doing anything that might get Anne-Elisabeth Hagen murdered.
And that means top secrecy. A covert operation.
Yeah, but we have to talk to people who might have seen something.
We can't go knocking on doors and talk to the media like we normally do.
Then how in the hell are we supposed to investigate
without having any new leads?
This strategy is not open for any discussion at the moment.
As each day goes by, a witness will forget what they saw.
It's Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.
Two days later, you've forgotten up to 70% of your experiences.
And it keeps dropping.
But you haven't had a case at Kripos like this before.
Tommy, none of us have had a case like this before.
We cannot take the slightest risk, though,
in case we put her life in greater danger.
Exactly. Life above all.
We'll begin with the family.
What are your thoughts on the ransom note?
In relation to the family contacting us.
I think that is very genuine.
The kidnappers could have set up a camera,
or they could be in a flat near to the house
and observing everything.
It is going to limit us.
Yeah.
[sighs]
But I agree that life is what matters.
We'll find a way around it.
I think you ought to lead this investigation.
And I will back you the whole way.
[chattering]
[door closes]
Hello. I'm leading the investigation.
- This is my daughter. - Hello, I'm Tommy.
- Hi. - Hello.
Sorry for what you're going through.
Firstly, I'd like to offer our deepest sympathy
for the awful situation that you find yourselves in.
So have you found my mother?
No. Not yet, I'm afraid.
But we will do all we can to get her back.
If the kidnappers understand that we're meeting you here now,
it has to be, uh,
very...
Then our mother's life will, uh, be in more danger.
Yes, we're doing everything to keep this enquiry secret.
That's why we're dressed as civilians.
So we think it's very unlikely anyone knows that we've met with you here.
[Tommy] It might be best for you to stay at the hotel for now,
so that we can protect you.
And we would like to tap the phones of the whole family.
But why?
That's because we assume the kidnappers will get in contact with you.
It's vital that we can trace them.
[clears throat] All right, so I left my telephone at home,
and that's where Lisbeth's phone is also.
Okay.
Hello?
[pop music playing]
Hey, Dad?
[pop music continues]
There you are.
Hi.
I can't stay.
- Another day, okay? - [chuckles]
- Okay? - I can hear fine.
- [chuckles] Yes, you can now. - [phone pings]
[sighs] I have a huge case.
Finally.
That'll give those know-it-alls something to think about.
- Yes, come on. - What are you working on?
I can't tell you.
You can tell me something. [chuckles]
I'm a police officer.
- That's right. [chuckles] - Huh?
- You were one. - Yeah.
You've always been so damned secretive, huh?
You kept the secret when you won the lottery. For four days.
Until I saw it in the account.
- [Reidar chuckles] - [phone pings]
When were you going to tell me about it?
Sometimes, he thinks that I'm Mum.
[sighs]
She died over 20 years ago.
Suddenly, it's like he's back to before the accident.
[sighs] Obviously, the doctor thinks there's Alzheimer's, but
he'll never get tested.
Yeah, everything's always fine.
My dad's like that.
[Eva] Be careful where you step.
[camera shutter clicks]
- Were they by the ransom note? - [Michael] Yeah.
- [camera shutter clicks] - Hagen said it's her rings.
- [Michael] I found a mobile. - [Eva] I'm coming.
- [Jorunn] How long have they lived here? - Since the '80s, when it was first built.
- It's very strange. - What is?
A billionaire who chooses to live like this.
[clock ticking]
[siren wailing]
POLICE
[Michael] What if she ran away because she wanted a new life?
- Or it's her husband. - [Jorunn] But why?
Statistics never lie.
What do we have on Tom Hagen?
[sighs] He gets to his office at Futurum Business Park
while Anne-Elisabeth is talking to her son on the phone at 9:14.
He stays in his office throughout the whole morning.
He calls home several times. There's no answer.
In the end, he's so worried that he drives home.
- So that's airtight. - Yeah, that leaves us with the kidnapping.
[Holger] Yeah.
Are we certain that there's a financial motive?
Well, they're asking for money.
It could be a professional gang
who've looked into the public tax records and found a rich guy with bad security.
HI, IT'S DAD. WHERE ARE YOU? WHEN ARE YOU COMING?
Okay, what about us then? I need to get back to the crime scene with my team.
- Uh-huh. - [Anne] Yeah.
Jorunn, we've got to look for witnesses.
Find out what they've seen.
[sighs]
Is there any way we can do that without endangering her?
DAY 2
[Michael] We're looking for a missing schoolgirl.
[neighbour] Okay?
Have you seen anything unusual in the area in the past few days?
I can't really think of anything that wasn't normal, no.
[Tom] Well, she was sitting in her chair in the living room.
And, uh, she stood up when I came in.
[clears throat] She was going for a walk with our puppy.
[sighs]
Tassen. [clears throat]
And I left at 9:00 a.m.
All right.
And was there anything out of the ordinary?
No.
The night before that.
Anything unusual, nothing at all?
No, it was just a lovely evening at the theatre with some friends.
[smacks lips] Yeah. It was a lovely evening.
There's something else.
There was actually something. When we...
When we came home from the theatre,
so I was sitting in the same chair as usual,
just beside the window,
so I looked out across the water,
there were stars in the sky,
and, suddenly, I got a feeling that someone was watching me.
Spying on me.
Uh, out there in the dark.
I got up. Looked into the garden.
There was nothing.
But the feeling of someone watching me from out there,
that really stuck with me.
It was very unsettling.
[inhales deeply] Okay, let's move forward a bit.
To when you came back to your house at around 1:30.
And you saw what?
I didn't see anything.
I called out for Lisbeth.
I went up. Looked for her.
I came back down.
I went into the cellar and into the garage.
Then I came back to the house,
and that's when I found the note that was left on the chair in the hall.
[inhales] You said that you saw some drag marks beforehand.
Yes, I think this is very hard for me to speak. It's...
What you must think about
is the-the type of people that could, uh, do that.
Such a brutal operation.
I think it only took them a few minutes.
They knew her routine and they struck when she was in the bathroom.
It all happened in the... in the hallway.
In such a small space.
Do you have any enemies or rivals?
Yeah, of course, I've had disagreements through the years, but that's not...
Um... [grunts]
...I'm thinking now.
A handyman who painted our house.
It was autumn, I think.
Uh, a quiet guy.
He took his time
and I was surprised by how long he took.
Uh, he kept all of his equipment in the garage.
He knew where the key to the house was, so...
Uh, he wasn't Polish. Maybe from Lithuania or something.
And, well, like I said... [clears throat]
...I wondered about how much time he took.
The handyman went back to Lithuania a month ago.
- He doesn't have a record? - No.
I checked the apartment complex.
And no one's moved in in the last month or so.
- Any signs they're watching us? - We can't rule it out.
No, but that's what they're gambling on, that we're too scared to rule it out.
It's an effective way
- of making our jobs a lot harder. - Got a cig?
- I thought you'd quit? - I'm trying.
Hello, we're from the police. So we're investigating
a tip-off that some people have been dealing drugs on the footpath down there.
- Here? - Yes.
And we were wondering if we could borrow the room facing the road for a while,
so we can sit there for a bit and then observe, keep an eye on them.
In my living room?
Yeah, that's...
But I've never seen anyone selling any drugs here. Not at all.
Yeah, they're... Well...
Oh, they're very discreet, so they can be difficult to spot.
Yeah.
[presenter on TV] Hungry house dogs are closing in on their prey.
- [dog barks] - [presenter continues, indistinct]
[vehicle approaching]
I don't think the kidnappers are watching us.
Why should they care about us?
They have Anne-Elisabeth.
[sighs]
[Eva] Look at this.
Size 11?
DAY 4
[daughter crying] No!
I don't think the police know any more than we do.
[crying continues]
- [knocking on glass] - [Paul] Jorunn.
CCTV from the Help Centre.
At nine in the morning, right before Lisbeth disappears.
Look here. It's a bit hard to spot.
- There. You see it? - No, where?
Hang on. I'll zoom in. There.
Look now.
There. A car on a path, behind the house.
I can try and make it a bit sharper.
Look now.
They're smart. And they're way ahead of us.
They planned this meticulously.
[birds chirping, squawking]
What if they took the 170 towards Sweden?
So that they could avoid the tolls.
Yeah, so the CCTV footage won't be any good.
[typing]
Okay, we're outside Hagen's workplace on October 31st.
And then, 24 minutes later, at eight o'clock, there's one more.
[Michael] They're spying on Tom.
Jorunn, we have to share these images.
We can't have this discussion every single fucking time, Michael.
Someone knows who they are.
He looks Eastern European by the way that he walks.
- [scoffs] A bit racist, isn't it? - [scoffs]
Tom Hagen talked about an Eastern European.
Maybe you could talk to your contact, couldn't you?
- From that Baltic gang. - [sighs]
Yeah, he's too scared to be an informant.
Since we couldn't get a conviction on that robbery last year.
- Try him again. - [sighs]
[chattering]
What's up with Darius?
- [informant] Darius? - Yeah.
I don't know.
- You don't know? - No.
You know the police lawyers are looking into your case again?
That underage girl. How old was she? Fifteen?
Fuck!
We were together. Okay?
I hear she's the daughter of family friends.
I can try talking to the police lawyers,
but I still think they want to look at your case.
- Darius isn't in Norway. - And?
- He's serving time in Kaunas. - Hey!
Don't fuck with me, all right?
I won't.
[Michael] Darius Petrauskas is serving 13 months
for a violent crime in Lithuania.
- [click] - But he rents a house in Rælingen.
And they've blocked all the windows.
They're hiding someone there.
He comes every day with two bags of shopping.
More than enough food for one.
Where is it?
Not too far from Sloraveien.
How fast can we strike?
I can get a warrant approved today.
[phone pings]
Okay, great.
DAD: I CAN'T FIND MY SNEAKERS. DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE?
- [engine shuts off] - [owl hoots]
[commander] Ready to move in on the target.
[officer 1] Come on! Get out!
- [officer 2] This is the police! - [officer 3] He's in there! Go!
[person] I'm innocent, get off me! No! Ow! [grunting]
Get up! Hands behind your back! Check the other rooms!
- Police! Stand still! - No one in here! All clear!
Check through there now!
Ready! Go!
- Police! - Freeze!
- [person] What's going on? - Up against the wall!
- You're under arrest! - [grunts]
[officer] Suspect has been restrained.
One person apprehended!
[handcuffs rattling]
[officer on radio] No signs of the missing person.
[commander] She's not here.
[beeping]
[camera operator] And go.
I'm thinking it might be feasible that Anne-Elisabeth left voluntarily
and that, um...
I don't know. Maybe she had enough.
She felt worthless.
Yeah, maybe she wrote that ransom note herself
hoping someone in the family will understand that.
And maybe she wanted a new life.
Perhaps she had a...
Yeah, I, um, I think she had some help.
Like a boyfriend or a lover.
And they travelled far away.
I think... If she comes back, she'll probably pretend
that she can't remember anything that's happened.
[beep]
[Jorunn] Unfortunately, the kidnappers haven't contacted you like we'd hoped.
But it's important that we get in touch with the kidnappers as soon as we can.
Anders here is a crypto expert from Kripos,
and will tell you how the kidnappers want to communicate.
Right. They've put in place a special system here
where tiny transfers of Bitcoin are connected to specific messages.
These messages are predetermined.
You cannot add or subtract any words at all.
For example, "0.001 Bitcoin" means that "I confirm I will pay",
while "0.004 Bitcoin" means, "I have trouble. Need more time".
The kidnappers want to communicate via Bitcoin,
but they're demanding that their ransom money
be paid in a cryptocurrency called Monero.
Monero is constructed so that it is impossible to identify
both sender and recipient.
Monero is a relatively small cryptocurrency,
so it will take time to get hold of such a large sum.
How much time?
At least two months.
Two months? [scoffs]
How?
We don't have that much time.
May I just... And excuse the language...
That it's fucking bizarre the kidnappers have chosen this form of payment.
So you think these people want to keep Mum for several months?
I think we have to communicate.
Pay the ransom you say?
No, we have to communicate,
and that happens through these Bitcoin payments Anders told you about.
[whispering, indistinct]
- Right. Do we agree? - Yeah, yeah.
We have no wish to communicate via cryptocurrency.
- Are you serious? - Yes.
No one in our family knows anything about this stuff, so if we, uh,
begin to communicate in this way,
I think we'll raise suspicions from the other party
that we're receiving help from you guys and talking to you.
Not necessarily.
The kidnappers have offered a way to contact you
and they've given instructions to you.
We must start a dialogue imminently.
Right, but we still have to take time to figure out the right way.
Yep, then you risk that there'll be no communication at all.
We will not communicate via cryptocurrency.
That will force the opposition to communicate in a different way.
[daughter] The people who planned this know who Dad is.
They know he doesn't negotiate.
They will have to come to us.
Okay.
[Holger] We won't advance the investigation
by walking around here and pretending we're a married couple.
We have to consider if we want to keep this case secret for much longer.
Don't become a pawn in their game.
What do you mean?
I'm not some pet who'll roll over for the people at the top of the system.
Your bosses are fucking terrified
of doing anything that might cause harm to our department,
but you've got to take the lead.
And what do you mean by that?
[sighs] Go to Tommy.
You have to tell him to go and talk to the press,
so that we can do our job.
- He trusts you. - [dog whimpers]
Time's running out.
[whimpering continues]
[Anders] Yeah.
- Hey. - Hi.
[door closes]
Let's talk to the kidnappers.
[typing]
- Is the family informed? - No.
But how do we explain that?
Call it an error.
If I have to take the stand in court, I can't defend that kind of error.
There was a mistake.
[sighs]
Have they replied?
No, they haven't answered.
What kind of message?
"We're sending Monero within seven days".
- You'll update me? - Yep.
DAY 14
- [beeping] - [investigator] I can't believe it!
- [beeping continues] - What's that? Is something happening?
Hang on. We'll have to get Jorunn.
Jorunn, you're gonna want to come and see this.
In the message we promised that the family would transfer the money within a week.
[clicks tongue] And now, after eight days, we have an answer.
And what have they said?
"Not much time. Faster, or she is dead".
- Right. Then can you trace them? - No.
Well, you really have to find a way to be able to break the fucking blockchain.
[no audible dialogue]
[chattering]
- [Jorunn] Hi. - [Anders] Hi.
- Anything new? - Uh, yeah. We have a trace.
This is the, uh, IP address used to open the accounts for, uh,
transferring the ransom.
Ole Henrik Golf.
They found his telephone number, occupation, and everything.
[typing]
- Did you speak to Haris? - Yeah.
We asked for communications surveillance on him.
[rain pattering]
I've got something to show you.
See here, we found traces of Anne-Elisabeth's blood on the steps.
Is there more?
I couldn't say. For sure they've attempted to clean it up.
But why would they clean up the blood but not the drag marks?
I just give you the facts and hope that you find out.
[sighs]
[turn indicator clicking]
- [Jorunn] We can't wait any longer. - Yeah.
[Michael] Do you know about any of their crypto stock accounts?
No, absolutely not.
But it's your identity that's been used to set them up.
Hmm. I can't explain that actually.
- Have you ever lost your passport? - Uh, no. No, no...
I mean, I travel a lot,
and I give over my passport when I check into hotels.
That's the only thing I can think of.
[chattering]
Hi, Paul.
- Hi. - Hey, did you find anything?
Yeah, his identity was last sold in an ID bundle on June 7th.
Who bought it?
A lot of people.
No one uses their real name on the dark web, so I can't find out who.
Okay, so he's telling the truth.
It seems that way.
It definitely be would be a stupid move to sell your passport
and attract attention just before you kidnap someone.
[sighs]
How are the shoes?
They're really comfortable.
Oh, that's good.
- Dad. - [grunts]
- You have to get in the other side. - No, I can drive. Give me the keys.
Don't you remember that I'm driving?
[tyres squealing]
- [car crashes] - [gasps]
[bubbling]
[young Jorunn] Mum?
Dad, you have to help Mum! Dad!
[no audible dialogue]
[camera shutter clicks]
It's been almost six weeks.
And apart from you guys sending an incorrect message,
what exactly have you found out?
Well, we've done an extensive forensic examination of the ransom note,
and it's most likely that... that the letter paper is the same type
that's sold in shops like Clas Ohlson, here in Romerike.
Regarding the footprints we lifted from the... from the crime scene,
we have discovered that they come from the brand of Sprox shoes.
No one in the family has them.
In the summons for this meeting,
you talked about having, uh, new information for my client
on the communication with the kidnappers.
Yeah, we have something.
Kripos has finally found a way to write directly into the blockchain, so
now we are able to communicate more freely with the kidnappers.
So we suggest that you send them a demand as soon as possible
for proof of life, okay?
What kind of proof of life are you thinking about?
"Cee face ae".
This means that you're asking the kidnappers
to show Anne-Elisabeth's face.
For example,
her picture and today's newspaper.
So, you think that my mum is still alive? [whimpers]
We won't give up until we find her.
DAY 46
[knocking]
- Jorunn? - Mm-hmm?
Do you know why the press are calling about Anne-Elisabeth Hagen?
Someone from the Daily News called for her.
- Her number's been redirected. - Okay.
[sighs] Fuck.
Hi, Tommy?
Could I have a word?
Yeah.
Two minutes.
A journalist has called Anne-Elisabeth's number.
If they start writing about this now...
the press will have to come in.
Okay.
So you won't let us do our job?
We're not in a position to deny you anything.
We're just asking that you have faith in our strategy.
You're asking us to trust you, but you don't want us to report anything.
We can't say any more.
Our priority is Anne-Elisabeth Hagen's safety.
So if this is a kidnapping and the motive is financial,
what are you doing to protect wealthy people from similar crimes?
Well, I can only say that our focus is on saving Anne-Elisabeth Hagen's life.
Therefore we are not doing anything reckless that might put it in danger.
I guess it's natural to assume that, um,
the kidnappers want a quick resolution to this.
I just mean that, what makes you so sure it's a kidnapping?
We know... We know that
because the family is in dialogue with the kidnappers for her release.
Excuse me. Sorry. Can I have a few words, off the record?
Not until we have something.
I was just wondering if you'd looked at other theories.
So you haven't explored other avenues?
- [camera operator] Are you ready? - [beeping]
In winter 2020, they opened the world's largest facility for indoor skiing.
Snø, at Lørenskog.
[chuckles]
Someone thought we haven't got enough natural ski slopes in this country.
But they built it just four and a half minutes away from the house at Sloraveien.
And it seems that-that Tom Hagen was involved in the building
of that awful ski facility.
Monstrosity.
It is quite possible to drive there and return
without leaving a single trace or any kind of mark.
And when Anne-Elisabeth vanished,
at that time they were putting down the concrete there,
- inside the building. - [beep]
[birds chirping]
He's coming.
Hey, did you talk to Lisbeth's best friend?
[Michael] Yeah.
She spent a lot of time comforting Lisbeth because the marriage was so volatile.
Volatile?
Mm-hmm.
You mean, like, violent?
No, she didn't say that.
What did she say?
Well, she had to submit to Tom's every wish.
And that she wanted to leave.
Yeah, her friend said that she couldn't afford to live on her own.
According to the prenup, she wouldn't get anything.
What if Tom's behind it?
What if he's tricked us?
No.
- It can't be that. - How can you be sure, Jorunn?
Because you want to find her alive?
[Michael sighs]
POLICE
- [Jorunn] Hello. - Hi. Look what we found.
- What is it? - It's from Anne-Elisabeth's PC.
[Haris] It's just that IKEA gingerbread dough.
[Jorunn] Hello.
- Hi. - [Michael] Hi.
Right, it's been eight weeks since Anne-Elisabeth Hagen disappeared.
What do we actually know about the kidnappers?
We have to assume that they never planned to give her up.
Then why ask for a ransom?
To confuse us.
To mislead the police, you mean?
What's your theory on that?
[sighs] The whole chaos with the crypto payment.
Every time we get in touch with them, their response is notably slow.
It's almost like they don't want any money.
Jorunn, do you believe that?
Um...
The browser log of Anne-Elisabeth shows that she's looked up divorce.
- [Tommy] From when? - Last year.
So it's possible this never was a kidnapping...
but a homicide.
[exhales deeply] What do you suggest we do now?
I think we should end the undercover investigation
and go public.
Before all of the information is lost.
[sighs]
Are you certain?
Yeah.