The millionaire husband of a Norwegian woman thought to have been abducted and held for an £8million ransom has been arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Tom Hagen, 70, estimated to be worth £156million, was arrested on his way to work on Tuesday morning, in the latest twist to a case that has kept the country on tenterhooks.
The real estate investor and electric company owner is accused of murdering his wife Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, then 68, when she vanished from her home in October 2018.
Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen (left) is married to businessman Tom Hagen (right). Norway’s 172nd richest man has now been arrested for her murder
Officers initially believed she was kidnapped after a note was found at their home in Lorenskog, east of Oslo, saying she would be killed if a ransom worth the equivalent of £8 million wasn’t paid.
The pair had married for 49 years when she vanished. Police found signs of a struggle that suggested she had been taken away by force.
But 18 months after Mrs Hagen disappeared, police lawyer Aase Kjustad Eriksson told a news conference: ‘Police have come to a point where it has reason to suspect Tom Hagen of murder or conspiracy for murder.’
Police Inspector Tommy Broeske told the same news conference: ‘There was no kidnapping, no real negotiating counterpart or real negotiations. There are indications of a will to sidetrack (investigators).
‘As other hypotheses have been weakened, suspicions against Tom Hagen have gradually been strengthened.’
Norwegian police have arrested Tom Hagen on charges of ‘murder or complicity in the murder’ of his wife Anne-Elisabeth (above)
Police block off the residence of the Hagen couple after Anne-Elisabeth Hagen’s husband Tom Hagen was arrested in a police action in Lorenskog, Norway
Policemen search Tom Hagen’s workplace in the Futurum building in Lorenskog near Oslo, Norway
Police officers re-examine the couple’s home in Lorenskog, Norway. The public broadcaster NRK said police began investigating Hagen in secret last summer
Photographs show investigators searching Hagen’s home and work building after his arrest was made.
Local media NRK said that police seized several cardboard boxes of material from his workplace, the Futurum building on Rasta.
The public broadcaster also said police began investigating Hagen in secret last summer.
Hagen’s lawyer Svein Holden told local media his client had nothing to do with Anne-Elisabeth’s disappearance.
Prosecutor Aase Kjustad Eriksson said authorities would seek Wednesday to have Hagen held for four weeks in pre-trial custody and that more arrests were possible.
Family lawyer Svein Holden arrives at the police station at Lillestrom near Oslo, Norway, after Mr Hagen husband was arrested
Investigators can be seen above at Mr Hagen’s home in Oslo. Police had initially kept the case secret so that media attention would not detract from their efforts to find her. They eventually decided to go public in the hope that this would bring more leads
The case has gripped Norway since police announced Mrs Hagen’s disappearance in January 2019.
Police had initially kept the case secret so that media attention would not detract from their efforts to find her. They eventually decided to go public in the hope that this would bring more leads.
At the time, police released CCTV of a man seen walking outside Hagen’s office on the day his wife went missing.
They released two surveillance videos taken from outside the businessman’s office on the day Falkevik Hagen disappeared, asking three people seen in the footage to get in touch.
It was speculated that she could have been attacked when raiders snatched her from the couple’s bathroom at their house, which is surrounded by woodland.
Falkevik Hagen disppeared from her family home in Lorenskog, east of Oslo and 31 miles from the Swedish border, on October 31 2018
Just a week after the police went public, the alleged kidnappers contacted the family via a digital platform, their family lawyer, said at the time.
‘The family has not seen proof that Anne-Elisabeth is alive nor that the people who claim to be in control of Anne-Elisabeth actually do have her now,’ Holden said then.
But eight months after her disappearance and with no leads to pursue, chief police investigator Tommy Broeske said detectives had changed their ‘main hypothesis’ about the case.
Norwegian police arrested Tom Hagen on charges of ‘murder or complicity in the murder’ of his wife Anne-Elisabeth Hagen on 28 April 2020, as revealed in a press conference by Tommy Broeske (above)
At the time, he said: ‘The most likely is that she has been exposed to a serious crime but we consider it less likely that we are facing abduction with an economic motive.
‘The main hypothesis has been changed to that she has been killed.’
He added at the time that police had no motive for the alleged murder.
Kidnappings and murders are incredibly rare in Norway, which prides itself on low crime rates.
Being held under suspicion of a crime is a legal status that allows police to make an arrest and for a suspect to get a lawyer.
Formal charges, if brought, come much later in the legal process, sometimes only weeks before a court case begins.