The Norwegian expert: "Not allowed to be guided by understanding thinkers"

On the last of October 2018, Anne-Elisabeth Hagen was reported kidnapped. Only 18 months later her husband, billionaire Tom Hagen, was arrested on suspicion of murder or assisting in the murder of his wife.

- It is surprising that it will take a year and a half to come to this conclusion. In this type of case, it is the spouse who has done it, should be one of the first hypotheses to work with, says Leif GW Persson to Norwegian VG.

The statement received Dr. Ivar Fahsing, a longtime homicide investigator and researcher at the Norwegian Police College, to respond.

"Once again, the phenomenon GW is trying to bluff for expertise on things he doesn't understand," he writes on his Facebook page.

Fahsing has been involved in the Hagen case as counsel and has written dozens of textbooks on police investigations.

According to him, the first suspect in this type of case is always the spouse.

- The fact that this has taken time is the result of a particularly challenging and thorough investigation where one actively tries to find out if it can be any other way than the typical. It indicates that you have taken it seriously and have not been guided by the suspicion that prevails among the people and understanding people.

- Contrary to what Leif GW Persson says, this is a consequence of a thorough methodology, but it seems that he completely skips the very fact that one must have clear evidence before arresting someone in such a serious case.

He says the police have worked methodically to exclude all other explanations before the arrest.

- What would it look like, what signal would it send out in a contemporary, if a man reports his wife kidnapped, one of the richest men in Norway, and the police immediately seize him? Then no one would have called the police after that, he says.

On Wednesday, Tom Hagen was arrested on suspicion of murder or assisting in the murder of his wife - a decision he is now appealing.

The investigation has so far required large police resources and is a unique case in Norwegian criminal history. Not least because it was first investigated as a kidnapping.

To illustrate why it has taken so long for the arrest of Tom Hagen, Ivar Fahsing mentions the footprints found in the couple's house in connection with the alleged kidnapping.

- You have this footprint, and you have to rule out that there can be no other footprint than Tom Hagens. First, we need to track down all the 1,500 people who may have bought this shoe, and then all of them must be checked for motives and alibi. The same goes for all other tracks. Then you understand that this is extensive.