This year’s best mystery/true crime podcast is, without question, Death in Ice Valley. The show is an investigation into the Isdal woman mystery (if you don’t know what it is, read on below). The show is a breath of fresh air in a “podosphere” filled with true crime shows featuring two people chatting and giggling among themselves: Death in Ice Valley features interviews, excursions into the field, and discussions with cops, locals, and other people who were actually involved in the events when they happened.
Death in Ice Valley is a collaboration between the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK and BBC World Service. It is hosted by Marit Higraff and Neil McCarthy.
Here is my interview with Marit Higraff, Norwegian investigative journalist and co-host of the podcast.
Thank you, Marit, for taking the time to talk to Books, Bullets and Bad Omens!
Who are you? Tell us a bit about yourself!
I am an investigative journalist and reporter working for NRK, Norways public broadcaster. I have been working as a tv-reporter in different departments and for different programs in NRK for many years – investigative journalism is my special field. So originally, tv-journalist, lately also online and audio đ
I am from the northern part of Norway – the land of the midnight sun – but have lived in Oslo since I started studying. Also lived 8 years in Salzburg, Austria.
I have a 15 year-old-daughter, Hannah.
(Marit Higraff. Photo: Sigrid Winther)
In your own words, what is the “Isdal Woman”? What does that term refer to?
In November 1970 a woman was found dead and severely burned in a desolate valley outside of Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway.
Objects were laid out around the body, and couple of days later, the police found her two suitcases at Bergen railway station – containing lots of curious clues, like sophisticated clothes, a wig, and glasses without prescription. The most significant thing common for the suitcases and the things found at the scene: there was nothing to identify who the woman was. The labels had been cut off her clothes, and scratched off the items.
The case immediately hit the headlines in Norway. It was a mystery: who was she – and what happened to her? The newspapers called her the Isdal Woman, because of the name of the remote valley where the body was found, called “Isdalen” in Norwegian, or “Ice Valley” in English.
The police investigated intensively for some weeks, and found that the woman had been traveling a lot, and with different fake identities. But then suddenly shut down the investigation – concluding with most likely suicide. A conclusion most doubted – then, and now. Without finding her identity..
Speculation went high that she could have been a spy, as this happened in the middle of the Cold War.
And the speculations have been going on, for almost 50 years. Still today, nobody knows who this woman was, what she was doing in Norway, and how and why she died in that remote valley.
(police photo of the body of the Isdal woman as it was found that day. Photo: Bergen Police Archives)
When did you first hear of this case? Were you hooked immediately?
I was an early newspaper and magazine reader as a child, and I remember reading about the case. It has been in the media every know and then.
When I was asked to have a look at it a couple of years ago, it immediately triggered my curiosity and investigative tentacles. Then, when reading thousands of files, I saw the potential of the case – riddle upon riddle – and the possibility of starting a whole new investigation, based on modern methods and technology.
Would you say the Isdal woman is the number 1 most well-known unsolved mystery in Norway? Are there other mystery cases that “compete” with the Isdal woman for that title?
Well, there are some other cases – but since we started publishing our investigation 1,5 year ago this case has got very well known in Norway. Also to the younger generations. And I guess itâs the one case with the most spectacular riddles and facts.
Is there a kind of unofficial prevailing consensus in Norway regarding the woman’s identity? In other words, what is the most popular theory as to who she was and why she ended up the way she did?
There have been a lot of theories and speculations about who she was and what she was doing in Norway. During almost 50 years one of the most discussed theories has been that she was some kind of an intelligence agent or spy, because of the use of several fake identities, the content in her suitcases, and her movements.
The reason we’re discussing this case is because you are the co-host of a podcast I consider the best of 2018, Death in Ice Valley, which deals with the Isdal woman. Can you tell us about the podcast? How did it come about, how are you approaching the case, etc.
Thanks a lot for your opinion on âDeath in Ice Valleyâ! I really appreciate that.
Me and my colleagues in the NRK-team started working on this case two years ago, and have been publishing our steps in the investigation as an online-project since autumn 2016. We were surprised to get attention abroad, as we published only in Norwegian. But, we discovered that people were following us internationally, using Google translate.
Some journalists from international media also took contact, and made stories about our investigation and the project. And then, one year ago, we were contacted by the podcast editor of the BBC World Service, Jon Manel. He saw the potential of the case, and wanted to make the investigation into a podcast-series for a world audience, in collaboration with us. In autumn 2017 me and my colleague Neil McCarthy from the BBC started the work with the podcast. Simultaneously we continued our ongoing investigation into the case.
(Marit and co-host Neil McCarthy interview a police officer at the exact spot where the Isdal woman was found. Photo: Anette Berentsen / NRK)
One reason I love Death in Ice Valley (besides the intriguing case it deals with) is because, rather than just sitting in a studio and chit-chatting about an old case amongst yourselves, you actually talk to people who were involved in the Isdal woman incident: cops, witnesses, et cetera. How did you go about finding these people? Was it hard to convince them to discuss the case with you?
I am glad you say that. Because, to us it was important that we wanted to take the listeners with us out in the field. To experience places, to meet people. We wanted to be as little studio based as possible – the opposite of most podcasts. We wanted to give the audience a great listening experience, in addition to the great story, and the ongoing investigation.
To find still living witnesses, police and so, has been a challenge in this project. It all happened in 1970, so most of the witnesses are dead – senior officers in the police and so. While reading thousands of police files and documents, we thoroughly registered interesting names of different witnesses. And then had to search in the registers, if they live or are dead. Some got married, changed names, were difficult to find.
Some were really hard to find.
We ended up with a list of rather few possible interviewees still alive. I interviewed many of them for the âNorwegianâ part of the project, but we expanded for the podcast, and I contacted more of them. These are mostly quite old people, and it was hard to convince them to try to speak English for a world audience. But most of them participated.
Without spoiling anything for listeners, tell us, we’re you able to dig up anything surprising in your investigation for the podcast?
Yes, definitely! We continued our ongoing investigation along the production – and it was a challenge(and long days!) to research and produce at the same time. But we found some interesting new leads along the way.
And, first of all: we knew that we need attention âout thereâ. This woman was not Norwegian, we know that. So, our hope was and still is, that someone out there might know something. The goal was to reach out to that person or those persons who might recognize something about the story: about an aunt, a neighbor, a woman who disappeared in 1970…
And we have gotten some very interesting leads to follow up on, from listeners.
What are you currently working on? A new podcast series, perhaps..?
Currently I am spending the summer in the Caribbean, resting and learning Spanishđ It is a good and necessary break, after an extremely intensive year at work.
Then, after summer, there are some very interesting leads to follow up on, as said. The team will go on investigating this case, and if we get any further – which I still strongly believe – we might come back with another podcast series, Death in Ice Valley season 2..đ
Where can people keep up with your work?
Everything published in our project about the Isdal Woman – articles, videos, timeline – can be found at nrk.no/isdal
Itâs in Norwegian though.
Some main articles are translated; they can be found here nrk.no/isdal.en
The podcast âDeath in Ice Valleyâ can be found on iTunes and everywhere else you find podcasts.
My investigative work from earlier on can be found by googling me.
Is there anything you’d like to add that I didn’t ask about?
Yes.
To me, as an idealistic investigative journalist, always driven by the motivation that I want to make life better for people, want to reveal the errors and gaps in the society, and so on.. I had to ask myself many times in this project: “Why? Why am I spending years of my life – and far too many working hours – on this case? Itâs a woman found dead. A concluded suicide.”
And every time I come to the same answer: because itâs a life. A human being. A family that didnât get to know about their loved one.
I want to give her back what she lost: a name. A dignity. And perhaps justice – if someone did that to her.
And, if possible – I want to bring her home, where she belongs.
FInally, my standard questions.
Your top 3 books?
When I have time, I prefer to read crime – I’ll answer with some favorite authors:
Swedish Jan Guillou, and the Norwegian Jo Nesbø. I also love reading John Irving.And also historical books that give me new knowledge and reveal new truths, like the unknown story of Norwegians fighting âon the wrong sideâ during WW2, by Eirik Veum.
Your top 3 films?
Films, the same – crime, and also romantic films;
– The Bridges of Madison County
– Titanic
– BraveheartAnd some more faves, all of them old…đ
What model phone do you use?
iPhone 7
