Pod Insights Park Predators The Girls About this episode When two young girls vanish while out for an evening swim in May 2000, police in a southern Norwegian city scramble to find them. As the truth behind what happened to them begins to surface, one man’s story is pitted against the other's.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hi park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the story I'm going to share with you today is one that's filled with a lot of twists and turns, perhaps as many ups and downs as the hilly landscape it took place in. As a mother to a young child, it's one of those stories that genuinely broke my heart and is still a case I find myself thinking about in quiet moments. It happened in Norway's Banahaya Recreation Area in the city of Christiansen 25 years ago. According to VisitNorway.com, this area is a space that's easily accessible from nearby residential neighborhoods and known for being a great place to swim, fish, and walk trails.
0:41 Speaker 00 Banahaya consists of a three-mile loop that AllTrails.com estimates takes the average person a little over an hour to finish. I'll go ahead and tell you upfront, there are a lot of Norwegian names and pronunciations in this episode that I've tried my very best to deliver correctly. But I'm a native English speaker, so there may be some names or locations I don't say perfectly. That's just the reality of taking on a case in a nation that's foreign to me. But I didn't want that to stop me, because this story is one that is vitally important for people everywhere to know about. This is Park Predators.
1:59 Speaker 00 Around 7:30 PM on Friday, May 19, 2000, Eustein Sastrunon was sitting at his home in the grim borough of Christiansen, Norway, watching the clock. With each passing minute, he was growing more and more worried. His eight-year-old daughter, Stina Sophia, and her friend, 10-year-old Lena Pelson, were overdue from an evening swim in Banahaya Recreation Area.
2:24 Speaker 00 About an hour earlier, around 6:30 PM, the girls had left the house together to go to Lake Number Three in the park, which was only a few minutes away from Grimm. And Eustine thought it was unusual for them to have taken so long to get to the lake, swim, and then return. So unsure what was going on, he did what I imagine most dads would do in this situation. He got on his bicycle and rode the trail the girls could have taken to get into Bana Haya. He cycled all the way to the jetty at Lake Number Three, which is where his daughter and her friend had asked to go. But when he arrived, the area was empty. No one was around, and he definitely didn't see the girls swimming in the lake. But he didn't go into full-blown panic mode right away.
3:07 Speaker 00 He figured maybe Steena Sophia and Lena had just taken another route home, which is why he hadn't come across them on his way into the park. As he biked back to Grimm, he hoped that they might have taken another route home, but, once again, he didn't find them. When he returned to his neighborhood, he continued to ride around looking for them, and even went over to another neighboring park called Ravna Dolan. But he was met with the same results. The girls were nowhere to be found. At that point, it was 10:10 PM, and the sun had already set, so Eustine decided enough was enough. And he alerted the Christian Sun Police about what was going on. According to the available source material, it was at this time he officially reported the girls missing.
3:52 Speaker 00 When investigators filled out the missing persons reports, they relied on Eustine to give them information about the girls' last movements. He explained that he'd given Steena Sophia and Lena permission to go swimming alone, and when they departed his house around 6:30 PM, they'd been carrying their swimsuits, towels, and a bottle of fizzy drink in a plastic grocery bag. According to the docu-series, "The Bana Haya Killings", and additional reporting by Norwegian news outlets, Lena had made plans to sleep over with Steena Sophia Friday night while her father, who she was visiting for a few days, was out of town. You see, Steena Sophia and Lena's parents were both divorced and remarried, and so the two of them being in Grimm at their dad's homes that particular weekend
4:36 Speaker 00 was a result of the custody agreement their parents had worked out. Anyway, the reality that two young girls had gone missing in such a popular recreation area was concerning to the police. So they wasted no time organizing a formal search. And by the next morning, Saturday, May 20th, helicopters, scent dogs, and more than 100 volunteers from the Red Cross and local communities descended on Bana Haya to look for the girls. Law enforcement set up a command center in a parking lot next to a pond in the park, and from there, they dispatched various search crews to comb the landscape for any sign of Lena and Stina Sofia. In order to cover as much ground as possible, volunteers split up into multiple groups,
5:19 Speaker 00 and each one focused on a different area of the park. The main grids of interest were near lake number three, portions of neighboring Ravna Dolan Park, and another adjacent recreation space called Bimarka. These were all woodland areas that investigators suspected the girls might have gotten lost in. And I say gotten lost because that's genuinely the mindset law enforcement had during that first day of searching. Christian Sun's police chief of staff told reporters that the department was simply treating the case as a missing persons investigation at that time. Investigators had found nothing that indicated the girls had fallen victim to a crime. So basically, until the police had more information or evidence to go off of, they
6:02 Speaker 00 had to consider all possible scenarios. And for whatever reason, at the top of their theory list was the optimistic notion that the girls had simply gotten lost. As the search continued, volunteers walked in lines several meters away from one another and scoured the landscape for any trace of the girls. If they found something of interest, they were instructed to holler out the word "here." But unfortunately, that didn't happen. As Saturday dragged on, teams were assigned to look in sections of the forest west of the swimming area that Lena and Stina Sofia were supposed to have visited. But again, they came up empty-handed. Seemingly, even the dogs that were being used to try and locate the girls hadn't picked up their scents.
6:46 Speaker 00 As Saturday came to a close, things were looking bleak. It had been more than 24 hours since the girls vanished, but search crews refused to give up. They continued to work throughout the night, and law enforcement held a press conference that evening and released photos of both girls to the public in an attempt to drum up leads that might explain where they were. On Sunday morning, May 21st, with still no sign of them, journalists and some volunteers began to suspect that something untoward had happened. One searcher named Stein Borgerson told producers for the Bana Haya killings docu-series that he felt compelled to travel to Christiansend and help out with the search. He didn't live in town, but he was the regional head of a youth organization known as The
7:29 Speaker 00 Home Guard, which trained boys and girls ages 16 to 21 how to survive in the outdoors and how to handle weapons safely. Stein was kind of a great asset to bring on in the search effort because he had survivalist and tracking skills that not everyone involved specialized in. When he came on board on Sunday, he brought a team of folks with him to Bana Haya and was genuinely hoping to make a difference in the search. But for the first few hours of the day, there wasn't much progress. Divers searched Lake Number Three just in case Lena and Stino Sophia had ended up there, but frustratingly, they didn't find anything. Later that day, a 17-year-old volunteer named Annette reported to the search's command
8:11 Speaker 00 center that a male volunteer she'd spoken with said he'd found a piece of clothing off a nearby trail. Administrators instructed Annette and the other searcher to go back to the spot and follow up. When they did, they realized it was in a low-lying area near the base of a stone retention wall located roughly 100 or 200 meters off the trail. In order to thoroughly search it, Annette and her companion had to get down on their knees.
8:37 Speaker 00 As they started pulling out multiple pieces of clothing, they realized that the items had clearly been intentionally put there, either hidden or just obscured from plain view. The items included a bikini bottom, a white cap, a silver sandal, a top, a blue cap, a blue swimsuit, and a towel with a dolphin on it. As the pair removed each item, Annette noticed the stuff was covered in blood, which gave her a sinking feeling. Piece by piece, they placed the items inside a bag Annette had brought with her. And by 4:30 PM, she and the other searcher helping her had delivered everything to the command center. Not long after that, officials in charge of the search sent Stein Borgesen and his team to secure the spot where the stuff had been found.
9:22 Speaker 00 Christian Sun Police requested additional police dogs to come to the area to investigate further. But unfortunately, the animals weren't available at the moment. So Stein and his team basically just had to sit and wait it out. But it didn't take very long before Stein got bored of that and decided to walk around the site and do his own sweep for clues. As he walked around, he noticed that some of the vegetation near the spot seemed to be unnaturally broken. He observed a snapped twig on a large pine tree that felt off to him. What I gathered from reading and watching the source material is that to Stein, the twig just looked like it had been intentionally broken, not as if it had been snapped in a natural way.
10:05 Speaker 00 So I guess, him being the woodland expert he was, he just had a gut feeling that the broken twig seemed out of place. So he followed that hunch and continued to look around for more clues. A short distance away from the snapped twig, he saw what he believed was an unusual area of elevation on the ground, covered in vegetation. To him, the disturbed earth appeared to be man-made. And when he approached it and lifted up some branches, he discovered a gruesome sight that confirmed his worst suspicions. There, underneath all the debris, were the dead bodies of Lena and Stina Sofia.
10:47 Speaker 00 There's nothing quite like having pieces in your closet you love and count on for any occasion. Whether you're shopping for yourself or picking out gifts for loved ones, Quince is the perfect place to find versatile essentials this holiday season. Quince makes elevated everyday essentials using luxury materials like Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, and premium stretch denim. Beyond apparel, they offer hotel-quality bedding, leather bags, and five-star luggage. I personally have several of their white Turkish cotton non-slip bath rugs in our master bathroom as we speak. In my most recent order, though, I went all in on the fall-winter clothing collection. I got this amazing washable stretch silk slip dress that honestly is going to be my go-to for pretty much anywhere.
11:31 Speaker 00 Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Park Predators. It's the best way to support the show.
11:53 Speaker 01 My name's Jack Wagner, host of Other World, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained.
12:00 Speaker 02 I have no idea how I got there.
12:02 Speaker 03 I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this.
12:05 Speaker 04 It felt like electric stars on fire.
12:07 Speaker 01 I started Other World to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories, and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Other World now for free wherever you get your podcasts.
12:30 Speaker 00 A few hours after the discovery of the girls' bodies, the Christian Sun Police held a press conference and delivered the heartbreaking news to the media. The investigators' missing persons case had officially become a homicide investigation.
12:44 Speaker 00 Back at the crime scene, detectives called in a specialized forensic unit from the National Criminal Investigation Service, also known as NCIS, to help process the scene and remove the girls' bodies. But there was a bit of a snag. That special forensic team wouldn't be able to get to Bana Haya until the following morning, Monday, May 22. So while everyone waited, Stein Borgerson, the outdoorsman who'd found the bodies, ordered 70 of his team members to keep watch over the burial site overnight to make sure no one disturbed the bodies or contaminated the crime scene. When Monday morning came around, teams were finally able to remove Lena and Steina Sofia's bodies from the park, and they transported them for autopsies.
13:28 Speaker 00 While investigators waited for those examinations to conclude, they got to work trying to understand the crime scene itself. But once again, they ran into some logistical challenges. You see, Sunday night into Monday morning, rainy weather had moved into the area. So in an attempt to preserve potential evidence, the police used an officer's personal tarp to cover the burial site where Steina Sofia and Lena had been hidden. I'd imagine that when that detail leaked to the press, journalists speculated that the tarp situation might not have been the best call by the police. You know, considering the fact that it had been used and was a personal possession of one of the officers. But used tarp or not, the NCIS team processed the area
14:13 Speaker 00 where the girls' bodies had been found. And it became evident right away that whoever had put them there made a concerted effort to conceal their bodies from view. The killer or killers had laid lots of twigs and vegetation over top of them, which folks at the scene believed would have taken some time to do. The location of the burial site was roughly 75 meters off the designated trail that ran alongside the west side of Lake Number Two, so not exactly close to Lake Number Three, which is where the girls were supposed to have been swimming. To me, that indicates that their attacker or attackers forced them to that location or got them there somehow. Because it was a spot they had not told Steina Sofia's father they were planning to go to. Anyway, a few meters away from where they'd been buried,
14:58 Speaker 00 investigators found another suspicious location in the forest. There was a large amount of blood on the ground there, which indicated to authorities that the murders and burial had occurred in separate locations. Investigators thoroughly collected physical evidence from all of these areas and even cut out a small section of the forest floor to examine later on for traces of hair or other potentially relevant debris. Meanwhile, the girls' autopsies revealed that they'd both been sexually assaulted and killed with a sharp object, like a knife. Stina Sofia had been stabbed once in the neck, and Lena had been stabbed three times, twice in the neck and once in the chest. The wound to her chest had sliced through her shirt, which meant she was clothed when
15:43 Speaker 00 she was attacked. Something else noteworthy about their clothing was that when Lena and Stina Sofia were discovered, they were wearing one another's trousers, a detail that I have to assume stuck out as odd to investigators. According to what a forensic consultant told producers of the Bana Haya killings docu-series, the girls wearing one another's trousers suggested that whoever had killed them possibly took the time to redress them after sexually assaulting them, but before killing them. And while doing that, their clothing had clearly gotten mixed up. This forensic consultant also believed that the wounds to both girls' necks were extremely similar and had likely come from the same sharp weapon, which begged the question: had
16:26 Speaker 00 the killer or killers taken the knife or sharp object with them, or could it still be in the park somewhere? Unfortunately, additional searches for it on Monday were unsuccessful because the forest's hilly terrain and numerous lakes made it very challenging for searchers to scour for such a small item. As crews continued to work, news about the murders began to circulate in Christiansen. And it didn't take long before the story blew up. People wanted to know everything about the police's investigation, who any potential suspects were, who the victims were, and so on. One journalist told producers of the Bana Haya killings docu-series that the city as a whole essentially went into a state of emergency because of what had happened.
17:10 Speaker 00 Parents told reporters that they were watching their children more closely after the crime, and they felt like the murders had completely shattered Christiansen's previous reputation as being a family-friendly place to live. The girls' deaths had a profound effect on other children and people in the city too, who were friends with or roughly the same age as Lena and Stina Sofia. Annette, the 17-year-old volunteer who'd first discovered what was believed to be the girls' bloody clothing and belongings, told the docu-series that she was horrified by the crime, and became afraid of the dark after it happened. She said that she didn't go back to Bana Haya for 20 years afterwards. The thought that there was some unknown child killer potentially walking amongst the citizens
17:53 Speaker 00 of Christian Sun scared a lot of people. Authorities were under tremendous pressure to make headway in the case. But despite what police relayed to the public about their progress to investigate the crime, there were some major errors in the investigation that happened during those first few days that opened them up to a lot of scrutiny. For example, six days after the murders, park employees emptying out trash bins in the forest discovered that none of the receptacles had been secured by law enforcement at any point after the crime. While making their rounds, these employees had unknowingly discovered a major piece of evidence just sitting in one of the bins. It was the plastic grocery bag that Lena and Stina Sofia had taken with them when they went swimming.
18:38 Speaker 00 According to what an investigator and lawyer told producers for the Bana Haya killings docu-series, it took another week after the park workers collected the trash bins for the police to actually go through them. So investigators were way behind the eight ball by the time they got their hands on the plastic grocery bag evidence. And just like the used tarp situation, some members of the press criticized the police for the trash bin mistake. But be that as it may, what's more important in the overall scheme of things is that authorities did eventually secure the grocery bag as evidence. They determined that it had been discarded in a bin near a football field on the northeast side of the park, next to a neighborhood of Christian Sun called Egg. The football field took roughly eight minutes to walk to from lake number three.
19:23 Speaker 00 So it was a feasible distance for the killer or killers to have traversed after the killings if they were the person who put the bag there. With the crime scene processed and the plastic bag in their possession, the police continued to try and find everyone who'd visited Bana Haya on the evening of the crime to see if anyone suspicious had been seen in the key areas of interest. They spoke with several witnesses who helped them narrow down the timeline of when the murders had taken place. One witness who'd been walking on a trail that led from Stina Sofia's neighborhood to Lake Number Three said that around 6:35 PM, they bumped into the girls as they made their way to the swimming hole. Authorities also interviewed two university students who said they'd been swimming at
20:05 Speaker 00 Lake Number Three around 6:35 PM, and they also remembered seeing Lena and Stina Sofia. The students told police that they'd left around 6:50 PM, and when they last saw the two girls, they were playing in the water by themselves. Another witness who came forward said they'd been out for a run and made a lap around Lake Number Three at around 7:05 PM. However, they didn't remember seeing anyone in the water at that time. Several witnesses who'd also been at Lake Number Three around 7 o'clock reported the same thing, that the girls were not in the water. So taking all of these statements into account, the police realized that whatever had happened to Lena and Stina Sofia had most likely occurred sometime between 6:50 PM and 7:05
20:49 Speaker 00 PM. As part of their investigation, they checked in with several known sex offenders in the city and canvassed an area of Christianson that was a known hangout for substance users. But no concrete suspects emerged. Authorities even looked into patients at a psychiatric hospital in the Egg neighborhood, but just like with the canvas of the registered sex offenders, no one surfaced as a viable suspect. Other efforts by the police to try and identify the perpetrator or perpetrators involved checking local ferry and air manifests and license plates on cars, as well as looking at surveillance footage, but it seemed like no matter how wide of a net they cast, nothing helped push the investigation forward.
21:30 Speaker 00 Detectives even obtained phone traffic data from the local telephone companies that serviced the region, but analyzing all of that data was going to take some time.
21:41 Speaker 00 While they waited, officers hit the streets hard and canvassed door-to-door in neighborhoods around the park that butted up to the forest. This included Grimm, where Stina Sophia and Lena departed from, as well as Egg, the neighborhood closest to the football field where the plastic grocery bag had been thrown away. A lot of residents in those neighborhoods gave police names of people they felt investigators should look at as potential suspects. But out of everyone on the list, two names emerged that authorities felt were worth taking a serious look at. They were 19-year-old Janhelga Andersson and 21-year-old Viggo Christensen. The two young men were close friends who were from Egg and had reputations for playing
22:23 Speaker 00 what residents referred to as "war games" in their neighborhood. At some point in the investigation, authorities had received an anonymous letter about them that stated, quote, "To the investigators of the child murders in Banahaya, we advise you to check out two youths in the Egg area who've been frightening local children for a long time. They're Viggo Christensen and Janhelga Andersson. They've been behaving strangely for some time. They play war games, climb trees, dress up as soldiers. I find this odd because they are adults." End quote. During door-to-door canvassing on May 22nd, three days into the investigation, authorities spoke with Viggo and Janhelga at their respective homes.
23:08 Speaker 00 Viggo's alibi for the evening of the crime was that he'd been home with his parents until around 10:00 p.m. He said they'd left to go for a walk around 10 o'clock and he'd stayed back to babysit his three-year-old nephew. At some point earlier in the evening, he remembered Janhelga had shown up to hang out, and when he was done babysitting his nephew, they'd sat outside in his backyard together until about 11:30 or 11:45 p.m. Janhelga's statements during police's door-to-door canvassing was similar to Viggo's. He said he'd gone over to Viggo's house around 8:00 p.m., but briefly went home to take a shower between 8:30 and 8:45, then returned and hung out with Viggo until just before midnight.
23:49 Speaker 00 Without much else to confront the young men with, investigators had to let their suspicions about them just sit for the time being. Authorities prioritized digging further into the young men's backgrounds, but they were also looking at other potential suspects and focused on developing a criminal profile of the offender. You know, to get a better idea of the type of individual who would be capable of carrying out such a violent crime. The results of the profiling work indicated that the crime had been committed by only one person, a male, who'd viewed Lena and Stina Sofia as victims of opportunity. Whoever the killer was, he was an ordinary individual who few people would suspect of committing such a heinous crime.
24:31 Speaker 00 What's interesting is that Jan Helga generally fit that characterization. He was a young man who didn't have any major criminal red flags in his background and was described as a shy, quiet, polite teenager who was an active member of the Home Guard Youth Division in Christiansen, which I mentioned earlier was that training program for young people who wanted to learn about weapons and survival skills. Vigo, on the other hand, was slightly older than Jan Helga, and he'd engaged in criminal behavior in the past, which had earned him a reputation of being a bit of a troublemaker. His brother confirmed for producers of the Banahaya killings docu-series that Vigo had done some bad things during his youth, but every time he was caught for his crimes or confronted with allegations,
25:15 Speaker 00 he'd admitted to whatever it was he'd done. Other source material I found stated that between 1994 and 1996, he sexually assaulted several minors while he was a minor himself. The source material states that he eventually confessed to those crimes and was convicted of those offenses. While investigators absorbed the results of the offender profile and compared it to Vigo and Jan Helga, trying to figure out if they could be involved, they received testing results for items of evidence that had been collected at the crime scene. Investigators learned that a single male pubic hair had been discovered on one of the victim's bodies. Curious as to who it belonged to, they sent it off for additional testing. But those results wouldn't come back for at least a few months.
26:01 Speaker 00 Meanwhile, on May 30th, 11 days after the crime, residents of Christiansen gathered for Lena and Stina Sofia's funerals. At a cathedral in town, Lena's casket was decorated with flowers and candles, and her father, Arne, gave a speech thanking everyone in attendance for sharing the pain that he and his ex-wife Clara were going through. He described their grief as difficult, but wanted to celebrate the good memories they'd made with their only daughter. He said, quote, "We are privileged to have experienced 10 good years with Lena. Today, I'm determined that she smiles where she is. Lena taught me and her mother gratitude. She could call her mother and say, 'How are you? I just wanted to hear your voice,' end quote."
26:45 Speaker 00 Arne's speech was followed by a statement from the mayor, with other family members laying wreaths close to her casket, and several of her classmates placing roses on her coffin. The next day, a memorial march was held inside the park in the girls' honor. More than 2,000 adults and children attended and walked on the trail from Grim to the swimming lake, where they left teddy bears and notes as they marched. Around that same time, police really began to look further into Vigo and Jan Helga, because additional tips had come in that seemed to point the finger right in their direction, particularly in Jan Helga's direction.
27:22 Speaker 00 According to the docu-series, "The Banahaya Killings", three witnesses had come forward shortly after the crime and said that they'd seen a suspicious-looking man lingering near one of the restroom facilities along Lake Number 3 between 9 and 10 o'clock on Thursday, May 18th, the night before Lena and Stina Sofia were killed. The first of these three witnesses described the suspicious man as squatting on the ground. The second witness said he was wearing a tracksuit and standing between the toilet facility in the woods, just staring at something in the landscape. The third witness was a woman, who told police that when she'd first seen the man, he'd initially frightened her. But that feeling quickly went away, because when she got closer to him, she'd recognized him as none other than Jan Helga Anderson,
28:07 Speaker 00 a teenage boy she was familiar with. She told police that she'd greeted Jan Helga by saying, "Hi", but he didn't really engage with her. So after she did another lap, she saw him again and asked him if he was still there, to which he responded, "Yes", and mentioned that he was just there waiting for someone to meet him. Additional reports of Jan Helga being in the park the night before the murders also surfaced during the course of police's investigation. One report came from the mother of a boy who was in the Home Guard Youth Division with Jan Helga. This woman told police that her son had been running in Banahaya and bumped into Jan Helga while he was sitting by a tree. Her son described Jan Helga as acting strangely in that he seemed like he was “about to
28:51 Speaker 00 lose it.” The 19-year-old declined an invitation to join his Home Guard buddy for a run, and when the two parted ways, he remained sitting alone by the tree. On June 4th, 16 days after the murders, the police asked Jan Helga and Vigo to come into the police station for questioning. The young men agreed to talk, but when they gave their statements, law enforcement began to notice a few differences between the stories they'd provided to police on May 22nd during the door-knock interviews and the version of events they were presently giving. For example, Vigo told police during his sit-down interview that he'd been at his house from 6 to 9 o'clock on Friday, May 19th. But in his first chat with police, he'd said he was home the entire night.
29:36 Speaker 00 So this deviation from his previous statement made authorities side-eye him. When given the chance to clarify if he'd been in Banahaya at all on May 19th, he told them he hadn't been. Jan Helga's story, the first time he'd been questioned, was that he'd started hanging out with Vigo around 8 o'clock on the evening of the crime. However, during his sit-down interview with police, he said he'd been at the entrance to Banahaya a few hours before going to Vigo's house. He said he'd been at the park because the Home Guard Youth Division usually met for a training run every Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. However, on Friday, May 19th, none of his buddies had shown up for the scheduled exercise, so he'd done it by himself.
30:18 Speaker 00 He told investigators that he'd run north in the park, past some fields and lakes, then returned via the same route and eventually ended at Vigo's house in Egg. Investigators weren't sure if the young men were being 100% honest with them, though, but without anything more incriminating to confront them with, the police once again had to let their suspicions about them lay. But that didn't last long, because shortly after that, detectives heard from a witness who'd been walking in the park at 6:30 p.m. on the night of the crime.
30:50 Speaker 00 This witness told investigators that they'd seen a young man emerge from the woods near the football field adjacent to Egg, who seemed to be searching for something. They told police that the mysterious figure appeared to be between 18 and 20 years old, and after seeing him the first time near the football field, they'd bumped into him again on the west side of the trail closer to the swimming lakes. Authorities showed this witness a photo array of 10 young men, and wouldn't you know it, he picked out Yan Helga's picture without hesitation. So this development all but confirmed for police their growing suspicion that Yan Helga had not been truthful with them the first few times around.
31:31 Speaker 00 The fact that someone had seen him on a trail in the park in the opposite direction of where he'd told authorities he'd been at 6:30 PM was enough of an inconsistency for police to bring him back in for another round of questioning. At that time detectives didn't ask Vigo for another interview, though. They were strictly focused on speaking with Yan Helga. During this questioning, I imagine investigators got a bit more direct with him, but he denied being in the west part of the park on the evening of Friday, May 19. He insisted that he hadn't gone past the entrance gate. He doubled down about this even when authorities confronted him with the information from the witness, who said they'd bumped into him on the west side of the swimming lakes at 6:30 PM.
32:16 Speaker 00 But once again, like it or not, the police didn't have enough evidence to hold him for additional questioning or arrest him. But that changed sometime later, on July 11, when investigators received even more information that made Yan Helga and Vigo look bad. A guy who'd been parking a car near an entrance to the park alongside Egg on the night of the crime came forward and told police that he'd seen a young man ride up to the location on a bicycle around 5:50 PM, go into the park in the direction of Lake Number 3, and then return a few minutes later with another boy walking next to him. Though this witness didn't recognize the young men he saw, police felt pretty sure it was Yan Helga and Vigo.
32:59 Speaker 00 So on July 14, continuing to follow their hunch about the young men, investigators brought both of them back in for questioning. By this point, the murder investigation had been underway for almost two months, and it was safe to say that Vigo and Yan Helga were law enforcement's prime suspects.
33:17 Speaker 00 During Vigo's interview, he admitted to police that he'd forgotten to tell them he'd ridden his bike to Banahia on the evening of Friday, May 19. Earlier that day, he said he'd gotten locked out of a shed he spent a lot of time in behind his parents' house, and Yanhalga was the only other person with a spare key. So around 5:45 PM, he'd called Yanhalga's house to ask him for the key, but his dad answered and told him his son was in Banahia going for a run. Shortly after that, Vigo had ridden his bike into the park and cycled up to lake number three to look for his friend, and eventually found him back at the playground next to the entrance of the park closest to Egg. This would have all been happening between 5:45 PM and 6:05-ish PM, so before Sina Sofia
34:02 Speaker 00 and Lena had even left Sina Sofia's house. But regardless of the timing being seemingly irrelevant to the crime, Vigo's story did put him and Yanhalga together at the park within an hour of when the authorities believed the girls had been killed. Which made investigators seriously suspect that perhaps the young men had committed the crime together. I mean, even though the criminal offender profile indicated the killer was one person, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that two people could have been involved. During Yanhalga's interview, he corroborated a lot of the same information Vigo had provided. The two of them had met up around 6 o'clock at the playground near the park entrance by Egg, so Vigo could get the spare key to his shed, and then by 6:05 PM, they'd parted
34:47 Speaker 00 ways. Yanhalga said he'd then gone for a run north, and Vigo had cycled home. When their interviews with police wrapped up, authorities were more convinced than ever that the young men were hiding something. So they decided to see if they could search their homes and Vigo's backyard shed and Egg to determine if it held any clues that might be related to the murders. The only problem was investigators couldn't physically carry out the search without charging Vigo or Yanhalga with a crime. Interestingly, the police found a way around that legal hurdle by resurrecting a previous criminal investigation that had involved Vigo. Turns out, about 16 months before Stina Sofia and Lena's murders,
35:29 Speaker 00 Vigo had been suspected of peeping into a woman's windows in his neighborhood. He eventually came clean about that crime and was said to be remorseful for his actions. But because it was an unresolved criminal case, that allowed the police a way to legally search his shed. And when they did, what they found inside was disturbing.
35:52 Speaker 01 My name's Jack Wagner, host of Other World, a podcast featuring real people who experience something paranormal, supernatural, or unexplained.
35:59 Speaker 02 I have no idea how I got there.
36:01 Speaker 03 I don't think I've ever seen anything that looks like this.
36:04 Speaker 04 It felt like electric stars on fire.
36:06 Speaker 01 I started Other World to take a grounded approach to the paranormal, help people tell their own stories, and encourage more to come forward. I certainly don't have the answers, but maybe one day we will. Join me as we explore our world's greatest mysteries. Listen to Other World now for free wherever you get your podcasts.
36:29 Speaker 00 According to the docu-series, The Ben Ahia Killings, when authorities got a look inside Vigo's backyard shed and egg, they found a trove of pornographic videos, magazines, violent movies, and adult toys. There was also a toolbox with a couple of knives in it, which I imagine seemed rather ominous to police detectives, considering the fact that Stina Sofia and Lena had both been stabbed and the murder weapon had never been found. A local journalist who spoke with the producers for the documentary described Vigo's shed as "less of a utility shed and more of like an old potato cellar that had been converted into a man cave of sorts." And it was even reported that he lived in it. What the contents of the shed communicated to members of law enforcement,
37:12 Speaker 00 who were eyeing him and Yan Helga for the Ben Ahia murders, was that he was a young man who liked knives and was obsessed with sex. Unfortunately, even after all the interviews police had done with the young men and the results of the shed search, there still wasn't enough physical evidence for detectives to arrest them for the crime. Now, don't get me wrong, there were definitely some investigators who were chomping at the bit to slap cuffs on Vigo and Yanhelga. But there were also others, who I guess had more say, who knew the case likely wouldn't hold up in court. That changed, though, just a few weeks later in August, three months after the murders. At that time, the police were still in the process of trying to determine the identity
37:54 Speaker 00 of the pubic hair that had been found on one of the victims. They were certain it had come from the perpetrator, but without a DNA match, the hair's true source remained a mystery. Thankfully, they got their answer a few weeks later in early September, when test results for the hair in question came back as a match for none other than Yanhelga. I don't know exactly how police got a sample of his DNA for comparison, but I have to assume they did at some point, either voluntarily or covertly. Because otherwise, I don't know how they would have determined that it belonged to him. But regardless, with the DNA match confirmed, authorities were finally able to move in on and arrest Yanhelga and Vigo.
38:37 Speaker 00 And on September 13th, police charged both of them with sexual assault and murder.
38:44 Speaker 00 When investigators sat them down and got them talking, their stories were drastically different. Yanhelga quickly confessed to being involved in the girls' murders, but said that he'd only killed Stina Sofia, not Lena. He said he'd never wanted to partake in the crime, but Vigo had forced him to. He explained that he and his friend had bumped into the girls as they got out of Lake Number Three, and that Vigo had asked for their help finding some kittens in the woods. The girls agreed to join the young men, but eventually, Vigo pulled out a knife and threatened them. Then, he sexually assaulted Lena, stabbed her, sexually assaulted Stina Sofia, and then threatened Yanhelga to kill her, which he said he did out of fear of what Vigo would do to him if he didn't.
39:30 Speaker 00 Vigo's version of events, on the other hand, were entirely different. He denied any involvement in the murders and maintained his innocence, in spite of his friend painting him as the mastermind. Essentially, it came down to the younger of the two suspects pointing the finger at the older one and calling him the ringleader. Which I imagine is a narrative that police investigators had already started to invest in. But until they heard it from Yanhelga's mouth directly, they just hadn't run very far with it. Shortly after the arrest, the police held a press conference and told folks that all along they'd been operating under the assumption that two people had sexually assaulted and killed Stina Sofia and Lena. Which, based on what I gathered from reading the source material,
40:15 Speaker 00 was definitely a change in tune for police. But regardless of whether they were saying that because it really was their theory all along, or they were just trying to save face, the fact that they'd arrested someone for the crime was what most folks were paying attention to. Residents of Christiansen were extremely relieved that the killers had reportedly been caught. A few months later, in mid-February 2001, Vigo and Yanhelga were indicted, and by June 1, each had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Yanhelga received 17 years, and Vigo was sentenced to 21 years. From what I gathered in the available source material, the court relied heavily on Yanhelga's version of events, which pinned Vigo as the mastermind of the whole thing.
41:00 Speaker 00 Essentially, the judges determined that it was Vigo who'd carried out the murders to cover up the fact that he'd sexually assaulted both Stina Sofia and Lena. As time passed, though, Vigo and the people who supported him continued to protest his innocence. They claimed that Yanhelga had lied in his confession, and Vigo was never involved in the crime. But no one could understand why Yanhelga would rope Vigo into something so horrific if, in fact, it wasn't true.
41:30 Speaker 00 The judges who decided the young man's fate certainly couldn't find a motive for Jan Helga pointing the finger at his friend unless it was actually what happened. The court stated, quote, "The court places trust in Anderson's statement that he was with Christensen at the relevant time. The two were very good friends, and it's not possible to see a motive for Anderson to wrongfully involve Christensen in the case." End quote. But a law professor who spoke with producers for the Ben Ahaya killings docu-series pointed out that Jan Helga would have been really motivated to say Vigo was involved in the crime because, by doing so, he essentially deflected a lot of blame away from himself. Basically, Jan Helga benefited from saying that it was Vigo, the 21-year-old who'd influenced
42:15 Speaker 00 him, a 19-year-old, to partake in such a heinous act. In the end, Jan Helga received less prison time, and the media didn't paint him as the main perpetrator. Court documents filed during an appeal in January 2002 stated that forensic psychiatric experts who'd evaluated Vigo shared in court that he had an emotionally unstable personality disorder, was emotionally unstable, and had pedophilic tendencies. Ultimately, the appeals court denied him relief but agreed to increase Jan Helga's sentence from 17 years to 19 years. In a statement to TV2, which was later translated into English, Ada, Stina Sofia's mom, said,
42:56 Speaker 00 quote, "We can never be completely satisfied when the court does not choose to use the law's strictest punishment. Nevertheless, we are happy that Jan Helga Anderson did not even get less than 19 years." End quote. By 2006, though, Norway's government had granted Jan Helga temporary leave from prison one weekend every month, much to the dismay of the girl's family members, particularly Ada. She complained to the Oslo District Court more than once and actually ended up suing the state over the issue. By 2007, she was able to successfully change the law so that survivors of serious criminal cases could object to a prisoner receiving leave, and so could their relatives. In 2008, while serving his time in prison,
43:41 Speaker 00 Vigo gave his first public interview to reporter Anna Norberg and maintained that he was not responsible for what happened to Stina Sofia and Lena. He claimed he'd been convicted based on people's feelings, not evidence. He remained as resolved as ever to fight for his exoneration. He wanted a retrial, period. Up until that point, he'd never admitted guilt and there was no physical evidence that proved he was involved. It had always been Jan Helga's word against his. After fully taking over Vigo's case in 2002, his post-conviction lawyer spent over five years sending half a dozen requests to Norway's Criminal Cases Review Commission, explaining why Vigo should get a new trial.
44:25 Speaker 00 Those documents argued a few things that his defense team felt proved that he could not have committed the crime.
44:32 Speaker 00 One had to do with his cellphone activity during the timeframe the girls were killed. The defense team had reviewed every text message and phone call he'd made on Friday, May 19, 2000. And they discovered that between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM, which was the timeframe authorities believed the murders happened, Vigo's device had made calls and received and sent text messages in a service area that was close to his home, but well outside the coverage area of the crime scene. Experts from local phone companies determined without a doubt that the base station his cellphone activity went through could not have received signals from devices anywhere near the crime scene. Oh, and these experts, they had decades of experience working for the various phone companies in Christiansen,
45:17 Speaker 00 who owned the telephone signal infrastructure. So they knew their stuff and were the most qualified people to ascertain this information. In addition to the cellphone activity analysis, Vigo's defense team also wanted the DNA evidence that had been presented at his trial to be reevaluated. The only DNA that had ever been found and identified conclusively from the crime scene was Jan Helga's. It was revealed during the men's trial that another profile had also been discovered. But a forensic crime lab in Spain couldn't determine for sure if it belonged to Vigo or Jan Helga, or another person. So basically, the lab could only say that the sample contained traces of male DNA, and neither Vigo nor Jan Helga could be ruled out as a contributor.
46:03 Speaker 00 What's wild, though, is that a DNA analyst who spoke with producers for the Ben Ahaya killings docu-series said the DNA findings from the Spanish lab were, in her opinion, weak or procedurally imprecise. For example, she said that whenever a male DNA profile is evaluated as evidence in a criminal case, a lot of different boxes have to be checked in order to determine its legitimacy. At the time of the docu-series filming, it was typical that anywhere from 17 to 30 areas of the profile had to be tested to assess it for direct comparison to a known individual. But back in the day, in Vigo and Jan Helga's case, the unknown male DNA profile had only been tested in one location. One.
46:48 Speaker 00 So like, well below the acceptable standard, at least according to that forensic analyst who spoke with the docu-series. Which is why Vigo's defense team demanded the DNA evidence be reevaluated to either include him or exclude him once and for all. By this point, a lot of questions had also started to surface about the integrity of Jan Helga's confession, and more so, how law enforcement elicited it from him. ABC News reported that a retired FBI profiler named Greg McCrery had reviewed the Christiansund Police's interrogation of Jan Helga and discovered numerous issues with the way investigators went about questioning the then-19-year-old. For example, McCrery wrote in his report that detectives had first suggested to Jan
47:31 Speaker 00 Helga that two people were involved in the crime, and that maybe he'd been influenced by Vigo. McCrery also believed that the DNA evidence allegedly linking Vigo to the crime had been misstated. To make matters even more complicated, in 2016, after only serving 16 of his 19 years in prison, Jan Helga was paroled and got out early. He moved to a city in Norway about 2 and 1/2 hours northeast of Christiansund. NRK reported that because he wasn't shying away from coming to the city, some of the victims' family members were concerned they would potentially see him out and about, which I imagine was the last thing they wanted. Meanwhile, Vigo's defense team continued to fight for his innocence in court.
48:16 Speaker 00 They petitioned his case six times but were rejected. However, by 2020, their seventh attempt was granted. Norway's Criminal Cases Review Commission decided to formally review Vigo's claim and take a fresh look at the double murder case. That same year, Lena and Steena Sophia's parents spoke out publicly for the first time as a collective group about how they felt regarding his claims. They stated to NRK that they were tired of the case still dragging on. At that point, it had been 20 years since their daughters were murdered, and even though they agreed that Vigo should get a retrial if he was potentially innocent, they were not convinced that he and his legal team had discovered anything new in the case that merited it being rehashed.
49:00 Speaker 00 It took a few months for Norway's Commission for the Resumption of Criminal Cases to thoroughly review Vigo's petition, but on June 1, 2021, the country's Supreme Court finally ruled on the matter. And the news was a bombshell: he was no longer suspected of the crime. As a result of the court's ruling, he was released from prison, and a few months later, in November 2021, the previously unknown male DNA profile that had been analyzed but never conclusively identified was tested again. The results confirmed it belonged to Jan Helga Andersson, not Vigo. Most importantly, additional testing carried out during Vigo's post-conviction fight
49:42 Speaker 00 revealed Jan Helga's DNA was also in three different places on evidence samples collected from Lena's body and clothing. That information directly contradicted his previous confession, in which he said he'd only killed Steena Sophia. Basically, it brought into question all of his previous testimony, which the police and trial court had relied so heavily on back in 2000 and 2001. In 2022, the year after the new DNA results came in, Vigo was formally exonerated of the Banahaya murders, and Norway's Director of Public Prosecutions publicly apologized for the office's role in wrongfully convicting him. A few months later, in March of 2023, the criminal case against Jan Helga specifically
50:26 Speaker 00 for Lena's murder was requested to be reopened. And in June, that's exactly what happened. It took some time for the court to do its thing, but a little over a year later, in July of 2024, he was convicted of Lena's death and sentenced to additional prison time. TV2 reported that Lena's parents, Arne and Clara, attended the trial and testified as witnesses. According to coverage by NRK, when it came time for sentencing, Jan Helga only got two years for his role in killing Lena. I don't know for sure how the laws work in Norway, but I have to assume that maybe one reason his sentence was so short was because he'd already served 16 years before being paroled early.
51:09 Speaker 00 Maybe two years was like the maximum amount of time the court could give him in light of everything that had happened and the fact that prosecuting him for Lena's death was so delayed. But even with getting so little punishment, Jan Helga's defense team announced they would appeal his conviction. In late June 2025, a Norwegian appellate court denied his petition. In an interesting move, one of the judges suggested that the Norwegian government implement what is known in Norway as forvering, or maybe it's forvering. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right. And they wanted to do this to Jan Helga's two-year sentence, which essentially recommended he be kept in custody for longer since he's widely viewed by legal experts
51:50 Speaker 00 as a threat to society and capable of future assaults. One of the appellate court judges put it this way when she stated he has, quote, "an enormous potential for violence. There is a concrete and real risk that he can commit new, serious crimes," end quote. In addition to losing his appeal, Jan Helga was ordered to pay financial compensation to Lena's parents as restitution for lost wages and pension benefits over the many years they've endured going to court and fighting for justice for their daughter. An attorney for the Paulsons told the press that Jan Helga losing his appeal had brought them some peace. In March 2020, the girl's parents criticized local and international media outlets
52:35 Speaker 00 for sensationalizing their daughter's stories. They described the experience of having books, podcasts, and documentaries made about the murders as distracting, painful, and sad. Based on the timing of their statements, which were issued before Vigo's exoneration and several months before the Ben Ahia killing docu-series aired, it's clear that they were not happy that that particular publication planned to focus on Vigo's innocence petition and potentially use their experience and daughter's murders as entertainment for people. Since Vigo's formal exoneration, though, Lena and Stina Sofia's parents have gone on to speak more publicly about the case and even testified in Yan Helga's 2024 court proceedings.
53:19 Speaker 00 Stina Sofia's mother, Ada, established a foundation in her daughter's honor years ago, aptly named the Stina Sofia Foundation. That organization's mission is to provide support to children and families whose lives have been impacted by violence. Staff members also help relatives of murdered children navigate the criminal justice system. In connection with this episode, AudioChuck has committed to donating $5,000 to the Stina Sofia Foundation. Presently, our philanthropy staff is working to coordinate that donation, and the funds will aim to support that organization's mission to advocate for minors and protect those who suffered violence or abuse. We dropped the link to their website in our show notes for this episode, where you can
54:02 Speaker 00 learn more about the foundation and donate as well if you're able to. For more than a decade after the crime, when the organization's first coping center was built, Ada and her team used a coffin as a foundational stone for the structure. Placed inside of that coffin was a silver piece of jewelry, like a necklace, that had a teddy bear pendant on it. This accessory was something Stina Sofia had been wearing when she was killed. Years after the murders, police had given it back to Ada, and she couldn't think of a more appropriate item to put inside the cornerstone of the building. She told NRK that the necklace would act as a symbol for every child who hadn't made it out of a violent situation, or who would never get the chance to stay at the foundation's coping center.
54:46 Speaker 00 In so many ways, I'm in awe of Ada's resilience as a parent. She and her ex-husband, Yustein, as well as Lena's parents, Arne and Clara, should be people you think about when you turn off this episode. Vigo should also cross your mind. He was wrongfully convicted of a crime that he didn't commit. It just goes to show you that the criminal offender profile, which had been developed by the NCIS so many years earlier, which indicated that only one person was behind the crime, was, in the end, right.
55:23 Speaker 00 Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @parkpredators.
55:40 Speaker 00 So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?
55:48 Speaker 05 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion dollar mansion in Los Angeles County.
55:55 Speaker 05 Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks.
56:05 Speaker 05 The couple that lived there had 21 kids.
56:08 Speaker 06 It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory.
56:15 Speaker 05 Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived.
56:23 Speaker 07 Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp. That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
56:31 Speaker 05 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into? I'm Ava Kaufman. The Journey is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
Previous The Tracker Next The Accidents Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated