– After looking into the Orderud case, I am sure that Per Orderud was wrongfully convicted of the murders on Orderud’s farm in 1999, Knut Holen told Dagbladet.
After being one of the top leaders of the Oslo police for many years, Knut Holen joined Kripos, the same year as the Orderud murders. Together with Kripos chief Arne Huuse, he ran the Criminal Police Center for several years.
It was then Huuse and Holen who controlled the Criminal Police Headquarters, when the Homicide Commission at Pentecost in 1999 moved to the triple murders on the Orderud farm in Sørum in Romerike, and when the two girls were brutally murdered in Baneheia in May 2000.
Judicial murder: Former Kripos boss Knut Holen believes Per Orderud is the victim of a judicial murder. Photo: Henning Lillegård / Dagbladet
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– I studied the evidence, the judgment and took part in the extensive investigation that Tore Sandberg has undertaken, says Holen.
“The evidence doesn’t hold up”
It is clear that the evidence against Per Orderud does not hold up. Per Orderud, along with Veronica Orderud, Kristin Kirkemo and Lars Grønnerød, were sentenced to long prison terms for the murders. All four were convicted of complicity in the triple murder, in which Per’s parents – Marie Orderud (84) and Kristian Orderud (81) and sister Anne Orderud Paust (47) – were shot and killed in farm cottage.
– Tore Sandberg mainly looked into the case of Per Orderud and I came to the same conclusion:
– For Orderud he should never have been sentenced, says Knut Holen.
Last winter, a year and a half before the Attorney General had to apologize to Viggo Kristiansen, convicted in Baneheia, Knut Holen went out in Dagbladet and declared that the sentence against Viggo Kristiansen was wrong.
Now Knut Holen chooses to notify again.
– As a longtime leader of the police, I still have a responsibility. Those of us who have had responsibility in the police, and those who now have responsibility, must speak up when something is wrong, says Knut Holen.
The trail of blood
Private Investigator Tore Sandberg is delighted with the support he now receives from Knut Holen.
At the same time as Holen is leaving and claims the verdict against Per Orderud is wrong, lawyer Arvid Sjødin was involved in the Orderud case.
Sjødin acquitted his cousin in the Birgitte Tengs case and Baneheia inmate Viggo Kristiansen can now expect time compensation. After being unjustly convicted and serving 21 years for the rape and murder of two girls
In what has been an unknown legal drama so far, Sjødin has filed a petition with the Oslo District Court, where Kripos is asked to release the identity of a long-unknown DNA profile.
– In traces of blood on broken glass in the kår housing on Orderud gård, forensic technicians found the DNA of a person other than the four who were convicted of complicity in the triple murder, says Sandberg.
– The DNA profile was found in a bloodstain belonging to the late Marie Orderud. Tests showed that the blood found also contained DNA belonging to another person, Sandberg says.
Kripos refused to provide information on the identity of the person who had deposited his DNA in the blood belonging to Marie Orderud.
THE COLLABORATION: Former Dagsrevyen journalist Tore Sandberg (th) and Per Orderud have worked together for many years to get the murder sentence reinstated. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet
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– It is incomprehensible to us that Kripos does not want to give us identity, says Sandberg.
Per Orderud was convicted of complicity in the murder of his parents and sister. Sandberg and Sjødin believe that the DNA profile found in Marie Orderud’s blood is part and shows that the verdict against him must be wrong.
Supporters of Per Orderud have also pointed to several other circumstances, which they believe speak to Per Orderud’s innocence.
Identified
In a report from the Forensic Institute – dated September 1, 1999, the institute writes:
“… on examination of the first sample taken, it was found to have a mixed DNA profile, of which the strongest profile was of the same type as Marie Orderuds, while the weakest was different from the people examined in the case”.
Furthermore, the Institute of Forensic Medicine writes in the report to Kripos:
“The review of the analyzes showed that this weak profile was identical to a DNA profile in a sample from another case that was processed (extracted) at the same time …”.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine does not exclude that the finding may be due to contamination, or that an error was made in the analysis.
But the identity of the person concerned was still ascertained. Tore Sandberg and attorney Arvid Sjødin want the person’s name. Then they can exclude or link the person in question to the murders on Orderud’s farm.
Dripping torpedo
– We have 10 witnesses placing a dead torpedo from the former Yugoslavia near the Orderud farm. We also know that the same man was caught for drunk driving in central Oslo in the summer of 1999. Police took a blood sample from the man, says Tore Sandberg.
Sandberg won’t speculate on what might have happened with the mix-ups and contamination at the Forensic Institute.
– The fact is that this former Yugoslav was found murdered, a few days before the commencement of the appeal case in Lillestrøm. We believe the solution to Orderud’s murders is here, says Tore Sandberg.
He does not want to say who, according to him, should have been with the former Yugoslav in the house of the kår. But in the petition for reopening to the Readmission Commission, one person is singled out as the perpetrator.
– INNOCENT: Tore Sandberg believes Per Orderud was innocently convicted. Photo: Henning Lillegård / Dagbladet
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– I choose to keep this person’s identity to myself, says Tore Sandberg.
The Readmission Commission
First, Kripos’ group “Cold Case” decided to resume the investigation into the murder of Birgitte Tengs. Then, after five pushbacks, the Readmission Commission decided by three to two votes that Viggo Kristiansen should reopen his case. The commission will now decide whether Per Orderud should have his conviction tried again.
– We petitioned to reopen the Orderud case in the summer of 2018. Two years later, we received signals that a decision was around the corner, says Tore Sandberg.
One of the witnesses to be questioned by the Readmission Commission was an Albanian from Kosovo. For some inexplicable reason, the commission investigator managed to find the wrong person.
– The mistake was so serious that the head of the commission, Siv Hallgren, had to write a letter to the prosecution. Where he asked them to ignore the commission’s report, Sandberg says.
Lawyer Arvid Sjødin, who took over Per Orderud’s case from lawyer John Christian Elden, believes that the judgment against Per Orderud should be reopened.
– I think it’s as clear as the case against Viggo Kristiansen, says Sjødin.
– Tore Sandberg has unearthed a host of new information, which means there are every possible reason to ask questions about the verdict, says Sjødin.
INVESTIGATORS: – The Orderud case is still under investigation, says Siv Hallgren, head of the Reintegration Commission. Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB
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– The case is still under investigation, beyond that I cannot comment on the case, says Siv Hallgren, outgoing head of the Readmission Commission.
New information
– We went through the gallery of people who came forward after the verdict. There is a lot of new information from both inmates, prison officers and others that need to be thoroughly investigated. The police and Kripos know this, but they don’t do anything, says lawyer Sjødin.
The lawyer is not even reassured by the gallery of people who worked on the Orderud case for the prosecution.
– Asbjørn Hansen of Kripos was in charge of emergencies in both Baneheia and Orderud. Bente Mevåg of the Forensic Institute analyzed the traces of DNA in the case of Birgitte Tengs, Baneheia and Orderud. There is every reason to reopen the case, says Arvid Sjødin.
NEW CASE: Lawyer Arvid Sjødin is certain that Per Orderud will have his murder conviction repeated. Photo: Gunnar Hultgreen / Dagbladet
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Neither Asbjørn Hansen nor Bente Mevåg wish to comment on the matter.
Waiting for court
Police inspector and head of the judicial and prosecution department in Kripos, Erik Marthinussen, points out that the Oslo district court is considering whether lawyer Sjødin should have access to the DNA profile that was found in Marie Orderud’s blood .
INSPECTION: The Readmission Commission visited the Orderud farm earlier this year. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet
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– Oslo University Hospital concluded that it is extremely likely that the DNA profile in question is due to contamination of another sample that was analyzed at the same time as the crime scene samples in the Orderud case, says Marthinussen.
– The conclusion is greatly strengthened by the fact that the relevant DNA profile was not found in other samples of the same biological material, says the police inspector.
– The identity of the person to whom the DNA profile belongs was therefore not considered relevant to the investigation of the Orderud case, says the police inspector.
It justifies Kripo’s rejection of Sjødin’s petition, with the fact that access to identity information is subject to confidentiality.
– The question of access is currently under consideration in the Oslo district court. Kripos therefore does not see fit to comment further on the case before the district court’s decision is available, police inspector Marthinussen said.
