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Gol secondary school is located in Ål’s neighboring municipality Gol – a little further east in Hallingdal than Signe Slaatten’s home municipality. Photo: Endre Ulsaker / Gol secondary school

Signe Slaatten (18) should have been there. Instead, her fellow students mourned her loss.

Tuesday 2 April at 22:54

It was a sad day at Gol secondary school, the first day of school after Easter.

A desk was empty. Everyone knew why.

Principal Anita Ulsaker describes it as a very special day at the school.

– We had a joint gathering for students and staff. It was very special to gather again after a long holiday. At the same time, such a collection is important. It emphasizes the importance of looking after each other, says Ulsaker to VG.

Signe Slaatten (18) (on the right) was a pupil and Russian in grade 3 at Gol secondary school. It was she and her brother Sander (22) and mother Ingunn (53) who were found murdered at Torpo in Ål in Hallingdal. Photo: Private

Signe Slaatten, her brother Sander (22) and her mother Ingunn Slaatten (53) all died instantly after they were killed while they were sleeping on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, 23 March.

Principal Ulsaker thinks that it will probably take some time before Signe’s fellow students and the staff are back to a completely normal everyday school life.

– It will have to come eventually. Now it is completely natural to grieve and be sorry.

The heaviest day

– What is it like to be the school’s top leader on a day like this?

– This is the heaviest day I have had as headmaster. The situation has been quite special. One of our students is suddenly gone. Then there is good support in being together. We also get good assistance from the priest and crisis team, says the headmaster.

Just under 300 pupils attend Gol vgs. Signe Slaatten, who would have turned 19 on Maundy Thursday, had around 85 fellow pupils in year 3. They are now facing the Russian holiday and spring without her.

Work is also being done to plan a separate memorial service for pupils and staff at the school later.

– People know everyone

Previously, VG spoke to, among others, the provost in Hallingdal, Sveinung Hansen.

He put into words what it was like to meet people again in the affected villages after the horrific incident.

<-Provost Sveinung Hansen

– There is something about the fact that when tears fall, we show that we have lost something we love.

He himself lives in Ål, but has been to the church at the home of the three killed in Torpo several times recently:

– Here relatives and friends cross paths. It’s so small here, so people know everyone. I have noticed that there are lit candles and flowers. I think people take care of each other, said the dean.

2024-04-02 20:54:27


#Signes #school #desk #empty #heaviest #day #headmaster

THE SCENE: Sander Slaatten is said to have been playing games until around midnight on the night he, his sister and mother were killed. Photo: Helge Mikalsen / VG

Before Sander Slaatten (22) went to sleep, he is said to have been in contact with a friend via a game on the internet.

Reporting from Torpo in Ål on Sunday 31 March at 22:25

The game sequence with the mate lasted until around midnight, and is currently the last sure sign of life from the white house in Torpo i Ål, according to VG’s information.

During the following hours of the night, the house became the scene of a triple murder.

The police believe the father and husband in the home shot and killed their three closest relatives while they were sleeping: Wife Ingunn Slaatten (53) and children Signe (18) and Sander – before the father of the family took his own life.

Also read: Towards several media in the Ål case: – Absence of respect

Cabin trip

On Saturday morning and forenoon it was still quiet in the White House. Cars and other vehicles were parked outside, still unused this day.

But the village had otherwise woken up, including one person who had arranged a cabin trip with Signe Slaatten early in the afternoon, VG is told.

The person in question tried to contact the 18-year-old girl, but did not receive a response. The 18-year-old also did not appear as agreed.

LAST MEMORY: Sander Slaatten (22) brought this cake to work on Friday. Hours later, the 22-year-old was killed by his own father. Photo: Photo: HELGE MIKALSEN

The concern

According to VG’s information, the person must have notified a relative about the missing answers and asked him for help with his concern.

The family member in question is a police officer. At 15.06 he called the operations center and reported the missing signs of life from the 18-year-old.

– The person called the police because they were worried. He then chose to call the operations center and give notice, police attorney Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen in the South-East police district told VG.

VG has been in contact with the police officer. He is clear that he does not want to talk to the press about the matter.

Also read: The eel deaths: – He was a natural spreader of joy

Moved out

Just before 4 p.m., the police were outside the family’s residence in Torpo, but they only investigated from the outside, a so-called welfare check.

They then left the place, unaware that the entire family lay dead inside.

During the next few hours, no one was still able to contact them, which meant that the police went back at 8 p.m., some five hours after the police officer notified the operations center of the concern.

At 20:19, the police locked themselves in the home, after gaining access using a key.

Inside the house, the police found the couple and their two children dead.

VG has submitted the information in this case to police attorney Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen in the South-East police district. She does not wish to make any comments.

Neither the defender of the father accused of triple murder, lawyer Sidsel Katralen, nor the victim’s assistance lawyer, Helge Hartz, want to comment on the case.

2024-03-31 20:25:06


#Information #sign #life

CLEAR SPEECH: Petter Northug, pictured here earlier this season. Photo: Ulf Palm/TT / TT Nyhetsbyrån / NTB

Strong gusts of wind and snowy weather on the mountain await many thousands of excited Birkebeiner athletes. Now several of the long-distance profiles are asking the organizer to take action before it is too late.

Thursday 14 March at 12:15 p.m

– Wind, sleet and snowy weather alternating depending on the altitude you are at, it can get terribly cold. Regardless of whether you have extra clothes and a rucksack, it is simply dangerous to walk over the mountain then. There is too much risk for an organizer. Birken cannot take responsibility for that. It will be a disaster. They also do not dare to release the starting shot when it is dangerous to health, says Petter Northug to VG.

On Thursday, the conditions were brilliant at Lake Sjusjøen.

But the weather forecast when the race starts on Saturday is discouraging.

The start is at Rena, but the route continues over Raufjellet and Midtfjellet, via Sjusjøen and with the finish in Lillehammer 54 kilometers later.

CROSS-COUNTRY RUNNING PROFILE: Andreas Nygaard, here with the wreath around his neck after winning the Birkebeiner race in March 2023. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB

– I think many people don’t give a shit about what kind of conditions it is, as long as they get to go skiing. People are not looking for tram rails and sun on their faces. But now the challenge is that there will not be a ski race, says Team Ragde profile Andreas Nygaard to VG on Thursday.

He continues:

– 25 meters per second have been reported in the throws on the mountain and a lot of fresh snow. The organizer is not going to see it as responsible. The Friday birch was canceled last year and the weather was better then. I understand that it is a nightmare for the organizer to wake up to, and even though it has been a bit of a predicted disaster, I think the organizer deserves to be proactive and clear.

The weather gods also did not play as a team during the Vasaloppet two weeks ago:

Nygaard – a three-time winner of the Birken – is clear that Friday at 12.00 is the last deadline for the organizer to say that something will be done. For Nygaard, the best solution is to move the race to Sunday.

– Then it’s the youth birch. The target area is already rigged. The challenge is the logistics. So this is also a plea to all bus drivers to participate in the common effort to get Norway’s most traditional race carried out.

Acting general manager of Birken, Hans Otto Olsen, tells VG on Thursday morning that he is busy in meetings. Olsen tells NTB that “they look at the weather forecast and see the challenges that lie there”.

– Right now we are sitting in a meeting and considering what to do, he says and says that there are plans both to move the main race from Saturday to Sunday, as well as to change the route.

Northug is completely in line with his long-distance rival Nygaard.

– We are preparing for the fact that there will be no race on Saturday. I’ll be surprised if they don’t try to work out the logistics and move to Sunday. It would have been the best for everyone. But I also understand that the organizer has to arrange a lot at the last minute here now. It is a race that goes from A to B. But we hope it will be Sunday now that they can use the day to think a bit.

Nygaard also believes that Birken has been lying down with a broken back for a while.

He points out that it has not been carried out during the corona pandemic, but has also been canceled twice due to the weather in the last 15 years. Now he is worried that it will have even greater consequences.

– Then I fear for Birken’s continued existence, says Nygaard.

– What do you base that on?

– During cancellations before, people have managed a lot to get to the start and only then received notice that it has been cancelled. There are also many people who have had bad experiences with Birken. They have struggled to get refunds for initial quotas. It is also okay to cancel it, but then you can do it tomorrow morning instead of Saturday morning.

Nygaard states that he has not been in contact with the organizer or the race management about his frustration.

– But I have received an incredible amount of response from people who completely agree with me.

2024-03-14 11:15:23


#Reported #severe #storm #Birkebeiner #run #Petter #Northug #run #moved #Health #hazard

Two randonee skiers had to be picked up by helicopter in Ullensvang municipality.

Saturday 9 March at 15:28

– They had been on a trip and were going down the mountainside. It turned out to be too steep and icy, says operations manager Tore-Andre Brakstad.

On the descent, one of the skiers fell and injured himself, while the other got stuck some distance away.

The emergency services responded with both an air ambulance and a rescue helicopter. Volunteers were also called in.

– The injured person was picked up by a rescue helicopter and flown to hospital, says Brakstad

The person must have been conscious but in pain. The degree of damage is unknown.

– Number two has also been hoisted up and flown down. The person was uninjured.

2024-03-09 14:28:46


#Fell #randonee #trip #Ullensvang #Flew #hospital