Published: Less than 30 min ago
Terje, 61, drives through a road barrier and crashes his car in the forest. Then he disappears without a trace.
Despite a large police effort in two countries, the mystery remains unsolved.
– Something strange has happened. The evil alternative cannot be ruled out, says police professor Leif GW Persson.
On the morning of November 30, Terje Johansen waves goodbye to his friend and tenant Helge Martin Haugan, 65. Terje seems happy and expectant when he gets into the car. He has bought a house in Årviksand in Northern Norway, 190 miles away. Now he’s going there to sign the contract.
But Terje never arrives.
Three days later, his car is found stuck in the forest on Muskö in the Stockholm archipelago. Terje has disappeared without a trace.
Nine months later, the police are still groping in the dark.
What was Terje doing at Muskö, 45 miles away from his planned route? Why did he drive through a road barrier and into the forest? And where did he go then?
The case is being investigated as a detective murder.
The police: “A giant mystery”
Terje Johansen lives alone. He is joined on his farm in Nykirke outside Oslo by his tenants, Helge Martin Haugan and his son, and his cats.
Terje is a handy man who makes a living by, among other things, selling firewood and scrap metal. He lives a perhaps somewhat bohemian, but law-abiding, life.
– It is a great mystery to us. My colleague Carina Gustafsson and I have turned over all the stones we could and followed everything up. That is why we have now connected Leif GW Persson. We have had an all-day session and preferred the case to him. We will have another meeting in the future and go through it, says Lotta Thyni, criminal inspector for serious crimes in Stockholm South.
“Something strange has happened”
Police professor Leif GW Persson is tight-lipped, as he works under pre-trial confidentiality.
– It’s something strange that happened because I’m still in this. Otherwise I would have stepped down.
– There is something there that needs to be clarified. You cannot rule out the evil alternative, says Leif GW Persson.
There has been speculation that Terje would have had someone with him in the car and that that person would then be behind the disappearance. But through analysis of mobile traffic, the police now know that Terje was most likely alone in the car during the journey.
– We have not found that any other mobile phone would have followed Terje’s mobile phone. There were also no traces of another person in the car, says Lotta Thyni.
The police need tips from the public to move forward.
– If anyone has had contact with Terje, in real life, by phone, or via social media, we would like you to contact the police. We are interested in any contact with Terje, says Lotta Thyni.
“The man of all time”
Tenant Helge Martin Haugen says that the hope that Terje will be alive is diminishing every day.
– I have known Terje since we were young. I think about it every day, his house is only five meters away from the house where I live. I want an answer, closure.
Neighbor Helge Johansen, 83, describes Terje as a man of all times. A nice neighbor who often comes in for coffee and helps with firewood and snow removal.
Helge Johansen says that he has accepted that Terje will probably never come back.
– I am absolutely sure that something happened, that someone assaulted him. That he would have taken his own life is out of the question. It’s so mysterious, so many loose threads. I won’t rest until I get an answer.