On the 3rd June 1995, a woman's body was found in a hotel room in Oslo. She had been shot dead and the police report concluded suicide. However, there were various obvious clues that pointed away from suicide and directly to murder.
The woman, who spoke both German and English, booked into the Plaza Hotel in Oslo, Norway on the 31st May 1995 as Jennifer Fairgate, although she twice signed her name as “Fergate”. She requested three nights and was given room 2805. These are the details she offered at Reception:-
Date Of Birth: August 23, 1973
0748 Rue de la Stehae, 7968, Verlaine, Belgium
Phone Number: 32-68-326548
Company: Cerbis, Belgia
The address was investigated by police and it was discovered that no one by that name had ever lived at that location. This, in itself, was already suspicious. Why would she provide false credentials? Her name was clearly an alias; but then, why did she need one? At the time of checking in, apparently, she also included a “Lois Fairgate”. However, the receptionist claimed there was no one else with her, although another hotel employee informed the police that they had seen Jennifer with a man aged between 25 to 40 years, who accompanied her into the room. He has never been identified.
moreover, no one recalls seeing her go in or out of her room except on one occasion, when a member of the cleaning staff entered her room and particularly noticed a pair of very glitzy high-heels – shoes that were not found when the body was discovered. It is assumed that someone (the murderer?) took them. The woman had tried to call two invalid telephone numbers – one in Seraing and the other in Grace-Hollogne, both in Belgium.
After various attempts by the hotel to secure a payment from the woman, Security was sent up to her room, as she had been allowed to check in without providing a credit card. A security guard promptly knocked on the door.
Suddenly, a gunshot was heard and the security guard panicked and left to alert the head of security. If he had done his job properly, he would have remained behind and contacted the head of security by radio so that, if there was a 2nd person in the room, he would have been able to apprehend the perpetrator.
When police arrived, they saw Jennifer lying face up on the bed, with a gunshot wound on her forehead. It appeared to be a suicide, as she was holding a 9mm pistol. Nonetheless, the gun was held at an odd angle, using the thumb; and the evidence from the post-mortem illustrated the gun as an assault weapon, especially as the gun would have recoiled and dropped if Jennifer had been holding the gun herself.
Also, there was no blood or gunshot residue on her hand, which further implies that the suicide was staged.
The door was locked from the inside, possibly to aid the illusion of a suicide, and the first shot was, supposedly, a test shot into a pillow near the body. A weird fact was that all the labels from her clothes had been removed. Why? This is not something a common or garden murderer would waste time doing. Jennifer also had two room keys...one for Lois? Was he the murderer?
If the suicide theory is correct, then Jennifer would have eaten her dinner practically 24 hours later. At this juncture, I believe we can safely rule out suicide. At the moment, the only concrete information that exists about “Jennifer Fairgate” is that she was 24 years of age and hailed from East Germany. Norwegian intelligence agent, Ola Kaldager, has a firm conviction that Jennifer was a spy.
If Jennifer was working for Intelligence, perhaps the nature of her profession actually led to her demise. Let's assume the killer murdered her on the evening of the 2nd June and stayed the whole night “cleaning up”, ensuring no clues remained behind that could identify her. The first shot fired could have been the killer making certain this crime would definitely appear to be a suicide. The fact that hotel staff noticed an “acrid smell” emanating from Jennifer's room surely reinforces the theory that she died the night before her body was found – on the 2nd June.
Furthermore, her fingerprints did not appear on the gun, which throws the suicide theory straight out of the window. In fact, no fingerprints were found which means the killer simply wiped the gun clean.
Note to Police Investigators who closed the case just one year later with a verdict of Suicide - she obviously didn’t wipe the fingerprints off after she shot herself!
Finally, there is a peculiar fact that is little-mentioned. A newspaper was discovered in Jennifer's room, with the number 2816 scribbled on it. However, it's uncertain who actually stayed in that room.
There are many loose ends in this enigmatic story. Maybe the complete truth will never be known. If Miss Fairgate truly was a secret agent or spy, more than likely it will all have been efficiently covered up.
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