The Isdal Woman: Nine Passports and a Valley Near Bergen

Welcome back to Cold Files, Warm Tea. I am Declan Mulvaney and the kettle has just boiled. Last time we gave the Somerton Man his name back. Tonight we travel to Norway, to a steep valley outside Bergen called Isdalen, where in November 1970 a woman was found who had taken extraordinary care not to be identified. The labels were gone from her clothes. Her suitcases at the railway station held wigs, glasses with no prescription, and a small notebook full of letters and numbers. The Norwegian police closed the file within weeks. In 2016 journalists and forensic scientists opened it again. We will follow the hotel registrations, decode the notebook, which turns out to be simpler than anyone expected, and look at what her teeth can tell us about where she grew up. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts. Let us begin.