Human remains were found on Tuesday in Savalen in northern Østerdalen. The remains of bones, boots and a raincoat have been taken to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Oslo for examination.
Police still don’t know who he is.
In 1957, a married couple from Oslo drowned in the lake. Jarle Tronslien (84) helped to find the woman, but the man was not found.
– It is quite plausible to believe that he could be that person, but I don’t know, says Jarle Tronslien to VG.
- Divers recovered the remains from the lake on Wednesday. They were transported ashore using a yellow boat.
Divers recovered the remains from the lake on Wednesday. They were transported ashore using a yellow boat.
In 1957, VG wrote in an article that the sheriff in Alvdal said that all searches for the husband were in vain.
“There is fear that the man is sick and has fallen overboard and that the woman is drowning while trying to save him,” he says.
The couple must have lived on a seat in the mountains.
The local newspaper Alvdal midt and vela talk to Jarle first.
Alvdølen was a teenager when he was asked to join a search in the large lake east of Dovrefjell.
– We went out rowing and probably searched for a few hours before we made a discovery, says Tronslien.
He looked at the map, and Tuesday’s discovery is in the west of the lake in the same area that he and another man searched in the village on July 1957.
– We found a dead woman at sea. She hung in the water, her hands over the scratch of a boat. I remember it well, I think his jacket was yellow.
Tronslie sits at the kitchen table with a glass of water in her hand. He uses a walker to get around the house, his body is more tired than before, but his head is just as clear.
Had to give up
They found the deceased ashore and rowed out to look for the man, but did not find him.
– We just had to give up, says the 84-year-old.
When Tronslien learned about the discovery made by the researchers in Savalen on Tuesday, the memories came flooding back.
– When I saw the news, I asked myself if they really got the other one. I immediately thought of the drowned couple, the woman we found in the water, her jacket.
The newspaper Alvdal midt i væla has also spoken to Simen Ragnar Øren (75). He was only a boy, but he remembers that the dead woman was carried into a barrack near the lake.
Tronslien cannot find any other missing persons cases that may be related to the discovery reported on Wednesday.
– It’s amazing that they find remains so long after. Back then it was a bit of a bad experience, that’s for sure.
Police say several people have told them about this particular case.
– That’s something we’re familiar with. There is not much we can do yet until the identification group and the Forensic Institute have finished their investigations, says police attorney Hildegunn Tronsli to VG.
FIELDWORK: Johanna Järnegren and Silje Margrethe Nessjø Larsen mapped the seabed when they found the remains.
Johanna Järnegren and Silje Margrethe Nessjø Larsen in conversation with the team that recovered the remains from the water on Wednesday.
Two researchers from the Norwegian Natural Research Institute (Nina) were doing field work when they found the remains on the seabed on Tuesday evening.
– We were a little surprised. That was not what we expected to find, says research colleague Silje Margrethe Nessjø Larsen to VG.
Her colleague, senior researcher Johanna Järnegren, initially thought the images from the underwater drone showed a garbage bag.
But they quickly saw that the remains found on Wednesday were a raincoat and rubber boots that contained bone remains.
The work on identification can take several weeks.
Correction
Due to a geographical fallacy, VG was discredited for crediting Tynsetingen with being the first with this story. Of course it was the local newspaper Alvdal in the middle of the election that broke the news first. The error was corrected on July 4 at 14:14.