Who is the woman featured in “Death in Oslo,” the second episode of Unsolved Mysteries Volume 2? On May 31, 1995, a young female checked into the Oslo Plaza Hotel in Norway and was found dead three days later. Investigators ruled the death as a suicide; however, the case evidence implies that the unidentified woman was likely murdered. Unsolved Mysteries Volume 2 released in October 2020 on Netflix.
Directed by Unsolved Mysteries veteran Robert M. Wise, “Death in Oslo” features various interviews with journalist Lars Christian Wegner. In 1996, the Verdens Gang features writer began investigating the mysterious Oslo Plaza woman, whose body was buried in an unmarked grave one year after her death. Wegner eventually learned that the deceased was given a room at the Oslo Plaza Hotel without actually providing a credit card number for payment, and that she had registered with a Belgian address. Three days after the mysterious woman arrived, a hotel employee knocked on the door of room 2805 and heard a gunshot. Fifteen minutes after the fact, the woman’s lifeless body was discovered with a bullet wound in her forehead. In Unsolved Mysteries, Wegner and other interviewees attempt to understand the timeline of events
The Oslo Plaza woman in Unsolved Mysteries has never been identified. She registered under the fake name “Jennifer Fairgate” and provided a false Belgian address, as discovered by Wegner during his investigation. The signature on the card looks more like “Fergate,” which some theories suggest was her real name. The Oslo Plaza woman also registered a “Lois Fairgate” as sharing the room, but there was no evidence of a second person being in room 2805 (at least according to police reports). A hotel witness did recall that “Jennifer” appeared to be with a man, but investigators seemingly never examined security footage — or if they did, there is no record of it. This is likely because the police believed, almost immediately, that this was a suicide and not a crime scene. According to the police, the Oslo Plaza woman arrived at the hotel with the intention of killing herself using a nine-millimeter semi-automatic Browning pistol. The evidence presented in Unsolved Mysteries suggests otherwise.
When the Oslo Plaza woman’s body was found, the pistol was still awkwardly gripped in her hand — with her thumb on the trigger. In addition, there was no blood on her hand, yet blood splatters were found elsewhere in the room. Based on that evidence alone, several interviewees in Unsolved Mysteries believe that the Oslo Plaza woman didn’t commit suicide, and possibly her body was staged. Other evidence found in room 2805 shows that the occupant had removed all tags from her clothing, and didn’t actually have clothing for the bottom half of her body. No IDs were found, and the woman didn’t appear to have any cosmetics or toiletries that she kept in the room (despite evidence that someone had taken a shower). The briefcase only contained bullets. Wegner also discovered that the Oslo Plaza woman had left room 2805 at one point for 20 hours, evidenced by key card data and statements from a maid who found the room completely empty.
So, who is the Oslo Plaza woman featured in Unsolved Mysteries and what really happened to her? After a 2016 exhumation of the body, a full DNA profile revealed that the deceased was of European heritage and presumably from East Germany based on statements from hotel employees who spoke with the woman in 1995. The Oslo Plaza woman was also determined to be 24 years old, at least according to data acquired from C-14 testing. As for her actual fate, a Norwegian intelligence officer named Ola Kaldager believes that she was most likely a secret agent who was tracked down and executed. That would seemingly explain the cut-off tags on her clothes (“common procedure” for agents, according to Kaldager), along with the pistol’s filed-off serial numbers. When discussing cover-up techniques in Unsolved Mysteries, Kaldager states that the curious case of room 2805 is all “part of the game.” So far, there have not been any updates on the case since the episode aired — but given the show’s possibility, that very well could change.
