Five-year-old Silje was killed at Tiller outside Trondheim in October 1994.
At the time, three boys aged four, five and six were blamed for the death. The case was dismissed due to their young age.
Autumn 2021 published NRK a documentary series that exposed a flawed investigation. Shortly afterwards, the state prosecutors in Trøndelag decided that the case should be investigated again.
Among the central questions the police have asked themselves is whether children aged four to six could have caused the injuries, as the police settled on in 1994.
Probably died of hypothermia
Coroner Inge Morild has been given the job of reviewing the autopsy report from 1994.
According to what TV 2 is informed, Morild believes that the post-mortems in their time did a good job.
ROUTINED: Forensic pathologist Inge Morild is among the country’s most experienced. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
He believes that Silje was subjected to “repeated blunt force” such as punches, kicks or steps, but that these injuries were not fatal because they were not inflicted with particularly great force.
The injuries may, however, be a contributing factor in Silje’s death.
Morild cites hypothermia as a “very likely cause of death”, according to TV 2’s information.
Keeps options open
Last summer, when the investigation was well under way, the police asked Morild to answer concretely whether Silje’s injuries could have been inflicted by children between the ages of four and six.
OUT AND PLAYING: The police quickly determined that Silje Marie Redergård (5) had been killed by children of the same age. Many years later, a new investigation was ordered. Photo: Private
He believes that jumping, stepping and kicking with full force from an adult would cause greater damage than the 5-year-old had, but Morild writes that “a slightly weaker application of force from an adult can probably also cause this type of damage”.
He further writes that “the undersigned does not ignore the fact that several children aged 4-6 will be able to cause similar injuries by repeatedly jumping, kicking and stepping on a lying child”.
Morild does not want to answer TV 2’s questions about his conclusions.
Saw three youths running
During the next month, it is expected that the public prosecutor’s office will publish the outcome of the new investigation.
TV 2 is aware that more than 40 people have been questioned in the case. Several of them have never been questioned before. Several of the police officers who investigated the case in 1994 have also been questioned.
Although the case has now been fully investigated, there are still five named people the police would very much like to have spoken to. What they have in common is that they no longer live.
In a report written in March last year, the police list who they are and what role they have in the case.
One of the people is a woman who in 1994 was 70 years old. The police have found her in an old edition of Adresseavisen, which is the regional newspaper in Trondheim.
In a report, the police write that the woman told Adresseavisen that she believes she saw three young people aged 12-16 running from the scene at approximately 3.15pm.
THE SCENE: In less than 48 hours, the police concluded that the perpetrators were children. Photo: TV 2
The police first received information that Silje had been found dead when a person called the emergency number at 4.01pm.
So four boys
The police never questioned the 70-year-old woman in 1994, but spoke to her briefly in connection with an enquiry. A poll involves the police going round a neighborhood and knocking on all the doors.
Opposite Adresseavisen, the woman speculated that the young people could have seen Silje dead on the ground.
Another woman the police would have liked to have spoken to was in contact with the police during the same round of questioning in 1994. She was not questioned that time either.
During questioning, she told the police that she had arrived home at 2.15pm on the day in question, and that she had her grandson in the car.
When they got out of the car and into the apartment, they saw four boys in the area.
GRIEF: The flag was flown at half-mast in the time after Silje was found dead. Photo: TV 2
She assumes that the boys were aged 14/15, but is unable to describe them further than that one of them had a headband.
The granddaughter has now become a woman in her 40s. In March last year, she appeared at a police station to explain herself in the case.
The woman does not know any of the three boys who were named as perpetrators at the time. She remembers very little at all from the time when Silje was killed.
Methinks boys seemed scared
A third woman whom the police wanted to speak to was in for questioning on the same evening as the murder.
Then she told about two young boys who ran down a slope not far from the crime scene sometime between 3.50pm and 4.00pm on the day of the murder.
“This seemed striking to her in that they seemed scared, and that one of the two jumped straight into the heavily trafficked road,” says the interview from 1994.
In addition, the police have listed two people with a family connection to the case, whom they had wanted to question if they were still alive.
GETTING CRITIC: This is what it looked like in the toboggan run when the police moved out in October 1994. The investigation later had to endure strong criticism. Photo: Archive TV2
– Very unfortunate
The legal counsel for Silje Marie Redergård’s mother, lawyer Sigrun Dybvad, does not wish to comment on the case.
Nor do the defenders of the 4- and 6-year-old respectively, Tore Angen and Sigurd Klomsæt.
The 5-year-old’s lawyer, Johannes Wegner Mæland, believes that the conclusions from Morild contain too many words of the type “can” and “could” for them to be emphasized in any direction.
– It is very unfortunate that such a superficial investigation was carried out in 1994. One consequence of the superficial investigation is precisely witnesses who can no longer be questioned, he says.
TV 2 has not succeeded in getting a comment from the police in Trondheim.
Next Friday, it is expected that the prosecution will come up with its conclusion of the new investigation.
