Background
Isdalen is a valley just outside Bergen in western Norway. On 29 November 1970 a professor and his daughters hiking there found the partially burnt body of a woman. The valley was known locally as 'Death Valley'. The woman is now known as the Isdal Woman.
A large dose of sleeping pills and burns were recorded, and the official conclusion was probable suicide.
The valley was a hiking destination, but in November it was cold and dark.
What was found
Investigators soon found two suitcases at Bergen railway station. They contained wigs, cosmetics and money from five countries. Labels had been removed from the clothing and almost every identifying mark had been eliminated. She was found to have stayed in hotels across Norway and Europe for months under various false names.
Witnesses described a woman who appeared in different clothes and appearances and spoke several languages. This contradictory picture fuelled Cold War espionage theories.
Nothing in the suitcases or belongings showed who she was. This made it impossible for police to identify her on the spot and led to international inquiries. Norwegian police contacted hotels and authorities in several countries, but no definite link was found.
Investigation
Norwegian police recorded the death as probable suicide. The woman was never identified. Years later the case returned to attention through new technology. In 2017 Norway's public broadcaster NRK and the BBC, together with police, re-examined the file. Analysis of her teeth suggested that she may have spent her childhood in the border region between France and Germany.
These findings did not establish her identity, but they gave researchers a new direction.
The espionage theory arose from her movements, the false names she used and the idea that her death might have been controlled. It has not been proven; other explanations have been proposed, and the official conclusion is probable suicide.
Where it stands today
Her family and relatives have never come forward, and her identity is still unknown. The case remains one of Norway's best-known unsolved mysteries. This page remembers a woman who, though unnamed, had a family and a life.
Efforts to establish her identity have been taken up again from time to time in Norway. The aim is not merely to solve a puzzle but to find her name and her family and give back the identity that belongs to her.