Jennifer Fairgate Pt. Two - podcast episode cover

Jennifer Fairgate Pt. Two

Feb 13, 202558 min
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Episode description

June 3, 1995. Oslo, Norway. The body of a young woman is found inside Room 2805 of the Oslo Plaza hotel and since a pistol is in her hand, she appears to be the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Three days earlier, she had checked into the hotel under the name, “Jennifer Fairgate”, but the name turns out to be fake and since she has no identification in her possession, the woman remains a Jane Doe. All attempts to identify “Jennifer” are unsuccessful, but there a number of strange details to suggest she may have been a spy or an intelligence student. In fact, there is even speculation that she may have been the victim of foul play and her suicide was staged. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the mysterious story of an unidentified decent known as only “Jennifer Fairgate.”

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Additional Reading:

https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/xRjoWp/mystery-at-the-oslo-plazahttps://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/1420ufnor.html

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Jennifer_Fairgatehttps://unsolved.com/gallery/death-in-oslo/

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Jennifer_Fairgatehttps://screenrant.com/unsolved-mysteries-oslo-woman-murder-identity-jennifer-leaves-out/

https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/unsolved-mysteries-the-vanishing-of-camilla-steinaa-d0be8f814fab

Transcript

Speaker 1

Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series about the death of Jennifer Fairgate. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up on what we talked about in our previous episode.

Speaker 2

Well, this particular case takes place in Oslo, Norway, in nineteen ninety five at the Oslo Plaza, which is pretty much the fanciest hotel in the city, and Jennifer Fairgate is not the victim's actual name, that's just the name she used when she decided to check in there. She appeared to be in her twenties, but surprisingly she did not provide any valid form of identification or a credit card,

and the information she provided was false. She said she was from some small village in Belgium, but no tangible connection could be found between her and the location, and she stayed there for a few days and the staff tried to contact her to get her to come down and pay the bill, but they eventually decided to send a security guard up there, and when he knocked on the door, he heard a gun shot, and when they managed to make it inside the room, they discovered that

Jennifer was the victim of a self inflicted gunshot wound. Surprisingly, she did not have a lot of possessions in there, like additional clothing. According to keycard records, she had left the hotel a couple times while staying there, but no

one knows her whereaboats. There was one point where it seemed like she was gone for at least twelve hours and spent the night elsewhere, And eventually they started looking into the possibility that she could have been a spy or someone involved in espionage and criminal activity, and there's even speculation that her suicide may have actually been a murderer and that she was killed by a skilled assassin who somehow managed to make it out of the room

before security burst inside. So they have exhumed her body for DNA testing, but have yet to match it with anybody. And even though this case has gotten national exposure international exposure after being featured on Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix, we still don't know the true identity of Jennifer Fairgate or why she checked into the hotel and what was the

reason for her suicide. So, like we mentioned, there have been all sorts of wild theories about Jennifer Fairgate's identity, but for all we know, she may have just been a lonely person who decided she wanted to spend her last few days in a luxurious, five star hotel before she killed herself. There are many other documented cases of people who travel to the locations they have no ties to check into a hotel under a false name and

then end their own life. Of course, my first exposure to this situation was the Gail Delano case from Unsolved Mysteries, as she staged her disappearance from her home state of Maine, traveled to Alabama, checked into a local hotel under a fake name, and then overdosed on pills, causing her to remain an unidentified Jane Doe for over two years. As another example, there was the man who checked into a motel in Washington State under the false name Lyle Stevick.

He proceeded to hang himself in the room's closet, and it would be nearly seventeen years before he was identified by genetic genealogy. Both the trail went cold and the path went chile. Ub also covered the story of a man who checked into a hotel in Ireland under the fake name Peter Bergman, and shortly after checking out a few days later, he was found dead on a local beach. Much like with Jennifer Fairgate, Peter carried no identification and it became apparent that he was not from the area

and may have been Austrian or German. The key difference between these two cases is that there is a lot of CCTV footage of Peter's movements in the days prior to his death, as he was captured exiting the hotel on multiple occasions while carrying bags which were not in his possession whenever he returned. So this has led to speculation that Peter spent the last days of his life gradually disposing of personal items which might have held close to his which might have held clues to his identity.

Even though it seems like Jennifer left the Oslo Plaza for an extended period of time during her stay there, we don't have the luxury of tracking her movements since the police just wrote off her death as a suicide and never bothered to check the hotel security cameras.

Speaker 3

When you look at her case and you look at the items that were left in her hotel room, am I right in remembering that she actually did not have very many clothing items? They were kind of some obscure clothing items, and what she did have, including her shoes, had the labels removed from them, the designer labels.

Speaker 1

Except the blazer.

Speaker 2

Yeah, pretty much like she had the labels removed from the shoes and most of her clothing except the blazer. And she didn't have a change of clothes there, like she was found wearing a long black leather jacket and a bra and black silk pajamas, shorts and stockings, but no actual painants or skirts or anything like that. So you have to wonder did she have any other clothing when she checked in here or did she just gradually dispose of it over the few days of her state.

Speaker 1

We definitely have to send a lot of thanks towards investigative journalist Lars Christian Wegner, because if he had not taken an interest in uncovering Jennifer Fairgate's true identity, her story might have faded into complete obscurity and she would be nothing more than a Jane Doe languishing in a pauper's grave. In twenty seventeen, Wegner published an extensive article about this case in the Norwegian newspaper Verden's Gong, and he likely played a huge role in getting the story

featured on Unsolved Mysteries. Since Robert Stack is no longer around and the Netflix reboot does not have an official host, Wegner pretty much had to function as the episode's narrator in order to share the details of the case with English language audiences. If you look up Wegner's original article from Verden's Gong, you'll find a video for a thirty minute documentary titled Mystery at the Oslo Plaza, which fills in some of the gaps in the story and clarifies

key details that Unsolved Mysteries left out. Of course, after the Unsolved Mysteries episode aired, the big question many viewers seemed to have was how in the world was Jennifer Fairgate able to check into the Oslo Plaza without a credit card and proper identification. I know this was nineteen ninety five, but even back then this hotel had very strict rules about security, and it's difficult enough to check into a cheap, fleabag motel without an idea or credit card,

let alone the most luxurious, expensive hotel in Oslo. Even if they were willing to make an exception for her, you'd think the staff would have required her to provide an advance payment in cash, but she managed to stay there for three nights without paying anything. I think this has helped elevate the conspiracy theories that Jennifer Fairgate was a spy involved in espionage with connections at the hotel who were willing to give her a room without following proper procedure.

Speaker 3

It's definitely a possibility, But aren't there a million other possibilities too, Like let's say she was a sex worker and she happened to be with the manager of the

hotel and he let her stay there. Or if she was, you know, running drugs and someone at the hotel was buying drugs from her and they let her stay there, or I mean, or I don't know that she conned her way in somehow that her rich, fancy husband was coming to stay with her in a few minutes and she just doesn't have a card and she's a damsel in distress and she needed help and they helped her, and then it got lost.

Speaker 4

In the shuffle.

Speaker 3

I mean, yes, could she be a spy, sure, But I really think if you sat back and think of it, there's a million ways that humans could bypass the rules and say, hey, just this one time, let's do this, or you know, let's allow her to do this.

Speaker 1

But don't you guys think that the clerk who checked Jennifer in would hold all of those answers, because if it was indeed a manager who pressured them to check Jennifer in without the proper you know, credit card or advanced PA, then that clerk would be able to relay that to the police officers, or if it was any other situation, say they knew her and they let it slide for one reason or the other. Do we know any of those details, Robin? Uh?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'm actually about to share them right now, because they didn't address the clerk on the Unsolved Mystery segment. But this Mystery at the Oslo Plaza documentary does feature an interview with the actual clerk, and he does share some of the details, So I'm going to tell you about them right now. So, like I said, the Mystery at the Oslo Plaza documentary does address the issue by

featuring an interview with Sasha Renee and Nonsen. The actual receptionist who check Jennifer in that night a Nonsense shares all the details about what happened and says that he never detected anything unusual about Jennifer, though he doesn't really address why exactly he allowed her to rent the room

without proper ID and a credit card. However, it has been mentioned that when Jennifer checked in, it was a busier night than usual at the hotel, as three flights from major airlines all Land did at Oslo Airport, and there was a police officer strike taking place at the

airport's passport control office. Long story short, it sounds like everything was going wrong and a ton of people were flocking to the Oslo Plaza for accommodations, so the hotel seemed to have the mindset that they wanted all of their guests to be checked into their rooms as quickly

as possible without hassel. While details are vague, this might explain why Jennifer was allowed to get a room without ID or a credit card, as a Nonsen may have assumed that she would provide payment and sort out the situation in a later time when things were less busy. Even though he never admits this, part of me wonders if Jennifer might have given a Nonsen a generous cash tip.

To let her check in under these circumstances. However, we know that Jennifer originally made a reservation on May the twenty second, and then called them again on the thirty first to confirm that she would be arriving that night. But if the hotel had not been busy, how could Jennifer be certain they would allow her to check in? She we actually have ID and a credit card in her possession, which she disposed of at a later time. Did she just get lucky that she didn't have to

present these items when she registered? I know a nonsen makes it sound like there was nothing unusual about the transaction, but I still have to wonder if there's more to this story.

Speaker 3

There are definitely people who would not share details once a crime happened right in fear of getting caught up in it. But if I knew that there was a young lady who killed herself or completed suicide in her room, and that she was dead, I feel like the cash tip I got as a front desk clerk, or allowing them to break the rules a little bit, would not have stopped me from saying like this is what I know, Like I don't know who she is, but if I

can help, here's information. I guess some people just wouldn't.

Speaker 2

I mean, this documentary was made in twenty seventeen, and of course Jennifer checked in in nineteen ninety five, so I'm not entirely sure that A. Nonsen was still working at the hotel after all that time when the documentary was filled. I'm thinking that if he did something that he wasn't supposed to, like accepted a cash bribe or something that at so much time had passed, that he wouldn't be reluctant to admit it.

Speaker 1

But you never know, you might be embarrassed and be worried about the way that people would judge you, because it's a completely different lens. If you're looking through and you're going, okay, well, this guy was given a tip and that's why it was allowed to slide otherwise. There's all these different theories that you can come up with, but we do know that she was partial to giving large tips, because wasn't it like sixty kroner or something that she left to the person who delivered that meal?

Speaker 2

Yeah, that was the last meal she ordered, and because they didn't find any additional money after her death, It's been suspected that this was all the money that she had left and just decided to give it all as a generous tip, which could be foreshadowing that she was planning suicide in the near future.

Speaker 1

So we know that when Jennifer called the hotel earlier that day, she mentioned that a mail companion named Lewis Fairgate would be sharing the room with her, and there seems to be discrepancy about whether a man was actually

present when Jennifer checked in. The Nonsense said that he did not recall seeing a man, but The Mystery at the Oslo Plaza documentary also contains an interview with Evie tudem Yeertzen, who was a reception desk supervisor that night, and she remembers seeing a dark haired man with Jennifer. She specifically recalls this man handing her some money for a currency exchange, but it should be noted that this exchange may not have taken place at the time of

check in. Remember, key guard records showed that Jennifer entered her room at ten forty four pm and twelve twenty one am, so it's possible that she went down to the lobby at a later time with this man in order to make the curancy exchange, which is why a Nonsen did not recall seeing him. Regardless if this man actually existed and spent the night with Jennifer, I think it's safe to say that his real name was not actually Lewis Fairgate, since investigators found no record of anyone

matching that name. One scenario I've seen push forward, which sounds fairly plausible is that Jennifer was a sex worker

and Lewis Faregate may have been one of her clients. Obviously, if they were checking into an expensive hotel like the Oslo Plaza, this would imply that Jennifer was a high end sex worker who charged a lot of money, and a fairly compelling theory is that if she regularly serviced her clients there, she may have had an arrangement with certain staff members to check in under false names without

identification in order to protect everyone's privacy. This could also explain why they returned to the lobby to make a currency exchange, as perhaps Lewis didn't have the correct currency to pay her. I actually find this scenario more believable than the idea of Jennifer being a spy, and it could explain why certain staff members from the hotel have

always been reluctant to talk about it. Of course, the biggest issue with a sex worker theory is that it doesn't account for why Jennifer would remain at the Oslo Plaza for three more days before she wound up dead.

Speaker 3

Yeah, this is one of the theories that I think would be much more reasonable than being a spy. I think, like you said, if she is a sex worker, and she's a high end escort, and she normally I regularly will come here, there doesn't need to be any knowledge of what the truth is. Right, I'm gonna pay you under the table. You're gonna benefit, My clients are going to benefit. I get this beautiful, fancy room. Who knows what her actual lifestyle was like, if she had a

nice place to go home to. So I could easily see this being the scenario. And when you look at the kind of secrecy she would be operating with, not everyone at the hotel would know who she was, but there could be certain people, like you said, they go, oh, okay, quote, Jennifer is here, give her that room, we're not booked, and let her stay until we have people that need it for an official rental of the room.

Speaker 1

If that's the case, do you guys think that she intended to go there and to meet a client and then thought about it for a while It took a few days to think about if she wanted to complete suicide there, Like if this plan was already there, maybe see this one last client, have that money in her pocket in case she decided against it. What do you guys think.

Speaker 2

That would make sense? Because maybe she just didn't like her lifestyle, like she hated being a sex worker, so she decided I'm going to end it all. But maybe I'm going to spend the last few days of my life in this luxury hotel because I was able to get in without paying, and I just want to have some fun for a while and have some time to myself. And then once it gets to the point where they figure out that I'm not paying them and that I'm going to get kicked out, that's when I'll end things.

Speaker 3

Also, though, you could think about what circumstances could have happened in that hotel room that could take her from quote being there to service a client to wanting to complete suicide. What if that client had abused her in some way. What if she had been filmed against her consent, What if they had alluded they were going to contact

someone close to her. You know, there's all kinds of things that could make you go from like, oh, this is just another night with my clients, to oh my gosh, like my life is ruined.

Speaker 4

This can't get out, this can't happen.

Speaker 3

So I think this angle is a very sharp, intelligent one to go down when you look at easily people could look the other way if this was a scenario, and easily something could have gone wrong because it's all in secrecy. That's the problem with sex work, right. People are able to easily abuse those people because no one's paying attention, or it's all done behind closed doors. And so there's many things that could have happened that Jennifer said, I can't overcome what just happened to me.

Speaker 1

And that could explain why Jennifer had a gun. Say she was an independent sex worker, and maybe she'd had difficult relations with clients in the past where she felt threatened, so she decided to bring that handgun, and like you said, maybe something happened and she decided to use that gun on herself.

Speaker 3

And think about her like fancy clothes, Like what if they weren't quote fancy and she removed the labels because they're cheap brands. And then she has a couple really nice items because she's meeting really wealthy men or women who were her clients.

Speaker 4

You know, that could explain a lot too.

Speaker 1

But being at the Plaza hotel, that sounds like a pretty expensive place to be conducting your business. And Robin, do we know if there was any evidence of or substance use disorder or and alcohol use disorder.

Speaker 2

Uh, They've never really specified that, And I've always thought that because I do know that they checked her system and for traces of alcohol and drugs, and they didn't really find anything on the toxicology screening, so I don't think she was using either of them when she checked in. But then again, they just kind of wrote her off as a suicide, so I don't know how thoroughly they checked in if there's something they could have missed.

Speaker 1

I wonder what percentage of people have alcohol or drugs in their system when they choose to complete suicide, especially with a firearm. I'd be interested to hear those statistics.

Speaker 2

I'd be curious, like if she took some drugs like three days beforehand and then never used it while she was at the plaza, would it still be in her system after her death after all that time.

Speaker 1

It depends on the drug, but I think it would be. I mean, I went to rehab many years ago and they make you continually pee, so just to make sure that you don't have anything in your system. So I would think that they would be able to take urine from her bladder and to check her blood and there would probably just be low levels. I know, things like cocaine clear out pretty quickly. If it's a opiate, it takes longer. I think if it's weed it takes longer.

But I think they would still be able to find some trace.

Speaker 2

And I know Ashley brought up the possibility of her being abused while she was there, but they didn't find any sign of abuse either, or any signs that she had been physically assaulted. Another possibility is that Jennifer and Lewis were lovers who may have been conducting a secret affair, which necessitated the use of false names to check into

the hotel. It's been established that Jennifer was most likely not from Norway and possibly from Germany, so perhaps Oslo was one of those places where she and Lewis would meet up for a rendezvous. But for whatever reason, something happened during the stay at the Oslo Plaza which made Jennifer believe the relationship wasn't going to work out, so

she decided to take her own life. Theoretically, if Lewis was a married man with a separate life who had been carrying on this secret romance with Jennifer, that would explain why he's never come forward even after her story garnered international publicity. It's very interesting how the contact information Jennifer filled out on a registration form was from Belgium, and she specifically mentioned an obscure remote village called Verlin.

Since no one from verlinn recognized Jennifer's composite sketch and there's nothing to tire to the village, it seems unlikely that Jennifer ever lived there, but some of the information she filled out on the forum suggests that she did have some sort of knowledge of the area. So if Lewis Faregate actually existed, what if he was the one who hailed from Belgium and not Jennifer after all? Even

though Jennifer's sketch was circulated through Verlin. It does not sound like a composite was ever created for Lewis, so if he lived in the area, none of the residents would put two and two together. Of course, this theory is all just speculation on my part, but I am intrigued by the detail of Jennifer attempting to make outgoing phone calls from a room to two numbers in Belgium that did not actually exist, even though the area codes

belonged to a municipality just outside of Verlaine. If Lewis hailed from this municipality, then perhaps Jennifer was trying to call him, but she did not actually know his correct number and couldn't get a.

Speaker 4

Hold of him.

Speaker 2

This would explain why she dialed two non existent numbers that only had a one digit difference between them, as if she had an idea of what the number was but didn't actually know it for certain. There's been so much theorizing that this mysterious Lewis was somehow tied to espionage or criminal activity and may have been Jennifer's handler or perhaps even her killer. But what if they were just a couple trying to keep a secret of fame under wraps.

Speaker 3

That could also explain her decision to take her own life. He could have come there to give her money and say like, look, we can't keep doing this anymore, like good luck to you, but we just can't do this anymore, or hey, my wife found out, or your husband's gonna find out. You know, my wife's gonna call him whatever, and that could have led her to complete suicide too.

Only thing there is if anyone else knew about the situation, I feel like her identity wouldn't have been as easy to keep a secret.

Speaker 4

Like after her death.

Speaker 3

I feel like they would have been able to say, oh my god, that's my wife, you know, or oh my gosh, I was looking for my girlfriend, or you know, my husband's lover isn't around anymore. I feel like there would have been a little bit easier way to identify them. But it's definitely a possibility.

Speaker 1

But if he was from Belgium, maybe his wife never heard about it, and when he heard about it, he's like, oh, shoot, I better not say anything here because I'll just keep my mouth shut and I don't want to be tied anywhere near this.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking you would depend on how many people knew about the affair, because if neither of them was from Oslo and they just met up there for this secret romance, and Lewis was the only other person who knew about it, I could definitely see him staying quiet.

Speaker 3

Do you think him any of the affair could be a reason she'd complete suicide?

Speaker 2

I do, yeah, Like if he was a married man and had a family and says I don't want to do this anymore. Like maybe she was hoping that he would leave his wife or his family for her, and when he said no, that was the breaking point.

Speaker 1

For Looking at the timeline, we know that Jennifer used her key card to enter her room at eight thirty four am on the morning of June first, meaning that she may have woken up and stepped out to have breakfast or something before she returned. She did not use the key card again until eight fifty am on the morning of June second. But the weird part is the two maids who cleaned the room on the afternoon of the first confirmed that it was empty and Jennifer was gone.

And this is definitely one of the most baffling elements of this entire story because the maids went in there at twelve forty four pm and Jennifer was not seen again until she showed up at the front desk on the morning of the second in order to extend or stay at the hotel by two nights. So this means that Jennifer was gone from the hotel for nearly twenty four hours and no one knows where she spent the night. Furthermore,

the hotel security footage was never checked. We have no idea if Jennifer was alone or if she might have been with Lewis Faregate when she left on the morning of the first. When Jennifer returned and extended her stay,

it sounds like she was alone. So could something have happened with her and Lewis during those twenty four hours that played a role in her decision to take her own life, or if you believe the foul place took place, something compelled Lewis or someone else to show up at the hotel at a later time to kill her.

Speaker 3

That's the part that throws me off completely, is that you have this system in place that can read key cards and can show you exactly when someone comes and goes from the room, and the key card reads differently when it's the cleaning service it comes and goes, or management service that comes and goes, or the guest comes and goes. And it looks like she never leaves the room over that course of time. Yet the cleaning ladies say, no,

we were in that room at this time. I'm assuming their key cards show that they were in and out of the room and she wasn't there. If they're truly cleaning this high end hotel, they should be cleaning everywhere. They should be looking in the closet, they should be looking in the bathroom, they should be doing all of that. So it's not like she's hiding in the room. How the heck could she not be in that location but also not have the doors read that she left.

Speaker 2

I think the doors didn't read when she left. It's only the key card showed when she entered her room. But obviously we don't know when she left. But since we have a twenty four hour gap between when she went in and the maid said she was not there at twelve forty four pm, that seems to indicate that she went somewhere and spent the night at another location before she returned, but we just have no idea where

this could be. So the last entry and the key card took place at eleven three am on the morning of the second, which means that Jennifer may have spent as much as nineteen consecutive hours inside the room alone without leaving before she died. However, just because the key card wasn't used does not necessarily mean that someone else didn't enter the room, as an outside party could have shown up there by knocking on the door and Jennifer

let them inside. But the only confirmed sighting of Jennifer during this nineteen hour window was the employee who delivered food to a room at eight twenty three pm and confirmed she was alone. There's also some confusion about other items being seen inside the room which were not present

when Jennifer's body was found. We have they account from the housekeeper who said she saw a pair of colorful high heeled shoes in the closet when she cleaned the empty room on the first, But since we know Jennifer entered the room on at least two separate occasions on the morning of the second, I suppose she could have gone out and disposed of the shoes somewhere, But it's also possible that the maid was simply mistaken, as she led cleaned several rooms that week, and I'm not sure

how she could have such a vivid and accurate memory of a pair of shoes she saw in some guest closet. However, the account from the employee who delivered the food is a bit more unusual, since she reported that Jennifer was wearing a suit which made her resemble a flight attendant, and she also had a rolling suitcase. Neither of these items were found, and since there was no record of the key card being used after that point, how could

Jennifer have disposed of them? Did this mean that someone else entered the room and remove the items, or could the employee simply be mistaken. It's also worth noting that two key cards were found in the room following Jennifer's death, which implied that she checked in with an additional guest. Investigators never specified if there was any additional activity on the second key card, but I'm guessing not, because otherwise it likely would have been reported. When Jennifer received her food.

She also gave the employee a tip of fifty kroner, which is considered to be a lot higher than your average room service time. Since no other money was found following your death, it's possible that Jennifer just wanted to give away all the money she had left in her possession because she knew she would no longer need it.

Speaker 3

When you look at the two key cards that have been given to her when she checked in, I don't know that that necessarily signifies she had somebody else with her. My very first job out of college was working for a like a hall at Hampton in And when I was working there, sometimes we would just automatically code two keys, pop them in the envelope, and hand them over to the guest. And sometimes I was just being lazy, like it was just you know, automatic, everybody knew code two keys,

give it to them, walk away. I also have people that will say do you want one or two keys, even if it's just me checking into a hotel, So meaning like, hey, maybe I have someonecoming leader that I want to give it to, or I don't know, sometimes I want to leave one on the dresser and one

in my jean pocket or whatever. But I don't know that it definitely says, hey, there was somebody else I think it could have also just been tall policy to put two in the key card holder and hand it over to the customer.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I think that's most likely because it is standard practice these days for hotels to give two key cards to one guest. And like I said, there was any activity on that second key card, I think police probably would have told us about it.

Speaker 1

So one detail which really throws me off is the presence of undigested food in Jennifer's stomach, which implies that she ate something a short time before she died. The meal she received was only half eaten and still in the room when her body was found, even though it was delivered nearly twenty four hours beforehand. So could this mean that Jennifer was actually killed on the evening of June second, shortly after she ate, or did she save the food for a while and consume some cold brought

worst and potato salad sometime on the evening of June third. Well, if it's the first scenario, then this would definitely indicate that Jennifer was murdered, since someone else had to fire the gunshot after espin Nas knocked on the door, but while waiting twenty four hours to eat cold food is a bit odd. The second scenario makes a lot more sense. Remember, since Jennifer never provided any payment, the front desk sent a total of three messages to the TV screen asking

her to come downstairs and see the cashier. The last message was sent only fourteen minutes before Noss went upstairs and was a lot more urgent in tone. But since someone responded to the message by pressing okay, this means that Jennifer or an unknown party was definitely in the room at the time. However, when you see how these events unfolded, suicide seems a lot more plausible than homicide.

A gunshot was heard immediately after Nos knocked on the door, and while we technically don't know if this was a shot which killed Jennifer or the so called test shot that was fired into the pillow, it makes no sense for an outside party to do this, as there's no way anyone could have known who was in the hallway.

If this was a murderer, then the killer got extremely lucky that Nos was a young, part time employee who was not about to put his life at risk and took fifteen minutes to head downstairs and ring the rest of the security staff. To the room, giving the killer ample time to escape. For all the shooter knew, there could have been an entire security team outside who would have been able to use a special security key card

to open the door and burst inside. I think that a killer would have been more inclined to stay silent and hope that the person at the door just went away, rather than firing off a gun. Would If you believe Jennifer's death was a suicide, then it makes perfect sense that she would elect to shoot herself under those circumstances.

If her plan was to spend the last few days of her life in a fancy hotel before taking her own life, she probably knew that her days were numbered when the message demanding that she see the cashier appeared on the TV screen, So when she heard the knock of the door, she knew her time was up and decided to end her own life.

Speaker 3

I think you're spot on there when you think about this idea that it's a killer sitting in the room and he hears a knock and he goes, this is it any fine that's drawing attention to the room, And like you said, it requires an immediate response. And so how am I going to get out of this room after I just shot someone, and there's someone standing outside the door and.

Speaker 4

Clearly would have heard it.

Speaker 3

The only bizarre thing to me when you're looking at her suicide is it's right in the gunshot wound is right in the middle of her forehead, which seems like the most uncomfortable, bizarre location to shoot yourself. But when you, I mean, when you think about it, it's just nothing

else makes sense. They said that there would have been no way for someone to escape that room other than the door to the room, And so if he's sitting there waiting for fifteen minutes, the killer just I don't see them shooting as soon as the knock happens at the door, And I don't see them just waiting around and perfectly timing their escape when this kid is just walking downstairs. How would they know when he left the hallway?

Speaker 2

Yeah, because the conspiracy theories that are pushed forward is that, well, maybe her killer was a spy or a highly trained assassin, and their skill that's sensing when people are outside, and they could have gone out the door and locked it behind them without anyone knowing they were in the room. But this is the stuff that you find in movies, and it just seems pretty far fetched that this could have been the mode of behind Jennifer's murder.

Speaker 1

Did you need at this plaza in nineteen ninety five a key card on the elevator to access certain floors?

Speaker 2

I don't have that information. It's never really specified that in any of the sources, but I know that from my experience at hotels, I don't remember hotels having those kind of key cards and elevators during the nineteen nineties. Of course, if you watch the Unsolved Mysteries episode, it contains interviews with a number of experts who questioned the suicide ruling and believe it would have been possible for someone else to shoot Jennifer and escape the room while

locking the door behind them. I will admit that there are some unusual details, such as the lack of blood spatter and gunshot residue on Jennifer's hands. But here's a quote from Lars Christian Wegner's Verdon's Gong article by Bjorn David, a forensic technician who investigated the scene. Quote, we took samples from the skin near the weapon to look for gunshower residue, but it's not a given that you find it.

With the way the victim held the weapon. In this case, most of the residue would have been on the other side, where the hand would be with a normal grip. Sometimes we find residue, sometimes we don't. You can't see the particles with the naked eye. The test kit we used is a tiny vial with an adhesive on the end, which you pushed down on the victim's hand. Maybe we've picked the wrong spot, but nothing was found in the

electron microscope examination end quote. Even though Jennifer's fingerprints were not found on the gun, there was also no guarantee that you'll always be able to get prints off a firearm, as the surfaces and the grip can make it difficult. And while a lot has been made of the positioning of the gun in Jennifer's hand, UNSAW Mysteries neglected to mention that the trigger was depressed, as a click was

heard when the weapon was released. So unless Jennifer was murdered by the most skill assassin ever, I have a hard time imagining this scene could have been staged. Well, I'm sure there are people who work in government intelligence that possess the necessary skills to stage a suicide scene and escape a room while double locking the door behind them.

That sort of thing sounds time consuming, and I have to harken back to the fact that there's no way an outside party could have predicted it would take fifteen minutes for the security chief to show up at the room after Espinos knocked on the door. Some doubt or unusual that when Jennifer was shot, she was dressed up as if she was ready to go out and appeared to have recently showered. After all, she was found wearing a pair of black high heeled pumps, which many women

are not inclined to wear when they're lounging around indoors. However, I'm not sure I would put much stock into this, since suicidal individuals sometimes want to look their best when they end their lives.

Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely that's the case. But when you also look at this, it's kind of like an oxy moron. You're going to dress really nice, but you're going to then complete suicide in the most one of the most heinous ways you could by doing a self inflicted gunshot wound

to your head. A lot of times, that's why you see women not choose that method, because, like you said, they want to be presentable, they want to be clean, they want to be able to be buried with an open casket, those kinds of things, and so that's why medicine or you know, other types of options are chosen. So it is kind of bizarre if you weren't in your healthy mental state at the time, I could see the idea of I'm gonna look nice and then complete

suicide with this, you know, with this gun. But from a logical standpoint, it's kind of this juxtaposition of I'm gonna be really nice and presentable, but then also make it where visually I'm not presentable to whoever finds me.

Speaker 1

And I find the black silky pajama shorts a strange choice if that was the case, because you would want to look presentable, you would want to look nice, but would you want to look sexy. I wouldn't think that most women who were in that position would choose to wear something that could be described as like what like undergarments, almost what you would wear at night to go to bed with your partner, not something there's something vulnerable about that.

Speaker 4

That's a really good point.

Speaker 1

We have a couple of other odd details such as the presence of a newspaper bag from room twenty eight sixteen, But even though all records of who actually stayed in the room that night are no longer available, I'm not sure if it's all that significant, as Jennifer could have

just stolen it while walking down the hallway. We also have the Belgian businessman known only as mister F, who stayed in room twenty eight oh four across the hall and made this weird remark about being asked about Jennifer's death when he checked out on Saturday morning, even though she was not actually found dead until Sunday evening. But mister F was not interviewed until two decades after the fact, so for all we know, he might just be misremembering

things and it has no relevance to the case. Of course, if the police had not been so quick to write off Jennifer's death as a suicide and actually questioned witnesses like Missus back in nineteen ninety five, we might have a better idea of what happened here, but it is what it is. All this debate about escaping from locked rooms and stage suicides might be irrelevant if Jennifer was not even involved in espionage to begin with, and just

a regular civilian. The most compelling evidence to support the spy theory is the fact that she was carrying a Browning semi automatic nine millimeter pistol which appeared to be compiled of bits and pieces of other guns, and the serial numbers were burnt off. Jennifer was also carrying an attashchet case containing twenty five additional bullets, which obviously would

not be necessary if she was planning a suicide. It sounds like burning a gun serial numbers off with acid is not a particularly easy thing to do, so even if Jennifer was no spy, this might suggest that she at least had a background in something like organized crime. But here's the thing, how can we even be certain that Jennifer burned the numbers off herself. The weapon definitely looks like some thing that would have been purchased on

the black market before. All we know, the serial numbers could have already been burned off by someone else before Jennifer even obtained it. I'm not trying to say that Jennifer was just an average run of the mill citizen who'd never been involved in anything illegal in her life. But I don't necessarily believe that the presence of this gun is concrete evidence that she was involved in government intelligence.

Since only one gunshot was reported in the hotel on the night of Jennifer's death, we still can't be certain if the shot espen Nas heard was fired from the first or the second bullet fired from the weapon. But if Jennifer fired a test shot, then this indicates to me that she might not have had all that much

experience with firearms. After all, if a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head doesn't actually kill you, you could instead wind up with serious brain damage or become a vegetable, which would probably be a fate worse than death for a suicidal person.

Speaker 3

Oh absolutely, I can't image and how horrific that would be. You know, when you're at the end of the of your rope and use it like all I want to do is leave, and then it is in a successful attempt.

Speaker 4

But here's the thing.

Speaker 3

She didn't have to be involved in anything to go up to somebody who she loosely knows and say, listen, I am in fear for my life. I need you to help me get my hands on a weapon. And the person says, oh, yeah, for sure, I can get you a weapon that no one will know anything about. And they hand her this weapon and she goes to the hotel and complete suicide. It could be so simple as just saying, hey, I need a weapon to protect myself, but I don't want to go buy one. Okay, well

I'll buy it from you. And they hand it to her already prepared the way that it looks suspicious, and she uses that to complete suicide.

Speaker 4

And that's all there is to it.

Speaker 2

If there's one complaint I have about the Unsolved Mysteries episode, it's that they spent too much time focusing on the issue of whether Jennifer's death was murder or suicide. But all I said and don I still believe that suicide is the most logical election explanation, and the big mystery to solve is figuring out her true identity. Until I hear otherwise, I'm certainly not going to rule out the possibility that Jennifer Fairgate was a spy or a government agent.

But if cases like the Somerton Man, Joseph Newton, Chandler the Third, and Lori Erica Rouff have taught me anything, is that the truth is sometimes a lot less sensational. In any case where an unidentified deceit and is found with the labels from all their items of clothing missing, it's pretty much a given that amateur sluse will gravitate towards the theory that the victim was a spy who

removed all these labels in order to conceal their identity. However, whenever I come across online discussions about these types of cases, I'll always hee commenters mentioned that they personally like to remove the labels and tags from their own clothing, not because they're involved in espionage, but because they simply find

them uncomfortable. So I'm not sure I'd read too much into this detail, as people who have led ordinary, mundane lives might have their own reasons for wanting to remain unidentified. I do think that many parallels can be made between Jennifer Fairgage and Peter Bergman, as both victims may have wanted to spend the last few days of their lives traveling to locations they had no ties to, and used this time to gradually dispose of all personal items which

held any clue to their true identities. Jennifer may have done this during the nearly twenty four hour windows she was gone from her hotel room, which is why certain possessions were never found. But a key difference between these two cases is that Peter was believed to be in his early fifties or early sixties, and an autopsy revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer and bone tumors, so he likely only had a few more weeks left

to live. Anyway, Jennifer was considerably younger than him, and as far as I know, her autopsy did not detect any serious medical issues. So we really have no idea why she would have chosen suicide.

Speaker 3

There's just so many things that could contributed, Like we talked about, did something happen in that hotel room with somebody else? Did she go to that hotel room with this plan? Did she do you have a mental breakdown while she was in the room. There's just a million things that could have happened.

Speaker 2

Right.

Speaker 4

Did she get bad news? We just don't know.

Speaker 3

It does seem like she, at least in her head, thought that she was supposed to be meeting somebody or was trying to contact people but had wrong phone numbers, didn't necessarily have the information that she was, you know, presenting that she needed. And so I think it's just a really interesting case that because we don't know who she was, you can't also figure out then what happened. But what's sad if this is a young woman, she's young, she's in her twenties, who is going to this hotel

to complete suicide. She's so lonely and think she has nobody in the world that needs her and loves her and it's worth taking.

Speaker 4

Your own life.

Speaker 3

And then the irony that no one.

Speaker 4

Knows who she is. I mean, it's just.

Speaker 3

Really really sad when you think about it, that you know she had somebody in this world that needed her and wondered where she was. If she's from another city or another country or something like that, there's somebody out there going, I'm missing my daughter, I'm missing my sister. My girlfriend ran away. I and do have no idea whatever happened to her, And she's countries away in a hotel completing suicide.

Speaker 4

So the irony of that.

Speaker 3

It sticks really deep to me, like she's so alone, she's so lonely, and then someone else is alive that lonely as well because their loved one is dead and they don't know where.

Speaker 1

She is well.

Speaker 2

Early on the episode, I made reference to the suicide of the man who checked into a motel in Washington under the name Lyle Stevick, who was finally identified in twenty eighteen. But this was a case where they were able to find his genetic relatives, but they kept so many details about his true identity private because his family didn't want to reveal much about who he was or why he was at that motel. But rumors have circulated that he was completely estranged from them, so that's why

they never officially reported missing it. So, for all we know, it could be the same thing with Jennifer Fairgate, where she might have family in another country or another part of Norway, but because they're estrange from her that haven't had any contact with her for decades, they may never have officially reported or missing and might still be unaware that she died in a hotel.

Speaker 3

That's true with sex workers, that's not uncommon, right, or runaways or people they consider quote throwaways, That's not uncommon for a family to say, listen, we tried. We tried to get her help, we tried to get her home, we tried to get her healthy, and we just have to almost put boundaries up to where we can't have a relationship with her, or going for years not hearing from hers not odd. So you're very right that's a

possibility as well too. They just simply have no They lost track of her, and because of her lifestyle or because of decision she was making, or even her mental health, they just simply lost contact with her.

Speaker 1

So are there any missing persons out there who might be a promising candidate to be Jennifer? Well, if you do a Google image search on Jennifer Fairgate, you're going to come across a photograph of a woman named Kimilla Steina, who is believed to have been twenty three years old when she went missing in Denmark during the nineteen eighties.

This appears to be one of those cases where you can't pin down a specific date when the victim disappeared, as Kimilla's brother last saw her alive sometime in nineteen eighty six, but her family pretty much lost touch with her after that, and she was not officially reported missing

until nineteen eighty seven. There's no direct evidence that Camilla was the victim of foul play, and she was known for being something of a drifter, who once stated that she wished she could forsake technology and live off the land. In other words, Kimilla seemed like the type of person who would be inclined to break off all contact with her loved ones and eventually end her life in a hotel in a country that she had no connection to.

The most intriguing parallel is that Camilla spent a great deal of money on dental work before she went missing, and Jennifer gone extensive dental work as well. Now, Camilla's name has always been brought up as a possible match in online discussions about this case, but after the Unsolved Mysteries episode came out, the British tabloid The Sun decided to publish an article about it out of sheer laziness.

It seems like they did a quick Google image search, found a picture of Kmilla Steina and attached it to their article. Some other clickbait websites soon followed suit. So this has created some confusion and given off the mistaken impression that the photo of Camilla is actually the real photo of Jennifer Fairgate. In actuality, the only legitimate pictures you'll find of Jennifer online are a post mortem photo

and a composite sketch of what she looked like. Admittedly, Camilla does have a pretty striking resemblance to Jennifer, so I'd like to think that investigators have already looked into this ankle, and if they haven't made a DNA comparison yet with surviving members of Kimilla's family, here's hoping that they do it in the future. In many cases involving unidentified decedents, it's assumed that they had no friends or family who cared about their fate, which is why no

one came forward to claim them. However, we've seen a lot of cases these past few years where John and Jane does have been identified and it turned out that they did have family members out there whom they had lost touch with for several years well, for various reasons such as jurisdictional issues, the decedents loved ones had no luck finally, an official missing persons report, so they didn't

really have any options for finding them. Even if Jennifer Fairgate is not Kimila Steina, then it might be a similar story involving another young woman who simply lost touch with her family, and she's never been reported missing. If Jennifer hailed from another country outside of Norway, such as Germany, then you can see why no one has put two and two together yet.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I could absolutely see why there would be a disconnect. But Robin, you were telling us that over in Europe they're not doing the genetic genealogy and the DNA testing at the level we're doing here in the US.

Speaker 4

Is that right?

Speaker 2

Yes, I'm not even sure if they've done it at all, because genetic genealogy has only been around since twenty eighteen in criminal investigations in North America, but I've yet to hear anything about when and if Europe is planning to implement it, so I really don't think they have used

it in this particular case. Perhaps all the speculation about espionage and government intelligence is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, and Jennifer was just a woman who wanted to live off the grid and enterr life on her own terms. They're definitely a bunch of unanswered questions, and perhaps the answer hinges on the identity of the man known only

as Lewis Fairgate. If he actually exists. It's possible that even if he had no involvement in Jennifer's death, he may have still spent some time with her at the Oslo Plaza and could hold some answers about her true identity.

If this case had taken place in the United States, it's possible that Jennifer would have already been identified by now via genetic genealogy, but laws are different in Norway, so at the moment, all the authorities can really do is uncover a promise candidate to be a match had then obtained a DNA sample from the relatives in order

to make a comparison. The good thing about this story being profiled and unsolved mysteries is that it's no longer a niche case which only gets discussed among online slus since it's now gotten exposure on Netflix. Jennifer Fairgate's composite sketches everywhere, and people all over the world now know her face. Before genetic genealogy, this was pretty much how

many cases involving John and Jane does got solved. Someone would come across the decedent's photo or a composite sketch online and notice a resemblance to someone they used to know, and DNA testing eventually proved their instincts correct. So this might be how Jennifer Fairgate ultimately gets identified. And if you happen to have any information on her identity or the circumstances of her death, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case.

Speaker 3

I think, like I said earlier, the biggest thing that sticks out to me here is, like you said said, the most simple explanation is probably the reality that you had this young girl who was struggling with her mental health. She might have been facing a challenge that you know, as a young girl, felt like it couldn't be overcome. And we know when't you know, the older you get, you go like I can survive anything, right if I

keep going. But when you're young, sometimes things have such a finality to them, or like they seem world ending. And so it's very possible that this young girl checks into this hotel with a plan to take her own life because she just.

Speaker 4

Can't do it anymore.

Speaker 3

And the sad part, like I said, is that to have that mentality and to say people would either be better off without me here or no one would miss me, and then to not have your identity known or have anyone being able to claim your body or to put you to rest, or to mourn you.

Speaker 4

It's just all so sad. It's a young.

Speaker 3

Girl, and I don't care what she was involved in. Let's say she's the head kingpin of drug ring, or she's you know, a major sex worker, or she's a spy, or just a young girl who has had too much on our shoulders. It's a young girl who's deceased and there's no way of knowing who she is. My prayer for so many families is that some of these European countries that are not really chasing this DNA technology start

to realize how significant it is. Because it's not just her case, it's hundreds of thousands of cases where question marks could become answers for a family. And so that's it kind of speaks to a bigger issue here of the importance of needing the ability to do that kind of genetic testing and a DNA matching.

Speaker 1

I agree with everything you said, Ash. I think if these countries could operate in the way that the US is right now, I think it would solve a lot a lot of open cases that they have with John and Jane does and maybe we would find out if Jennifer Fairgate is indeed Kamilla Steina. I mean, it's a very interesting parallel that they look so much alike and that a lot of people think that they could be

the same person. But there's so many unanswered questions with this case, and like if it was indeed Camilla Steina, it just doesn't seem to me personally in line that she would go to the Plaza Hotel and she would have all of these kind of fancy clothes somebody living off the grid doesn't really align with me. With somebody wanting to go to like the most luxurious hotel and to have items in her wardrobe like that blazer that I'd looked up what it would have costed that and

it was between three and eight hundred dollars. It just doesn't seem off the grid to me. And I mean, between nineteen eighty six and nineteen ninety five, things could have changed in her life. It could have been the exact same person, and her life just took a turn and her taste changed and her objective changed, and that's

what brought her to the Plaza Hotel. But I am more inclined with what Robin had originally theorized in his original Trail One Cold episode to think that she's more likely, in my opinion, to be a sex worker than she is to be a spy. I think that the gun is likely something that she had for her protection, and it doesn't mean that she burned off those serial numbers herself.

She may have got it from some source in the underworld, because if she was indeed a sex worker, she might have had access to the types of people who would have allowed her to procure a gun, such as that

they would have been untraceable. Why she needed that Attashey case with twenty five bullets, I'm not sure, but I just really hope that my ash said in the coming years and at least in the next decade, that Europe catches up with the genetic genealogy and being able to apply it to these unsolved cases.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I definitely do hope that happens, because on the Trail when Cold, I often do year end Q and A episodes, and one question I get virtually every the year is which case have you covered up podcast that

you think will eventually be solved? And virtually every time I pick a case involving an unidentified John or Jane Doe, and more often than not they do wind up getting identified, because that's just the way things are working now in North America with genetic genealogy, where all these people who have been unidentified for decades are finally getting their names back. And I would like to say the same thing about Jennifer Fairgate, but like we just said that, they have

not implemented genetic genealogy in Europe. And that's why Peter Bergman, another John Doe whom we checked into a hotel and died under strange circumstances and we talked about on the Path went Chile, he also has not been identified either, even though he died fifteen years ago. So yeah, I do hope that happens. And I remember when this was featured on Unsolved Mysteries over four years ago, and I was really excited to see it because this was a case I had read about on Reddit but had not

gotten a lot of international exposure. So I was great to see it on a platform like now neflicks because it increased the chances of her being identified. Maybe the right person would watch it. And yeah, I do think that the segment focused too much on the foul play

versus suicide theory. I really do think the simplest explanation is the correct one, that she died by suicide and there was no grand conspiracy or no assassins and no espionage involved, and that when we do find out the truth of our identity, I have a feeling it'll be a lot more simple, and maybe we'll find out she was a sex worker, or maybe we'll find out she was a lonely person who decided to check into a fancy hotel and end her life for reasons that only

she will understand. But I do remember we made reference to the Delano case and unsolved mysteries, and that's one that got solved in the pre DNA years just because the medical examiner who examined her body just happened to watch the TV show about Gail Delano's disappearance and recognized her as the Jane Doe and that's how she wound up being identified. So maybe something like that will happen

with Jennifer Fairgates case. Someone will just see her composite sketches. Aha, I knew this woman and I haven't seen her since nineteen ninety five. That could be her and we will finally get conclusive answers to this very tragic mystery.

Speaker 1

Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?

Speaker 2

Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollars tier tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon, and if you join our highest tier tier three, the

ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsawved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart ass remarks about jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three.

Speaker 5

So I want to let you know a little bit about the jeweles and n ashy patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so they're not very mini, but they're just too short to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those.

Speaker 1

So we hope you'll check out those patreons. We'll link them in the show notes.

Speaker 2

So I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance you have to share us on social media with a friend or d rate and review is greatly appreciated. You can email us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold trails and Chili pass call for warm clothing.

Speaker 1

Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy

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