[3] On 21 October 2022, Attorney General Jørn Maurud announced that the prosecution would submit a request for the acquittal of Viggo Kristiansen in the reopening case, based on the new investigation carried out by the Oslo police district.

[6][7][8] On 19 May 2000, the day of the murders, Stine-Sofie Sørstrønen and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen were visiting with their fathers, who both lived in the same block of flats close to the Baneheia forest.

Authorities also mobilized the military in the efforts to locate the missing children, with hundreds of troops from the home guard joining in, canvassing gardens, garages, boats, sheds, hedges and kindergartens.

[13] Helicopters applied heat-seeking cameras, all tunnels in connection with road construction in Baneheia were scanned, and all buses, ferries, trains and taxis were checked by armed police, but gave no clue as to the whereabouts of the girls.

[14] Two days after the disappearance, police announced the discovery of a human skeleton near the river Otra, near Eg Hospital, but quickly decided that it was most likely a missing German tourist, unrelated to the case.

[18] Upon receiving the news, the reaction among the hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel on site was one of enormous grief, many breaking down and weeping inconsolably, others walking around in a state of shock.

[24] A fixed abode for recreational drug users that for years had been colloquially referred to as "acid peak" was only 200 meters from the place where the two little girls were found murdered.

[63] Furthermore, Andersen had changed his story several times during interrogation, and only when confronted with evidence had he admitted to molesting the girls, as well as covering the bodies with pine branches.

Andersen was found guilty of one count of murder and rape, and sentenced to 19 years in prison[67][68] According to the verdict, Viggo Kristiansen was the leading force behind the crime.

The presiding judge Asbjørn Nes Hansen wrote in his sentencing: "Each of the victims has been subjected to the extreme burden of having been forced to listen to the other being raped while moaning in pain.

"[71]News channel Tv2 reported Kristiansen's emotional affect inside the courtroom lmmediately after the sentencing was read as one of wearing a grin on his face while chewing gum.

After briefly arguing over who was going to kill the remaining child, Andersen proceeded to stab Sørstrønen once in the neck, also severing her carotid artery, while Kristiansen was holding her arms and legs.

[90] Gísli Guðjónsson, Professor of Forensic Psychology at King's College London who is also an expert on suggestibility and false confessions, wrote in his report that the initial police interrogator "most likely ruined the case".

[97][98][99] A suspect profile report from the National Criminal Investigation Service in Norway (Kripos) suggested that there might be only one perpetrator since both victims were killed in a similar way.

The criminal investigation chief in Kristansand, Arne Pedersen, said that the DNA material, with "100% certainty", tied Kristiansen to the murders after consulting with Bente Mevåg from the forensics institute.

[106] When Tore H. Pettersen in his closing statement argued that the DNA evidence was caused by contamination, members of the jury reportedly leaned backwards in their chairs, smiled, and crossed their arms comfortably.

[117] In conjunction with an application to reopen the case in 2017, telecommunication engineer and scientist Harald Sivertsen analyzed the original report from the Santiago de Compostela-institute.

In 2009, Sigurd Klomsæt sued the Criminal investigation chief in Kristansand, Arne Pedersen, since both the police in Kristiansand and a middle manager from the forensics institute, Bente Mevåg, had informed him that the DNA material had been destroyed.

[144] Arvid Sjødin also notified the director of Public Prosecutions of Norway, Tor-Aksel Busch, about several criminal offenses performed by the police and the local state prosecutor during the investigation.

In his reply, Tor-Aksel Busch did not address the accusations and only wrote "It should be obvious, but just to clarify: Viggo Kristiansen was found guilty in 2002 and all his applications for retrial have been rejected.

Austad later said that he was generally described as a controversial person after this statement; he also received death threats, and was no longer hired by the Norwegian Civil Affairs Authority.

[156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163] In 2018, a police expert on telecommunication wrote a note to The Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission to confirm that Viggo Kristiansen's mobile phone gives him an alibi.

[164] In 2019, it was revealed that Kristiansen's missing blue mora knife had been in the possession of the police all the time and had even been checked out of the case as not being the murder weapon.

[119] This was the first expert consideration of the DNA evidence after the original trials that had not been assigned by Viggo Kristiansen's defense team, which was the objection raised by the Agder state prosecutor against the earlier reports.

[176] In February 2021, Civita, one of Norway's largest think tanks, released a podcast with the title "Is the Baneheia case the biggest miscarriage of justice in Norwegian history?

[177] In February 2021 the Norwegian Correctional Service recommended to extend Kristiansen's sentence by four years arguing that there was a real and qualified risk of recurrence of the Baneheia crimes.

[188] On 21 October 2022, Attorney General Jørn Maurud announced that the prosecution would submit a request for the acquittal of Viggo Kristiansen in the reopening case, based on the new investigation carried out by the Oslo police district.

The crime created great anger in the Sørlandet district and across Norway, so much that one early suspect, a formerly convicted murderer, had to flee his home and sleep outside in a tent out of fear of vigilante violence.

Artists including Bjørn Eidsvåg, a-ha, Ole Edvard Antonsen and Morten Harket celebrated the victims' lives from the stage at the granite quarry in Fjæreheia.

Former Minister of Justice Knut Storberget called the murders "the decisive watershed moment in terms of turning the police effort against the violence that affects women and children".