Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two
Speaker 1: of our series about the death of Jennifer Fairgate. Robin,
Speaker 1: do you want to catch everyone up on what we
Speaker 1: talked about in our previous episode.
Speaker 2: Well, this particular case takes place in Oslo, Norway, in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five at the Oslo Plaza, which is pretty
Speaker 2: much the fanciest hotel in the city, and Jennifer Fairgate
Speaker 2: is not the victim's actual name, that's just the name
Speaker 2: she used when she decided to check in there. She
Speaker 2: appeared to be in her twenties, but surprisingly she did
Speaker 2: not provide any valid form of identification or a credit card,
Speaker 2: and the information she provided was false. She said she
Speaker 2: was from some small village in Belgium, but no tangible
Speaker 2: connection could be found between her and the location, and
Speaker 2: she stayed there for a few days and the staff
Speaker 2: tried to contact her to get her to come down
Speaker 2: and pay the bill, but they eventually decided to send
Speaker 2: a security guard up there, and when he knocked on
Speaker 2: the door, he heard a gun shot, and when they
Speaker 2: managed to make it inside the room, they discovered that
Speaker 2: Jennifer was the victim of a self inflicted gunshot wound. Surprisingly,
Speaker 2: she did not have a lot of possessions in there,
Speaker 2: like additional clothing. According to keycard records, she had left
Speaker 2: the hotel a couple times while staying there, but no
Speaker 2: one knows her whereaboats. There was one point where it
Speaker 2: seemed like she was gone for at least twelve hours
Speaker 2: and spent the night elsewhere, And eventually they started looking
Speaker 2: into the possibility that she could have been a spy
Speaker 2: or someone involved in espionage and criminal activity, and there's
Speaker 2: even speculation that her suicide may have actually been a
Speaker 2: murderer and that she was killed by a skilled assassin
Speaker 2: who somehow managed to make it out of the room
Speaker 2: before security burst inside. So they have exhumed her body
Speaker 2: for DNA testing, but have yet to match it with anybody.
Speaker 2: And even though this case has gotten national exposure international
Speaker 2: exposure after being featured on Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix, we
Speaker 2: still don't know the true identity of Jennifer Fairgate or
Speaker 2: why she checked into the hotel and what was the
Speaker 2: reason for her suicide. So, like we mentioned, there have
Speaker 2: been all sorts of wild theories about Jennifer Fairgate's identity,
Speaker 2: but for all we know, she may have just been
Speaker 2: a lonely person who decided she wanted to spend her
Speaker 2: last few days in a luxurious, five star hotel before
Speaker 2: she killed herself. There are many other documented cases of
Speaker 2: people who travel to the locations they have no ties
Speaker 2: to check into a hotel under a false name and
Speaker 2: then end their own life. Of course, my first exposure
Speaker 2: to this situation was the Gail Delano case from Unsolved Mysteries,
Speaker 2: as she staged her disappearance from her home state of Maine,
Speaker 2: traveled to Alabama, checked into a local hotel under a
Speaker 2: fake name, and then overdosed on pills, causing her to
Speaker 2: remain an unidentified Jane Doe for over two years. As
Speaker 2: another example, there was the man who checked into a
Speaker 2: motel in Washington State under the false name Lyle Stevick.
Speaker 2: He proceeded to hang himself in the room's closet, and
Speaker 2: it would be nearly seventeen years before he was identified
Speaker 2: by genetic genealogy. Both the trail went cold and the
Speaker 2: path went chile. Ub also covered the story of a
Speaker 2: man who checked into a hotel in Ireland under the
Speaker 2: fake name Peter Bergman, and shortly after checking out a
Speaker 2: few days later, he was found dead on a local beach.
Speaker 2: Much like with Jennifer Fairgate, Peter carried no identification and
Speaker 2: it became apparent that he was not from the area
Speaker 2: and may have been Austrian or German. The key difference
Speaker 2: between these two cases is that there is a lot
Speaker 2: of CCTV footage of Peter's movements in the days prior
Speaker 2: to his death, as he was captured exiting the hotel
Speaker 2: on multiple occasions while carrying bags which were not in
Speaker 2: his possession whenever he returned. So this has led to
Speaker 2: speculation that Peter spent the last days of his life
Speaker 2: gradually disposing of personal items which might have held close
Speaker 2: to his which might have held clues to his identity.
Speaker 2: Even though it seems like Jennifer left the Oslo Plaza
Speaker 2: for an extended period of time during her stay there,
Speaker 2: we don't have the luxury of tracking her movements since
Speaker 2: the police just wrote off her death as a suicide
Speaker 2: and never bothered to check the hotel security cameras.
Speaker 3: When you look at her case and you look at
Speaker 3: the items that were left in her hotel room, am
Speaker 3: I right in remembering that she actually did not have
Speaker 3: very many clothing items? They were kind of some obscure
Speaker 3: clothing items, and what she did have, including her shoes,
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 2: the shoes and most of her clothing except the blazer.
Speaker 2: And she didn't have a change of clothes there, like
Speaker 2: she was found wearing a long black leather jacket and
Speaker 2: a bra and black silk pajamas, shorts and stockings, but
Speaker 2: no actual painants or skirts or anything like that. So
Speaker 2: you have to wonder did she have any other clothing
Speaker 2: when she checked in here or did she just gradually
Speaker 2: dispose of it over the few days of her state.
Speaker 1: We definitely have to send a lot of thanks towards
Speaker 1: investigative journalist Lars Christian Wegner, because if he had not
Speaker 1: taken an interest in uncovering Jennifer Fairgate's true identity, her
Speaker 1: story might have faded into complete obscurity and she would
Speaker 1: be nothing more than a Jane Doe languishing in a
Speaker 1: pauper's grave. In twenty seventeen, Wegner published an extensive article
Speaker 1: about this case in the Norwegian newspaper Verden's Gong, and
Speaker 1: he likely played a huge role in getting the story
Speaker 1: featured on Unsolved Mysteries. Since Robert Stack is no longer
Speaker 1: around and the Netflix reboot does not have an official host,
Speaker 1: Wegner pretty much had to function as the episode's narrator
Speaker 1: in order to share the details of the case with
Speaker 1: English language audiences. If you look up Wegner's original article
Speaker 1: from Verden's Gong, you'll find a video for a thirty
Speaker 1: minute documentary titled Mystery at the Oslo Plaza, which fills
Speaker 1: in some of the gaps in the story and clarifies
Speaker 1: key details that Unsolved Mysteries left out. Of course, after
Speaker 1: the Unsolved Mysteries episode aired, the big question many viewers
Speaker 1: seemed to have was how in the world was Jennifer
Speaker 1: Fairgate able to check into the Oslo Plaza without a
Speaker 1: credit card and proper identification. I know this was nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety five, but even back then this hotel had very
Speaker 1: strict rules about security, and it's difficult enough to check
Speaker 1: into a cheap, fleabag motel without an idea or credit card,
Speaker 1: let alone the most luxurious, expensive hotel in Oslo. Even
Speaker 1: if they were willing to make an exception for her,
Speaker 1: you'd think the staff would have required her to provide
Speaker 1: an advance payment in cash, but she managed to stay
Speaker 1: there for three nights without paying anything. I think this
Speaker 1: has helped elevate the conspiracy theories that Jennifer Fairgate was
Speaker 1: a spy involved in espionage with connections at the hotel
Speaker 1: who were willing to give her a room without following
Speaker 1: proper procedure.
Speaker 3: It's definitely a possibility, But aren't there a million other
Speaker 3: possibilities too, Like let's say she was a sex worker
Speaker 3: and she happened to be with the manager of the
Speaker 3: hotel and he let her stay there. Or if she was,
Speaker 3: you know, running drugs and someone at the hotel was
Speaker 3: buying drugs from her and they let her stay there,
Speaker 3: or I mean, or I don't know that she conned
Speaker 3: her way in somehow that her rich, fancy husband was
Speaker 3: coming to stay with her in a few minutes and
Speaker 3: she just doesn't have a card and she's a damsel
Speaker 3: in distress and she needed help and they helped her,
Speaker 3: and then it got lost.
Speaker 4: In the shuffle.
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, could she be a spy, sure, But
Speaker 3: I really think if you sat back and think of it,
Speaker 3: there's a million ways that humans could bypass the rules
Speaker 3: and say, hey, just this one time, let's do this,
Speaker 3: or you know, let's allow her to do this.
Speaker 1: But don't you guys think that the clerk who checked
Speaker 1: Jennifer in would hold all of those answers, because if
Speaker 1: it was indeed a manager who pressured them to check
Speaker 1: Jennifer in without the proper you know, credit card or
Speaker 1: advanced PA, then that clerk would be able to relay
Speaker 1: that to the police officers, or if it was any
Speaker 1: other situation, say they knew her and they let it
Speaker 1: slide for one reason or the other. Do we know
Speaker 1: any of those details, Robin? Uh?
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm actually about to share them right now, because
Speaker 2: they didn't address the clerk on the Unsolved Mystery segment.
Speaker 2: But this Mystery at the Oslo Plaza documentary does feature
Speaker 2: an interview with the actual clerk, and he does share
Speaker 2: some of the details, So I'm going to tell you
Speaker 2: about them right now. So, like I said, the Mystery
Speaker 2: at the Oslo Plaza documentary does address the issue by
Speaker 2: featuring an interview with Sasha Renee and Nonsen. The actual
Speaker 2: receptionist who check Jennifer in that night a Nonsense shares
Speaker 2: all the details about what happened and says that he
Speaker 2: never detected anything unusual about Jennifer, though he doesn't really
Speaker 2: address why exactly he allowed her to rent the room
Speaker 2: without proper ID and a credit card. However, it has
Speaker 2: been mentioned that when Jennifer checked in, it was a
Speaker 2: busier night than usual at the hotel, as three flights
Speaker 2: from major airlines all Land did at Oslo Airport, and
Speaker 2: there was a police officer strike taking place at the
Speaker 2: airport's passport control office. Long story short, it sounds like
Speaker 2: everything was going wrong and a ton of people were
Speaker 2: flocking to the Oslo Plaza for accommodations, so the hotel
Speaker 2: seemed to have the mindset that they wanted all of
Speaker 2: their guests to be checked into their rooms as quickly
Speaker 2: as possible without hassel. While details are vague, this might
Speaker 2: explain why Jennifer was allowed to get a room without
Speaker 2: ID or a credit card, as a Nonsen may have
Speaker 2: assumed that she would provide payment and sort out the
Speaker 2: situation in a later time when things were less busy.
Speaker 2: Even though he never admits this, part of me wonders
Speaker 2: if Jennifer might have given a Nonsen a generous cash tip.
Speaker 2: To let her check in under these circumstances. However, we
Speaker 2: know that Jennifer originally made a reservation on May the
Speaker 2: twenty second, and then called them again on the thirty
Speaker 2: first to confirm that she would be arriving that night.
Speaker 2: But if the hotel had not been busy, how could
Speaker 2: Jennifer be certain they would allow her to check in?
Speaker 2: She we actually have ID and a credit card in
Speaker 2: her possession, which she disposed of at a later time.
Speaker 2: Did she just get lucky that she didn't have to
Speaker 2: present these items when she registered? I know a nonsen
Speaker 2: makes it sound like there was nothing unusual about the transaction,
Speaker 2: but I still have to wonder if there's more to
Speaker 2: this story.
Speaker 3: There are definitely people who would not share details once
Speaker 3: a crime happened right in fear of getting caught up
Speaker 3: in it. But if I knew that there was a
Speaker 3: young lady who killed herself or completed suicide in her room,
Speaker 3: and that she was dead, I feel like the cash
Speaker 3: tip I got as a front desk clerk, or allowing
Speaker 3: them to break the rules a little bit, would not
Speaker 3: have stopped me from saying like this is what I know,
Speaker 3: Like I don't know who she is, but if I
Speaker 3: can help, here's information. I guess some people just wouldn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, this documentary was made in twenty seventeen, and
Speaker 2: of course Jennifer checked in in nineteen ninety five, so
Speaker 2: I'm not entirely sure that A. Nonsen was still working
Speaker 2: at the hotel after all that time when the documentary
Speaker 2: was filled. I'm thinking that if he did something that
Speaker 2: he wasn't supposed to, like accepted a cash bribe or
Speaker 2: something that at so much time had passed, that he
Speaker 2: wouldn't be reluctant to admit it.
Speaker 1: But you never know, you might be embarrassed and be
Speaker 1: worried about the way that people would judge you, because
Speaker 1: it's a completely different lens. If you're looking through and
Speaker 1: you're going, okay, well, this guy was given a tip
Speaker 1: and that's why it was allowed to slide otherwise. There's
Speaker 1: all these different theories that you can come up with,
Speaker 1: but we do know that she was partial to giving
Speaker 1: large tips, because wasn't it like sixty kroner or something
Speaker 1: that she left to the person who delivered that meal?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the last meal she ordered, and because
Speaker 2: they didn't find any additional money after her death, It's
Speaker 2: been suspected that this was all the money that she
Speaker 2: had left and just decided to give it all as
Speaker 2: a generous tip, which could be foreshadowing that she was
Speaker 2: planning suicide in the near future.
Speaker 1: So we know that when Jennifer called the hotel earlier
Speaker 1: that day, she mentioned that a mail companion named Lewis
Speaker 1: Fairgate would be sharing the room with her, and there
Speaker 1: seems to be discrepancy about whether a man was actually
Speaker 1: present when Jennifer checked in. The Nonsense said that he
Speaker 1: did not recall seeing a man, but The Mystery at
Speaker 1: the Oslo Plaza documentary also contains an interview with Evie
Speaker 1: tudem Yeertzen, who was a reception desk supervisor that night,
Speaker 1: and she remembers seeing a dark haired man with Jennifer.
Speaker 1: She specifically recalls this man handing her some money for
Speaker 1: a currency exchange, but it should be noted that this
Speaker 1: exchange may not have taken place at the time of
Speaker 1: check in. Remember, key guard records showed that Jennifer entered
Speaker 1: her room at ten forty four pm and twelve twenty
Speaker 1: one am, so it's possible that she went down to
Speaker 1: the lobby at a later time with this man in
Speaker 1: order to make the curancy exchange, which is why a
Speaker 1: Nonsen did not recall seeing him. Regardless if this man
Speaker 1: actually existed and spent the night with Jennifer, I think
Speaker 1: it's safe to say that his real name was not
Speaker 1: actually Lewis Fairgate, since investigators found no record of anyone
Speaker 1: matching that name. One scenario I've seen push forward, which
Speaker 1: sounds fairly plausible is that Jennifer was a sex worker
Speaker 1: and Lewis Faregate may have been one of her clients. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if they were checking into an expensive hotel like the
Speaker 1: Oslo Plaza, this would imply that Jennifer was a high
Speaker 1: end sex worker who charged a lot of money, and
Speaker 1: a fairly compelling theory is that if she regularly serviced
Speaker 1: her clients there, she may have had an arrangement with
Speaker 1: certain staff members to check in under false names without
Speaker 1: identification in order to protect everyone's privacy. This could also
Speaker 1: explain why they returned to the lobby to make a
Speaker 1: currency exchange, as perhaps Lewis didn't have the correct currency
Speaker 1: to pay her. I actually find this scenario more believable
Speaker 1: than the idea of Jennifer being a spy, and it
Speaker 1: could explain why certain staff members from the hotel have
Speaker 1: always been reluctant to talk about it. Of course, the
Speaker 1: biggest issue with a sex worker theory is that it
Speaker 1: doesn't account for why Jennifer would remain at the Oslo
Speaker 1: Plaza for three more days before she wound up dead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is one of the theories that I think
Speaker 3: would be much more reasonable than being a spy. I think,
Speaker 3: like you said, if she is a sex worker, and
Speaker 3: she's a high end escort, and she normally I regularly
Speaker 3: will come here, there doesn't need to be any knowledge
Speaker 3: of what the truth is. Right, I'm gonna pay you
Speaker 3: under the table. You're gonna benefit, My clients are going
Speaker 3: to benefit. I get this beautiful, fancy room. Who knows
Speaker 3: what her actual lifestyle was like, if she had a
Speaker 3: nice place to go home to. So I could easily
Speaker 3: see this being the scenario. And when you look at
Speaker 3: the kind of secrecy she would be operating with, not
Speaker 3: everyone at the hotel would know who she was, but
Speaker 3: there could be certain people, like you said, they go, oh, okay, quote,
Speaker 3: Jennifer is here, give her that room, we're not booked,
Speaker 3: and let her stay until we have people that need
Speaker 3: it for an official rental of the room.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, do you guys think that she
Speaker 1: intended to go there and to meet a client and
Speaker 1: then thought about it for a while It took a
Speaker 1: few days to think about if she wanted to complete
Speaker 1: suicide there, Like if this plan was already there, maybe
Speaker 1: see this one last client, have that money in her
Speaker 1: pocket in case she decided against it. What do you
Speaker 1: guys think.
Speaker 2: That would make sense? Because maybe she just didn't like
Speaker 2: her lifestyle, like she hated being a sex worker, so
Speaker 2: she decided I'm going to end it all. But maybe
Speaker 2: I'm going to spend the last few days of my
Speaker 2: life in this luxury hotel because I was able to
Speaker 2: get in without paying, and I just want to have
Speaker 2: some fun for a while and have some time to myself.
Speaker 2: And then once it gets to the point where they
Speaker 2: figure out that I'm not paying them and that I'm
Speaker 2: going to get kicked out, that's when I'll end things.
Speaker 3: Also, though, you could think about what circumstances could have
Speaker 3: happened in that hotel room that could take her from
Speaker 3: quote being there to service a client to wanting to
Speaker 3: complete suicide. What if that client had abused her in
Speaker 3: some way. What if she had been filmed against her consent,
Speaker 3: What if they had alluded they were going to contact
Speaker 3: someone close to her. You know, there's all kinds of
Speaker 3: things that could make you go from like, oh, this
Speaker 3: is just another night with my clients, to oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 3: one to go down when you look at easily people
Speaker 3: could look the other way if this was a scenario,
Speaker 3: and easily something could have gone wrong because it's all
Speaker 3: in secrecy. That's the problem with sex work, right. People
Speaker 3: are able to easily abuse those people because no one's
Speaker 3: paying attention, or it's all done behind closed doors. And
Speaker 3: so there's many things that could have happened that Jennifer said,
Speaker 3: I can't overcome what just happened to me.
Speaker 1: And that could explain why Jennifer had a gun. Say
Speaker 1: she was an independent sex worker, and maybe she'd had
Speaker 1: difficult relations with clients in the past where she felt threatened,
Speaker 1: so she decided to bring that handgun, and like you said,
Speaker 1: maybe something happened and she decided to use that gun
Speaker 1: on herself.
Speaker 3: And think about her like fancy clothes, Like what if
Speaker 3: they weren't quote fancy and she removed the labels because
Speaker 3: they're cheap brands. And then she has a couple really
Speaker 3: nice items because she's meeting really wealthy men or women
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 1: pretty expensive place to be conducting your business. And Robin,
Speaker 1: do we know if there was any evidence of or
Speaker 1: substance use disorder or and alcohol use disorder.
Speaker 2: Uh, They've never really specified that, And I've always thought
Speaker 2: that because I do know that they checked her system
Speaker 2: and for traces of alcohol and drugs, and they didn't
Speaker 2: really find anything on the toxicology screening, so I don't
Speaker 2: think she was using either of them when she checked in.
Speaker 2: But then again, they just kind of wrote her off
Speaker 2: as a suicide, so I don't know how thoroughly they
Speaker 2: checked in if there's something they could have missed.
Speaker 1: I wonder what percentage of people have alcohol or drugs
Speaker 1: in their system when they choose to complete suicide, especially
Speaker 1: with a firearm. I'd be interested to hear those statistics.
Speaker 2: I'd be curious, like if she took some drugs like
Speaker 2: three days beforehand and then never used it while she
Speaker 2: was at the plaza, would it still be in her
Speaker 2: system after her death after all that time.
Speaker 1: It depends on the drug, but I think it would be.
Speaker 1: I mean, I went to rehab many years ago and
Speaker 1: they make you continually pee, so just to make sure
Speaker 1: that you don't have anything in your system. So I
Speaker 1: would think that they would be able to take urine
Speaker 1: from her bladder and to check her blood and there
Speaker 1: would probably just be low levels. I know, things like
Speaker 1: cocaine clear out pretty quickly. If it's a opiate, it
Speaker 1: takes longer. I think if it's weed it takes longer.
Speaker 1: But I think they would still be able to find
Speaker 1: some trace.
Speaker 2: And I know Ashley brought up the possibility of her
Speaker 2: being abused while she was there, but they didn't find
Speaker 2: any sign of abuse either, or any signs that she
Speaker 2: had been physically assaulted. Another possibility is that Jennifer and
Speaker 2: Lewis were lovers who may have been conducting a secret affair,
Speaker 2: which necessitated the use of false names to check into
Speaker 2: the hotel. It's been established that Jennifer was most likely
Speaker 2: not from Norway and possibly from Germany, so perhaps Oslo
Speaker 2: was one of those places where she and Lewis would
Speaker 2: meet up for a rendezvous. But for whatever reason, something
Speaker 2: happened during the stay at the Oslo Plaza which made
Speaker 2: Jennifer believe the relationship wasn't going to work out, so
Speaker 2: she decided to take her own life. Theoretically, if Lewis
Speaker 2: was a married man with a separate life who had
Speaker 2: been carrying on this secret romance with Jennifer, that would
Speaker 2: explain why he's never come forward even after her story
Speaker 2: garnered international publicity. It's very interesting how the contact information
Speaker 2: Jennifer filled out on a registration form was from Belgium,
Speaker 2: and she specifically mentioned an obscure remote village called Verlin.
Speaker 2: Since no one from verlinn recognized Jennifer's composite sketch and
Speaker 2: there's nothing to tire to the village, it seems unlikely
Speaker 2: that Jennifer ever lived there, but some of the information
Speaker 2: she filled out on the forum suggests that she did
Speaker 2: have some sort of knowledge of the area. So if
Speaker 2: Lewis Faregate actually existed, what if he was the one
Speaker 2: who hailed from Belgium and not Jennifer after all? Even
Speaker 2: though Jennifer's sketch was circulated through Verlin. It does not
Speaker 2: sound like a composite was ever created for Lewis, so
Speaker 2: if he lived in the area, none of the residents
Speaker 2: would put two and two together. Of course, this theory
Speaker 2: is all just speculation on my part, but I am
Speaker 2: intrigued by the detail of Jennifer attempting to make outgoing
Speaker 2: phone calls from a room to two numbers in Belgium
Speaker 2: that did not actually exist, even though the area codes
Speaker 2: belonged to a municipality just outside of Verlaine. If Lewis
Speaker 2: hailed from this municipality, then perhaps Jennifer was trying to
Speaker 2: call him, but she did not actually know his correct
Speaker 2: number and couldn't get a.
Speaker 4: Hold of him.
Speaker 2: This would explain why she dialed two non existent numbers
Speaker 2: that only had a one digit difference between them, as
Speaker 2: if she had an idea of what the number was
Speaker 2: but didn't actually know it for certain. There's been so
Speaker 2: much theorizing that this mysterious Lewis was somehow tied to
Speaker 2: espionage or criminal activity and may have been Jennifer's handler
Speaker 2: or perhaps even her killer. But what if they were
Speaker 2: just a couple trying to keep a secret of fame
Speaker 2: under wraps.
Speaker 3: That could also explain her decision to take her own life.
Speaker 3: He could have come there to give her money and
Speaker 3: say like, look, we can't keep doing this anymore, like
Speaker 3: good luck to you, but we just can't do this anymore,
Speaker 3: or hey, my wife found out, or your husband's gonna
Speaker 3: find out. You know, my wife's gonna call him whatever,
Speaker 3: and that could have led her to complete suicide too.
Speaker 3: Only thing there is if anyone else knew about the situation,
Speaker 3: I feel like her identity wouldn't have been as easy
Speaker 3: to keep a secret.
Speaker 4: Like after her death.
Speaker 3: I feel like they would have been able to say,
Speaker 3: oh my god, that's my wife, you know, or oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, I was looking for my girlfriend, or you know,
Speaker 3: my husband's lover isn't around anymore. I feel like there
Speaker 3: would have been a little bit easier way to identify them.
Speaker 3: But it's definitely a possibility.
Speaker 1: But if he was from Belgium, maybe his wife never
Speaker 1: heard about it, and when he heard about it, he's like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 1: I better not say anything here because I'll just keep
Speaker 1: my mouth shut and I don't want to be tied
Speaker 1: anywhere near this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking you would depend on how
Speaker 2: many people knew about the affair, because if neither of
Speaker 2: them was from Oslo and they just met up there
Speaker 2: for this secret romance, and Lewis was the only other
Speaker 2: person who knew about it, I could definitely see him
Speaker 2: staying quiet.
Speaker 3: Do you think him any of the affair could be
Speaker 3: a reason she'd complete suicide?
Speaker 2: I do, yeah, Like if he was a married man
Speaker 2: and had a family and says I don't want to
Speaker 2: do this anymore. Like maybe she was hoping that he
Speaker 2: would leave his wife or his family for her, and
Speaker 2: when he said no, that was the breaking point.
Speaker 1: For Looking at the timeline, we know that Jennifer used
Speaker 1: her key card to enter her room at eight thirty
Speaker 1: four am on the morning of June first, meaning that
Speaker 1: she may have woken up and stepped out to have
Speaker 1: breakfast or something before she returned. She did not use
Speaker 1: the key card again until eight fifty am on the
Speaker 1: morning of June second. But the weird part is the
Speaker 1: two maids who cleaned the room on the afternoon of
Speaker 1: the first confirmed that it was empty and Jennifer was gone.
Speaker 1: And this is definitely one of the most baffling elements
Speaker 1: of this entire story because the maids went in there
Speaker 1: at twelve forty four pm and Jennifer was not seen
Speaker 1: again until she showed up at the front desk on
Speaker 1: the morning of the second in order to extend or
Speaker 1: stay at the hotel by two nights. So this means
Speaker 1: that Jennifer was gone from the hotel for nearly twenty
Speaker 1: four hours and no one knows where she spent the night. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: the hotel security footage was never checked. We have no
Speaker 1: idea if Jennifer was alone or if she might have
Speaker 1: been with Lewis Faregate when she left on the morning
Speaker 1: of the first. When Jennifer returned and extended her stay,
Speaker 1: it sounds like she was alone. So could something have
Speaker 1: happened with her and Lewis during those twenty four hours
Speaker 1: that played a role in her decision to take her
Speaker 1: own life, or if you believe the foul place took place,
Speaker 1: something compelled Lewis or someone else to show up at
Speaker 1: the hotel at a later time to kill her.
Speaker 3: That's the part that throws me off completely, is that
Speaker 3: you have this system in place that can read key
Speaker 3: cards and can show you exactly when someone comes and
Speaker 3: goes from the room, and the key card reads differently
Speaker 3: when it's the cleaning service it comes and goes, or
Speaker 3: management service that comes and goes, or the guest comes
Speaker 3: and goes. And it looks like she never leaves the
Speaker 3: room over that course of time. Yet the cleaning ladies say, no,
Speaker 3: we were in that room at this time. I'm assuming
Speaker 3: their key cards show that they were in and out
Speaker 3: of the room and she wasn't there. If they're truly
Speaker 3: cleaning this high end hotel, they should be cleaning everywhere.
Speaker 3: They should be looking in the closet, they should be
Speaker 3: looking in the bathroom, they should be doing all of that.
Speaker 3: So it's not like she's hiding in the room. How
Speaker 3: the heck could she not be in that location but
Speaker 3: also not have the doors read that she left.
Speaker 2: I think the doors didn't read when she left. It's
Speaker 2: only the key card showed when she entered her room.
Speaker 2: But obviously we don't know when she left. But since
Speaker 2: we have a twenty four hour gap between when she
Speaker 2: went in and the maid said she was not there
Speaker 2: at twelve forty four pm, that seems to indicate that
Speaker 2: she went somewhere and spent the night at another location
Speaker 2: before she returned, but we just have no idea where
Speaker 2: this could be. So the last entry and the key
Speaker 2: card took place at eleven three am on the morning
Speaker 2: of the second, which means that Jennifer may have spent
Speaker 2: as much as nineteen consecutive hours inside the room alone
Speaker 2: without leaving before she died. However, just because the key
Speaker 2: card wasn't used does not necessarily mean that someone else
Speaker 2: didn't enter the room, as an outside party could have
Speaker 2: shown up there by knocking on the door and Jennifer
Speaker 2: let them inside. But the only confirmed sighting of Jennifer
Speaker 2: during this nineteen hour window was the employee who delivered
Speaker 2: food to a room at eight twenty three pm and
Speaker 2: confirmed she was alone. There's also some confusion about other
Speaker 2: items being seen inside the room which were not present
Speaker 2: when Jennifer's body was found. We have they account from
Speaker 2: the housekeeper who said she saw a pair of colorful
Speaker 2: high heeled shoes in the closet when she cleaned the
Speaker 2: empty room on the first, But since we know Jennifer
Speaker 2: entered the room on at least two separate occasions on
Speaker 2: the morning of the second, I suppose she could have
Speaker 2: gone out and disposed of the shoes somewhere, But it's
Speaker 2: also possible that the maid was simply mistaken, as she
Speaker 2: led cleaned several rooms that week, and I'm not sure
Speaker 2: how she could have such a vivid and accurate memory
Speaker 2: of a pair of shoes she saw in some guest closet. However,
Speaker 2: the account from the employee who delivered the food is
Speaker 2: a bit more unusual, since she reported that Jennifer was
Speaker 2: wearing a suit which made her resemble a flight attendant,
Speaker 2: and she also had a rolling suitcase. Neither of these
Speaker 2: items were found, and since there was no record of
Speaker 2: the key card being used after that point, how could
Speaker 2: Jennifer have disposed of them? Did this mean that someone
Speaker 2: else entered the room and remove the items, or could
Speaker 2: the employee simply be mistaken. It's also worth noting that
Speaker 2: two key cards were found in the room following Jennifer's death,
Speaker 2: which implied that she checked in with an additional guest.
Speaker 2: Investigators never specified if there was any additional activity on
Speaker 2: the second key card, but I'm guessing not, because otherwise
Speaker 2: it likely would have been reported. When Jennifer received her food.
Speaker 2: She also gave the employee a tip of fifty kroner,
Speaker 2: which is considered to be a lot higher than your
Speaker 2: average room service time. Since no other money was found
Speaker 2: following your death, it's possible that Jennifer just wanted to
Speaker 2: give away all the money she had left in her
Speaker 2: possession because she knew she would no longer need it.
Speaker 3: When you look at the two key cards that have
Speaker 3: been given to her when she checked in, I don't
Speaker 3: know that that necessarily signifies she had somebody else with her.
Speaker 3: My very first job out of college was working for
Speaker 3: a like a hall at Hampton in And when I
Speaker 3: was working there, sometimes we would just automatically code two keys,
Speaker 3: pop them in the envelope, and hand them over to
Speaker 3: the guest. And sometimes I was just being lazy, like
Speaker 3: it was just you know, automatic, everybody knew code two keys,
Speaker 3: give it to them, walk away. I also have people
Speaker 3: that will say do you want one or two keys,
Speaker 3: even if it's just me checking into a hotel, So
Speaker 3: meaning like, hey, maybe I have someonecoming leader that I
Speaker 3: want to give it to, or I don't know, sometimes
Speaker 3: I want to leave one on the dresser and one
Speaker 3: in my jean pocket or whatever. But I don't know
Speaker 3: that it definitely says, hey, there was somebody else I
Speaker 3: think it could have also just been tall policy to
Speaker 3: put two in the key card holder and hand it
Speaker 3: over to the customer.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's most likely because it is standard
Speaker 2: practice these days for hotels to give two key cards
Speaker 2: to one guest. And like I said, there was any
Speaker 2: activity on that second key card, I think police probably
Speaker 2: would have told us about it.
Speaker 1: So one detail which really throws me off is the
Speaker 1: presence of undigested food in Jennifer's stomach, which implies that
Speaker 1: she ate something a short time before she died. The
Speaker 1: meal she received was only half eaten and still in
Speaker 1: the room when her body was found, even though it
Speaker 1: was delivered nearly twenty four hours beforehand. So could this
Speaker 1: mean that Jennifer was actually killed on the evening of
Speaker 1: June second, shortly after she ate, or did she save
Speaker 1: the food for a while and consume some cold brought
Speaker 1: worst and potato salad sometime on the evening of June third. Well,
Speaker 1: if it's the first scenario, then this would definitely indicate
Speaker 1: that Jennifer was murdered, since someone else had to fire
Speaker 1: the gunshot after espin Nas knocked on the door, but
Speaker 1: while waiting twenty four hours to eat cold food is
Speaker 1: a bit odd. The second scenario makes a lot more sense. Remember,
Speaker 1: since Jennifer never provided any payment, the front desk sent
Speaker 1: a total of three messages to the TV screen asking
Speaker 1: her to come downstairs and see the cashier. The last
Speaker 1: message was sent only fourteen minutes before Noss went upstairs
Speaker 1: and was a lot more urgent in tone. But since
Speaker 1: someone responded to the message by pressing okay, this means
Speaker 1: that Jennifer or an unknown party was definitely in the
Speaker 1: room at the time. However, when you see how these
Speaker 1: events unfolded, suicide seems a lot more plausible than homicide.
Speaker 1: A gunshot was heard immediately after Nos knocked on the door,
Speaker 1: and while we technically don't know if this was a
Speaker 1: shot which killed Jennifer or the so called test shot
Speaker 1: that was fired into the pillow, it makes no sense
Speaker 1: for an outside party to do this, as there's no
Speaker 1: way anyone could have known who was in the hallway.
Speaker 1: If this was a murderer, then the killer got extremely
Speaker 1: lucky that Nos was a young, part time employee who
Speaker 1: was not about to put his life at risk and
Speaker 1: took fifteen minutes to head downstairs and ring the rest
Speaker 1: of the security staff. To the room, giving the killer
Speaker 1: ample time to escape. For all the shooter knew, there
Speaker 1: could have been an entire security team outside who would
Speaker 1: have been able to use a special security key card
Speaker 1: to open the door and burst inside. I think that
Speaker 1: a killer would have been more inclined to stay silent
Speaker 1: and hope that the person at the door just went away,
Speaker 1: rather than firing off a gun. Would If you believe
Speaker 1: Jennifer's death was a suicide, then it makes perfect sense
Speaker 1: that she would elect to shoot herself under those circumstances.
Speaker 1: If her plan was to spend the last few days
Speaker 1: of her life in a fancy hotel before taking her
Speaker 1: own life, she probably knew that her days were numbered
Speaker 1: when the message demanding that she see the cashier appeared
Speaker 1: on the TV screen, So when she heard the knock
Speaker 1: of the door, she knew her time was up and
Speaker 1: decided to end her own life.
Speaker 3: I think you're spot on there when you think about
Speaker 3: this idea that it's a killer sitting in the room
Speaker 3: and he hears a knock and he goes, this is
Speaker 3: it any fine that's drawing attention to the room, And
Speaker 3: like you said, it requires an immediate response. And so
Speaker 3: how am I going to get out of this room
Speaker 3: after I just shot someone, and there's someone standing outside
Speaker 3: the door and.
Speaker 4: Clearly would have heard it.
Speaker 3: The only bizarre thing to me when you're looking at
Speaker 3: her suicide is it's right in the gunshot wound is
Speaker 3: right in the middle of her forehead, which seems like
Speaker 3: the most uncomfortable, bizarre location to shoot yourself. But when you,
Speaker 3: I mean, when you think about it, it's just nothing
Speaker 3: else makes sense. They said that there would have been
Speaker 3: no way for someone to escape that room other than
Speaker 3: the door to the room, And so if he's sitting
Speaker 3: there waiting for fifteen minutes, the killer just I don't
Speaker 3: see them shooting as soon as the knock happens at
Speaker 3: the door, And I don't see them just waiting around
Speaker 3: and perfectly timing their escape when this kid is just
Speaker 3: 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,
Speaker 2: maybe her killer was a spy or a highly trained assassin,
Speaker 2: and their skill that's sensing when people are outside, and
Speaker 2: they could have gone out the door and locked it
Speaker 2: behind them without anyone knowing they were in the room.
Speaker 2: But this is the stuff that you find in movies,
Speaker 2: and it just seems pretty far fetched that this could
Speaker 2: have been the mode of behind Jennifer's murder.
Speaker 1: Did you need at this plaza in nineteen ninety five
Speaker 1: a key card on the elevator to access certain floors?
Speaker 2: I don't have that information. It's never really specified that
Speaker 2: in any of the sources, but I know that from
Speaker 2: my experience at hotels, I don't remember hotels having those
Speaker 2: kind of key cards and elevators during the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2: Of course, if you watch the Unsolved Mysteries episode, it
Speaker 2: contains interviews with a number of experts who questioned the
Speaker 2: suicide ruling and believe it would have been possible for
Speaker 2: someone else to shoot Jennifer and escape the room while
Speaker 2: locking the door behind them. I will admit that there
Speaker 2: are some unusual details, such as the lack of blood
Speaker 2: spatter and gunshot residue on Jennifer's hands. But here's a
Speaker 2: quote from Lars Christian Wegner's Verdon's Gong article by Bjorn David,
Speaker 2: a forensic technician who investigated the scene. Quote, we took
Speaker 2: samples from the skin near the weapon to look for
Speaker 2: gunshower residue, but it's not a given that you find it.
Speaker 2: With the way the victim held the weapon. In this case,
Speaker 2: most of the residue would have been on the other side,
Speaker 2: where the hand would be with a normal grip. Sometimes
Speaker 2: we find residue, sometimes we don't. You can't see the
Speaker 2: particles with the naked eye. The test kit we used
Speaker 2: is a tiny vial with an adhesive on the end,
Speaker 2: which you pushed down on the victim's hand. Maybe we've
Speaker 2: picked the wrong spot, but nothing was found in the
Speaker 2: electron microscope examination end quote. Even though Jennifer's fingerprints were
Speaker 2: not found on the gun, there was also no guarantee
Speaker 2: that you'll always be able to get prints off a firearm,
Speaker 2: as the surfaces and the grip can make it difficult.
Speaker 2: And while a lot has been made of the positioning
Speaker 2: of the gun in Jennifer's hand, UNSAW Mysteries neglected to
Speaker 2: mention that the trigger was depressed, as a click was
Speaker 2: heard when the weapon was released. So unless Jennifer was
Speaker 2: murdered by the most skill assassin ever, I have a
Speaker 2: hard time imagining this scene could have been staged. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm sure there are people who work in government intelligence
Speaker 2: that possess the necessary skills to stage a suicide scene
Speaker 2: and escape a room while double locking the door behind them.
Speaker 2: That sort of thing sounds time consuming, and I have
Speaker 2: to harken back to the fact that there's no way
Speaker 2: an outside party could have predicted it would take fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes for the security chief to show up at the
Speaker 2: room after Espinos knocked on the door. Some doubt or
Speaker 2: unusual that when Jennifer was shot, she was dressed up
Speaker 2: as if she was ready to go out and appeared
Speaker 2: to have recently showered. After all, she was found wearing
Speaker 2: a pair of black high heeled pumps, which many women
Speaker 2: are not inclined to wear when they're lounging around indoors. However,
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I would put much stock into this,
Speaker 2: since suicidal individuals sometimes want to look their best when
Speaker 2: they end their lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely that's the case. But when you also look
Speaker 3: at this, it's kind of like an oxy moron. You're
Speaker 3: going to dress really nice, but you're going to then
Speaker 3: complete suicide in the most one of the most heinous
Speaker 3: ways you could by doing a self inflicted gunshot wound
Speaker 3: to your head. A lot of times, that's why you
Speaker 3: see women not choose that method, because, like you said,
Speaker 3: they want to be presentable, they want to be clean,
Speaker 3: they want to be able to be buried with an
Speaker 3: open casket, those kinds of things, and so that's why
Speaker 3: medicine or you know, other types of options are chosen.
Speaker 3: So it is kind of bizarre if you weren't in
Speaker 3: your healthy mental state at the time, I could see
Speaker 3: the idea of I'm gonna look nice and then complete
Speaker 3: suicide with this, you know, with this gun. But from
Speaker 3: a logical standpoint, it's kind of this juxtaposition of I'm
Speaker 3: gonna be really nice and presentable, but then also make
Speaker 3: it where visually I'm not presentable to whoever finds me.
Speaker 1: And I find the black silky pajama shorts a strange
Speaker 1: choice if that was the case, because you would want
Speaker 1: to look presentable, you would want to look nice, but
Speaker 1: would you want to look sexy. I wouldn't think that
Speaker 1: most women who were in that position would choose to
Speaker 1: wear something that could be described as like what like undergarments,
Speaker 1: almost what you would wear at night to go to
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: the presence of a newspaper bag from room twenty eight sixteen,
Speaker 1: But even though all records of who actually stayed in
Speaker 1: the room that night are no longer available, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's all that significant, as Jennifer could have
Speaker 1: just stolen it while walking down the hallway. We also
Speaker 1: have the Belgian businessman known only as mister F, who
Speaker 1: stayed in room twenty eight oh four across the hall
Speaker 1: and made this weird remark about being asked about Jennifer's
Speaker 1: death when he checked out on Saturday morning, even though
Speaker 1: she was not actually found dead until Sunday evening. But
Speaker 1: mister F was not interviewed until two decades after the fact,
Speaker 1: so for all we know, he might just be misremembering
Speaker 1: things and it has no relevance to the case. Of course,
Speaker 1: if the police had not been so quick to write
Speaker 1: off Jennifer's death as a suicide and actually questioned witnesses
Speaker 1: like Missus back in nineteen ninety five, we might have
Speaker 1: a better idea of what happened here, but it is
Speaker 1: what it is. All this debate about escaping from locked
Speaker 1: rooms and stage suicides might be irrelevant if Jennifer was
Speaker 1: not even involved in espionage to begin with, and just
Speaker 1: a regular civilian. The most compelling evidence to support the
Speaker 1: spy theory is the fact that she was carrying a
Speaker 1: Browning semi automatic nine millimeter pistol which appeared to be
Speaker 1: compiled of bits and pieces of other guns, and the
Speaker 1: serial numbers were burnt off. Jennifer was also carrying an
Speaker 1: attashchet case containing twenty five additional bullets, which obviously would
Speaker 1: not be necessary if she was planning a suicide. It
Speaker 1: sounds like burning a gun serial numbers off with acid
Speaker 1: is not a particularly easy thing to do, so even
Speaker 1: if Jennifer was no spy, this might suggest that she
Speaker 1: at least had a background in something like organized crime.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, how can we even be certain
Speaker 1: that Jennifer burned the numbers off herself. The weapon definitely
Speaker 1: looks like some thing that would have been purchased on
Speaker 1: the black market before. All we know, the serial numbers
Speaker 1: could have already been burned off by someone else before
Speaker 1: Jennifer even obtained it. I'm not trying to say that
Speaker 1: Jennifer was just an average run of the mill citizen
Speaker 1: who'd never been involved in anything illegal in her life.
Speaker 1: But I don't necessarily believe that the presence of this
Speaker 1: gun is concrete evidence that she was involved in government intelligence.
Speaker 1: Since only one gunshot was reported in the hotel on
Speaker 1: the night of Jennifer's death, we still can't be certain
Speaker 1: if the shot espen Nas heard was fired from the
Speaker 1: first or the second bullet fired from the weapon. But
Speaker 1: if Jennifer fired a test shot, then this indicates to
Speaker 1: me that she might not have had all that much
Speaker 1: experience with firearms. After all, if a self inflicted gunshot
Speaker 1: wound to the head doesn't actually kill you, you could
Speaker 1: instead wind up with serious brain damage or become a vegetable,
Speaker 1: which would probably be a fate worse than death for
Speaker 1: a suicidal person.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, I can't image and how horrific that would be.
Speaker 3: You know, when you're at the end of the of
Speaker 3: your rope and use it like all I want to
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 3: up to somebody who she loosely knows and say, listen,
Speaker 3: I am in fear for my life. I need you
Speaker 3: to help me get my hands on a weapon. And
Speaker 3: the person says, oh, yeah, for sure, I can get
Speaker 3: you a weapon that no one will know anything about.
Speaker 3: And they hand her this weapon and she goes to
Speaker 3: the hotel and complete suicide. It could be so simple
Speaker 3: as just saying, hey, I need a weapon to protect myself,
Speaker 3: but I don't want to go buy one. Okay, well
Speaker 3: I'll buy it from you. And they hand it to
Speaker 3: her already prepared the way that it looks suspicious, and
Speaker 3: 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,
Speaker 2: it's that they spent too much time focusing on the
Speaker 2: issue of whether Jennifer's death was murder or suicide. But
Speaker 2: all I said and don I still believe that suicide
Speaker 2: is the most logical election explanation, and the big mystery
Speaker 2: to solve is figuring out her true identity. Until I
Speaker 2: hear otherwise, I'm certainly not going to rule out the
Speaker 2: possibility that Jennifer Fairgate was a spy or a government agent.
Speaker 2: But if cases like the Somerton Man, Joseph Newton, Chandler
Speaker 2: the Third, and Lori Erica Rouff have taught me anything,
Speaker 2: is that the truth is sometimes a lot less sensational.
Speaker 2: In any case where an unidentified deceit and is found
Speaker 2: with the labels from all their items of clothing missing,
Speaker 2: it's pretty much a given that amateur sluse will gravitate
Speaker 2: towards the theory that the victim was a spy who
Speaker 2: removed all these labels in order to conceal their identity. However,
Speaker 2: whenever I come across online discussions about these types of cases,
Speaker 2: I'll always hee commenters mentioned that they personally like to
Speaker 2: remove the labels and tags from their own clothing, not
Speaker 2: because they're involved in espionage, but because they simply find
Speaker 2: them uncomfortable. So I'm not sure I'd read too much
Speaker 2: into this detail, as people who have led ordinary, mundane
Speaker 2: lives might have their own reasons for wanting to remain unidentified.
Speaker 2: I do think that many parallels can be made between
Speaker 2: Jennifer Fairgage and Peter Bergman, as both victims may have
Speaker 2: wanted to spend the last few days of their lives
Speaker 2: traveling to locations they had no ties to, and used
Speaker 2: this time to gradually dispose of all personal items which
Speaker 2: held any clue to their true identities. Jennifer may have
Speaker 2: done this during the nearly twenty four hour windows she
Speaker 2: was gone from her hotel room, which is why certain
Speaker 2: possessions were never found. But a key difference between these
Speaker 2: two cases is that Peter was believed to be in
Speaker 2: his early fifties or early sixties, and an autopsy revealed
Speaker 2: that he was suffering from prostate cancer and bone tumors,
Speaker 2: so he likely only had a few more weeks left
Speaker 2: to live. Anyway, Jennifer was considerably younger than him, and
Speaker 2: as far as I know, her autopsy did not detect
Speaker 2: any serious medical issues. So we really have no idea
Speaker 2: why she would have chosen suicide.
Speaker 3: There's just so many things that could contributed, Like we
Speaker 3: talked about, did something happen in that hotel room with
Speaker 3: somebody else? Did she go to that hotel room with
Speaker 3: this plan? Did she do you have a mental breakdown
Speaker 3: while she was in the room. There's just a million
Speaker 3: 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,
Speaker 3: thought that she was supposed to be meeting somebody or
Speaker 3: was trying to contact people but had wrong phone numbers,
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily have the information that she was, you know,
Speaker 3: presenting that she needed. And so I think it's just
Speaker 3: a really interesting case that because we don't know who
Speaker 3: she was, you can't also figure out then what happened.
Speaker 3: But what's sad if this is a young woman, she's young,
Speaker 3: she's in her twenties, who is going to this hotel
Speaker 3: to complete suicide. She's so lonely and think she has
Speaker 3: nobody in the world that needs her and loves her
Speaker 3: 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
Speaker 3: know she had somebody in this world that needed her
Speaker 3: and wondered where she was. If she's from another city
Speaker 3: or another country or something like that, there's somebody out
Speaker 3: there going, I'm missing my daughter, I'm missing my sister.
Speaker 3: My girlfriend ran away. I and do have no idea
Speaker 3: whatever happened to her, And she's countries away in a
Speaker 3: hotel completing suicide.
Speaker 4: So the irony of that.
Speaker 3: It sticks really deep to me, like she's so alone,
Speaker 3: she's so lonely, and then someone else is alive that
Speaker 3: lonely as well because their loved one is dead and
Speaker 3: they don't know where.
Speaker 1: She is well.
Speaker 2: Early on the episode, I made reference to the suicide
Speaker 2: of the man who checked into a motel in Washington
Speaker 2: under the name Lyle Stevick, who was finally identified in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen. But this was a case where they were
Speaker 2: able to find his genetic relatives, but they kept so
Speaker 2: many details about his true identity private because his family
Speaker 2: didn't want to reveal much about who he was or
Speaker 2: why he was at that motel. But rumors have circulated
Speaker 2: that he was completely estranged from them, so that's why
Speaker 2: they never officially reported missing it. So, for all we know,
Speaker 2: it could be the same thing with Jennifer Fairgate, where
Speaker 2: she might have family in another country or another part
Speaker 2: of Norway, but because they're estrange from her that haven't
Speaker 2: had any contact with her for decades, they may never
Speaker 2: have officially reported or missing and might still be unaware
Speaker 2: that she died in a hotel.
Speaker 3: That's true with sex workers, that's not uncommon, right, or
Speaker 3: runaways or people they consider quote throwaways, That's not uncommon
Speaker 3: for a family to say, listen, we tried. We tried
Speaker 3: to get her help, we tried to get her home,
Speaker 3: we tried to get her healthy, and we just have
Speaker 3: to almost put boundaries up to where we can't have
Speaker 3: a relationship with her, or going for years not hearing
Speaker 3: from hers not odd. So you're very right that's a
Speaker 3: possibility as well too. They just simply have no They
Speaker 3: lost track of her, and because of her lifestyle or
Speaker 3: because of decision she was making, or even her mental health,
Speaker 3: they just simply lost contact with her.
Speaker 1: So are there any missing persons out there who might
Speaker 1: be a promising candidate to be Jennifer? Well, if you
Speaker 1: do a Google image search on Jennifer Fairgate, you're going
Speaker 1: to come across a photograph of a woman named Kimilla Steina,
Speaker 1: who is believed to have been twenty three years old
Speaker 1: when she went missing in Denmark during the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: This appears to be one of those cases where you
Speaker 1: can't pin down a specific date when the victim disappeared,
Speaker 1: as Kimilla's brother last saw her alive sometime in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty six, but her family pretty much lost touch with
Speaker 1: her after that, and she was not officially reported missing
Speaker 1: until nineteen eighty seven. There's no direct evidence that Camilla
Speaker 1: was the victim of foul play, and she was known
Speaker 1: for being something of a drifter, who once stated that
Speaker 1: she wished she could forsake technology and live off the land.
Speaker 1: In other words, Kimilla seemed like the type of person
Speaker 1: who would be inclined to break off all contact with
Speaker 1: her loved ones and eventually end her life in a
Speaker 1: hotel in a country that she had no connection to.
Speaker 1: The most intriguing parallel is that Camilla spent a great
Speaker 1: deal of money on dental work before she went missing,
Speaker 1: and Jennifer gone extensive dental work as well. Now, Camilla's
Speaker 1: name has always been brought up as a possible match
Speaker 1: in online discussions about this case, but after the Unsolved
Speaker 1: Mysteries episode came out, the British tabloid The Sun decided
Speaker 1: to publish an article about it out of sheer laziness.
Speaker 1: It seems like they did a quick Google image search,
Speaker 1: found a picture of Kmilla Steina and attached it to
Speaker 1: their article. Some other clickbait websites soon followed suit. So
Speaker 1: this has created some confusion and given off the mistaken
Speaker 1: impression that the photo of Camilla is actually the real
Speaker 1: photo of Jennifer Fairgate. In actuality, the only legitimate pictures
Speaker 1: you'll find of Jennifer online are a post mortem photo
Speaker 1: and a composite sketch of what she looked like. Admittedly,
Speaker 1: Camilla does have a pretty striking resemblance to Jennifer, so
Speaker 1: I'd like to think that investigators have already looked into
Speaker 1: this ankle, and if they haven't made a DNA comparison
Speaker 1: yet with surviving members of Kimilla's family, here's hoping that
Speaker 1: they do it in the future. In many cases involving
Speaker 1: unidentified decedents, it's assumed that they had no friends or
Speaker 1: family who cared about their fate, which is why no
Speaker 1: one came forward to claim them. However, we've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of cases these past few years where John and
Speaker 1: Jane does have been identified and it turned out that
Speaker 1: they did have family members out there whom they had
Speaker 1: lost touch with for several years well, for various reasons
Speaker 1: such as jurisdictional issues, the decedents loved ones had no
Speaker 1: luck finally, an official missing persons report, so they didn't
Speaker 1: really have any options for finding them. Even if Jennifer
Speaker 1: Fairgate is not Kimila Steina, then it might be a
Speaker 1: similar story involving another young woman who simply lost touch
Speaker 1: with her family, and she's never been reported missing. If
Speaker 1: Jennifer hailed from another country outside of Norway, such as Germany,
Speaker 1: then you can see why no one has put two
Speaker 1: and two together yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could absolutely see why there would be a disconnect.
Speaker 3: But Robin, you were telling us that over in Europe
Speaker 3: they're not doing the genetic genealogy and the DNA testing
Speaker 3: 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,
Speaker 2: because genetic genealogy has only been around since twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: in criminal investigations in North America, but I've yet to
Speaker 2: hear anything about when and if Europe is planning to
Speaker 2: implement it, so I really don't think they have used
Speaker 2: it in this particular case. Perhaps all the speculation about
Speaker 2: espionage and government intelligence is nothing more than smoke and mirrors,
Speaker 2: and Jennifer was just a woman who wanted to live
Speaker 2: off the grid and enterr life on her own terms.
Speaker 2: They're definitely a bunch of unanswered questions, and perhaps the
Speaker 2: answer hinges on the identity of the man known only
Speaker 2: as Lewis Fairgate. If he actually exists. It's possible that
Speaker 2: even if he had no involvement in Jennifer's death, he
Speaker 2: may have still spent some time with her at the
Speaker 2: Oslo Plaza and could hold some answers about her true identity.
Speaker 2: If this case had taken place in the United States,
Speaker 2: it's possible that Jennifer would have already been identified by
Speaker 2: now via genetic genealogy, but laws are different in Norway,
Speaker 2: so at the moment, all the authorities can really do
Speaker 2: is uncover a promise candidate to be a match had
Speaker 2: then obtained a DNA sample from the relatives in order
Speaker 2: to make a comparison. The good thing about this story
Speaker 2: being profiled and unsolved mysteries is that it's no longer
Speaker 2: a niche case which only gets discussed among online slus
Speaker 2: since it's now gotten exposure on Netflix. Jennifer Fairgate's composite
Speaker 2: sketches everywhere, and people all over the world now know
Speaker 2: her face. Before genetic genealogy, this was pretty much how
Speaker 2: many cases involving John and Jane does got solved. Someone
Speaker 2: would come across the decedent's photo or a composite sketch
Speaker 2: online and notice a resemblance to someone they used to know,
Speaker 2: and DNA testing eventually proved their instincts correct. So this
Speaker 2: might be how Jennifer Fairgate ultimately gets identified. And if
Speaker 2: you happen to have any information on her identity or
Speaker 2: the circumstances of her death, please contact the appropriate authorities.
Speaker 2: Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case.
Speaker 3: I think, like I said earlier, the biggest thing that
Speaker 3: sticks out to me here is, like you said said,
Speaker 3: the most simple explanation is probably the reality that you
Speaker 3: had this young girl who was struggling with her mental health.
Speaker 3: She might have been facing a challenge that you know,
Speaker 3: as a young girl, felt like it couldn't be overcome.
Speaker 3: And we know when't you know, the older you get,
Speaker 3: you go like I can survive anything, right if I
Speaker 3: keep going. But when you're young, sometimes things have such
Speaker 3: a finality to them, or like they seem world ending.
Speaker 3: And so it's very possible that this young girl checks
Speaker 3: into this hotel with a plan to take her own
Speaker 3: life because she just.
Speaker 4: Can't do it anymore.
Speaker 3: And the sad part, like I said, is that to
Speaker 3: have that mentality and to say people would either be
Speaker 3: better off without me here or no one would miss me,
Speaker 3: and then to not have your identity known or have
Speaker 3: anyone being able to claim your body or to put
Speaker 3: 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.
Speaker 3: Let's say she's the head kingpin of drug ring, or
Speaker 3: she's you know, a major sex worker, or she's a spy,
Speaker 3: or just a young girl who has had too much
Speaker 3: on our shoulders. It's a young girl who's deceased and
Speaker 3: there's no way of knowing who she is. My prayer
Speaker 3: for so many families is that some of these European
Speaker 3: countries that are not really chasing this DNA technology start
Speaker 3: to realize how significant it is. Because it's not just
Speaker 3: her case, it's hundreds of thousands of cases where question
Speaker 3: marks could become answers for a family. And so that's
Speaker 3: it kind of speaks to a bigger issue here of
Speaker 3: the importance of needing the ability to do that kind
Speaker 3: of genetic testing and a DNA matching.
Speaker 1: I agree with everything you said, Ash. I think if
Speaker 1: these countries could operate in the way that the US
Speaker 1: is right now, I think it would solve a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of open cases that they have with John
Speaker 1: and Jane does and maybe we would find out if
Speaker 1: Jennifer Fairgate is indeed Kamilla Steina. I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: very interesting parallel that they look so much alike and
Speaker 1: that a lot of people think that they could be
Speaker 1: the same person. But there's so many unanswered questions with
Speaker 1: this case, and like if it was indeed Camilla Steina,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem to me personally in line that
Speaker 1: she would go to the Plaza Hotel and she would
Speaker 1: have all of these kind of fancy clothes somebody living
Speaker 1: off the grid doesn't really align with me. With somebody
Speaker 1: wanting to go to like the most luxurious hotel and
Speaker 1: to have items in her wardrobe like that blazer that
Speaker 1: I'd looked up what it would have costed that and
Speaker 1: it was between three and eight hundred dollars. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't seem off the grid to me. And I mean,
Speaker 1: between nineteen eighty six and nineteen ninety five, things could
Speaker 1: have changed in her life. It could have been the
Speaker 1: exact same person, and her life just took a turn
Speaker 1: and her taste changed and her objective changed, and that's
Speaker 1: what brought her to the Plaza Hotel. But I am
Speaker 1: more inclined with what Robin had originally theorized in his
Speaker 1: original Trail One Cold episode to think that she's more likely,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, to be a sex worker than she
Speaker 1: is to be a spy. I think that the gun
Speaker 1: is likely something that she had for her protection, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that she burned off those serial numbers herself.
Speaker 1: She may have got it from some source in the underworld,
Speaker 1: because if she was indeed a sex worker, she might
Speaker 1: have had access to the types of people who would
Speaker 1: have allowed her to procure a gun, such as that
Speaker 1: they would have been untraceable. Why she needed that Attashey
Speaker 1: case with twenty five bullets, I'm not sure, but I
Speaker 1: just really hope that my ash said in the coming
Speaker 1: years and at least in the next decade, that Europe
Speaker 1: catches up with the genetic genealogy and being able to
Speaker 1: apply it to these unsolved cases.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely do hope that happens, because on the
Speaker 2: Trail when Cold, I often do year end Q and
Speaker 2: A episodes, and one question I get virtually every the
Speaker 2: year is which case have you covered up podcast that
Speaker 2: you think will eventually be solved? And virtually every time
Speaker 2: I pick a case involving an unidentified John or Jane Doe,
Speaker 2: and more often than not they do wind up getting identified,
Speaker 2: because that's just the way things are working now in
Speaker 2: North America with genetic genealogy, where all these people who
Speaker 2: have been unidentified for decades are finally getting their names back.
Speaker 2: And I would like to say the same thing about
Speaker 2: Jennifer Fairgate, but like we just said that, they have
Speaker 2: not implemented genetic genealogy in Europe. And that's why Peter Bergman,
Speaker 2: another John Doe whom we checked into a hotel and
Speaker 2: died under strange circumstances and we talked about on the
Speaker 2: Path went Chile, he also has not been identified either,
Speaker 2: even though he died fifteen years ago. So yeah, I
Speaker 2: do hope that happens. And I remember when this was
Speaker 2: featured on Unsolved Mysteries over four years ago, and I
Speaker 2: was really excited to see it because this was a
Speaker 2: case I had read about on Reddit but had not
Speaker 2: gotten a lot of international exposure. So I was great
Speaker 2: to see it on a platform like now neflicks because
Speaker 2: it increased the chances of her being identified. Maybe the
Speaker 2: right person would watch it. And yeah, I do think
Speaker 2: that the segment focused too much on the foul play
Speaker 2: versus suicide theory. I really do think the simplest explanation
Speaker 2: is the correct one, that she died by suicide and
Speaker 2: there was no grand conspiracy or no assassins and no
Speaker 2: espionage involved, and that when we do find out the
Speaker 2: truth of our identity, I have a feeling it'll be
Speaker 2: a lot more simple, and maybe we'll find out she
Speaker 2: was a sex worker, or maybe we'll find out she
Speaker 2: was a lonely person who decided to check into a
Speaker 2: fancy hotel and end her life for reasons that only
Speaker 2: she will understand. But I do remember we made reference
Speaker 2: to the Delano case and unsolved mysteries, and that's one
Speaker 2: that got solved in the pre DNA years just because
Speaker 2: the medical examiner who examined her body just happened to
Speaker 2: watch the TV show about Gail Delano's disappearance and recognized
Speaker 2: her as the Jane Doe and that's how she wound
Speaker 2: up being identified. So maybe something like that will happen
Speaker 2: with Jennifer Fairgates case. Someone will just see her composite sketches. Aha,
Speaker 2: I knew this woman and I haven't seen her since
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five. That could be her and we will
Speaker 2: finally get conclusive answers to this very tragic mystery.
Speaker 1: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
Speaker 2: Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
Speaker 2: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
Speaker 2: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
Speaker 2: and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
Speaker 2: with us on Patreon. If you join our five dollars
Speaker 2: tier tier two, we also offer monthly bonus episodes in
Speaker 2: which I talk about cases which are not featured on
Speaker 2: the Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon,
Speaker 2: and if you join our highest tier tier three, the
Speaker 2: ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is
Speaker 2: a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsawved Mysteries,
Speaker 2: where you can download an audio file and then boot
Speaker 2: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
Speaker 2: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
Speaker 2: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
Speaker 2: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
Speaker 2: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
Speaker 2: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
Speaker 2: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
Speaker 2: ass remarks about jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
Speaker 2: Tier three.
Speaker 5: So I want to let you know a little bit
Speaker 5: about the jeweles and n ashy patreons. So there's early ad
Speaker 5: free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
Speaker 5: Pathwent Chili mini's, which are always over an hour, so
Speaker 5: they're not very mini, but they're just too short to
Speaker 5: 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
Speaker 1: them in the show notes.
Speaker 2: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
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Speaker 2: You can email us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwin. So
Speaker 2: until next time, be sure to bundle up because cold
Speaker 2: trails and Chili pass call for warm clothing.
Speaker 1: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy