Murder in a hotel in Gudbrandsdalen: A woman was murdered in her own room

Police say they received a comprehensive explanation from the man accused of stabbing his colleague. – Act as a catalyst for the moment, says the defender.

Late on Saturday evening, a homicide alarm went off in Gudbrandsdalen after a woman was found dead at the Vivor Hoefgelshotel.

The woman was in her 30s and a Latvian citizen. She died from knife wounds.

A man in his 30s was charged with murder. The man, who is from Serbia, acknowledges the facts, but has not taken a position on the issue of guilt.

– We have nothing to say yet, but regarding the incident itself, it seems that he stabbed the dead man. We gain control of the knife that may have been used, and we also received a fairly comprehensive explanation from him as to how this could have happened. There is no reason to believe that others are involved, says police lawyer Torre Martin Subak Gundersen.

– What did he explain?

– I don't want to go into details, that will come later. But the accident happened inside her hotel room.

Both the accused and the deceased were staying at the hotel because of their work there.

The accused met the woman for the first time when he started working there in June last year.

– Their relationship is mainly related to working in the hotel. Beyond that, they did not have a close relationship, according to the information we have, says police lawyer Gunderson.

Regarding the reason for the accused’s presence in the deceased’s room, he says the following:

– The accused himself explained this. We want to get an overview of what witnesses know about this matter.

Any witnesses

There were no guests at the hotel the night of the murder, but there must have been between 10 and 20 people associated with the hotel who were there during the woman's murder.

Gundersen says there were no witnesses to the accident.

The man's defender, Anders Gustav Björnsen, previously told VG that the killing was not planned. There must have been a significant amount of alcohol involved in the photo, and there was a fundamental disagreement between the two parties.

The closest thing at this moment is to say that there is a series of unfortunate circumstances which together lead to instantaneous action. I think it's good to point out that, unlike some of the murders we've seen in the media recently, this doesn't seem to me to represent any kind of jealousy, he says now.

This incident adds to the series of murders in 2024. There have been six murder cases so far this year.

In an interview with the Serbian police

It was the same man who called the police and informed them that he had killed a woman. The arrest was not exciting, and the accused himself went out to the patrol that came to the hotel.

The accused is not known to the Norwegian police, but the police are now making contact with the Serbian police to find out if he is an acquaintance.

-Is he an acquaintance of the Serbian police?

– It's something we want to get information about.