Tycoon goes public on wife’s abduction
STAVANGER, Norway — Tom Hagen and his wife expected to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 2019. Today, one of Norway’s wealthiest men just wants to know that Anne-Elizabeth Falkevik Hagen, the childhood sweetheart he married at age 19, is alive.
Her disappearance and suspected abduction from the couple’s home on Halloween has gripped the
Scandinavian country.
The family and local police investigators kept the case secret for more than a month. But with leads drying up, no suspects and the risk of witnesses forgetting vital information as time passed, the family gave police the greenlight to go public with the case.
A ransom for the missing woman’s release was demanded with “serious threats,” police said. They declined to give the amount, but a Norwegian newspaper VG said it was for 9 million euros ($10.3 million) to be paid in Monero, a cryptocurrency considered popular among cyber-criminals.