Who is Tom Hagen? Norwegian millionaire who was accused of wife’s murder

Netflix’s The Lørenskog Disappearance is a dramatisation of one of the the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries. Norwegian millionaire Tom Hagen’s wife disappeared on October 31 2018, and it is still not known what happened to the 69-year-old

While Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has become one of Netflix’s most watched shows, another series based on true crime has piqued the interest of viewers.

The Lørenskog Disappearance is one of the most mysterious unsolved criminal cases in modern history – and a new Netflix series attempted to shed light on the subject by dramatising the events.

The case surrounds the missing wife of one of Norway’s richest men, property and energy magnate Tom Hagen, 72.

Anne-Elisabeth Hagen, aged 69 at the time, disappeared from her home in Lørenskog, Norway, on October 31 2018 under very strange circumstances.

Her businessman husband Tom returned home from work after becoming concerned when his wife had failed to answer the phone, to find her missing.

At their home he found a letter containing a ransom note, demanding €9million in the cryptocurrency Monero for the release of his wife.

After initially treating it as a kidnapping case, police eventually came to suspect Anne-Elisabeth’s husband, and arrested him.

However, Tom denies all charges and was eventually released. Police are still investigating the case. It’s still not known what happened to Anne-Elisabeth.

Who is Tom Hagen?

Tom Hagen is a businessman who ended up on the list of Norway’s 400 richest people in 1999, with an estimated net worth of £46m, or 550 million Norwegian kroner.

Since then his net worth has soared due to his successful businesses, which sell electricity to companies and develop and rent out properties.

He is also the co-founder of electricity company Elkraft.

Financial magazine Kapital estimated (as of 2022) that Hagen is the 184th richest person in Norway.

Tom and Anne-Elisabeth, who was known as Lisbeth to her friends, met when they were young, and married in 1979.

They lived together in Fjellhamar, 12 miles outside Oslo, and have three children together.

What happened to Anne-Elisabeth Hagen?

On October 31, Tom left for work at 9am and reached his office about 15 minutes later.

Tom tried calling his wife later in the day, and became worried when she didn’t answer.

At around 1.30pm he drove home to check on her when he realised she was missing.

He found traces of a struggle and a ransom note warning him not to tell police – and asking for €9million in cryptocurrency for the return of Anne-Elisabeth.

Tom contacted police, who decided to keep the investigation secret in the interest of Anne-Elisabeth’s safety.

It remained secret until January 2019, when the police involved the media and appealed for information.

The main theory was an abduction with a financial motive, but in June 2019 the police started to believe this theory less likely – and instead that they were dealing with a murder investigation.

Øst Politi District said in a statement: “We now believe there was no abduction and there was never any genuine negotiations. In other words there was a clear and well-planned attempt at misleading the police.”

Police eventually began to suspect Hagen himself had been involved, and the kidnapping rig was a set-up to mislead police.

Tom Hagen was arrested in April 2020 and charged with murder, or complicity to murder, after police grew suspicious after finding divorce papers signed by Anne-Elisabeth, and not by Tom.

In the only interview Hagen has given since the disappearance, he told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK: “Lisbeth and I have experienced that we have had a good marriage. But we’ve had bumps along the way, like everyone else. There’s nothing to hide.”

Police also accused Hagen of being involved in the kidnapping because they found his blood at the scene, and believed he had deleted two calls he had made to his wife that day from the call log.

However, Hagen’s lawyer later proved that he hadn’t deleted the calls – they had been deleted automatically by his phone, which could only save six calls from the same person.

They eventually had to release Hagen after 11 days because the case was found not acceptable by the Court of Appeal, who did not think there was enough reason to suspect the then 70-year-old of murder, or complicity to murder, as reported by Norway Today.

However, the charge has not been dropped by the police, and he remains a suspect to this day.

Hagen still lives in Lørenskog to this day, and maintains his innocence. His defence lawyer Svein Holden has said with confidence that police will eventually drop Hagen from the case.

Because murder has “no statute of limitations,” Hagen can “remain charged with the murder for the rest of his life if the police do not end the investigation,” according to Norway Today.

Police are still investigating what happened to Anne-Elisabeth, but as of now she is still missing.

The Lørenskog Disappearance is streaming on Netflix now