Cold Case Files - I SURVIVED: It Was The First Time I Realized It Was A Massacre

Episode Date: July 20, 2024

Hours after detonating a car bomb in Norway's capital, Oslo, the bomber, now disguised as a policeman, makes his way to Utoya Island where 530 teenagers are attending a summer camp. During an 80 minute rampage he stalks and shoots the defenseless teenagers. Sofie, Adrian, Rebekka and Magnus survive the massacre, while 69 others die. Huggies: Head to Huggies.com to learn more! Progressive: Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Viator: Download the Viator app now and use code VIATOR10 for 10% off your first booking in the app! Find the perfect travel experience for you! Do more with Viator. 

This episode of I Survived is brought to you by Huggies. Baby butts rejoice. New Huggies skin essentials are here. A brand new dermatologist approved line of diapers, wipes, and pull-ups training pants, all designed with baby's sensitive skin in mind. This program contains subject matter that may be disturbing to some listeners.

Listener discretion is advised. All the other kids around started screaming and he didn't shoot the ones who screamed. He just took it from left to right. Real people. I just thought this is it. He's going to shoot me now and I'm gonna die. Who faced death? He was smiling and didn't just shoot him to get it quick done. He took his time and lived to tell how. The water has turned completely red around us. You could see it turning red.

It was first then I realized that it was a massacre. This is I Survived. It's July 2011 on Utøya Island, Norway. The youth chapter of Norway's ruling Labour Party is holding a summer camp on Utøya Island. 530 teenagers are gathered on the island. Sophie, Rebecca and Magnus are among the campers. I've been going to Utøya camp for four years. And it's the most beautiful island.

And all your friends are there and it's football, volleyball, love and politics. They have a lot of important people like the Prime Minister coming and speaking to us so it's very and it's very fun as well it's very social. And we sit around campfires and play guitars. It's like a regular summer camp, but just with a political aspect as well. Yeah, it's the highlight of the summer. 21-year-old Adrian worked for the camp administration. Most of them that goes there are people who want to shape the world, shape their country into a better place to be.

On Friday afternoon, Sophie and her best friend Laila were in their tent. We were like sisters. We worked together every day. And we shared, of course, the tent. We shared clothes, jewelry, everything. We were really looking forward to the disco, because this was going to be a disco that night. And at the disco, everyone is dancing crazy.

And then I remember I got a text on my phone, and it said, explosion in Oslo. And I was like, yeah. And then I realized, what? What did it say? At 3.26 p.m., a massive explosion rocked Norway's capital, Oslo. When we first heard about the explosion, we didn't even know that it was a bomb. I remember a guy yelled, war. And I was like, no, it's not a war, it's a gas explosion. I was convinced that it was an accident. It couldn't be something terrible.

But some were panicking and crying and said that now the war comes. There's a terrorist, it's Al-Qaeda. Everything was mentioned. People were starting to get really nervous There's a terrorist, it's Al-Qaeda, everything was mentioned. People were starting to get really nervous because Usta is not that far from Oslo. It's about an hour. Utoya Island is only 24 miles from Oslo. We were told that we would have a meeting at 4.30 I believe.

So we all gathered up in the cafe building for that short meeting. The leaders went up on the stage, told us that it was a bomb. The car bomb had exploded outside the offices of Norway's Prime Minister. The blast killed eight people and injured over 200. Norway's a small, pretty peaceful country. And nothing like this has ever happened before. People were freaking out. There wasn't yelling or screaming.

It was just, you saw it in their eyes. And then they said, call home, say that you are safe. We are on Utøya and it's the safest place to be. And everyone was like, yeah, Utøya Island is by ferry. The ferry captain radioed the camp to say he had a policeman on board. We went back to the camp and just sat down and started playing cards. I heard from someone when we were playing cards that there was a policeman coming to the island.

He was going to take care of us and check that we were okay and yeah. The man on the ferry was the Oslo bomber disguised as a policeman. The leader walks up to me and she says, Don't be scared. He is fully armed. But that's just because the police are ready for anything right now because of the situation in Oslo.

I thought, oh, maybe this is a policeman coming to bring a death message or something to one of the kids of the island that their parents or relatives had passed away. As the ferry approached the island, Sophie left her tent and went to the cafe. Leila said to me that, um, don't go, I want you here. And I was like, um, I'm back in 10 minutes, just stay here with the others. And then hugged and we hugged really really long we let go of each other hands like this i remember it so well and i went up to the cafe building and she stayed at the tent area at 5 18 pm the ferry carrying the bomber arrived. Suddenly we hear three or four really sharp noises.

We heard these loud noises coming further down on the island towards the boat, where the boat stops. I got really angry because if someone is playing with an air gun or something like that or some fireworks it's not the time because people are so upset this is some sort of lame joke who would do this at this time who would do something like this I see this people lots of people running uphill some of them screamed run some of them screamed, run. Some of them yelled, get away. I couldn't actually understand what was happening. 20, 30 people running towards you, like they want to run straight through you. And the only thing I can hear them say is, run.

Run for your lives. Get away. Go hide. A bunch of people started screaming and running down towards the camp where we were sitting. I saw a man coming down the road, and he looked like a policeman. He was dressed like a policeman, and he was walking kind of slow. This girl that it looked like she just came out of the showers and didn't have any idea about what was going on started walking towards him.

And he shoots her three times in the chest. As she was falling and then hitting the ground he shot her twice more. He wasn't running or anything he was just calmly shooting anyone he could. Then panic started. After I saw the woman get shot, I just started running, trying to get as far away from the shots as possible. There's a lot of wood areas on the island, so I just ran into the woods. We could hear these bullets just passing our heads. The bullets hit in the ground right next to my legs. And what I could feel, the rocks, small rocks,

smashing on the back of my legs. I could smell the powder from when the gun was fired. And as we were running into the woods, people were very scared and screaming. In the café building, Sophie heard the gunshots getting closer. And then the panicking starts from the dining room and in the whole café building. People were running like sheeps and stepping on each other. Some fell and people ran over them. It was so panicking.

And I looked at the crowd and I saw the eyes. People were like, I've never seen eyes like that. One of the leaders stood in front of the door out to the tent area and he yelled, get back, get back, you can't go out here. The shooting is outside the café building here now, on the tent area. If you run out now, you're gonna get shot. We didn't know if the building was surrounded by terrorists or if they were hiding in the woods. We were laying on our stomachs with our hands over our heads to try to cover ourselves. And people were laying on top of each other because there were so many in there.

Everyone started screaming because now the shots were towards the building. Rebecca, who had escaped the tent area as the shooting started, ran for her life. I didn't realize really what was going on, but I knew I had to get out of there. And as we were running into the woods, people were very scared and screaming. People were falling. And then I just continued on, just forward, and I was by myself just running. The island is only half a mile wide and three-quarters of a mile long. There was complete and utter chaos on the island.

So we just ran into the woods and to the path that goes around all of the island. We had some natural hiding places around that area, so we just sat down and tried to be out of sight. I took out my cell phone and decided to call my dad. I said, there is someone on the island that's just shooting people. I don't really know what's going on, but I know that I love

you, I love mom, but I have to hang up now, so goodbye. As the shooter began firing into the cafe, Sophie ran into the kitchen. From the place I was laying to the kitchen, it's no more than five meters, and those five meters was the longest I've ever run because it was almost like everything was going in slow motion. I saw a big fridge there and I opened it. I squeezed myself in and closed the door. Then I hear shooting from the little room. I hear so many screams. To hear your friends screaming for their lives and running,

you can't use words to describe it because it's so unreal. From the path, Magnus heard the gunshots and the sound of screaming. I'm right in the middle of a path that goes around the island. It's just not a good hiding place. I decide to just stand up and walk a bit further along the path until I see some sort of steep hill that goes down towards the water. And as I'm climbing down, I see one of my friends, who I was talking to outside the cafe building when everything started.

And I see that she's having some sort of panic attack. The only thing she says is, we're all gonna die. As Sophie hid inside the fridge, the gunman begins searching the cafe for more victims. And then I hear footsteps. Maybe it's more shooters. And if there are many shooters on the island, they will probably check every room, every cabinet, and the fridge.

I can't sit here. So I opened the fridge. I ran out to the dining room, and out the entrance there. I've never run that fast. You know when you run at school, you try to run fast? This is fast.

If there was a tree in the way, I bumped into it. If there was a big rock in front of me, I jumped over it. The shooter chased the people escaping from the cafe into the woods. Suddenly I hear that the gunshots are getting closer and I also hear that there's a lot of people running around.

You just had to run for your life, for your own life. Run with your arms on your head, because if you get shot in the hands, that's better than the head. So everyone was running like this. And we didn't have a plan where to run. We just ran. As the shooter chased the teenagers into the woods, Rebecca ran to the beach. I heard the shots constantly.

They were going on every three seconds. I met one of the younger kids from our county. She was very scared. She was crying. And we came to kind of where the land stopped, and there was just water. So we took off our clothes, and we went into the water. The water was really cold.

The water temperature around the island was 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Adrian, who had also run to the beach, tried to call the police. As I finally got through to the police, a police woman answered and she said yes, they were on the way and just lay low and keep still, we'll be there soon. I had probably hips when I see this man, the same man that was shooting people around me just minutes before, I see him coming out towards me and approaching right next to me.

We were in the water about a hundred meters from the island and then I saw on shore where we swam from, there were some people. He was standing in between me and the island. I had nowhere to go. He was aiming at the people who were trying to swim away, who were swimming for their lives. He started shooting out in the water where we were

because I saw the splashes from the bullets. My friend, she was just really, really scared, and so did I, but I said to her that, don't mind, this is not real, this is not real, just keep on swimming. Then he turns towards me and looks at me, and starts aiming at me. And then was the only emotion that I could see in him shown where he screamed that you're going to die. Summer continues and it is hot.

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The man is armed with a rifle, a pistol, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Adrian is on the beach with the shooter aiming a gun at his head. Pulls up the rifle to his cheeks and starts aiming at me. I looked into the barrel. I yelled at him that, no, don't shoot. I was trying to look at him, but he had the same stone cold face expression and nothing in his eyes. It seemed like forever,

but it probably lasted just for a few seconds. As he decided not to kill me, he turns around and walked towards the woods again and disappeared. Sophie was hiding with a group of teenagers at the woods again and disappeared. Sophie was hiding with a group of teenagers at the base of a cliff. The boy next to me, he didn't have a phone. I saw it in his eyes that he was so afraid and so, he wanted his parents so badly. I gave my phone to him and I said, call home, make it quick and whisper.

We almost didn't dare to whisper either. The shooter emerged from the woods onto the path that encircled the island. I suddenly just hear a guy say that, there's the bastard, run, get out, run away. And I look over my shoulder and I could just see the big guy dressed in black with a huge gun just marching along the path. I just jumped out of that rock formation and started running towards the water and sliding down that

steep rocky hill. I just looked over my shoulder again and the thing I saw was just, I just looked straight up into a gun barrel. The gunman shot at the teenagers as they scrambled down the cliff. Then we hear the shooting is getting closer. We all tried to be silent and suddenly my touch phone gets water on it and it went into music and it played a song really loud so you could hear from the cliffs. When the

shooting was really near you heard all the single ladies, all the single ladies. And that feeling, oh. I had been so angry at the other ones to be quiet, and then my phone starts playing all the single ladies. So I just threw it in the water to make it silent. And I thought, oh my God, now the hiding place, now they know about the hiding place. Rebecca, who had narrowly avoided being shot,

swam out into the freezing lake. The water was very cold, and I could feel it tightening my chest. And it was getting hard to breathe. As we were swimming, I could see it tightening my chest, and it was getting hard to breathe. As we were swimming, I could see the road, and there was constantly coming cars, and they were just driving past, like no one else realized what was going on

and heard anything of what was going on. Magnus had jumped down a cliff and into the lake to escape the shooter. There was a bullet just went straight past my head and hit some rocks right beside me. And when I jumped into the water, I also saw a bullet. And that hit probably a feet or so away from me and just sank to the bottom. I just thought that, well, that's it. This is it. He's gonna shoot me now and I'm gonna die.

Adrian was still on the beach where the shooter had spared his life. I couldn't believe what actually happened, whether I was alive or if he had already killed me. And this is what it felt like. I saw the boat, the ship that we use, that transports us back and forward through the island, leaves very slowly. It was almost like a ghost ship.

After seeing his girlfriend shot dead, the ferry captain escaped with a handful of survivors. That boat was the only boat that I knew about. I just realized that I'm not going to swim across. It's not possible for me to swim across. I felt that now I'm left here to die. I posted a note on Facebook saying that someone was shooting on the island and that I love you all.

I thought maybe that was my last message. The gunman was on the path that led to the pump house. Sophie, who had not yet seen the shooter, was in the water below the pump house. Suddenly, a boy is yelling, the police is here. And I saw the policeman. And it was such a relief. It was like, oh, we're safe. He was standing next to the pump house, talking to four boys.

People were getting out from their hiding places. And then I heard two shots. And then I see two of the four persons standing in front of him. He's laying on the ground. And then he shoots the others, and people start to scream and run away. He walked like he was walking his dog, you know, just walking around. And the people behind the pump house had no place to run, and he just raised his weapon a little bit and shot one.

And then all the other kids around started screaming. And he didn't shoot the ones who screamed, he just took it from left to write. It took a while. It was not... It didn't just shoot him to get it quick done. He... He took his time. He was smiling. And... It was so absurd because I was picturing a crazy terrorist with a big gun, just shooting

wild, and you see a policeman, a Norwegian policeman, talking Norwegian, and he was not smiling like laughing but he had this little smile. So, yeah. When the shots were silent, I remember looking back and he was looking at me. He took up his gun and aimed at me. And I knew that there was no one else he was aiming at. I was the only one in the water. And I dived as deep as I could and I heard shots. I get up for air and I hear shots.

It's hitting the water around me. And I go down again and I hear shots. And I look back again and he's gone. I tried to swim back to the island, but now my arms wasn't working well. After 10 minutes my arms didn't work at all because I had been in the water for so long, hiding and swimming and diving. And I felt like Jack in Titanic. When he's just sinking. I felt like that.

I was so cold. I cried. And I thought it would have been better to be shot than drown. Further out in the icy lake, Magnus and a friend were swimming for their lives. We just started to try and swim around the island, as far away from the island as we possibly could. We saw that there was a lot of people hiding around the island and a lot of people who were running around in panic. Magnus could see the shooter stalking his victims around the island.

Sometimes the shooter would just kick people he had shot to see if they were alive. Other times he would take a second shot at the head or the body or whatever to make sure that they were dead. Rebecca had been battling the freezing water for more than an hour. The water we were swimming in was fresh water and it was cold and it was dark. It was black. So it was kind of, you kind of had the feeling that it was dragging you down. It was horribly cold and exhausting and terrifying. After a while, like, I didn't feel my legs. The gunman was tracking down the teenagers who were hiding in the woods.

I saw that there were this group of people, around 20-25 people, coming from the backside of the island towards me. We couldn't hear gunshots anymore. You could now see there's a hope you will survive this. This one girl that was standing more inland and had a better view over the island suddenly turns towards us and says, he's coming. Magnus, who was swimming around the island, saw a small boat approaching. We saw that the boat was handing out, the people in the boat were handing out life jackets

and picking people up from the water. We had been swimming for over an hour and probably a couple of miles in freezing cold water. So we were really, really happy to see that boat. And so we started to swim towards the boat. Well, after we swam for about 100 yards, 150 yards, somewhere around there, the boat turns around and started going towards land. The gunman shot at local boat owners as they tried to rescue the teens. From the beach, Adrian heard the gunman getting closer. He then,

he was just shooting around and there were kids falling around me. I pretended to be dead it then got quiet I opened my eyes just to see whether he was gone or not I saw him reloading see someone running towards me. He shoots and the person falls on top of me. I close my eyes again, praying that this was the end. This was over now. Hoping that he wouldn't see me and that he wouldn't see that I was alive. It gets quiet around me, and I know there's someone standing just right next to me. I can feel the warmth from the barrel, and it's aiming at me just inches away from my head. This episode of I Survived is brought to you by Huggy's Skin Essentials. Having a baby comes with so many unexpected challenges, but diaper rash shouldn't be one

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throughout potty training. So if you want the best for your baby's bottom, learn more at Huggies.com. Once again, head to Huggies.com to learn more. A true crime podcast. It got me upset because this is someone's kid and someone knows she's gone. That takes a different approach. It was shocking for something like this to happen in our little town.

Focusing on the communities affected by life-shattering crimes. It made news throughout the entire region that these two people had been shot while they slept in such a safe community. To give a new perspective on the devastation crimes can cause. It was shocking for something like this to happen in our little town. Featuring cases from quiet towns to bustling cities and interviewing the people closest to the case. My first thought was that it's an unusual location for us to have a homicide. Listen to the true crime podcast City Confidential and step beyond the yellow tape to learn just how far a crime can reach.

There are certain cases in the history of Boston that I think sort of define the city. I think this is one of them. New episodes of the City Confidential podcast are available every Thursday. Available wherever you get your podcasts. A gunman is stalking and shooting teenagers on an island. As the shooter stands over him, Adrian plays dead. And then it was like a bomb just went off right next to me.

I got shot. And laying there and waiting for the next one to come. As I opened my eyes, I saw that he was now gone. He left into the woods. I slowly tried to pull the person that was laying on top of me, just tried to move it away. I could see all these bodies just laying there. It almost seemed like they were just sleeping. But the difference was the

water has turned completely red around us. You could see it turning red. It was first then I realized that it was a massacre. What just happened right next to me. 80 minutes after the shooting began, a police SWAT team landed on the island. The shooter immediately surrendered to the police. Floating in the water, a barely conscious Sophie saw a boat approaching. And they took my arms up over the rail, and they took my legs and pulled me over like a fish. And they were pumping water out of me. The man who drove the boat couldn't speak Norwegian. He was German. And the only sentence I know in German is Ich liebe dich, who is I love you. And I just

kept on saying Ich liebe dich, Ich liebe dich. Tourists from a nearby camp and local boat owners had risked their lives to save swimmers. Magnus and Rebecca were among those rescued from the icy water. It was just regular people deciding to jump in their boats and kind of risk their lives to save many kids' lives. So what they did was, yeah, it's hard for me to describe because it's just that great that some people are willing to do that. That was the first time I started crying because of it. I just wanted it to be over. The survivors were evacuated to a triage station on the mainland. They were wounded everywhere. There were some dead and ambulances lined up

one after another taking people away. Doctors, paramedics running over each other. Adrian was among the many wounded taken to the hospital. The other survivors were taken to a hotel to wait for their friends. Then it started coming buses with lots of my friends in. I was like, where is Leila? Where is she? Hasn't she arrived yet? I was of course shocked and paralyzed but I was so sure that she had made it. I kept on sitting out in the rain waiting for her to come and then the ambulance guy says to me there's no more buses or police cars. Everyone is found and are at the hospital or dead. I realized that I had to prepare myself for that. Laila was dead.

But how can you do that? We were on a summer camp having the best time of our lives and now I'm going to prepare myself for getting the message that she's dead. Sophie's best friend, Laila, was one of the first people to be killed on the island. 69 people died and 33 were wounded during the 80-minute rampage. The man responsible for the two terrorist attacks was far-right-wing extremist Anders Breivik. I was actually kind of glad that the guy who did it didn't commit suicide or anything, so we would get some sort of an explanation.

It's better to get a bad explanation than not getting an explanation at all. Prior to his attacks, Breivik posted his 1,516-page anti-Muslim manifesto online. Breivik targeted his victims because he said they supported Muslim immigration, which he claimed was adulterating pure Norwegian blood. When I heard that Anders Bering Breivik did all of this because he felt that the multiculturalist left-wing side had taken over Norway and started deliberately populating Norway with Muslims for a Muslim takeover or whatever you think it is,

I was just completely shocked. It's nothing that will ever make sense for anyone, especially not the families that have lost their child. I lost two best friends and 20 other friends that day. I lost six very close friends. I lost two people on the island. I lost about 13 of my friends. The truth is, all the 69 people that were killed on Uttea, that day were one too many.

He took away too much from us. Brevik was found guilty of mass murder and sentenced to the maximum penalty of 21 years in prison. Norwegian law allows his sentence to be extended if he is still considered dangerous. I hate him. I hate him for ruining my life, for taking my friends from me. I hate him for what he has done to me and to others. When someone asks me why I survived, I cannot give them an answer. I don't have the answer and I'll probably never know. After the massacre the survivors struggled with guilt and

grief. The grief itself and and missing my friends are the worst. There are so many things every day that I want to do. I want to call them, I want to hug them. There are so many things that remind me of them. And that's the hardest part, that they aren't here. There is no recipe for surviving anything like this or getting through anything like this. A lot of people were really lucky,

and probably a lot of people who also made the right decisions were just unlucky and didn't make it. Guilt was one of the harder things to deal with after all of this. I survived because I was extremely lucky, and I was at the right place at the right time. I survived because I kept calm and I didn't give up. I wanted life. I survived because my instincts told me what to do and I didn't really think but still I made it. Going through something like this at such a young age is, it's definitely difficult. You start thinking that you have to live life to the fullest because you never know when it's going to end.

I don't use my energy to be mad at Breivik. He didn't win. He was like, he thought he could go out on an island, shoot us and scare us, but the complete opposite happened. We are twice as many in the organization now. We are fighting even harder for the people we lost. And really, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

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