Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - The Oslo Plaza Woman | Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes
Episode Date: December 25, 2025In 1995, a woman checked into Oslo’s Plaza Hotel under a fake name. Days later, she was found dead in her room: no ID, no fingerprints, and no one looking for her. In this episode of Conspiracy Theo...ries, Cults, & Crimes, we investigate the chilling mystery of the Oslo Plaza Woman and why some believe she wasn’t just hiding… she was hunted.Follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes on your podcast app: https://play.megaphone.fm/ms_2vf9sseom8vg1sudtfg To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hi, Crime House community. It's Vanessa Richardson.
Looking for another Crime House original podcast to add to your rotation, you will love Clues with Morgan Absher and Kaelin Moore.
Every Wednesday, Morgan and Kaelin dig into the world's most notorious crimes, clue by clue, from serial killers to shocking murders.
They follow the trail of clues, break down the evidence, and debate the theories.
It's like hanging out with your smart and true crime-obsessed friends.
Listen to Clues on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Merry Christmas!
Today we head north to Norway for a mysterious case from 1995, when a woman checked into the Oslo Plaza Hotel under a fake name and then was found dead days later.
In this episode of conspiracy theories, cults and crimes, I investigate this chilling mystery.
and why some believe the woman wasn't just hiding, she was hunted.
Here's the episode now.
Follow conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes on your podcast app for more.
This is Crime House.
We're constantly leaving behind traces of ourselves, whether we mean to or not.
We touch something and leave a fingerprint, we make a purchase and have a conversation with the cashier.
Everything, no matter how big or small, comes together as proof that we were there, that we existed.
When it comes to unidentified or missing victims, these are the breadcrumbs investigators rely on.
But what happens when someone has gone to great lengths to erase that trail?
Detectives in Oslo, Norway, were faced with this very question in 1990.
On June 3rd, a woman was found dead in the Plaza Hotel.
Right away, the authorities realized this wasn't going to be their typical investigation.
The woman had checked into the hotel under a fake name.
She'd given no credit card or ID.
Her clothes had no labels.
Every possible path to identification had been cut off or led nowhere.
When they ran her fingerprints, it turned out that no one was looking.
There were no missing persons reports.
Actually, she had no records at all.
It seemed like the only proof she'd ever existed was her body.
It all added up to one of the most perplexing cases in European history.
To this day, no one is sure who the Oslo Plaza woman was,
but there's no shortage of theories and speculation.
Because when someone is so careful to conceal their identity,
it can only mean one thing.
They're hiding from something, or someone.
From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments,
presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors.
These aren't just theories.
They're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction.
I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes,
a crimehouse original powered by Pave Studios.
Every Wednesday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations.
These cases are wild, and I want to hear what you think.
At the end of each episode, leave a comment wherever you listen.
Be sure to rate, review, and follow so we can continue building this community together.
and for early, add-free access to every episode, plus exclusive bonus content,
subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Today I'm talking about an unsolved murder that has stumped the international crime community
for decades, the Oslo Plaza Woman.
On June 3, 1995, a young woman was found dead in her hotel room at the Plaza Hotel in
Oslo, Norway.
At first, her death seemed like a tragic suicide.
But as investigators looked closer, they realized there was a lot more to her story.
Not only did the crime scene appear staged, but the victim was virtually untraceable.
In the decades since, journalists, conspiracy theorists, and internet sleuths have tried to solve
the mystery of the Oslo Plaza woman.
Some believe she was a high-end escort or a drug smuggler.
Others think she was a spy, or even an assassin.
While her true origins continue to be debated, one thing is certain.
Her death wasn't an accident.
The question is, why?
All that and more coming up.
In June 1996, a young Norwegian journalist named Lars Kristen Wegener
was working on a story that would change his life forever.
At that point, his career was just taking off.
He'd written a series of articles for Verdunzg, also known as VG, the most red newspaper in Norway.
Lars mainly reported on missing persons and unidentified bodies.
Unfortunately, he had plenty of subjects to choose from.
But that month, he learned about one victim he would never forget.
It all started a year ago on the night of Saturday, June 3, 1995.
At around 7.30 p.m., a receptionist at the Plaza Hotel in Oslo, Norway, realized the guest
in room 2805 had exceeded their credit limit. So the staff member sent a message via the hotel
TV asking the guest to contact the front desk. The message was marked as received almost
immediately, but the receptionist noticed that two other similar messages had already been sent
and acknowledged, and yet no charges had been paid.
The receptionist was suspicious.
She contacted housekeeping, who said they hadn't entered the room since Thursday.
Apparently, the do-not-disturb sign had been on the door of 2805 for the last two days.
That meant someone may have just stolen a few nights at the most prestigious hotel in Oslo.
So the receptionist's next call was to security.
The guard reached room 2805 at 7.50 p.m.
He knocked a few times, announcing himself as security.
Moments later, he heard a gunshot ring out from the room.
The guard was stunned.
He needed to alert his team,
but he didn't want to cause a panic by broadcasting the news over the radio.
So he hurried down to the lobby and told the head of security in person.
They immediately called the police.
But before they arrived, the head of security wanted to see the scene for himself.
He took the elevator to the 28th floor and used a universal key card to unlock room 2805.
As soon as he opened the door, the smell of gunshot powder hid his nose.
Still, he peeked inside, just far enough to see a woman's legs hanging off the bed unmoving.
He called out to see if she needed help, but of course, no one answered.
Not wanting to disturb anything, he closed the door and went down to the lobby to wait for authority.
They arrived soon after and asked the staff to identify the woman.
They said she'd checked in three days ago.
According to their records, her name was Jennifer Fairgate.
When authorities finally got to the room, they found Jennifer lying face up in the bed.
The white hotel bedding had turned a deep red color around her.
There was a single gunshot wound to Jennifer's forehead
and a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol in her right hand.
hand. At first glance, the explanation seemed obvious. This was a suicide. But the closer investigators
looked, the less clear the picture became. There were flecks of blood coating the wall behind the bed
and blood splatter all around the room. And yet, Jennifer's hands were completely clean. There was
something unnatural about the way they were positioned, too. They were neatly folded on her chest
with the gun sitting in between,
almost as if the whole thing had been staged.
But there was no evidence to suggest anyone else had been in the room.
In fact, there was barely any sign that Jennifer had stayed there.
The only luggage police found was a small turquoise bag
and a black leather briefcase.
There was a towel lying on the bathroom floor,
suggesting she'd recently taken a shower.
However, there wasn't a single toiletry item in the bathroom,
not even a toothbrush, which was strange,
especially because Jennifer looked like she took care of herself.
She was youthful and seemed to be in her late 20s, maybe early 30s.
Her complexion was clear and light.
It contrasted nicely with her short, dark hair.
She appeared to be wearing makeup on her eyes,
but the only cosmetic product in the room was a men's cologne bottle found near the bed.
Aside from what Jennifer was wearing,
there was almost no clothing in the room.
Investigators discovered a sweater
and a couple of jackets in the closet.
There was another top and four bras in the turquoise bag.
They didn't find any bottoms except the silky black pajama shorts on her body.
Stranger still, someone had removed all the brand labels from her clothes,
even the ones she was wearing.
Police searched everywhere, but they couldn't find a purse, wallet, or passport.
They assumed the front desk would at least.
have a copy of her ID, but when they contacted reception, it only led to more questions.
That's when detectives learned the room was actually registered to two people, Jennifer Fairgate,
and someone named Lois Fairgate. That might have been helpful, except the registration card was
incomplete. Neither person had provided their passport numbers or country of origin. Jennifer did
give a home address in Verlaine, a tiny town in Belgium. At least they had a place to start
looking. So that night, Norwegian investigators contacted Belgian authorities and asked them to look
into Jennifer and Lois Fairgate. When police in Norway heard back, they were shocked. Not only did
the address not exist, but there were no matches for either name. The body lying in front
of them couldn't be Jennifer Fairgate because she wasn't real.
But if she wasn't Jennifer Fairgate, then who was she?
On June 3, 1995, a woman was found dead in room 2805 at the Plaza Hotel in Oslo, Norway.
She'd checked in under the name Jennifer Fairgate and registered the room to herself and another person named Lois Fairgate.
Jennifer didn't provide her passport number or ID, but she did write down a home address for a small town in Belgium on the registration card.
Belgian authorities ran both names and the address through the system, but none of them seemed to exist.
Norwegian police knew she'd checked into the plaza on May 31st, so they poured over all the incoming flights from that day.
None of them had carried any passengers named Jennifer Fairgate, which wasn't all that surprising.
If this woman had been protecting her identity, she probably wouldn't have used the same name to book her flight and hotel.
Detectives might have had better luck showing her photo to crew members, but it's not clear if they ever did.
At this point in the investigation, authorities knew the name Jennifer Fairgate wasn't getting them anywhere.
They wondered if her fingerprints would be more useful.
The Norwegian Police Service sent her prints to the International Crime Police Organization, or Interpol.
But it was just another dead end.
The Oslo Plaza woman didn't have a criminal record or a single missing person's report.
Apparently, no one was looking for her.
Or if they were, they didn't want the authorities to know about it.
After the prints, the most important piece of evidence was the gun.
It was a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, a high-powered weapon most commonly used by the military, not everyday civilians, though it was also popular with criminals. Still, how had Jennifer gotten her hands on it? It was made by Browning, a Belgian company. Both Norway and Belgium were and are known for their strict gun laws. In 1995, someone wanting to purchase a weapon would have had to provide a valid reason, like being part of it.
of a sports shooting club.
Even then, getting a semi-automatic pistol would have been difficult.
It would involve intense background checks and a permit from the police.
Since Jennifer was untraceable, she'd either lied on her application, gotten it elsewhere,
or the gun wasn't hers at all.
Detectives checked the gun for a serial number, but it had been removed.
Most people who do this simply scratch out the number,
And while this makes it unreadable to the naked eye, it's not foolproof.
Serial numbers are stamped into the metal of a firearm.
So forensic technicians have a few different methods for revealing them if they've been damaged.
Jennifer's pistol was sent to the Norwegian National Crime Lab, known as Creepos, to see if they could get a read on it.
It was a bust.
Whoever had destroyed the serial number knew what they were doing.
The report said it had been etched away, likely with ever.
acid and very professionally. But the serial number wasn't the only thing that was removed from the gun.
The lab couldn't find a single print on the weapon either, not from Jennifer or anyone else,
which was strange because she was found holding it in her right hand. Most handguns,
including this one, have a matte or ridged surface that doesn't hold prints well,
so a lack of fingerprints isn't unheard of, but there wasn't any gunpowder,
who found on her hands either.
It was another strange detail
because it showed she likely
wasn't the one who fired it.
Then there was the issue of how
she was found holding the weapon.
Her grip was reversed.
Her thumb, not her index finger,
was on the trigger.
That would have made sense
if she'd truly shot herself in the forehead,
but it also would have made it
incredibly difficult for her
to keep a strong grip as she fired.
Investigators only became
more suspicious when they looked
inside Jennifer's black briefcase, it contained 25 rounds of loose ammunition.
That's a lot of ammo for someone only planning to kill themselves.
Based on everything, it was looking less and less likely that Jennifer had taken her own life,
which only left one possibility.
She was murdered.
To pursue that theory, the assistant chief of police assigned five experienced homicide
detectives to the case. They focused on a few key pieces of evidence. Number one, Jennifer
had gone to great lengths to make herself untraceable. Number two, the crime scene looked
staged by a professional, someone who was able to get into her room, commit a crime, clean
the weapon, and emerge unseen. Number three, regardless of who pulled the trigger, a military-grade
pistol had been involved. Taken all together, detectives reasoned that Jennifer
was either a criminal or a spy. They theorized that she was part of an international criminal
operation, like drug smuggling. Maybe something had gone wrong, or she'd crossed the wrong person.
Norwegian authorities even investigated whether she was the missing wife of an Italian mob boss.
She wasn't. With how much ammunition they found in her briefcase, investigators also considered
the possibility she was a hit woman. All that firepower, all that firepower, all of that.
also lent credence to the idea that she could have been working for an intelligence agency.
Neither theory was easy to verify, though. Jennifer didn't leave behind a hit list, and they
couldn't exactly call various governments to ask if any of their spies had gone missing.
So after a year of investigating, the authorities returned to their original conclusion.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they ruled that Jennifer had died by suicide. They set her burial for
June 26, 1996, just over a year after she was found dead.
At this point, journalist Lars Kristen Wegener heard about Jennifer's case.
He couldn't make it to the funeral, so he asked a photographer to take some shots for the story
he was writing.
When the pictures came back, Lars was astounded.
They were the loneliest images he'd ever seen.
The first was of the church.
A casket stood beside an empty pulpit, rose.
of empty seats before it.
At the grave site, four pallbearers lowered the casket into an anonymous grave.
Aside from those who worked for the cemetery, a police investigator had come to show his respects.
That was it.
There wasn't a headstone or any other kind of marker.
Once the hole was filled and the grass grew in, no one would even know this patch of
earth was someone's final resting place.
But Lars knew, and he couldn't shake the feeling that someone out there would want to know, too.
So he wrote Jennifer's story.
It was a two-page spread detailing her mysterious death.
More than that, Lars highlighted what little was known about Jennifer herself.
The only images of her were from the crime scene or her autopsy,
so he hired a sketch artist to recreate what she might have looked like alive.
VG published the feature the day after the burial on June 27, 1996.
Lars hoped that his article would reach the right person.
someone who had the missing piece that would complete the puzzle.
But time marched on, and no calls came in.
Over the years, Lars would return to his notes.
He'd pour over the documents again and again, hoping he'd missed something.
The facts didn't change, but Lars' life certainly did.
He rose through the ranks at VG, becoming a prominent features writer.
With each passing year, he made new contact,
and accumulated more resources, and by 2015, 20 years after publishing his first story on the Oslo Plaza woman,
Lars felt ready to look at the case with fresh eyes. He reached out to Oslo's new assistant chief of
police, and she immediately agreed to help. Lars was elated. Finally, someone cared, and this time
around he was determined to leave no stone unturned, because someone out there had to know
the truth about Jennifer Fairgate, and Lars wouldn't stop until the whole world did, too.
Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a
little bit lighter? Some lighter music here. Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about
Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jumped started all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm
Joey Taranto. And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the
wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries.
Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way,
and you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics?
New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday
on Patreon. And every Monday, you can listen to our True Crime Rundown, where we go over the top
top true crime headlines of the week.
So come and join us, wherever you listen to your podcast.
Lars Kristen Vegner published his first piece about the Oslo Plaza Woman,
aka Jennifer Fairgate, in 1996.
Ever since then, her story had hung like a cloud over Lars' head.
Although her death had been ruled a suicide,
Lars believed the truth was much more complicated.
And in 2015, he teamed up with the Oslo Police to take another look at the case.
His first step was to recreate a timeline of Jennifer's movements leading up to her death on June 3, 1995.
The only thing he had to work off of was the room key log.
The police had looked into it, too, but the information was pretty sparse.
The log only recorded when someone entered the room.
Jennifer's key card was used just five times over her three-day stay.
Investigators at the time assumed this meant Jennifer rarely left her room,
which they took as a sign that she was depressed and suicidal.
But after checking the record against witness testimony,
Lars had a very different theory.
The key card was first used on Wednesday, May 31st, at 1044 p.m.
This would have been shortly after Jennifer checked in.
The receptionist working that night, Sasha René Ananssen,
had already been questioned by police.
But in 2016, Lars tracked him down.
And 20 years later, Sasha remembered new details.
Sasha said it had been a busy night.
The last major flights of the day all arrived around the same time,
resulting in a wave of incoming guests.
Hotel staff worked as fast as they could
to clear the lobby of weary travelers.
Sasha had been working at the plaza for nearly a year.
The check-in process was muscle memory at this point.
which came in handy on nights like this.
He'd lost track of how many people he'd already helped that evening,
and there were many more still waiting.
He did his best to remain friendly and welcoming
as the next guest stepped up to the counter.
She gave her name, Jennifer Fairgate,
and said she'd called ahead to pre-book a room.
He gave her a registration card to fill out
while he went about assigning her room in their computer system.
When she finished, she pushed the card back across the counter.
He glanced at it as he handed her two key cards for room 2805.
Then he pointed her toward the elevators, wished her a pleasant night, and moved on to the next guest.
Sasha was pretty sure that Jennifer was alone when she checked in,
but another witness, Sasha's supervisor, Evie Tudem Yartzen, was certain someone was with her.
In 1995, Evie told police that Jennifer was with a man that night.
He had dark hair and looked older than Jennifer.
Evie guessed he was somewhere in his mid-30s.
The only thing she wasn't sure of was the timing.
Evie couldn't remember if they'd checked in together
or if she'd spotted them at the reception area later that evening.
She still wasn't sure when she spoke to Lars in 2016,
but she had a vague memory of the man exchanging currency at the front desk
while Jennifer stood beside him.
Evie's testimony was the only piece of evidence to suggest
that Lois Fairgate, the other name on Jennifer's reservation, was real. No other hotel employees
reported seeing him or anyone else with Jennifer during her stay, and it's not clear when he was
added to the reservation. Still, the key card log seemed to support Evie's memory, because
there was another entry at 1221 a.m. just a couple of hours after Jennifer checked in. That
meant someone had left the room and come back. Lars wondered if this person had been Lois.
The next day was Thursday, June 1st, and Jennifer's key was used at 8.34 a.m. The following entry
was housekeeping at 1 p.m. Two cleaners tidied up the room. In 1995, they both testified that it was
empty while they were there. Lars spoke to one of them in 2017. Vigdis Valo was the room steward
in charge of the entire 28th floor during Jennifer's stay. She confirmed that the room was empty,
but she did add another detail that she hadn't mentioned back in 1995. As she gave the room a final
once over, Vigdis noticed a pair of women's shoes. After 20 years, she wasn't sure why they
caught her attention. She couldn't recall the color or style, but she remembered thinking that she
might like a pair for herself. Lars was intrigued. Detectives had only recovered.
one pair of shoes from Jennifer's room.
He showed Vigdis a picture of them.
She shook her head.
Those definitely weren't the shoes she'd seen.
This confirmed something that Lars had suspected all along,
that some of Jennifer's belongings had been removed from the room
before her body was found.
The problem was he didn't know who'd taken those items or when.
The key card was next used at 8.50 the following morning,
Friday, June 2nd. That left 24 hours in which Jennifer was unaccounted for, and we know she
wasn't in the room during that time since the housekeepers didn't see her when they came to
clean. Somehow, this fact escaped police back in 1995. Even though they'd examined the key card
log and interviewed Vigdis, they still assumed that Jennifer had been in her room.
24 hours was a long time to be gone from the hotel. If she didn't return to her room, where
Where did Jennifer sleep?
Lars wondered if Jennifer might have known someone in Oslo after all, a friend, a lover, a business associate?
Unfortunately, no one reported seeing Jennifer leave the hotel or wandering around Oslo, but someone would have seen her come back.
According to the log, the key card used on Friday morning was new.
Lars couldn't track down the receptionist who was working at the time, but records indicated that Jennifer stopped by the front desk
to extend her stay.
Originally, she'd booked the room for May 31st through June 2nd,
but that morning she changed her checkout date
to Sunday the 4th and was given two new keys.
For Lars, this was one of the most important pieces
of evidence in the entire case,
and it had to do with a unique security feature
at the Plaza Hotel.
At the time, guests were able to double lock their doors.
Now, this doesn't refer to a deadly,
or some other physical lock. If a guest turned the inside door handle up and then down,
no one else could get in, even if they had a key. What most people didn't know was that you could
also double lock the room from the outside using a key card. This meant the only way to get
in was either with the key card for that room or a universal key like the kind security had.
After stopping by the front desk on Friday morning, Jennifer would have had four keys.
However, only two of them were found in the room with her.
At the time, police either didn't realize there were keys missing or didn't think it was important.
But Lars did.
It meant someone could have entered Jennifer's room, killed her, then left and double-locked the room from the outside.
That's why the door was locked, even though Jennifer was already dead.
Of course, it's also possible that a staff member with access to a universal key could have been the assailant, but that
never been proven or investigated as far as Lars is aware, and the key cards weren't the
only items that were suspiciously missing by the time Jennifer was discovered.
Friday morning was the last time Jennifer's key card was used, but it wasn't the last time
she was seen. Jennifer ordered room service that night. The woman who delivered it at around
8.30 p.m., couldn't help but notice how tidy the room was. Back in 1995, she told police
that Jennifer was wearing a skirt suit in a dark color, either navy blue or black.
Between her clothes and the room, the attendant assumed Jennifer was part of an airline crew.
There were always a few staying at the plaza.
They wore suits and generally made less of a mess than regular guests.
But there was one other thing that made her think Jennifer was a flight attendant.
She had a rolling suitcase, the kind that was mostly used by flight crews at the time.
The woman forgot to tell police about it in 1995, but,
when she spoke to Lars, she was certain she'd seen it. About 24 hours later, Jennifer's room
was swarming with police, but this suitcase was nowhere to be found. Neither was the skirt
the witness reportedly saw Jennifer wearing. It was looking more and more like someone must
have removed items from room 2805. It made Lars want to take a second look at the evidence
that had been recovered, but when he put in the request, he was met with terrible news.
In 1996, two months after Jennifer was buried, the assistant police chief got rid of everything.
Since her death had been declared a suicide, he must have figured they didn't need those items anymore.
The precious little physical evidence they'd had was apparently all destroyed or sold at a police auction.
Lars was dumbfounded.
But luckily, someone at Creepos, the National Crime Lab, refused to discard the weapon.
It was the best example of serial number removal they'd seen.
So they put it on display instead, where it had stayed for over 20 years.
In 2016, Creepos assigned a senior engineer to take another crack at recovering the serial
number.
Even with the new techniques, they couldn't get a clear result.
The serial number remained stubbornly out of reach.
Still, Lars wasn't deterred.
A lot had changed since 1990.
including DNA testing.
Back then, DNA technology was still in its infancy.
However, the original investigators had kept a vial of Jennifer's blood just in case.
Unfortunately, it was later destroyed, along with the other evidence.
So if Lars wanted to get his hands on Jennifer's DNA, he'd have to go back to the source,
which would mean digging her up.
Exhumations are never taken lightly.
But in this case, it was their last hope of solving the mystery.
So on November 16, 2016, that's what the Oslo police did.
They were worried the remains would be too degraded for a strong profile.
But once they reached her coffin, they were surprised by how much was still intact.
A week later, they had a nearly full DNA profile.
Samples were also sent for specialized analysis.
By studying her teeth, they could tell that Germany,
was Jennifer's potential country of origin.
Using carbon dating,
they also determined she was likely born in 1971,
which meant she was around 24 years old when she died.
That was all interesting information,
but it didn't narrow down her identity.
Even after more than 20 years,
it seemed no one was looking for her.
Lars had a hard time believing that in 1996,
and it still struck him as odd in 2016.
But now, he had access to someone who might have an answer.
Ula Kaldager was a former head of a top-secret Norwegian intelligence group.
He was pretty confident that Jennifer was part of some sort of covert operation.
For him, the lack of evidence was the biggest clue.
According to Ula, removing identifying labels from clothing items
was standard procedure for spies operating in Norway.
He also said it was likely that Jennifer had a...
a second place to stay in Oslo, maybe a location that was more secure than the hotel.
It's possible that's where her missing belongings ended up, and where she went during those
24 hours she was away from the plaza. She would have been trained to avoid giving out information
like credit card or passport numbers, and she would have been adept at going unnoticed,
which would explain why so few people remembered seeing her around the hotel. This would also explain
why no one had come searching for her. If Jennifer worked for an intelligence organization,
her family probably would have been quietly notified of her death and possibly even compensated
for their loss, so there wouldn't have been any reason to report her missing. Espionage seemed to
connect the most dots, but it was also impossible to prove, which left the door open for
other theories. Reddit sleuths have suggested Jennifer was a high-end escort.
They think Lois Fairgate may have been her client or her pimp, and that something went wrong
either with Lois or another customer, leading to Jennifer's death.
It would explain why Jennifer was so secretive and needed extra key cards.
These theorists also point to another detail.
There was almost no clothing found in Jennifer's room, except for four bras.
If her other items weren't removed at some point before her body was found, this may indicate
that Jennifer had packed light.
prioritizing items she would have needed for work.
And some internet detectives think they know who her client was the night she died.
A Belgian man, known only as Mr. F., was staying in the room next to Jennifer's on Friday, June 3, 1995.
He never spoke to police.
However, Lars eventually tracked him down.
They exchanged a few emails, but Mr. F stopped responding when Lars asked about Jennifer's death.
Lars traveled to Belgium to find Mr. F. Even then, the man refused to speak with him. Eventually,
he agreed to talk, but only on the phone. According to Mr. F, he didn't hear anything strange
that night. However, he did say he found out about the incident on Saturday morning from hotel
staff when he checked out. For Lars, this was incredibly suspicious, because Jennifer wasn't found
until that night.
Lars tried to press Mr. F, but the mystery man wouldn't say anything else.
That was the last time Lars or anyone else involved in the case ever heard from him.
Still, conspiracy theorists can't let Mr. F. go.
They think it's possible he hired Jennifer as a sex worker, then ended up killing her.
Lars still isn't sure what the truth is, but I definitely
have my own theory. Let us know in the comments what you think really happened. I want to hear
your thoughts. As for Lars, he wrote a new in-depth feature for VG's website. It went live in
2017, along with a TV documentary he also made about the case. This led to renewed interest
in the story, which got Netflix's attention. In 2020, the story was featured in the second season
of the show Unsolved Mysteries. This was Lars'
goal back in 1996 to bring as much attention as possible to Jennifer's story in hopes that the
right person would see it and come forward. So far, that still hasn't happened. Whether that's
because Jennifer didn't want to be found or someone else was determined to keep her death
shrouded in mystery, it's hard to say. But in the end, everyone deserves to be remembered.
and Jennifer Fairgate, whoever she was, will never be forgotten.
Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes.
Come back next week. We'll decode this episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies,
and criminal acts.
Conspiracy theories, cults and crimes, is a crimehouse original, powered by Pave Studios.
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Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios.
This episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertzowski, Lori
Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Stacey Warrinker, Megan Hannam, Leah Roche, and Michael Langsner.
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I'll be back tomorrow with a story of a UFO abduction. Happy holidays.
Looking for your next crimehouse listen, don't miss Clues with Morgan Absher and Kalin Moore.
Morgan and Kalyn take you deep into the world of the most notorious crimes ever, clue by clue.
It's like hanging out with your smart, true crime-obsessed friends.
Listen to clues on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
