Today, State Attorney Per Morten Schjetne announces his decision. According to what news is aware of, the case against the three little boys, who are now in their 30s, has been dropped. “In conclusion, we note that neither individual evidence nor the investigation taken as a whole provides a basis for concluding who subjected Silje to violence. It is emphasized that the closure does not contain any grading or finding of guilt in relation to the three suspects in the case, and it follows from the presumption of innocence that all three are innocent. It is our assessment that today there are no further relevant investigative steps that can contribute to further elucidate the course of events”, states the decision from the state attorney. It was 15 October 1994 that five-year-old Silje Marie Redergård was found dead at the top of a toboggan run on Tiller in Trondheim. Just one day later, three boys aged 4, 5 and 6 were named by the police as being responsible for mistreating her to death. Formally, the case against the boys was dropped because they were minors and thus could not be tried and imprisoned. But the label as murderers has followed the boys ever since. Criticizing the investigation The State Attorney has not evaluated the investigation carried out by the police in 1994 beyond what is necessary to assess the information that came to light during the investigation. “We note, however, that the investigation in 1994 was ended prematurely. As mentioned above, this particularly applies to the securing and analysis of seizures made by the police.” It was in news Brennpunkt’s documentary series “Murder in the sledge” last November that the case was taken up again by the police. In 1994, the police’s investigation and interrogation methods were heavily criticized by a number of experts, who warned of the possibility that the boys had been subjected to judicial murder. The criticism led to the public prosecutor in Trøndelag ordering a resumption of the Silje case just weeks after “Murder in the toboggan run” was shown. Since the beginning of 2022, the police in Trondheim have conducted new interviews in the case and analyzed evidence. Today’s decision means that the police had no basis for pointing out the three small boys as guilty of Silje’s death.
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