The brutal robbery at the Jordet post office in Trysil in 1979 led to a large and extensive police investigation. For the first time, Bjørn Sjøli will be interviewed about what he experienced in his childhood home, where his mother ran the post office in the village. – If you google “Jordet robbery” today, you won’t find anything. You have to look through the newspaper archives to find something. I want it not to be forgotten, says the 53-year-old. Bjørn Sjøli believes it is important for posterity that the story of the robbery in Jordet be told before all those involved are gone. Photo: Stein S Eide / news – First Cold Case case Despite the fact that the robbery in Trysil led to a large and extensive police investigation in which Kripos and local police were involved, it did not lead to any solution. Not before the police reopened the investigation after five years. Former police adjutant at Sør Østerdal police chamber Per Martin Marum says this was the first “Cold Case” in Norway. On the evening of 26 July 1979, 10-year-old Bjørn Sjøli had eaten supper and gone to his room on the second floor to go to bed. Father John went to bed in the next room, while mother Ida was downstairs in the kitchen. Around 10 p.m. the doorbell rang. Mother Ida opened the door and two men with sawed-off shotguns and nylon stockings over their heads pushed their way into the house. The robbers threatened Ida to unlock the safe and took the around 20,000 kroner that were there. Threatened to shoot. They then ordered her up to the second floor. There, she, her husband John and her 10-year-old son Bjørn were each tied to a chair. The police had several reconstructions after the robbery at the Jordet post office in Trysil in 1979. Here, father John Sjøli plays himself, while others are called in to play the masked robbers, mother Ida Sjøli and her 10-year-old son John. Photo: Picture taken by the police One of the robbers put the barrel of the shotgun to the father’s temple and asked if there was anything he wanted to say to the family before he was shot. Ten-year-old Bjørn asked that they not shoot his father. Then the robber put the shotgun under the ten-year-old’s eyes. – He told me to shut up or he would shoot me first, says Bjørn. The robber then started hitting Bjørn’s father in the head with the rifle. After several blows, the father managed to kick away so the chair overturned and he was lying on the floor. The robbers then first hit Ida in the head with the weapon and finally Bjørn as they both fell to the floor. Then the robbers ran down the stairs. On the way out, they cut the telephone line. Bloody: This is what it looked like in the bedroom after the robbers had tied up and beaten Ida, John and their son Bjørn late in the evening on 26/7/1979. Photo: Picture taken by the police Neighbors notified Both Bjørn and the parents were conscious and got free quite quickly. They alerted neighbors, who called the police. Neighbour: Rolf Jacob Andersen in Jordet alerted the police after the post office robbery in 1979. His mother was a nurse and took care of John, who was bleeding profusely from the head. – We didn’t realize there was going to be a robbery here in Jordet, but then called the police recalls Rolf “bobo” Andersen. Photo: Stein S Eide / news Kripos and local police invested a lot of resources in catching the robbers, but they seemed to have sunk into the ground. It would take over five years before the armed postal robbery in Jordet in Trysil was solved. The falling trace was a piece of wood that had fallen off the handle of the shotgun when the robbers had hit John in the head with the shotgun. The wooden piece turned out to be from a rare Spanish brand of shotgun called UMBE, caliber 12. Only a few such shotguns had been sold in Norway. The one in Nordre Osen in Åmot in old Hedmark. In 1984, news Hedmark broadcast the radio documentary “Who bought a shotgun in Nordre Osen”. The program was made by journalist Øyvind Bæk, who was given permission to read all the material in the police investigation. Police adjutant at Sør-Østerdal police district Per Martin Marum heard the program and pricked up his ears. – Øyvind Bæk’s radio program was absolutely decisive. We would hardly have embarked on that case if it weren’t for that program. Ida and John Sjøli with journalist Øyvind Bæk, who received NOK 10,000 from the Norwegian Post Office for helping to solve the post robbery in Jordet. He says today that he was probably the only one who made money from the robbery. Photo: Stein S Eide / news New investigation The police soon found out who had sold the shotgun, from which the piece of wood came. In May of the same year, three young men from the district confessed to having been behind the robbery. It turned out that a third person had been sitting in the car and half asleep during the robbery. On 21 January 1985, the three were indicted for the postal robbery five years earlier. The young people had been questioned as witnesses early in the investigation, but had been checked out because no evidence was found. The trial In the trial it emerged that the defendants had been driving around that summer, ran out of money for drugs and decided to rob the post office. Afterwards they had gone to Oslo and stashed away the money. In the trial, it emerged that the offended family in Jordet had suffered after the robbery. There was a lot of media coverage after the robbery in Jordet in 1979 and five years later before the trial. He who was the prosecutor, police adjutant Per Martin Marum says it is the first cold case in Norwegian police history. Photo: Stein S Eide / news Prosecutor Per Marum submitted a request for unconditional imprisonment for two years for one defendant and a year and a half for the other two. The sentence in Sør-Østerdal District Court was imprisonment for one year and six months, one year two two months and one year for a third party, respectively. His sentence was suspended on appeal. They were also sentenced to pay back the money they stole from the Norwegian Post Office. In mitigation, the court took into account the fact that the defendants had been between 18 and 21 years of age when they committed the robbery. Since more than five years had also passed since the robbery, they received a reduced sentence. According to the defenders, they showed strong remorse. With the exception of a drunk driving conviction, all had stayed away from crime afterwards. Prosecutor Per Marum says it was important that the culprits had to be held accountable for what they had done. – I remember one of the convicts came up to me during the trial and said that it was the first time in several years that he had slept well. The former police chief in Sør-Trøndelag police district never forgets the mail robbery in Jordet. – It was special because it was an armed robbery in a small place against a small family with brutal violence in which a child was involved. Will not rip up news has spoken to two of those who were convicted of the robbery at the Jordet post office in 1979, but no one wants to take part in this case. In an SMS, one writes: – I have finished my sentence and do not want to rip it up after so many years. This has been forgotten on my part and is per date history. The other is against news taking up this case again now. It has been forgotten and should remain forgotten, he says. The third person convicted of the robbery died last year. Wants the robbery not to be forgotten Bjørn Sjøli says he has coped well after the dramatic experience as a ten-year-old, but does not want it to be forgotten for posterity. – It is part of history both for us involved but also for Jordet and Trysil, says Bjørn Sjøli. This is what it looks like today: The old post office in Jordet, which was robbed in July 1979. Photo: Stein S Eide / news
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Bjørn Sjølie (10) witnessed a brutal robbery at the post office – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
