Askim church was already full an hour before the funeral started at 10.30. Family and friends have gathered to remember Mina Alexandra and Mille Andrea Hjalmarsen. The church in Indre Østfold is decorated with many greetings and flowers. The twin sisters were found lifeless in a home in Spydeberg on the night of 8 January. They were pronounced dead at the scene. A third girl of the same age was taken to hospital. She was friends with the twins and is present at the church today. – She fears, among other things, because it will then be completely final for her what has happened, that the twins are dead. However, she is also looking forward to participating in the funeral, says the girl’s legal aid lawyer Hilde Jæger. In the obituary, the family wrote: “Two destinies, one life. Together you came into our lives, together you have now left us.” The family of the twin girls is very affected by the deaths. Photo: Mathias Lunde Kristoffersen / news Trygve Skaug will sing during the funeral. Lifeless found On the night of Sunday 8 January, large resources from the emergency services moved to an address in Spydeberg in Indre Østfold municipality. The twin girls were found dead at the scene. They had then been missing from the child welfare institution Fossumkollektivet for around a day. They had lived there, in two different places, since September last year. Police believe the girls died of a drug overdose. The girls were found lifeless at an address in Spydeberg on the night of Sunday 9 January. Photo: Freddie Larsen A third, 16-year-old girl was taken to hospital after a possible overdose. She has now been discharged from the hospital and returned to the Fossum Collective. – She is having a hard time. It has gradually become more and more difficult for her after she moved back to the Fossum collective, says welfare lawyer Jæger. Two men have been charged in the case. A man in his 20s is charged with negligent homicide, while an 18-year-old man is charged with having sold drugs to the girls, and with having left them in a helpless state. None of the men plead guilty. – They were beautiful, colorful girls – They were beautiful, colorful girls who always spread lots of joy. Everyone who has been around the twins has said that they are girls who go straight to their hearts. They were so naturally beautiful. That’s what Mina and Mille’s mother Kirsti Skogsholm said in a longer interview with TV 2 last weekend. Mina Alexandra and Mille Andrea Hjalmarsen turned 16 years old. Photo: Privat The twin sisters developed serious eating disorders when they were in secondary school. Eventually they became too ill to stay at home. The mother tells the channel that the daughters had at least twelve different placements in child care before they died. – We feel that the girls are portrayed as two heavy drug addicts who chose to go down that path themselves. That was not the case, said Skogsholm. Calls for better cooperation Earlier this week, children’s ombudsman Inga Bejer Engh called for better cooperation between the health system and child protection. – It is still the case that child protection is often left with a great deal of responsibility alone, if they are unable to help the child well enough based on the competence and the framework they have, Engh said to TV 2. Children’s Ombudsman Inga Bejer Engh. Photo: Tom Balgaard The state administrator in Oslo and Viken has opened an investigation after the deaths. They will investigate whether the sisters received proper follow-up from child protection in the time before they were found dead. In the wake of the deaths in Spydeberg, Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) has asked the Norwegian Health Authority to investigate all deaths linked to child welfare institutions in the last five years.
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