The Orderud case () was a triple murder that occurred in Norway on 22 May 1999. The victims were 47-year-old Anne Orderud Paust; her mother, 84-year-old Marie Orderud; and her father, 81-year-old Kristian Orderud, who were found shot and killed at their country estate in Sørum, Akershus.
Anne's brother Per Kristian Orderud, his wife Veronica Orderud, Veronica's sister Kristin Kirkemo and Kristin's ex-boyfriend Lars Grønnerød were arrested and convicted of complicity in premeditated murder in 2001. The case probably generated the most media attention of any criminal case in Norwegian history at the time.
Background
On 17 July 1998, while heading to work at the Ministry of Defence, the Norwegian defense minister's personal secretary, Anne Orderud Paust, discovered a charge of explosives under her truck. The 500-gram explosive device was of the Solex type. The incident was given "extremely high priority" with the Oslo police. On 12 August, her husband Per Paust, a high level Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, stated that there had been an attempt to ignite a propane gas tank at the stairwell of their apartment in Skillebekk, Oslo. He discovered the 5-kilogram tank with an open vent outside his door, which was doused in gasoline. Officials from the fire department claimed that the whole building could easily have been "blown apart". These two assassination attempts received wide publicity and caused a media sensation. In the end no one was charged or arrested in connection with either of the two incidents.
The couple then spent a few months in New York City where Per worked as a temporary Consul-General, returning to Norway in January 1999. Per Paust was then diagnosed with cancer and died after a short illness in May that same year. Around 15 May, an anonymous person called and warned the authorities that Anne Paust and her parents would be murdered. Despite extensive searches, the caller was never found, and one week later the same people were found dead.
Murders
On the night of 22 May, Anne Orderud Paust and her parents, Marie (b. 1915) and Kristian Orderud (b. 1918), were shot and killed in the parents' home on the Orderud Estate in Sørum, Akershus. Hiding in the adjacent woods until nightfall, the assailant entered the house sometime between midnight and 5am by climbing on to the second floor porch and breaking the window on the veranda door.
Probably awoken by the noise, Marie Orderud confronted the intruder and was shot at close range and killed instantly. Meanwhile, Anne Orderud Paust also entered the room and was shot and killed in the same manner. Both women were found in their nightgowns. The assailant then went to the couples' bedroom, where Kristian Orderud was lying. He was impaired by his old age and was unable to escape or otherwise offer any resistance to the gunman. He was executed from point-blank range. The assailant then fled through the same back door used for entry, the only visible trace being the broken window in the door.
The next morning, Kristian's brother Hans came to visit, and upon seeing the broken door went in for a closer look. He then discovered the bodies of his family members and contacted the police. The killings happened just weeks after Anne Orderud Paust had voluntarily declined to be assigned close protection officers from the Police Security Service.
Investigation
Early in the investigation, the police felt confident that the assailant or assailants were familiar with the victims and that the victims probably knew their killer. The investigators theorized that the time of the killings had not been coincidental. Because only a handful of people knew that Anne would be visiting at that precise time, the investigators concluded that the killer had the house under careful surveillance and acted upon seeing her car parked outside. The main theory is that Anne Orderud Paust was the main target of the killer or killers.
The police further speculated that the victims did not initially realize the danger they were facing, the location of the bodies in the estate's second floor indicated that they did not consider escaping when they faced their intruder, and despite the break-in nobody made any effort to alert the police or others. One explanation may be that the victims initially did not feel the intruder to be threatening and thus did not see it as necessary to contact the police. The fact that Kristian Orderud was killed while lying in his bed suggested that the perpetrator knew exactly who the victims were. This was backed up by the fact that nothing was missing from the house, ruling out a robbery.