Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel (formerly Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel), which the locals simply call Oslo Plaza, is Norway's second tallest building. But this is not what the hotel is famous for. Oslo Plaza is the home of one of Norway's biggest mysteries, a puzzle which has never been solved.

On June 3, 1995, a body of a young woman was found inside room 2805. Her death was ruled a suicide. However, the lack of gunshot residue and no blood on her hand raised a lot of questions about the cause of death. No identification was found in the hotel room and all the information that the hotel had on her proved to be false. A strange combination of clothes were found in the room: one blouse, four bras, long silk underwear, stockings, high-heeled shoes, four jackets. No skirt, no pants. All labels were removed from her clothing. The pistol's serial number was scratched off. Who was she? A spy? A serial killer? Did she commit suicide or was she killed? Why was her identity so meticulously concealed that despite all the efforts we still do not know who he was?

What do we know? Not much. We know she had short black hair and blue eyes. Gold and porcelain was used in her rather expensive dental work. She was fluent in English and German. An autopsy concluded that she was between 25 and 35 years of age, not 21 as she stated in her check in form.

She checked in on May 31st under the false name of "Jennifer Fairgate". "Jennifer" also checked a guest -  "Lois Fergate" - into the room with her. The receptionist said he didn't see anyone with her while checking her in, but another employee claimed seeing "Jennifer" with a man, between 25-40 years old, going into the room with her. This man has never been identified.

"Jennifer" was absent from her hotel room for the next 2 days based on data from the room's key cards, and no one remembers seeing her exit or enter her room except once. During her stay, she called two invalid numbers in Belgium. She was last seen alive the day prior to her death when she ordered room service at 8:06 PM. Another member of the staff saw “Jennifer” that day entering her room and putting the "do not disturb" sign. This sign remained on the door handle for the next day and staff became alarmed, especially when they realized she had not checked out when she should.

When the security personnel knocked on the door, they almost immediately heard a gunshot. Alarmed, they rushed to the phone and called the police. The room remained unsupervised for 15 minutes. Oslo police arrived 50 minutes after the gunshot was heard. When police entered the room, they found "Jennifer" lying on the bed, covered in blood, dead of a gunshot wound to her head. She was holding a Browning 9mm pistol in her hand. However, the gun was held upside down, and no blood or gunshot residue was found on her hand. The shot heard first was believed to have been a test shot into a pillow found near the body. Another key was found in the room, believed to have been given to mysterious “Lois". All attempts to identify the woman have failed, and her body was later buried in an undisclosed location.

In November 2016, her body was exhumed to collect a DNA profile but unfortunately this did not help identifying her. Up to day, nobody knows who she was and what exactly happened on June 3, 1995 in room 2805.

Bonus fact: the mysterious story of “Oslo Plaza woman”  was covered in the second volume of Season 1 of Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries, which premiered in October 2020.

Sources: Wikipedia, www.wikia.org

More info: https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/xRjoWp/mystery-at-the-oslo-plaza

Photo: Mahlum