old_hand

Thank you (like many others here will want to thank you as well for posting this newslink). From a quick glance, I get the impression the Police are still looking for this Polish man? Meaning they have not yet been able to question him? By the way morten, if you and others would prefer to communicate with me in German here rather than English, that is fine with me too.

It's a Sunday meanwhile, and even with the searchefforts intensified there still seems to be no significant news. So let me just post the links to two more newsstories, both published yesterday June 17. One (Nettavisen) also has another photo of Marijke. http://www.gd.no/artikkel.asp?Artid=184953 "Blir til Marijke er funnet " http://www.nettavisen.no/innenriks/article662580.ece "Trapper opp letingen"

Thanks for your reply, Astrid (even if it was a bit of a puzzle to understand it...) The trouble with these situations is that often the fellow travellers/hikers who may have séén the missing person or know where she wanted to go, have left the area meanwhile to go to another location. After all, they are on holiday. That doesn't go for the local population she may have met with and spoken to, but to find other hikers back it takes the media and tools like (travel)webforums. I'm hoping that others who know of more webforums for hiking in Jotunheimen, comparable to the Fjellforum, have posted searchappeals there in the past few days as well, to help raise awareness. This seems to be a new presspublication, of this morning (Saturday) http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/hedmark_og_oppland/1.613791 "Leteaksjon utvides i Jotunheimen"

There is one more thing I want to post a reply about here, in reaction to a suggestion that the missing woman may have wanted to end her life. If someone brings up that possibility, how long do they know her? And how much do they know about her? Did they ever speak with her in person recently, in depth and about personal matters? If I'm correct, the author of this www.gd.no newsarticle quotes information about a boyfriend that he says he found in Dutch newsarticles. He doesn't specify his source. To my knowledge no reference whatsoever was made in the Dutch media to any relationships of the missing woman, other than her friendship with a female friend in Oslo with whom she was supposed to meet last Saturday. Just so you'll know. Another (online) newspaper, nrk.no, brought a story on Friday June 16 about divers who have checked out a certain location. And there was mention of snifferdogs reacting to a spot in Uradalen. I'm under the impression Norwegian Police and many others actively involved in the searches, are doing all they can. IF she's injured some place, and still alive, spreading speculations about a possible suicide i.e. "voluntary disappearance" cóuld perhaps demoralize to a certain degree the energy and efforts of the searchteams. Were you aware that in the early 1990's an Australian medical student survived during 43 whole days and nights in the freezing winter cold on a much higher altitude in the Himalayas? His name is James Scott. No, I do not think anyone will ever "break his record", or come even close to it. But to start giving up on Marijke Vervoort, a healthy young woman, only thirteen days after she was reportedly last seen in that part of Norway and this time of the year, would be an immense shame in my opinion.

Ragnar you're a gem! You say you're no professional in this matter, just writing as a private person. Well, so am I. But just in case, I'll make sure your long and dedicated reply here will reach those responsible nevertheless. I'll send the concerned Dutch policeforce as well as the relatives/friends a copy by e-mail right away. In fact they both have links already to the 2 threads about Marijke on this board. Personally I don't doubt the Norwegian police know very well what they're doing, also with these technical (electronical) issues. Of course they do. But a big problem sometimes if it concerns more than one country (such as here with the use of a Dutch cellphone) is that authorities such as Police often don't communicate directly with eachother, or with a provider of some sort. Especially not in the early stages of a search, when communications go either via an Embassy or via Interpol. I don't know if that's the case here as well (still), but if it is you can bet that much valuable time would be lost that way. Again, thank you!!! I don't know the least about the technical aspects of mobile phone traffic, but I agree with you that in this case it's something to check out real fast and professionally, and with the help of all parties technically involved, in Norway as well as in Holland.

Thank you! So there seems to be some truth in that warning on the VT-forum indeed. It's such a big shame that apparently nobody knows in what direction she wanted to go. But if the police would know by now where she had been already (in Jotunheimen), and the direction she came from, I imagine (but I've never been there) that would be an indication of where (what direction or directions) she could have gone, and where not.

Hello, If you don't mind my asking (and in English), from the (Norwegian) press I understood that police has a.o. things also tried to check for any mobile telephone conversations Marijke may have made while out there. Normally that's a possibility indeed to try and locate where someone was when she or he made a mobile phonecall. I was wondering how those attempts by the police to look for this type of "electronic evidence" relate to the following message, posted on April 7 of this year by a tourist who also visited Jotunheimen: Do you think that's true, or sometimes true (depending on location and the weather)? Or did the poster exaggerate about the impossibility to make a mobile phonecall in Jotunheimen, in case of emergency? Just wondering. The missing woman brought a Dutch cellphone it seems, but not a satellite phone (in satellite phone traffic, high mountains are no obstacles as far as I know).

Perhaps I should still add here, because I don't know if that was emphasised in the Norwegian press, that this woman is a graduated physician (medical doctor). As her age tells, she graduated not so long ago. But her medical knowledge is far more professionally trained than that of an average hiker or trekker. And entirely depending on WHAT happened to her, this knowledge máy mean she is better able to keep herself alive out there, even if she would be injured.

Thank you morten. Just so you'll all understand: myself I'm no relative or even friend of this poor woman; just trying to help out with posting a few more appeals on the web. And from every posting or contact, I'm sending a link or a copy to the main contact-address mentioned in my post. So Marijke's family stays informed about what happens on the internet in the meantime. I've managed to find an online automatic translator for Norwegian, and read the reply that Astrid gave in the other thread with much interest. Still, an automatic translation is a poor way to understand a language you're not familiar with, and even more so if it's all about a region you have never been to. So I'm grateful that you say that her observations are not significant in view of Marijke's disappearance. If anyone should read or hear something "more alarming" in that respect, naturally we hope you'll be able to contact Steinar Angard of the Lom Police (who is in charge of the searchoperations), or the relatives, right away.

A Dutch 26-yr. old woman, Marijke Vervoort, is missing in the Jotunheimen since early June. She was last seen on June 4, a Sunday, by the owners of the SPITERSTULEN HUT. She should have returned to Holland last weekend, but nobody heard from her anymore ever since Sunday June 4 when she paid for her lodging and left the Spiterstulen hut. She was hiking alone. This is a photo of Marijke Vervoort => She is 1.67 m' tall, weighs approx. 50 kilo, blond hair, brown eyes. Police and relatives of the woman are in the park already, and a search on the ground has started last Tuesday. But the Jotunheimen is a very big area, and nobody knows Marijke's itinerary or where she wanted to go after leaving Spiterstulen Hut. Were you there, and did you perhaps see her? Or do you know of hikers/backpackers who walked in the park early June, and may have met her? Is there anyone here who happens to know what itinerary she had in mind? Time is of the essence! Maybe she had an accident, maybe she is injured, maybe she lost her way out there completely. If you have any valuable tips or ideas re. the organisation of the present searchefforts, please send an e-mail right away to: [email protected] That is the address to contact relatives and friends, who are in direct contact with the Oppland (Lom) Police and the searchteams. Thank you. Edited June 18: to make a correction re. the date she left the hut; in earlier communications it was sometimes suggested she left on Monday June 5. This is not true. She left Spiterstulen Hut on Sunday June 4 ("Whitsuntide Sunday" or "Pfingst Sonntag"). Attention moderator: if this appeal for information and help is posted in the wrong forum, then please move it to where it should be. I'm afraid I can't read your language... Thanks.