The Isdal woman and her coded message (3)

Did the Isdal woman leave another coded message in addition to a coded notebook page? Book author David Morgan claims so.

Deutsche Version

As I have blogged twice in the past few days, on November 29, 1970, a half-burned woman’s body was found on a hiking trail in Isdal (“Ice Valley”) near Bergen, Norway. She had previously caught the eye of several witnesses and left behind two suitcases.

The Isdal woman

Despite numerous clues, the Isdal woman was never identified. Whether it was a homicide or suicide was also never clarified. Since some vague indications of an affiliation with the Catholic Church were found, the Isdal woman was given a Catholic burial.

Quelle/Source: Public Domain

Blog reader Lars Dietz pointed out to me that there is a documentary on the Isdal woman in the Mediathek of the ZDF. On Youtube you can find some interesting videocasts to which I already referred.

The case of the Isdal woman is reminiscent of that of the Somerton man. Like the latter, the unknown dead woman left a coded note. Here it is:

Quelle/Source: Public Domain

As reported, this note has been largely decoded. It is an abbreviation cipher encoding a travel plan.

The cryptogram of the Somerton man was never deciphered, but there is much to suggest that an abbreviation cipher was also used here.

Quelle/Source: Wikimedia Commons

Another cryptogram?

A few days ago I came across another (alleged) cryptogram which is supposed to play a role in connection with the Isdal Woman. It is described in the book “The Isdal Woman, A New Perspective” by David Morgan.

Morgan assumes that there were actually two women behind the Isdal woman. At the time in question, he says, a U.S. woman named Julie Valentine was traveling in Norway and bore a distant resemblance to the unknown dead woman. It is possible that Julie Valentine was the woman described by the witnesses, while the Isdal dead woman had a completely different background. The book is available as an e-book, not too expensive and a quick read. Perhaps some readers can tell what they think of it.

Towards the end of the book, Morgan presents another hypothesis, although he himself calls it speculative. It is about a signature that the Isdal woman made on a hotel form under the false name Elizabeth Leenhouwer (right in the picture):

Quelle/Source: Morgan, PD

As Morgan correctly notes, the last name is spelled with two “u “s and thus incorrectly. On the left of the image, the name Julie Valentine is in a shorthand script – unfortunately, Morgan does not say which one. Morgan thinks that this shorthand is embedded in the signature. If this is true, then the Isdal woman would have communicated her true name steganographically in this way. This would also prove that Morgan is correct in his Julie Valentine theory above.

Is Morgan right? In my opinion, rather not, because the similarities between shorthand and signature may also be coincidental. What do my readers think?

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Further reading: The Isdal Woman mystery, revisited

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