Misidentification of people because they are lookalikes or doppelgangers has fascinated me since 2018.

I researched the 1970 Isdal Woman mystery since 2018 after being given a copy of some original police evidence. A woman who I call 'Julie Valentine' [in theory she has never died, so I can't use her real name] was identified by hostel staff as the body. All the police evidence pointed to her being the body. But then some guy in Bergen came forward with evidence she had sent his relative a postcard. The police looked at the postcard and decided 'yep, she's still alive'.

I tried to find out where she went after 1970. I found her in Vermont in 1972 - in a newspaper. When I had located the journalist who wrote the article I asked him politely when her picture was taken and he said he would not confirm it was 1972 and wouldn't help my research. My evidence suggested the location she was photographed in had been converted to a hospital ward - at some time. I just thought there had to be an explanation. Then I located her again in 1977 at her brother's wedding. But again her co-signatory on the wedding certificate was an NSA agent.

But what struck me as unusual was that when the BBC and NRK researched their 2018 podcast Death in Ice Valley she was clearly in the police evidence but they decided to ignore her. "The elephant in the room". She had been identified as the body, she wore the same clothes, had the same suitcases, bought the same boots in the same shop, travelled on the same hydrofoil and was discussed briefly in a 1970 newspaper article without naming her. I could even find a trace of the NRK 2016 search for her on myheritage so they couldn't say they didn't know about her.

She was definitely an evidence doppelganger. Then in 2018 lawyer Dennis Zacher Aske researched her in his Norwegian book Kvinnen i Isdalen. Having found out all the same details I found he concluded the police were correct the postcard proved she was alive and that journalists in 1970 who thought she was the Isdal Woman were effectively stupid.

Imagine a lawyer who believes a postcard proves a person is alive and that a person wearing the same clothes, with the same suitcases could not have been her and that made 1970 journalists stupid.

The police, the BBC, NRK, the Bergen lawyer/lecturer didn't think to phone her up if she is alive today!

So from then on I have been fascinated with 'true' doppelgangers and their involvement in crime. I keep finding them!