In 1995, Jennifer Fairgate checked into a hotel room. Three days later, a gunshot was heard.

It was May 31, 1995, when a young woman checked into the Oslo Plaza hotel in Norway’s capital with a male companion.

Her hair was jet black, and it was cut in a pixie style. She had blue eyes and a dusting of beauty spots on her left cheek and chin. At check-in, she noted she was 21, that her name was Jennifer Fairgate and the man accompanying her was Lois Fairgate. She also noted her address as a village in Belgium along Rue de la Stehde 148.

Hotel staff recalled her having an East German accent.

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It was 10.44pm by the time Jennifer and Lois arrived at their room, number 2805. Absolutely nothing seemed out of the ordinary. 

But three days later, on Saturday, June 3, a security guard heard a gunshot coming from inside the room.

Police were called, and they found Jennifer dead from a gunshot wound to the head at 8.04pm. There was no sign of Lois.

At first, the death was ruled a suicide. 

But 28 years on, there are still some serious questions over Jennifer's demise, with many believing her suicide was staged. 

When police entered the hotel room, 45 minutes after the security guard first heard the gunshot, they found Jennifer’s dead body laying on her back, feet dangling off the bed with a bullet wound to her head. 

She was holding the gun in her hand, which is what first suggested suicide, but experts have suggested that a pistol that powerful wouldn't remain in one's hand after being fired in a suicide. The positioning of the weapon also didn't quite fit the suicide theory and the serial number on the side had been removed with acid. Beside the bed, there was a suitcase with 25 rounds of ammunition in it - which seems excessive for someone who only wanted to take their own life. 

And that’s not all.

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Torleiv Ole Rognum, chief pathologist at Oslo University disputed local police’s conclusion that with “99.9 per cent certainty” Jennifer committed suicide. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a case without any blood spots on the hand,” he said on an episode of Netflix’s Unsolved Mysteries.

"We know there was powerful back spatter with blood way up on the ceiling,” he said, as reported by VG. “The victim still had her thumb on the trigger, and her fingers around the stock. So it’s strange there is no blood trace on her hands."

There was also clear evidence that Jennifer was trying to conceal her identity. 

She had also used the surname ‘Fergate’ on her check-in forms and her noted address didn’t exist.

She had no purse, keys, toiletries, or passport in the room, and all labels were removed from her clothing.

But if Jennifer had been murdered and her suicide staged, then who was the killer? The mysterious Lois, who was never located and whose DNA was not found at the scene? 

There were no signs of a struggle and no signs she'd been drugged, so perhaps he had known her killer. 

Between the time of her arrival on May 31, and her death on June 3, data via her card key showed the door had been opened on June 1, at 12.21am, and again eight hours later at 8.34am. At 12.50pm that day, a cleaner entered the room, but claimed the beds did not look like they had not been slept in.

Once again card key data showed an occupant returning to the room 24 hours later on Friday, June 2 at 8.50am, and the once more at 11.03am that day. That evening at 8.23pm, Jennifer’s room service order was delivered and staff commented once again the room appeared untouched.

Almost 24 hours later the gunshot was heard and Jennifer was found dead. Strangely, the security guard who heard the gun fire disappeared for 15 minutes before alerting police, who arrived 30 minutes later. 

In an interview with Unsolved Mysteries, Ola Kaldager, a group leader for Norway’s intelligence service said Jennifer’s death had all the markings of an “intelligence operation.”

“From my point of view this is a very well carried out intelligence operation,” he said. “What actually happened there is very hard to say, but I have a feeling that she was executed.”

He also noted that serial numbers being removed using acid was a “professional” tactic.

In the months following her unmarked burial, police destroyed her belongings left in room 2805, which left little hope of further forensic testing.

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Then in 2016, Jennifer’s body was exhumed from its grave to complete a proper DNA profile. The information gathered suggested Jennifer was 24 years old at the time of her death and was of European heritage. Her heritage adds up, given hotel staff claimed Jennifer had a German accent. Some experts believe she could have been working with Russia’s infamous KGB spy network.

Unsolved Mysteries’ creator Terry Meuer hoped her episode would have enticed a family member or someone who knew Jennifer to come forward.

“You have to wonder, if it was a suicide, why she went to all that trouble to get rid of a lot of her clothing and some of the belongings she brought,” Muerer told The Wrap. “You have to wonder why she would do that, cut the tags out, get rid of any kind of identifying information. That doesn’t seem like what a person that was going to kill themselves would do.

“She belongs to someone. I hope that somebody should come forward knowing that her family still wants to know where their daughter is, what happened to their daughter — or a sister, a brother, a friend.”

But three years since the episode aired, that hasn’t happened – and there might be a good reason why. Kaldager believes any chance of a relative or loved one coming forward is unlikely, because they would have been “taken care of” by her employers for her patriotism. 

Someone knows what happened to ‘Jennifer’, but whether we’ll ever find out? That’s the question.

Feature Image: Netflix.