Lots and lots of theories as to her origins and the purpose of her tour of Norway not to mention the question of who killed her, and why.
General consensus at the time was (at least in my parents' circles) was that it was too elaborate to have been a suicide - many thought she'd been in the employ of some Warsaw pact intelligence service, possibly being killed by associates after some falling out or the other. After all, if our counter-intelligence had gotten hold of her, they'd simply lock her up or deport her - or, if you are of a more sinister disposition, disappear her.
Anyway - all just conjecture and guesswork; the idea was just to write a short comment to suggest that this case is very special by Norwegian standards - then I got a bit carried away...
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/search?q=isdal&...
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3anykc...
- A brand new police-sketch of her face (after interviewing witnesses) aiming for photo realism. (As opposed to the sketch from the 70's which is more stylistic in nature.)
- Handwriting analysis of her diary, itineraries, etc. to narrow down where she could've been educated.
- A complete DNA profile from samples of her internal organs. (Samples were previously thought missing, but have recently been rediscovered.)
- Her teeth (also previously thought missing) have been sent for isotope analysis to narrow down her geographic area of origin. Her dental work is also being studied to match repair methods with country.
At least here they have a body. There are tens of thousands of other bodies that cannot be identified in the US alone. So going forward it will probably take genetic sampling at birth so that everyone can be identified or every set of remains can be. How much of society trusts government to do only that?
Here in Norway we've got an ongoing case in which the police (in Bergen, the same precinct which got the Isdalen case in the parent article in their laps) collected DNA samples from any male who volunteered to provide one to be checked out of a rape case. (They used cell phone position data to determine who had been in the immediate area around the time of the rape).
Anyone who provided a sample were assured that the sample would be destroyed once they were checked out - as would any data derived from it.
Guess what. The samples still exist, the unexpected twist being that the police wants to destroy them to keep up the populace's trust.
The national archives are the ones trying to preserve the samples on the grounds that they are, by law, material which fall under the authority of the national archives.
If the samples are in the end preserved, guess what:
a) Noone will ever volunteer DNA ever again, and:
b) Someone will at some point cross-reference the samples against other unsolved crimes, just in case.
How many people are reported missing is irrelevant in this discussion; a better question is, how many unidentified bodies are found in the United States every year?
I was 20 at the time and serving in the army. There I was actually leading company-strength motor marches.
Talk about overly worried parents.
As to your question, a quick Google arrives at a story claiming the number is 4,400:
"U.S. medical examiner and coroners' offices receive an estimated 4,400 unidentified human bodies every year, according to the first national census of medical-legal death investigations, "Medical Examiners and Coroners' Offices, 2004." Of these, about 1,000 are still unidentified after one year, and 600 are buried or cremated."
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/07/07/11/unidentified-hum...
