The Murder of Janne Jemtland

Janne Jemtland disappeared during the night of December 29, 2017, after she and her husband returned to their home near Brumunddal from a holiday gathering. Her husband later reported her missing. The search became a major police operation in Innlandet, and investigators eventually arrested him after technical evidence shifted the case from a missing-person inquiry to a homicide investigation.

Janne Jemtland

Janne was 36 and the mother of two children. Contemporary police and court reporting consistently identifies her as the victim at the center of the case. This archive avoids reproducing unnecessary details from the injuries and keeps the focus on what investigators and courts established.

Disappearance and search

The couple returned home in the early hours of December 29, 2017. Janne was subsequently reported missing. Police launched a broad search and found blood traces at more than one location. Investigators also examined telephone activity, vehicles and evidence at the family property.

On January 12, 2018, police arrested Svein Jemtland on suspicion of killing his wife. The next day, during a search of the Glomma River in Våler municipality, police confirmed that a person had been found in the river. A subsequent identification established that the body was Janne’s.

The prosecution case

Prosecutors alleged that Svein Jemtland shot Janne outside the family home and later concealed and disposed of her body. He denied intentional murder and maintained that the shooting occurred accidentally during a struggle involving a pistol.

Forensic evidence and his conduct after Janne’s death became central to the proceedings. Court reporting records that medical experts concluded Janne died from drowning after suffering a gunshot injury. The prosecution also relied on evidence concerning the movement and concealment of her body and statements made after she disappeared.

District Court conviction

On December 10, 2018, Hedmarken District Court convicted Svein Jemtland of murder and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. He appealed immediately, challenging the finding of guilt as well as sentence and civil claims.

The first-instance judgment therefore was not the final appellate outcome. This file distinguishes that 18-year sentence from the sentence later imposed by the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

The 2019 appeal

The appeal trial began in June 2019. Svein Jemtland again denied criminal responsibility for intentional murder. The appellate proceedings revisited forensic findings, the firearm evidence and his account of the events.

On July 5, 2019, the Eidsivating Court of Appeal convicted him and imposed a 17-year prison sentence. The sentence was one year shorter than the District Court term, but the murder conviction itself remained in place. Later that month, his defense confirmed that he would not take the murder judgment to the Supreme Court.

Later sentence-credit litigation

Years after the homicide conviction became operative, a separate legal issue developed over the conditions under which Svein Jemtland had been searched and held while in custody. Norway’s Criminal Cases Review Commission reopened the sentence question connected to alleged unlawful strip searches and related treatment; this did not reopen the factual finding that he murdered Janne.

In June 2025, Borgarting Court of Appeal granted a 125-day reduction connected to human-rights violations involving unlawful strip searches and other prison conditions. Reporting on the judgment stated that the court found violations of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In July 2025, his lawyer said parts of that sentence-credit judgment had been appealed to the Supreme Court. The sources reviewed for this file do not justify claiming a later final outcome for that separate appeal. Accordingly, the precise current description is: the murder conviction remains established; later litigation concerned the amount of credit against the sentence, not guilt for Janne’s murder.

Why the case is solved

Svein Jemtland was convicted of murdering Janne in two levels of court, and the 2019 appellate murder judgment was not taken to the Supreme Court. The later proceedings over unlawful prison searches concerned sentence credit and human-rights remedies. They did not acquit him or erase the homicide conviction.

Timeline

1. December 29, 2017
   Janne disappears

   Janne Jemtland disappears after she and her husband return home from a holiday party near Brumunddal.

2. January 12, 2018
   Husband arrested

   Police arrest Svein Jemtland on suspicion of murdering his wife.

3. January 13, 2018
   Body recovered

   Police searching the Glomma River in Våler find a body, later identified as Janne.

4. December 10, 2018
   District Court conviction

   Hedmarken District Court convicts Svein Jemtland of murder and sentences him to 18 years in prison.

5. July 5, 2019
   Appeal judgment

   Eidsivating Court of Appeal again convicts him and imposes a 17-year term.

6. July 23, 2019
   No Supreme Court murder appeal

   His defense confirms that the 17-year murder judgment will not be appealed to the Supreme Court.

7. June 2025
   Sentence credit granted

   Borgarting Court of Appeal reduces the sentence by 125 days because of unlawful custodial treatment; the murder conviction is not overturned.

8. July 2025
   Credit ruling appealed in part

   Defense counsel says selected issues from the sentence-credit ruling are being taken to the Supreme Court.

Current status

Solved / adjudicated. Svein Rishovd Jemtland remains convicted of Janne Jemtland’s murder. The operative homicide judgment was the Eidsivating Court of Appeal’s 2019 decision imposing 17 years; later proceedings addressed sentence credit for unlawful custodial treatment rather than the validity of the murder conviction.