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MISSING

Police find body of missing teen

Police in Oslo confirmed on Tuesday evening that a body found in an industrial zone the night before was that of missing 16-year-old Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne.

Police find body of missing teen
Photo: Lise Åserud/Scanpix

Two men have been arrested and charged with murder, with an alternative charge of acting as an accessory to murder.

Police in the Follo district discovered the girl's body at around 9pm on Monday in Kolbotn, a small town 15 kilometres south of Oslo.

"The identity of the deceased was confirmed this afternoon. Her family has been notified," police inspector Hanne Kristin Rohde told reporters.

The body was found behind a Shell station, 200 metres from a forest path, in an industrial area near national route 152.

Armed police officers apprehended the two suspects in a raid on a nearby business premises.

Sigrid Giskegjerdet Schjetne was reported missing on August 5th when she failed to arrive home after a late-night visit to a friend's house two kilometres away.

Police found the girl's shoes, mobile telephone and a sock near her home in Oslo.

Police raided the home on Tuesday afternoon of a 64-year-old man arrested in connection with the discovery of the body. The man's lawyer, Aase Karine Sigmond, said her client denied the charges against him.

A 37-year-old man was arrested at the same time. Both face charges of murder or acting as an accessory.

The 37-year-old has a previous conviction for the brutal assault of a woman in her twenties in Oslo in November 2003, news agency NTB reports.

He was also convicted of threatening a police officer with an axe and jailed for two years. The man's lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client also denied the charges.

"He says the police can check out technical evidence that will prove he couldn't have committed this murder, that he has an alibi," Elden told NTB.

A witness charged earlier with providing false testimony was not one of the two men charged with Giskegjerdet Schjetne's murder, police inspector Rohde said.

Monday’s arrests came as a direct result of investigations into the girl’s disappearance, according to Rohde.

Amid an intensifying investigation, police said they would not yet comment on the time or cause of death.

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SKIING

Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid’s sierra

The body of former Spanish alpine skimedallist Blanca Fernández Ochoa was found Wednesday in a mountainous area near Madrid after days of searches for her by hundreds of police and volunteers, officials said.

Spain mourns Blanca Fernández Ochoa, the Olympian skier found dead in Madrid's sierra
Archive photo of Blanca Fernández Ochoa during her Olympic career.

The 56-year-old — won a bronze skiing for Spain in the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, becoming the country's first female Winter Olympic medallist — had been missing since she was last spotted on surveillance video at a shopping centre on August 24th.

Her car was later found at a parking lot near the start of a hiking trail in Cercedilla, a mountainous village near Madrid. The authorities said they are still investigating the cause of her death.

“Solidarity, support and human warmth have been felt these days in the mountains of Cercedilla. Security forces and many volunteers have taken part in the search for Blanca Fernández Ochoa. But nothing could be done. My affection to all her family,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted.

Hundreds of police, firefighters, forest rangers and volunteers, backed by helicopters, drones and tracking dogs, had taken part in the search for Fernández Ochoa.

Her family only alerted the authorities about her disappearance on August 29th because they said it was not unusual for her to go on hikes in the area, even without her phone, according to Spanish media reports.

Police on Saturday issued an appeal on social media for help from the public in locating Fernández Ochoa along with a picture of her, which drew media attention to her disappearance.

She was well known in Spain, where she had taken part in several TV reality shows after retiring from sports.

Her older brother, Francisco Fernández Ochoa, won a gold medal for skiing in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan. He is the first and only Spaniard to have won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.   

There is a statue in his honour in Cercedilla.   

Until 2018 the brother and sister were the only Spaniards to have won medals at a Winter Olympics.

“It is a very sad day for Spanish sports,” Spain's secretary of state for sports, Maria Jose Rienda, said in a statement.

READ ALSO: Snowboarder from Ceuta wins Olympic medal for Spain

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