Norwegian man stands trial for murder in Sweden-assisted suicide case

The trial of Steinar Wangen, 54, opened Thursday in Vestfold District Court in Tønsberg, Norway, where he faces a murder charge in the September 2024 death of a 47-year-old Swedish woman in Trollhättan, Dagbladet reports. The proceedings are scheduled to continue until June 19.

Wangen, dubbed the “angel of death” by Norwegian media, will present his defense in court on Friday, according to his attorney Gaute Nilsen. “He is attending the trial and will explain himself there,” Nilsen said.

Prosecutors allege Wangen traveled from Norway to Trollhättan, where he suffocated the woman with a pillow after she lost consciousness from a combination of pills and alcohol. In the alternative, they seek a conviction for assisting her suicide. The victim’s family, represented by attorneys Heidi Reisvang and Ida Andenæs Mehren, described the case as “very serious” and expressed relief that charges had been filed.

“Malin was in an extremely vulnerable state, which they believe the accused exploited,” Reisvang said. The family will attend the trial beginning Friday, having cited practical reasons for their absence on the opening day.

Wangen was arrested in a televised sting operation during the October 2024 broadcast of TV 2’s Norge bak fasaden (Norway Behind the Façade), where he admitted to killing three people and assisting five suicides. Swedish investigators later linked him to messages sent days after the Trollhättan incident, in which he allegedly wrote to another woman: “What do you want? Take your own life or should I kill you?” When confronted by Swedish police about the messages—including a claim that he had “held a pillow over [the victim’s] face”—Wangen declined to comment.

The case was initially investigated by Swedish authorities before being transferred to Norway. Wangen also faces separate Swedish charges for four counts of inciting suicide, not included in the current trial.

He is currently serving a sentence in Halden Prison for assisting a suicide at Nordby Hotel in Strømstad in June 2023. In 1986, at age 15, Wangen was convicted of murder in Norway for bludgeoning a 7-year-old neighbor girl to death with a rock but avoided prison time.