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Morten Aigeltinger Case Notes

Mind Map

Outline

Morten Kurt Aigeltinger

Life

Born in Norway

56 at time of disapearance

Moved to the United States in the late 1980s to pursue a career in photography

Had a living sister in Norway at the time of his disappearance

Home

  • 1140 Cattail Run Rd, Charles Town, WV 25414

    • 20 acres

  • Also location of Rainbow Hill Farm

    • Organic Farm

  • Cohabitants

    • Gale Livingstone

      Earlier this year (2019), she bid adieu to West Virginia for a new home about 100 miles away in Prince George’s County, Md., where she’s set up her Rainbow Hill Farm in the unincorporated community of Baden

      • On again/Off again girlfriend of Morten

        • They had different bedrooms

      • Proprietor of Rainbow Hill Farm

    • Desiree Livingstone

      • Mother of Gale
      • From Guyana

After graduating from high school he traveled extensively around the world photographing people, landscapes and documentary work.

Education

Earned degree in philosophy from the University of Oslo

Bachelor of Fine Art and Master of Science from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA.

  • 1988-1993

Occupation

Photographer

made his living shooting portraits and video, and some of his pictures had been published in national newspapers and magazines

Morten would sometimes work on the Rainbow Hill Farm

friends and employers say he was responsible, never missed work, and always showed up on time

  • He was dependable, honest and one of the hardest working photographers
  • Dedicated to his art

Started developing and printing my own work at age 12.

Disappearance

last confirmed sighting at Sheetz gas station

  • Manassas Park, Virginia
  • 7:05 p.m. on September 8, 2015
  • driving a green 2012 Ford F-150 pickup truck with the West Virginia license plate number 5XE590
  • No credit/debit card activity since then
  • No cell phone activity
  • Less than 2 miles form Osbourn High School

Circumstance

  • Never arrived at appointment

  • Truck found abandoned

    • 14 September 2015

    • Undamaged

    • On John Rissler Road

      • Less than 2 miles from the Farmhouse

    • Police were quoted as saying a thorough search of the area with helicopters, search parties and cadaver dogs was conducted but nothing was found

      • A grid search was conducted from the camping sites to the dead end

    • Called in by someone on the river

    • No keys, unlocked, windows down

    • One witness claimed to have seen the truck parked along the river as early as Thursday, 10 September

  • Camera gear found in barn on property

    • He would have taken that if he was going to a photo shoot
    • friends stated he never let anyone else touch his cameras and would never have left them behind

  • No body found

  • Cell phone and laptop missing

Reported missing by Gale

  • Gale said she heard him leave the house at 6:00am on September 9, 2015

    • Unknown why he would depart so early
    • Doesn't make since given the distance to the job site
    • Desiree is said to have heard Morten leave the house at 5:00am

  • Reported 11 September 2015

Gale claims that Morten got home around 9pm on September 8th

  • When she got up on the morning of September 9th he was already gone
  • She heard him get up between 5 and 6AM and then heard the truck start up and leave

Morten's sister lived in Norway and was unable to help, but she did reach out to the Norwegian embassy in the United States

His friends think it's possible that he just left town

Foul Play

Motive

  • Morten wanted Gale's mother to leave the shared house

    • Text messages recovered from Gale's phone show that Morten wanted Deriree out of the house.

      • There were weeks of such messages

    • Constant personality clashes

    • Gale had promised to move Desiree out of the house, but she still hadn't done it.

  • Morten had discovered that Gale had fraudulently obtained credit cards in his name

    • She had run up thousands of dollars

      • Gale spent $30,000 in fraudulent credit

    • He was considering pressing charges against her

    • Loves the farm

Evidence

  • Gale purchased upholstery cleaning supplies on 11 September

  • Couch cushion and a pair of jeans were found in the washing machine with suspicious looking stains

    • The jeans tested positive for blood
    • Subsequent DNA testing of these items proved inconclusive due to the items being run through a washing machine.

  • Desiree wouldn't talk to the police.

  • Police searched Morten's farm a week and a half after his disappearance was reported, but since they weren't investigating a murder they didn't search the entire parcel of land

  • Someone could have driven the truck from the farm to the site where it was abandoned and returned to the farm in less than ten minutes

  • Camera gear found in barn on property

    • He would have taken that if he was going to a photo shoot
    • friends stated he never let anyone else touch his cameras and would never have left them behind

  • There are records of Morten contacting multiple credit card company and claiming fraudulent activity had occurred

    • Some of the correspondence concerning these fraud claims were discovered in Gale's truck during a search conducted by the Jefferson County Sheriff

  • Phone location data

    • Desiree's Phone

      • Phone was in the vicinity of the farm on the evening of September 8, and the early morning hours of September 9.

    • Gale's Phone (AT&T)

      • Phone was at the farm on September 8 until midnight

      • Two NELOS hits on the phones after midnight at 1:38:48 AM and 1:39:08 AM that indicate that the phone was away from the farm

        • This system can only indicate that a phone was located within a circle with a radius of 5km

          • The farmhouse was not within this circle, but the location where the truck was found is in the circle.

Suspects

  • Gale Linvingstone

    • Claims nothing unusual happened on the night before his disappearance.
    • Claims that there was no plan for Desiree to move out of the house and back to New York
    • Said she doesn't think that Morten ran away, but that someone must have done something to him
    • Claims that there were no fraudulent credit card applications and that other people may have misunderstood him when he told them about it, but Morten clearly contacted the credit providers about the fraudulent activity
    • Claims she never left the farmhouse on the night Morten disappeared, which contradicts the cell phone location data

  • Desiree Livingstone

    • In an interview on the show Cold Justice she claimed that she didn't move into the house until October, the month after Morten went missing
    • Claims that she never threatened him with a knife during the interview on Cold Justice
    • Claims she overheard Morten talking about committing suicide.

Witnesses

  • Adam Rozas

    • Gale's former employee

      • Worked on the farm for three seasons

    • Said Gale indicated to him that she couldn't stand Morten.

    • Adam believes that Gale was just using Morten and never had feelings for him but stuck around so she could still use the farm.

    • He said that Morten had also wanted Gale to leave the farm in addition to her mother Desiree

    • He was digging a hole on the farm and Gale joked that he should go ahead and dig another one to put Morten in

  • Wilbert "Lee" Ewell

    • Morten's friend

    • Frequented a bar together

      • Longshots

    • 248 Barrel Horse Dr, Charles Town, WV 25414

    • Said Morten had a contentious relationship with Gale

    • Said Gale had taken out credit cards in Morten's name without his permission

      • By the time he found out the cards were already maxed out
      • Thought it was probably about three cards

    • He said Morten had some money in Australia that he wasn't going to bring to the United States so he wouldn't be taxed on it.

      • Lee hoped that Morten had escaped to Australia

  • James "Jim" McCue

    • Morten's friend
    • Frequented Longshots with Morten
    • Said Morten like to go to Longshots because they had free WiFi
    • 499 Timber Ln, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
    • Said Morten would "bitch" about Gale, but had nothing specific to say
    • Morten never mentioned being threatened by anyone
    • He said Morten had money he didn't want the government to get so he was hiding overseas it in South Africa
    • Jim said Morten could be "cranky and cantankerous", but he couldn't see anyone wanting to kill him
    • Jim met Desiree once when she went to the distillery

  • Mike Reese

    • Morten's friend
    • Said that Morten complained that it was getting to the point where he couldn't live in his own house because of Gale
    • Morten asked Mike Reese if he could sleep on his sofa
    • When he heard that Morten was missing his first thoughts were "I wonder where he went, and why he would go"

  • Danny Alquist

    • Morten's friend
    • Said the Morten and Gale were still living together, but more out of necessity
    • He said there was no love lost between Morten and Desiree
    • Morten told Danny the Desiree was "mean as a rattlesnake"

  • Unnamed Friend of Morten

    • Morten's friend

    • Said Morten had been acting weird for a few months and finally came over and talked to him about the credit card issues.

      • He was it wits end
      • Morten didn't know what to do, and wasn't sure what Gale was capable of in retaliating
      • Morten thought Gale was crazy enough to possibly burn down barn or even the house

    • Said that Morten had serious issues with Desiree

      • The friend claimed to have been told by Morten that he had had an argument with Desiree in the kitchen and Desiree ended up pulling a kitchen knife on Morten

        • The friend didn't know if the knife was just brandished or if she tried to attack him.
        • Morten had just said "She pulled a knife on me"
        • The friend recalls this taking place only a few weeks before Morten's disappearance.

      • The friend said that Morten thought things might get better because Desiree was supposed to move out on Monday, 7 September 2015, the day before the last sighting of Morten. But she didn't actually move out as planned. "The mom is still there, but my buddy is gone."

  • Unnamed friend of Gale

    • Gale's friend

    • Knew Gale from the farmers market

    • Stopped associating with Gale after Morten disappeared because she thought it was more than just a coincidence

    • She said that she was talking to Desiree one time. That she seemed really angry about Morten.

      • Desiree said the way Morten treated Gale really upset her.

      • Desiree told her that she was having a discussion with Morten and he somehow threatened her so she took a knife and went after him with it.

        • Desiree said, "Nobody messes with me" and "I was gonna kill him, and he left".

    • She believed Gale and Desiree were more than capable of physically taking down Morten.

  • Ryan Krankowski

    • Colleague of Morten

    • Assisted Morten at photoshoot at Osbourn High School on September 8, 2015

      • Claims to have finished the photoshoot at 7 or 8 PM that night.

    • Doesn't believe that Morten just left because he was so passionate for his photography trade

      • For him to just walk out was definitely not characteristic of Morten

    • Said he but his camera gear bag in a corridor once and was chastised by Morten for leaving his camera gear unattended

      • Claims Morten said "You never let that stuff out of your sight. Watch my shit!"
      • The camera equipment was like his baby
      • Stated that Morten would never leave his camera equipment in a barn

  • Chris Jones

    • Colleague of Morten

    • Covered for Morten on the photoshoot that he failed to show up for on September 9, 2015 at Osbourn High School

    • Morten told Chris that Gale had "opened up a couple of credit cards in his name and wracked up somewhere in the neighborhood of $40k dollars of credit card debt"

      • Morten was debating whether to pay the bill and let Gale walk, or not pay the bill and bring charges against her