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Latest comment: 8 years ago7 comments5 people in discussion
(I'm new to editing Wikipedia pages, so I hope I'm doing this right!)
There are several discrepancies between the Norwegian and English versions of this article, and since neither provides many references for their claims, it's impossible to tell which is correct. For example:
--In the Norwegian, right after noting the discovery of the suitcases at the train station, it says "The labels had been systematically removed from all articles of clothing and fingerprints had been cleared away", which seems to mean that labels had been removed from the clothing that was inside the suitcase, and any fingerprints had been carefully cleaned from the suitcases prior to their discovery. Yet the English makes the completely different claim that, "Police also found that the labels had been removed from every piece of clothing she wore, and that her fingerprints had been sanded away".
--In Norwegian it says that the woman explicitly requested hotel rooms without a balcony, while in English we are told "she wanted a room that had a balcony".
--The Norwegian and English articles also disagree as to the hotel in Bergen she checked out of, Hotel Marin or Hotel Hordaheimen.
--In Norwegian it says the woman spoke Flemish or Belgian Dutch, while in English it merely says Dutch.
In some cases these may simply be mistranslations. I've changed the more obvious ones myself (e.g. "phantom drawing" is of course a "composite sketch" in English) but the stuff I've pointed out above will require more research to clear up, ultimately. Better references will be of great help in this.
Belgian Dutch is Dutch. Dutch is the official language of Belgium (along with French). I doubt it meant she spoke a local dialect like West Flemish, but I suppose it's possible. As for you being, new it doesn't show; you're doing well! Oreo Priesttalk01:39, 19 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
I should also mention that you should WP:BE BOLD and make a lot of the changes you suggested! If you have reason to suspect that the oddities of the English page are mistranslations from Norwegian, go ahead and correct them yourself! (On the other hand, if you have no idea which version is more likely correct, leaving it is probably fine.) Oreo Priesttalk01:46, 19 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
There are mistranslations - and things I can't find in the Norwegian version. The bottle appears in both the English and French versions, but I can't see it in the current Norwegian version - and the 'quart bottle' so beloved in the USA is in the French version a mere quarter of a litre (250 millilitres or 8 fl oz US). The English 'university professor' is merely a rambler in the French and a family man in the Norwegian. I'm going to ask at the Norwegian page for someone with better Norwegian than I have to look into the history there to see if changes have been made there that haven't been made here or in French. Peridon (talk) 11:56, 23 July 2015 (UTC)Reply
I notice that there are some similarities with the Somerton Man case in Australia. It seems fairly clear from the evidence that she was murdered and it staged to look like a suicide. Regardless, that's just my opinion.
I've done some digging on the web and found another site which has the case listed and seems to clarify some of the issues mentioned above: http://unmyst3.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-unsolved-case-of-isdal-woman.html But it is a blog post and only cites a few sources itself.
Cadar (talk) 08:45, 17 September 2016 (UTC)Reply
"Isdal Woman Case". The Doe Network. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
puts the Wikipedia page as its source - so this is a circular reference. It is not trustworthy - for exampl eit ays she spoke Belgian - no such language. AND that she possibly lived further West than France - this is sloppy editing and makes it unreliable. Other sources should be preferred.