The full name of the 17-year-old Norwegian girl from Arendal who was found dead in Mijas, Spain, has been released by the family. Police now say that she took a taxi or Uber home on the fateful night.
Why she was not driven all the way to the residence where she was staying is a mystery.
Nikoline Piwoni Høie was on holiday with her mother and stepfather when she was found dead early on Monday morning on the A-7 motorway between Calahonda and La Cala de Mijas on the Costa del Sol.
The photograph of her at sunset in Andalucía, with the distinctive Spanish pine trees in the background, may be one of the last taken of her before she died in highly unclear circumstances.
In Arendal, her father and stepmother were waiting for her to come home on the same day she was reported missing. The police became involved when she did not return home after celebrating Norway’s World Cup victory over Brazil.
Police silent about the preceding hours
It is not known what happened in the period from when the 17-year-old became separated from her friends at the Funky Buddha nightclub in Puerto Banús until she was found dead. Whether she was already dead when she was struck by a vehicle is uncertain.
Spanish police are focusing exclusively on what a witness believes was a collision in which the driver continued without stopping. They are silent on whether the teenager may have been subjected to a criminal act in the period before she died, and whether they are investigating along this line of inquiry.
The case is being handled by the Guardia Civil, which is responsible, among other things, for incidents occurring on roads between towns.
Nikoline (17) run over and killed by a truck after the Norway–Brazil celebration
Police now firmly believe that Nikoline Høie used a taxi service such as Uber or similar to travel in ‘the direction of the area where she was staying’ during the holiday. It is the only new information they have released since Monday evening.
The Guardia Civil press officer claims to TV 2 that at some point the Norwegian girl got out of the taxi and was subsequently struck in the carriageway.
– For the time being, we are investigating this as a traffic accident. At the same time, it may become relevant to consider other types of criminal offence, as the driver did not stop after the collision but left the scene.
Together with four people
At the nightclub, Nikoline was last seen with one girl and three boys. The girl is described by the family as a friend. Who the boys are and what relationship she had with them is unknown. The Spanish press wrote on Tuesday that she had been out with Norwegian friends.
Photo: Private
During the holiday, the teenager is said, according to the local newspaper SUR, to have been staying with her stepfather, who lives in Fuengirola.
The centre of that town lies approximately 11 kilometres further on from the point on the motorway where she was found dead.
The site of the accident was on the carriageway leading away from Fuengirola and back towards Puerto Banús, where she had come from.
The map shows one of the possible routes the taxi from Marbella may have taken to drop the Norwegian girl off in the direction of travel leading back towards the point of departure, where she was found dead, instead of continuing straight on to her family in Fuengirola. The exit passes through an underpass. (Map: Google Maps)
Nikoline’s mobile phone was switched off – or stopped transmitting its GPS position for other reasons – at around 03.30 on Monday morning. Police were notified of the collision at 05.20.
It takes just under 20 minutes to drive between the nightclub and the point where she was found. There is therefore a period of around an hour and a half during which the 17-year-old’s movements cannot be accounted for.
– She was looking forward to coming home. It is so unfair, the teenager’s stepmother tells Agderposten (+).
– This is a nightmare. There is chaos and crisis management. We are simply trying to survive now. She had siblings and stepsiblings – we are holding one another, she says.
The distance between the nightclub in Puerto Banús and the place where Nikoline Høie was found dead in the carriageway. (Map: Google Maps)
Nikoline Høie was a member of Høyre in her home town and active on the association board of Arendal and Grimstad Unge Høyre.
The family’s spokesman, Finn Greve-Isdahl, issued a press release on Wednesday evening.
– The girl’s extended family is in a state of deep and all-encompassing grief. They are struggling to comprehend that they have suddenly lost a beloved family member. The family would humbly like to express its gratitude for all the love and care that has now flowed towards them from the large local community here in Arendal.
Dr Finn Greve-Isdahl is spokesman for the deceased 17-year-old’s extended family. (Photo: Aleris)
Members of the extended family are now planning to travel to Spain.
– There, they will assist all the authorities as best they can in clarifying the sequence of events that led to this tragic outcome, Greve-Isdahl writes.
Arendal’s Deputy Mayor, Inger Brokka de Ruiter, tells Dagbladet that the crisis team has been deployed to support the next of kin.