It’s a classic case of boy hurts girl, grill kills boy, Google catches grill.
In Norway, 31-year-old Rubirosa Irgens has admitted to killing her husband, Helge Ove Irgens, a former driving instructor 30 years her senior. She knocked him off by sneaking a smoldering portable barbecue into the bedroom as he slept, leaving it there to poison him with carbon monoxide.
She would’ve gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for Irgens’ meddling daughters. They never believed their dad’s heart had given out or that he’d committed suicide, as was suggested at one point.
The case actually goes back more than a year. On June 25, 2014, 61-year-old Ove Irgens was found dead in his home. He was a biggish man who’d once been fitted with a gastric band “to combat his extreme obesity,” according to The Local. Not unreasonably, police initially decided on death by natural causes.
His daughters didn’t agree, and pressured them to investigate further. Seeing signs of a fire in the bedroom, they repeatedly called the local precinct, urging them to take a closer look.
As reported by The Local, Regina Irgens, 23, told VG newspaper, “Among other things, I called the police and told them that I had found a disposable grill in the garage that was used, but that nothing had been barbecued on it.” As she tells it, “The police did not want that grill. They said it wasn’t relevant.”
Finally, in February of this year, upon returning from a two-month visit to the Philippines, the widow Irgens was arrested and charged with premeditated murder. This week, she copped to the crime. Speaking with prosecutors, she accused her husband of treating “her very badly over many years.” That fateful night, the abusive behavior “peaked” and she decided “to asphyxiate him on impulse.”
Her defense attorney, Jannicke Keller-Fløystad, elaborated. "The evening in question, the two had an argument and my client acted in a state of anger," she told the court.
She may have a tough time convincing the court it was an impulsive act. According to the prosecution, “in the three weeks running up to the murder in June last year, Rubirosa Irgens carried out more than 250 internet searches related to effective methods of killing someone.” Those searches included: “How do you poison someone without getting caught,” “Best poison to use to kill someone and not get caught,” and “Can rat poison kill humans?”
The daughters dispute their step-mother’s characterization of their father as an abusive man.
-- Jeff Koyen