May 27, 2015
Bones found in the Northern California foothills have been identified as belonging to a Swedish exchange student who went missing more than 33 years ago, prompting police investigators to reopen the case, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The remains, consisting of only seven bones, were discovered in Fremont, California, in 2010 and in November were matched to 21-year-old Elisabeth Martinsson, the Marin Independent Journal reported on its website.
Marin County Coroner's spokesman said he could not immediately comment to Reuters on the case.
Martinsson, of Uddevalla, Sweden, had been staying as an exchange student with a family in Greenbrae, across the San Francisco Bay from Fremont, when she was reported missing on Jan. 17, 1982.
Martinsson, who also had been working as a nanny, vanished after buying a pair of boots in the nearby community of Larkspur and had not been seen in the more than three decades since.
Some 10 days after her disappearance Henry Lee Coleman, 31, and Sabrina Ann Johnson, 26, were arrested after they were found in Oklahoma with the yellow Volkswagen Rabbit that Martinsson had been driving.
Coleman, who had previously served time in prison for rape, was convicted of auto theft and sentenced to five years in prison, according to the Independent Journal.
Investigators were seeking additional tests on the bones and trying to determine Coleman's whereabouts, the newspaper said. Martinsson's remains, which were cremated, would be sent back to family members in Sweden.
