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California Missing Persons Case Reignited 27 Years Later As Police Search Boyfriend’s House
Investigators looking for Ylva Hagner have been digging at the property of a NASA scientist.
A cold missing persons case dating back to 1996 has been reinvigorated after it was revealed that authorities have been searching a property linked to the victim.
Ylva Hagner, 42, was originally from Sweden but had moved to California and was employed in marketing for a software company at the time of her disappearance. She had also enrolled on a master’s degree for mature students at Stanford University.
Last known movements
She was last seen at IXOS Software in Belmont by an executive on October 14th 1996. He had left at around 9:30 PM, but Ylva was still working and would typically lock up when she had finished her shift.
Belmont Police Detective Mike Speak told the San Mateo Daily Journal in 2017 this was not unusual at the time, with young professionals in technology often working ‘Silicon Valley hours’ and leaving offices late.
However, Ylva failed to return to the house she shared with two roommates in Palo Alto that night and did not make it back to work the next day. Her employer reported her missing and her relatives back in Sweden were notified so they could make the long trip to the US to help with the search.
The mystery deepened on October 17th 1996 when Ylva’s black Honda Civic was discovered abandoned half-way between her workplace and her home with the keys still in the ignition.
“We have nothing to show that she was kidnapped, we can’t find any signs of a struggle or anything like that, so all we can say at this point is it’s a disappearance under extremely suspicious circumstances,” said Belmont Police Department Commander Larry Riche in 1996.
But Ylva’s family knew something was very wrong and that Ylva wouldn’t have just disappeared from her life voluntarily.
“We have all reasons to believe that this disappearance, from what we know from her personality, that she hasn’t left her workplace by free will,” said her father Stig Hagner at the time.
