Skeletal remains found in the San Francisco Bay Area have been verified as those of an exchange student of Swedish nationality. The student was studying at the College of Marin at the time he went missing in the area in 1982, according to officials, the Miami Herald reported.
The seven bones found in the East Bay area of San Francisco in 2010 have been confirmed as those of Elizabeth Martinsson, a foreign exchange student from Uddevalla, Sweden. Martinsson, 25, was living with a host family near Greenbrae and working as a part-time nanny when she went missing, Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Patricia Wilson, an investigator in the coroner's department, said in a statement to the Marin Independent Journal on Monday, Fox News reported.
The skeletal remains were found out in the open with no evidence of any clothing or Martinsson's belongings at the scene, Wilson said. Martinsson's remains were cremated and arrangements were made to send the ashes to the victim's next of kin, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
Martinsson disappeared on Jan 17, 1982, when she went shopping for a pair of boots in Larkspur Landing; she had borrowed a car from the host family with whom she was living.
About 10 days later, a man and a woman were found in the same car in Oklahoma. The male, Henry Lee Coleman, 31, had a prior criminal record and had served a 10-year prison sentence on charges of rape and was also wanted on a robbery warrant in San Bernardino County, according to officials. The 26-year old woman was identified as Sabrina Ann Johnson. Coleman apparently picked up Johnson in Seattle before the pair headed east. The duo was arrested on auto theft charges while officials were investigating the Martinsson case as a possible murder. Coleman told authorities that he purchased the vehicle from a man he encountered at a San Francisco bar, according to the Miami Herald.
The prosecuting attorney dropped the case against Johnson due to lack of evidence, whereas Coleman was convicted of an auto theft charge and was given a five-year prison sentence.
During his trial, investigators were told by a witness that a man matching Coleman's description was seen approaching a woman resembling Martinsson and getting into a car similar to what Martinsson was driving at Larkspur Landing.
Martinsson's whereabouts were still unknown until Monday, when the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed, with the help of dental records, that the bones it discovered four years ago in the Bay Area belonged to the 26-year old student.
