Cold case opens search of Redwood City home, park

A missing person’s cold case from 1996 led the Belmont Police Department and FBI to search for the evidence in the backyard of a home and nearby park in Redwood City Wednesday.

Lt. Pete Lotti, Belmont Police Department’s public information officer, said the investigation is part of a refocused cold case related to a 42-year-old Swedish woman, Ylva Hagner, whose whereabouts are still unknown. Officials closed off a section of Farm Hill Boulevard to search both the home at 3789 Farm Hill Blvd. and Stulsaft Park that is adjacent to the property.

“We are searching both those areas for evidence and we are just trying to bring closure to this case,” Lotti said.

Both agencies appeared to be focused on the backyard, searching with excavation equipment around an apparent brick-layered patio.

County documents revealed the owner of the home in 2012 was Thomas Pressburger, an employee at the NASA Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale and Hagner’s boyfriend at the time of her disappearance. Detectives previously searched another home Pressburger was renting in the Palo Alto hills but found no evidence, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 1997. Pressburger did not return a call for comment by the time or publication.

Police and FBI closed off all entrances of Stulsaft Park, located about a quarter mile east of the home. Images from Google Maps show the park borders the back of the Farm Hill Neighborhood home.

Hagner was last seen around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14, 1996, at her place of employment, IXOS Software, located on Sixth Avenue in Belmont. The last person known to see Hagner was the president of the company, who departed from the office at 9:30 p.m., leaving Hagner alone to finish her shift and lock up.

“Ylva was working Silicon Valley type hours, coming in late, working late,” Belmont Police Detective Mike Speak told the Daily Journal in 2000. “So it was not unusual for her to be working that late.”

When Ylva Hagner uncharacteristically failed to show up for work the next day, co-workers were concerned. By Wednesday, she was reported missing, and Belmont police began an investigation. Missing person flyers were distributed around the vicinity and shown on television. On Friday, Oct. 18, 1996, Ylva’s 1992 Black Honda Civic CX Sports Wagon was found in San Carlos. Detective Speak could not comment on the condition of the car, or whether or not foul play was indicated.

Hagner, was originally from Sweden, unmarried with no known children, and had been renting a house in Palo Alto with two female roommates for several years. She was attending classes at Stanford University. Friends and acquaintances were interviewed, but no arrests were ever made. Her family lived out of the country.

At the time of her disappearance, Ylva Hagner weighed 110 pounds, was 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with red hair, blue eyes and had a fair complexion.

Neighbors of the Farm Hill home say the area is quiet and they haven’t noticed any suspicious activity around the home.

One neighbor, Joanne Gramlich, said an older couple has lived at the home for years and said she used to see an older woman park down the street and walk to the home but was unable to confirm who the woman is or if she lived there.

Jim Persau, who was painting his home a few doors down, said everyone who lives on the busy street is familiar with one another but he described the home being searched as a “ghost house.”

Anyone with information regarding this case may contact the Belmont Police Department. The search is ongoing and the department may hold a press conference in the next few days.