Skeletal remains found in the East Bay have been confirmed as those of a Swedish exchange student who disappeared in Marin more than three decades ago.
Elisabeth Martinsson, 21, was staying with a host family in Greenbrae while studying at College of Marin and working as a nanny. She vanished on Jan. 17, 1982, after buying a pair of boots at a Larkspur Landing store.
Martinsson had gone to the store in a yellow Volkswagen Rabbit she borrowed from her sponsoring family. Ten days later, a man and a woman were found with the car in Boise City, Oklahoma.
The man — Henry Lee Coleman, 31, of Los Angeles — had previously served 10 years in prison on rape convictions in Oklahoma, and he was wanted on a robbery warrant out of San Bernardino County, authorities said. The woman, 26-year-old Sabrina Ann Johnson of Seattle, was apparently picked up by Coleman in Seattle before they drove east.
Coleman and Johnson were arrested on auto theft allegations while authorities investigated the Martinsson case as a potential homicide. Coleman told investigators he bought the Volkswagen from a man he met at a bar in San Francisco.
Prosecutors dropped the case against Johnson for lack of evidence, while Coleman was tried on an auto theft charge. During his trial, a witness said she saw a man resembling Coleman approach a woman resembling Martinsson at Larkspur Landing, and they got in a car like the one Martinsson was driving.
Coleman was eventually convicted of auto theft and sentenced to five years in prison. Meanwhile, investigators were unable to find Martinsson.
In 2010, however, a partial skeleton was found in the Morrison Canyon area on the eastern edge of Fremont. Alameda County investigators sent the remains to the state Department of Justice to see if they could be matched to any missing person’s cases.
In November, the coroner’s bureau received notification that dental records from the remains had been matched to Martinsson.
Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Patricia Wilson, an investigator in the coroner’s bureau, said the cause of death remains undetermined. Only about seven bones were found at the site, and they were out in the open, she said. No clothes or items belonging to Martinsson were found at the scene.
Martinsson’s remains were cremated. The coroner’s bureau is making arrangements to send the ashes to family members in Sweden.
Martinsson was from Uddevalla, a small town about 50 miles below the Norwegian border. Her ashes will be buried at her parents’ gravesite, the Bohusläningen newspaper reported.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office is working with Fremont police on how to proceed with the case, and investigators have requested additional tests by the Department of Justice, said sheriff’s Lt. Jamie Scardina.
He said investigators are trying to determine whether Coleman is still alive.
Reach Gary Klien at gklien@marinij.com or follow him at Twitter.com/garyklien.
