Silicon Valley woman missing 7 years
Patty
http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=1265231&nav=5D7lFeBk
Posted: May 5, 2003 at 9:38 p.m.
Silicon Valley Worker Missing 7 Years
KRON Channel 4 San Francisco
BAY AREA (KRON) -- While Laci Peterson gathered nationwide attention,
many other missing persons cases are not as widely covered. One such
case involves a woman named Ylva Hagner. Her's is a name you may have
forgotten. After all, it has been a long time since she disappeared
without a trace - just simply vanished from her Belmont workplace. And
after all these years, it is still an active missing persons case.
For nearly seven years, Belmont police detective Mike Speak has been
haunted by the mysterious disappearance of Ylva Hagner.
"I think about it every day, sometimes my wife will get on me 'cause
I'll be kinda staring out in the distance and ask what I'm thinking
about. 'Oh, I'm thinking about Ylva, thinking about those things... "
he says.
The 43-year-old woman was known as a warm, loving person who had many
friends, a great social life and a good job. In short, Ylva Hagner had
no reason to just disappear.
She worked for Ixos, a small software company which leased office
space in a building where fifty yards down the hall were the Belmont
police administrative offices, which closed at 5 o'clock each day.
On the night of October 14th, 1996, Hagner was alone in the building,
working late in her cubicle. The last person to see her was a company
executive who left at 9:30. There was no evidence of a struggle - no
blood, no signs of a break in and just as odd...
"Her desk was left in such a manner that was, for lack of better term,
un-Ylva like. She was the type who would turn off the computer,
straighten up her desk. But her computer was left on and her papers
were strewn on her desk," Speak says.
Hagner's friends Andreas Ramos and Marshall Bern think she was
kidnapped.
"Someone knocked on the door and, for some reason, she opened the door
and let the person in," Ramos says.
"I think the signs are it was someone she knew," says Bern.
"Perhaps, " says detective Speak. "There was no signs of a struggle,
which means she could have left planning to come back. That's also a
possibility. She could have left to meet somebody."
The next day - Tuesday - Hagner failed to show up for work. By
Wednesday, her co-workers became suspicious and reported her missing.
On Thursday, flyers with her picture were released to the media. On
the next day, early Friday morning, her car was discovered in
neighboring San Carlos, just about a mile-and-a-half away. It was left
unlocked with the keys in the ignition.
Volunteers and police handed out Hagner's flyers. They searched far
and wide in neighborhoods near her work and home, parks and rural
areas of the peninsula. The missing woman's father and brother, who
arrived from their home in Sweden, waited anxiously for news. A wait
that would turn out to be futile.
It's been almost seven years since Ylva Hagner disappeared. The
offices of the company where she worked have since moved out of the
building. In an eerie sort of way, it disappeared just as Ylva Hagner
did.
"Everyone involved in this matter is frustrated," Speak says.
Today detective Mike Speak is as frustrated as he was seven years ago.
The leads have dried out but he still has - not suspects, but - what
he calls "people of interest."
"We looked at three ex-boyfriends, actually one current boyfriend at
the time whom she was seeing, a couple of ex-boyfriends as well as a
number of leads that were called in," Speak says.
Speak also checks with other police agencies every time something of
interest crosses the computer.
"We check out the bulletins that come across. I still send out flyers
to agencies that say they've found remains," he says.
When asked if there is still hope after all these years, Speak says,
"Absolutely. There's always hope."
Speak's biggest regret is that he could not solve the case before
Hagner's father died last year, broken hearted.
As for Ylva Hagner's friends, they've planted a tree in her memory - a
tree that continues to grow in the splender of the hills above Palo
Alto.
And, of course, if this story has jogged your memory on any possible
leads you may have which may help investigators in this case you are
asked to call Belmont police.
Lane Closure
interesting.
Her family's web page has more info...I hate to start a Scott Peterson-type
lynching here, but it sure sounds like the professor has something to do with
her disappearance:
http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-79315/
Jagdeep Cruellruby
"Lane Closure" <lanec...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030506194507...@mb-m18.aol.com...
Oh yes, he was a stalker wasn't he. And he's gotten away with it.
He's certainly the most likely suspect at least - and his comments
to her family echo others we've talked about on this board before,
the tone I mean. Scary.
JC
Annie
Thank you for posting this. How awful for the families, not knowing what
happened to their loved ones.
It's important not to let missing people be forgotten. While working on
genealogy, I came across a statement saying that we all die three times.
The first time is when your body actually dies. The second time is when
your body is disposed of and all the people who've known you think of
you as dead. The third time is the last time your name is ever spoken.
That idea really moved me. The last time your name is ever spoken.....
Annie
Patty
Thanks for posting that link. I had never heard anything about a
professor possibly being involved in her disappearance. Never heard
about anything on her computer but I don't know if LE checked
computers thoroughly in 1996 like they do today. I remember they
subpoened her phone records.
Whenever I drive up Page Mill Road to Skyline Road, I'm always
guessing which was her ex-boyfriend's house that they dug up the yard
looking for her body but didn't find anything. They also questioned
her ex-husband who lived in Santa Barbara at the time. Never seemed
like boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, ex-husband were involved.
It was sad when her brothers from Sweden came back to the USA several
months later after her disappearance to pick up her things. I was
always hoping she would show up but knowing the chance was so slim,
and when her brothers returned made the idea more finite that she was
indeed gone.
Patty
stargazer
> interesting.
>
> Her family's web page has more info...I hate to start a Scott
Peterson-type
> lynching here, but it sure sounds like the professor has something to do
with
> her disappearance:
I'll say, thanks for the link to the homepage too.
star
>
> http://home7.swipnet.se/~w-79315/
>
>
>
>
Aussie Lurker
"Annie" <adow...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:12699-3EB...@storefull-2112.public.lawson.webtv.net...
>I came across a statement saying that we all die three times.
> The first time is when your body actually dies. The second time is when
> your body is disposed of and all the people who've known you think of
> you as dead. The third time is the last time your name is ever spoken.
> That idea really moved me. The last time your name is ever spoken.....
> Annie
>
That is very moving :)
Aussie Lurker
Sarah
No software company in their right mind would operate in a building
without some kind of security camera -- so did the local cops check
the security camera for that evening?