Remains identified as hiker missing since 1982

Investigators have identified the remains of a person found in 2010 in the bed of a creek along Morrison Canyon Road in Fremont, a sergeant at the Alameda County coroner’s bureau said.

Investigators found more than 40 bones, a skull and teeth on Oct. 18, 2010, and the U.S. Department of Justice matched those remains in November with the dental records of a woman from Sweden, Sgt. Patricia Wilson said. Elisabeth Martinsson went missing on Jan. 17, 1982, and investigators still do not know how she died or what caused her death:

“There was a positive identification made.”

Wilson said Martinsson had ties to Marin County and after she went missing Marin County authorities entered her dental records into a missing persons’ database. An odontologist evaluated the teeth of the remains found along Morrison Canyon and the Justice Department matched the results of the evaluation with the records provided by Marin County authorities, Wilson said.

Wilson said Martisson’s bones have been cremated and the ashes will be sent to Martisson’s family in Sweden.