SAN RAFAEL — Detectives used DNA this week to track down and arrest a suspect in connection with the 1973 sexual assault and murder of a woman in her Marin County home.
Michael Eugene Mullen, 75, was arrested Wednesday in Idaho in connection with the November 1973 death of Nina “Nadine” Fischer, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said.
Fischer, a Swedish citizen, was sexually assaulted and murdered during the day in her unregistered home in San Rafael while her husband was at work, officials said.
The case went cold due to a lack of investigative leads, but in 2021, the sheriff’s office referred the case to the California Department of Justice’s Familial Search Program for assistance. After several months, the state program produced a lead, and a subsequent investigation over the next three years led detectives to identify Mullen as a suspect.
The sheriff’s office, the district attorney’s office, authorities from Lemhi County, Idaho, and the Idaho State Police took Mullen into custody.
He was held in the Lemhi County Jail pending trial on his extradition to California.
