Thirty years ago Wednesday, 42-year-old Ylva Annika Hagner walked out of her job at Ixos Software on Sixth Avenue in Belmont around 9:30 p.m. and was never seen again. On the anniversary of her October 14, 1996 disappearance, the Belmont Police Department and the FBI say they remain committed to locating Hagner and bringing those responsible for her disappearance to justice, and are asking anyone with information to come forward.
The renewed appeal came in a statement posted to X by the City of Belmont, CA
, retweeting a message from the Belmont Police Department. Hagner was last seen leaving her office, which sat adjacent to the police station itself, according to
SFGATE
A Life Interrupted in the Bay Area Before she vanished, Hagner was a Swedish national living in Palo Alto, working as a software marketing executive in Belmont and pursuing a master's degree in liberal arts at Stanford University, the FBI's missing-persons file states. SFGATE described her as a Swedish immigrant. The FBI's missing-person profile says she spoke English with a Swedish accent and was wearing a lime green sweatshirt and blue skirt when she disappeared.
A Life Interrupted in the Bay Area
Before she vanished, Hagner was a Swedish national living in Palo Alto, working as a software marketing executive in Belmont and pursuing a master's degree in liberal arts at Stanford University, the FBI's missing-persons file states. She had moved to the United States from Sweden around 1985 and was known among friends for hosting dinner parties, SFGATE reported. She had red hair and blue eyes.
Her disappearance remains unsolved.
The 2023 Dig That Didn't Crack the Case
In May 2023, Belmont Police and the FBI excavated the backyard of a Redwood City home on Farm Hill Boulevard belonging to Thomas Pressburger, who was Hagner's boyfriend at the time she disappeared, CBS News reported. Pressburger had purchased the home in March 1996 and worked as a computer scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, the same report noted. Federal agents and local officers removed brick patio pavers, dug up soil, temporarily closed adjacent Stulsaft Park, and carried away nearly a dozen evidence bags during the operation, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post.
Despite the scale of the dig, police reported that the search did not yield conclusive answers regarding Hagner's location. The investigation has long required coordination beyond Belmont's own police force, drawing in the FBI, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, the Daily Post noted — the kind of multi-agency effort Peninsula cold cases often require when leads cross city lines.
False Alarms
The case resurfaced unexpectedly in August 2025, when a construction crew uncovered human remains in Belmont's Twin Pines Park. Local speculation briefly turned to Hagner before municipal officials ruled out any connection, saying the remains were likely Native American from long ago, the Palo Alto Daily Post reported.
Three decades on, Belmont Police and the FBI say the case remains open — and are still asking anyone with information about Hagner's disappearance to come forward.
