DNA search prompts arrest of Idaho murder suspect in 51-year-old cold case, California police say

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman in California more than 50 years ago, authorities said.

DNA evidence led investigators to identify Michael Eugene Mullen, 75, as a suspect in the 1973 death of Nina “Nadine” Fischer, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said. Mullen was arrested Wednesday near Salmon, Idaho, and is being held in jail pending extradition to California.

Mullen’s attorney, Dan Brown, did not immediately respond to voicemail messages and emails left with him Saturday.

Fischer was living in San Rafael, California, with her husband and young daughter when the 31-year-old was killed in November 1973, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Both Fischer and her husband were Swedish citizens and were preparing to move back to Sweden at the time.

Fischer’s husband found her body when he came home from work. She had been sexually assaulted and shot three times, and her 2-year-old child was found unharmed in another room.

According to newspaper articles published after her death, law enforcement officers interviewed several witnesses, including movers and an appraiser who had been at the house that day, but the investigation turned up no leads and the case was frozen.

In 2021, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office referred the case to the California Department of Justice’s Familial Search Program. The program compares DNA from crime scenes to a DNA database in an attempt to find relatives of a potential suspect. After several months, the DNA resulted in a possible lead, and after another three years of investigation, Mullen was identified as the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office worked with the Idaho State Police and the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office to arrest Mullen on suspicion of murder. He is being held in the Lemhi County Jail.