Authorities Launch New Search in ‘Refocused’ Investigation of Missing Software Executive

Investigators were seen searching a California home’s back yard and a nearby park for evidence in the disappearance of a software executive more than two decades earlier.

Belmont Police Lt. Pete Lotti told KNTV that FBI agents and local authorities were seeking “to try to bring closure to the case” of Ylva Hagner, 42, who was last seen on October 14, 1996.

Authorities said Hegner, who lived in Palo Alto, left her office in Belmont that day and disappeared. Her car was later found in San Carlos, the keys still in the ignition. Her purse was missing, however.

A source told the station that investigators were looking in the backyard of Hagner’s then-boyfriend, NASA computer programmer Thomas Pressburger. Lotti did not confirm that information, and Pressburger declined to comment when reached by phone.

KPIX, however, said that property records show Pressburger bought the house in March 1996 and is still listed and the owner.

“The investigation was refocused, and we’re here today to try to bring closure to the case,” Lotti told KNTV. “The public is safe at this point. We are just doing our due diligence in the case to follow-up.”

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Lotti said a resolution on the case was “long overdue.”

Authorities said they were using ground penetrating radar in the search.

Hegner, originally from Sweden, was the product marketing manager at iXOS Software when she disappeared and was also studying for a master’s at Stanford, according to KPIX.

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[Featured image: Ylva Hegner/California Department of Justice]