Marin coroner’s office resolves 1982 cold case

The Marin County coroner’s staff has identified a man whose remains were found at the Muir Woods National Monument in 1982.

The man was Sigvard Svensson of San Francisco, a Swedish immigrant who was born in 1908, Chief Deputy Coroner Roger Fielding said Tuesday. Svensson’s skeletal remains were discovered near the Deer Park Fire Road, Fielding said.

In 2018, investigators entered the unsolved case into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, but generated no matches. Later, the state Department of Justice DNA lab submitted evidence to Othram Forensics, a company in Texas. The company developed a DNA profile that investigators used to identify Svensson collect through genealogy research into potential relatives, Fielding said.

Fielding said the case file makes no note of “nefarious or untoward circumstances” surrounding the death.

“The cause of death appeared to have been undetermined as the remains were skeletonized upon discovery,” he said.