DNA Cracks 50-Year-Old Cold Case Murder: Police

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Marin County investigators are crediting better DNA technology with helping detectives develop a suspect in a cold case that went unsolved for 50 years.

According to the sheriff's office, Nina "Nadine" Fischer was sexually assaulted and killed in her home in unincorporated San Rafael while her husband was at work in November 1973. Detectives launched a homicide investigation but the trail went cold with a lack of leads.

The sheriff's office sent case materials to California's Familial Search Program in 2021, hoping to develop new leads, which led to a break in the case a few months later. Detectives completed a full investigation over the following years, which the sheriff's office said led them to Michael Eugene Mullen, 75, of Idaho.

Members of the sheriff's office and district attorney's office joined the Lemhi County Sheriff's Office and Idaho State Police on Wednesday to arrest Mullen on suspicion of murder.

"The Marin County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the Idaho State Police, Lemhi County Sheriff's Office, Marin County District Attorney's Office, California Department of Justice, and Federal Bureau of DInvestigation for the countless investigative hours and perseverance to bring closure to this case," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook.

Mullen was taken to an Idaho jail and is pending extradition to California.