A Marin County jury has found 77-year-old Michael Eugene Mullen guilty of first-degree murder for the 1973 killing of Nina Fischer.
According to the Marin Independent Journal, the Swedish national was found bound and shot in her San Rafael home more than five decades ago, a crime that remained unsolved until a DNA breakthrough linked Mullen to the scene five years ago.
Prosecutors argued that Mullen raped and shot Fischer while her two-year-old daughter was in the house, while the defense claimed the encounter was consensual and lacked physical evidence of the killing. The victim’s daughter traveled from Sweden to witness the verdict, which followed two and a half days of jury deliberation. Mullen, who was arrested in Idaho in 2024, now faces life in prison when he is sentenced on June 10.
District Attorney Lori Frugoli praised the modern technology that finally brought closure to a case that had been cold for nearly half a century.
