I belong to a lot of “murder” Facebook groups. One of the questions I have been asked is, “What was the first thing that sparked your interest in true crime?” Not surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to remember what it was. I was only 9 when the Minnesota murder of Sara Rairdon happened.
I remember clipping the story out of the newspaper and keeping it in my room (I may have even taped it to my wall…..). I don’t know if my parents ever noticed it, but looking back it was *sort of* a strange thing to do. How many 9-year-old girls do you know of that hoard newspaper stories of murdered children in their bedroom? Ugh. Anyway, the story probably resonated with me because the victim was a young girl, who lived in my part of the universe and was close to my age.
Her name was Sarah Rairdon, she was 13 years old and she was from Underwood, MN. The town only had 300 people and was a little over an hour away from where I grew up. It was 1985 and Sarah was living with her father, stepmother and 10 step-siblings. Her mother, Glenda, had long been out of the picture. There were some strange family dynamics and Sarah was clearly her father’s favorite. The stepmother, Marilyn Rairdon, resented Sarah’s father, John, and took opportunities to make Sarah’s life unpleasant. Sarah also did not get along very well with her stepbrother, Jeff.
Sarah was a normal, small town girl who loved to write, play with her friends and wears shirt with teddy bears on them. By all accounts she was a popular girl. Sarah Rairdon was a good student and everyone loved her.
Where Is Sarah?
May 20, 1985 started like any other day. Sarah went to school and waited outside afterwards for her father to pick her up. She waited and waited. When he didn’t show, she made the few mile walk towards home on Whiskey Road.
She never made it home.
Marilyn and her stepbrother drove around looking for her, but to no avail. John also looked for her before calling the police. Search parties were formed, flyers were mailed out. The entire community was heavily involved in her search and emotionally attached to the outcome. This was in the 80s during the hey day of missing kids appearing on milk cartons, but instead of milk cartons Sarah’s face was put on Pepsi…
