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.
