The Strange Disappearance of Laureen Rahn
A teenager vanishes under mysterious circumstances
Mysterious Disappearance Still Unsolved
On April 26th, 1980, Judith Rahn was away attending her boyfriend’s tennis match. When the couple returned home in the early morning hours of April 27th, they found the building’s hallways uncharacteristically dark and their apartment door unlocked. Slightly unsettled, they entered the residence, but saw nothing odd or out of place—at least initially.
Expecting to see her daughter, 14-year-old Laureen, Judith instead found one of the teenager’s friends asleep in her bed. Laureen herself was inexplicably gone. The back door was slightly ajar, but there were no signs of a struggle or forced entry.
The investigation into Laureen’s disappearance would have many twists and turns, including a series of strange phone calls that went on for years, the discovery that a serial killer lived nearby, and odd details that suggested Laureen might actually still be alive and in another state. Ultimately, though, Laureen’s fate—as well as what really happened that night—remained a mystery.
What happened to Laureen Rahn?
Laureen Ann Rahn
Laureen Ann Rahn was born on April 3rd, 1966, in Manchester, New Hampshire. Unfortunately, there is little information publicly available about Laureen’s life. However, it is known that her parents divorced when she was just a baby. Her father doesn’t appear to have had much of a presence in her life following the divorce and from then on she resided with her mother Judith.
"We were the best of friends," Judith said.
Laureen enjoyed singing and dancing and hoped to become an actress one day. She attended Parkside Junior High School, where she was described as a good student and outgoing. But, though she did well in school, she was also said to be “troubled,” mainly due to the fact that she sometimes drank alcohol and smoked marijuana. However, she never found herself in any serious trouble.
She was “an angel who hung around with the wrong people for a while,” said her aunt Diane Pinault.
Judith was reportedly in a series of short-lived relationships, about which there are few details available, so it’s unclear how or if her daughter was affected by this. That being said, some sources state that Laureen sometimes spoke of a desire to run away, yet the reason behind this is unknown.
Laureen Vanishes
In 1980, Judith was dating a professional tennis player. She and Laureen frequently attended his games together, but on April 26th Laureen asked for permission to stay home alone instead.
Judith considered this and decided to allow it. She told her daughter to lock the doors and make sure she got to bed at a reasonable time, then she departed.
Laureen reportedly spent a lot of time at the local store that afternoon and was even spotted stocking coolers, although she didn’t have a job there. She was also seen drinking with a few older boys in the neighborhood.
She was accompanied by her friend Kristen as well. The names of several of the players in this story have never been revealed to the public, including that of a male friend that Laureen and Kristen invited over to the apartment that evening. The trio hung out and shared a bottle of wine and a six pack of beer.
It has been speculated that Laureen’s work at the store might have been done in exchange for the alcohol. Additionally, the man who worked there allegedly had an interest in underaged girls and was known to sell liquor to them.
By 12:30 a.m. Kristen was sleeping in Laureen’s bedroom, while Laureen and her male friend were talking in the living room. It was around this time that the pair heard voices in the hallway. One of the Rahns’ neighbors would later corroborate this, stating that they’d heard voices in the hallway as well.
Assuming that Judith was returning home, her friend panicked and decided to leave through the back door. And, as he’d tell police later, he was certain that he’d heard Laureen lock the door behind him.
However, as it turned out, the voices hadn’t belonged to Laureen’s mother or her boyfriend, who didn’t make it back until 1:15 a.m.
Upon entering the building, they noticed that it was oddly dark. Typically, the lights were on in the hallways all night, but not on this night. As investigators would soon discover, someone had actually unscrewed the light bulbs in every hallway on every floor of the building. (Side note: It’s unclear if they were able to lift any fingerprints from the bulbs.)
Judith and her boyfriend walked up to the third-floor apartment that she shared with her daughter and noticed that the front door was unlocked. After going inside, Judith decided to peek into Laureen’s bedroom and initially felt relief when she spotted who she believed to be Laureen asleep in bed.
But when the girl woke up moments later, Judith was met with the realization that it was actually Kristen, not Laureen. So where was her daughter? Kristen was fuzzy on some of the details of the evening, due to how much she’d had to drink, but she remembered that Laureen had been trying to sleep in bed, but at some point took her pillow and blanket and went out to the living room, where their male friend was.
She is Reported Missing
Judith began calling family members, hoping that one of them might know where her daughter was, but none of them did. Her boyfriend went looking for Laureen in the neighborhood, but was unable to locate her. At 3:45 a.m. Judith called 911 and reported her daughter missing.
At first law enforcement suspected that she was likely a runaway. Laureen and Judith allegedly had an argument earlier in the day on April 26th, but the cause is unclear. This coupled with the fact that she was known to talk about running away led investigators to think that that’s just what she’d done.
However, Judith was unconvinced. She noted the fact that Laureen had left everything behind, including her purse, money, clothes and a new pair of shoes she’d been gifted for her birthday.
Furthermore, the fact that the light bulbs in the hallways had been unscrewed seemed to suggest the presence of someone with nefarious intent in the building that night—someone who wanted to minimize their chances of being seen by potential witnesses.
The police also noticed that the back door had been left slightly ajar. Yet there was no indication that a struggle had taken place and nothing appeared to be missing.
Law enforcement interviewed the male friend as well and found his account of the night consistent with what Kristen had told them and, of course, he was able to provide the additional context of what had happened after she left her bedroom. They never considered him a person of interest in her disappearance.
And though they continued to think that she’d voluntarily left, they did canvass the area and question locals. An employee of the bus company claimed to have sold a ticket to a girl who strongly resembled Laureen. Adding credence to this story was a bus driver who was sure that he had dropped her off in Boston.
However, the driver had initially identified her from an older photo. When investigators obtained a more recent picture and showed it to him, he was far less certain that it was actually the same girl. So this lead ultimately went nowhere.
As weeks went by with no sign of her, authorities started to wonder if she had originally intended to return, but perhaps something had occurred to prevent that.
Strange Calls
When Judith got her phone bill in October 1980, three strange charges stood out right away. Someone had placed two calls from a motel in Santa Monica, California, and one from a motel in Santa Ana and had charged all of them to Judith’s account. She believed that her daughter was the one who’d made these calls and became convinced that she was still alive, although Laureen didn’t know anyone in California and had no known connections there.
One of the calls was to a sexual advice hotline for teenagers, which was apparently run by a plastic surgeon who lived in Santa Monica. When this man was questioned, however, he denied any knowledge of either Laureen or that particular phone call. Years later he would tell a very different story.
In 1986, Karole Jensen, a private investigator hired by Judith, spoke to him. This time, instead of professing ignorance about the missing girl, he instead explained that it was actually his wife who ran the hotline—not him—and that runaways sometimes showed up at their house. One of these girls, he said, might have been Laureen.
He also believed it was possible that she’d gotten involved in child pornography, though he had no direct evidence of this. However, it was learned that both of the motels the mysterious calls had been placed from were under investigation for allegedly being used as filming locations by a child pornographer referred to only as “Dr. Z.”
One theory that developed from this was the idea that perhaps someone had groomed Laureen, promising her a career in film, only for the teenager to find herself placed in and exploited by the child pornography industry.
Yet the investigation was never able to establish a connection between either Dr. Z and the hotline or Dr. Z and Laureen’s disappearance. To this day, the claim that her case is linked to child pornography has never been substantiated and the idea remains speculative.
Beginning in 1981, Judith received late night phone calls in which the caller never spoke. Each time the call would come in at exactly 3:45 a.m.—the same time that Judith had made the 911 call about her daughter’s disappearance. She believed that Laureen was the caller.
Maybe Laureen had learned when the 911 call was made from an article about her case? Otherwise, it was unclear how she or even an abductor would have had that knowledge down to the exact minute. But if it was her, was she trying to silently communicate to her mother that she was alive and okay? Or did she simply want to hear her voice?
The mysterious calls would continue for years, increasing in frequency around the holidays, until Judith moved to another state and changed her phone number.
She wasn’t the only one who received odd phone calls, though.
Janet Roy, Laureen’s aunt, said that a young girl had called their home on several occasions, asking to speak with “Mike” (Janet’s son). But whenever he picked up the phone, the caller went silent. Laureen was reportedly the only person who referred to her cousin Michael as “Mike,” which led Janet to believe that she was the one contacting them.
Additionally, Laureen’s ex-boyfriend and childhood friend Roger got a similar call in 1986. Roger’s mother answered the phone and a girl on the other end claimed to be “Laurie” and asked to talk to Roger.
Ultimately, it was never proven that Laureen made any of these phone calls, but some still wonder if it could have been her.
Suspects & Similar Cases
Over time, the Manchester police came to believe that Laureen was the victim of foul play. A local man was on their radar as a person of interest after they learned that the 35-year-old allegedly had a history of inviting young girls over to his place to drink.
They conducted a search of his apartment, but found nothing which tied him to Laureen’s disappearance and it appears that he was ruled out as a suspect due to a lack of evidence. His identity has never been revealed.
25-year-old Denise Daneault went missing weeks prior to Laureen’s own disappearance. She was last spotted at a club in Manchester. Her case remains unsolved, but serial killer Terry Rasmussen is considered a suspect. Denise lived just a few doors away from Rasmussen and two blocks away from Laureen.
Rasmussen, who died in prison in 2010, is strongly believed to have been responsible for the Bear Brook murders (although he died before he could be tried for these heinous crimes) and is a suspect in several other cases.
No evidence has been found to tie him to Laureen’s case, though.
Of possible significance is the fact that Denise and Laureen not only lived in the same area, but also bore a resemblance to one another. This is another factor that could potentially indicate they were targeted by the same person, whether it was Rasmussen or someone else.
Shirley McBride, 15, left her half-sister’s Concord apartment around 9:30 p.m. on July 13th, 1984. She was never seen or heard from again and, as with Laureen and Denise, her case is still unsolved.
Other Developments
The unnamed male friend who was with Laureen on the night she vanished ended his own life in 1985. What led to this is unknown.
Another unconfirmed eyewitness sighting took place in Alaska in 1988. The witness claimed to have seen a sex worker who looked like Laureen. However, the authorities didn’t believe this was really her.
In the absence of viable leads or solid evidence, Laureen’s case has grown cold.
Her mother clings to the hope that she might still be alive out there somewhere. Laureen’s other surviving relatives want this to be true as well, but some aren’t so sure it is.
“In my heart I want to believe she’s alive but l don’t know,” said her aunt.
Judith is of the opinion that neither she, nor the police, ever got the whole story of what really happened between Laureen and her friends before she vanished. Additionally, it has been rumored that there was a second boy at the Rahn apartment that evening, but this claim has never been substantiated.
Decades later, the mysterious disappearance of Laureen Rahn remains unsolved.
If you have any information regarding Laureen’s disappearance, you are encouraged to submit a tip to the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit.
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Sources
“079 - The Disappearance of Laureen Rahn” - Trace Evidence Podcast
“The Forty Year Search For Laureen Rahn” - Murder, She Told Podcast