Disappearance

On April 26, 1980,^[11] Laureen Rahn was left to stay home at the apartment.^[12][13] Her mother, Judith, was spending the evening attending an out-of-town tennis match to watch her boyfriend, a professional tennis player, compete. Rahn, who was on spring break at the time, usually attended the matches with her mother, but she had asked to stay home this time.^[9][14] Rahn spent the day around the neighborhood and at a convenience store on the block. Several family members had stopped by the apartment during the day.^[7] In the evening, she invited one male and one female friend over, and the three drank a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine together.^[13] Rahn's friends would later say they had seen her restocking wine coolers at the convenience store during the day, possibly in exchange for the alcohol.^[13][7] Around 12:30 a.m. on April 27, Rahn was sitting with her male friend in the living room when they heard voices in the apartment building's hallways. He exited the apartment through a back door, assuming that Rahn's mother was returning home and that he and Rahn would get in trouble if he was found there.^[13] The male friend stated that he heard Rahn lock the door behind him as he left.^[13][10] Another neighbor confirmed having heard voices approaching the apartment around that time.^[7]

Some time around 1:15 a.m. on April 27, Judith arrived home accompanied by her boyfriend and noticed that the light bulbs on all three of the apartment building's floors had been unscrewed, leaving the hallways completely dark.^[13] When she arrived at her apartment's front door, she found it unlocked.^[13] Judith initially looked into her daughter's darkened bedroom, saw the bed was occupied, and assumed it was Laureen. Her boyfriend then noticed the back door was open. Judith went to wake Laureen to ask why, but realized as she approached the bed that it was not her daughter at all, but a friend. Laureen's friend claimed that Laureen had been in bed with her, but had taken her pillow and blanket to sleep on the couch in the living room. The girl would later state that she was unable to recall any of that night due to her inebriation. Upon further examination of the apartment, Judith found Laureen's purse and her brand new sneakers, a birthday gift, in the living room. None of Laureen's possessions, including her money or clothing, were missing, nor were there signs of a struggle in the apartment.^[13][6][7]

Judith called family members to see if Laureen was with them, and she and her boyfriend went out to search the neighborhood. Around 3:45 a.m., Judith spotted a police car, which she flagged down to report her daughter missing.^[10]

For several weeks, police believed that Rahn had run away; however, when she did not return they began to modify their theory. They instead believed that she had left the apartment intending to come back, and something had happened. A bus company employee told police he had sold a ticket to a girl matching Rahn's description the day she disappeared, and a driver from the company identified Rahn from an old photograph as a girl he had dropped off in Park Square, Boston. Weeks later, police obtained a more recent photograph and interviewed him again; the driver said he was no longer sure that the girl he had dropped off was Rahn.^[10]

Subsequent events

Phone calls

External image
Age progression of Rahn to age 55

On October 1, 1980, Judith found she had been charged for three phone calls placed in California; she did not have friends or relatives there, and Rahn had never had any ties to the area.^[13] Two calls were placed from a motel in Santa Monica, and another from a motel in Santa Ana, the latter of which was made to a teen sexual assistance hotline.^[13] Detectives spoke with the physician who maintained the hotline, and he initially denied having known anything of the call.^[13] Five years later, in 1985, Karole Jensen, an investigator from the organization Wings for Children, called the physician, and he changed his story: he claimed that numerous young women and runaways occasionally visited his wife at their home and that one of the girls may have been Rahn.^[13] He also stated that Annie Sprinkle, a sex educator and former pornographic actress who allegedly knew his wife, might have had information regarding Rahn's disappearance and those of other runaway girls.^[13] However, both investigators from Wings for Children and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were unable to find any evidence linking Sprinkle to Rahn's disappearance.^[13][6]

Throughout 1981, Judith claimed to have received numerous mysterious phone calls from an unknown individual, which she always received at approximately 3:45 a.m.^[13] During these calls, Judith claimed the caller never spoke.^[13] The phone calls continued for several years after Rahn's disappearance, increasing in frequency during the Christmas holiday.^[13] The calls eventually stopped after she changed her phone number several years after Rahn's disappearance.^[13] Rahn's aunt Janet Roy also reported that on several occasions after her disappearance, a young girl called the Roy family's telephone asking to speak to Roy's son, Michael. Whenever Michael picked up the phone, the caller was silent. Roy believed the caller may have been Rahn as she would refer to Michael as "Mike", a nickname only Rahn used for her cousin.^[9]

Jensen visited California in 1986. She located the motels from which the October 1980 phone calls had been placed.^[13] She discovered that one of the motels may have been used as a filming location by a child pornographer known as "Dr. Z"; however, Jensen was unable to link Dr. Z to the hotline.^[13] The same year, a childhood friend of Rahn's named Roger Maurais received a phone call from a woman who claimed to be "Laurie" or Laureen.^[13] Maurais's mother answered the phone call and stated that the woman claimed to have been her son's former girlfriend.^[13] Maurais had dated Rahn when the two were about 12 years old.^[6]