Disappearance of Laureen Rahn

On the evening of April 26, 1980,[6] Laureen Rahn was left to stay home at the residence she shared with her mother, a third-floor apartment on Merrimack Street[7] in Manchester, New Hampshire.[8] Her mother, Judith, was spending the evening attending an out-of-town tennis match with her boyfriend.[9] Rahn, who was on spring break at the time, invited one male and one female friend over, and the three drank beer and wine together.[8] At some point during the evening, Rahn's male friend heard voices in the apartment building's hallways and exited the apartment through a back door, assuming that Rahn's mother was returning home and that he would get in trouble if he was found there.[8] The male friend stated that he heard Rahn lock the door behind him as he left.[8]

Some time around 1:15 a.m. on April 27, Judith arrived home and noticed that the lightbulbs on all three of the apartment building's floors had been unscrewed, leaving the hallways completely dark.[8] When she arrived at her apartment's front door, she found it unlocked.[8] Before going to bed, Judith looked in Rahn's room and saw a figure asleep in bed, assuming it to be her daughter.[8] Several hours later, around 3:45 a.m.,[10] Judith awoke and found that it had in fact not been Rahn asleep in her bed, but instead Rahn's female friend who had spent the night.[8] Rahn's friend claimed that she had last seen Rahn asleep on the couch in the living room.[8] Upon further examination of the apartment, Judith found articles of Rahn's clothing and her brand new sneakers in the living room, and the back door open.[8]

Six weeks after Rahn's disappearance, Denise Daneault, a young woman who lived two blocks from the Rahn residence, went missing from a bar in Manchester.[11] Decades later, police determined that suspected serial killer Terry Peder Rasmussen was living in the area under the pseudonym "Bob Evans."[11] Rasmussen later pleaded guilty to murdering his wife in California in 2003, and died in 2010.[11] Authorities believe Rasmussen may have been involved in as many as five more murders and/or disappearances, including that of Denise Beaudin, who vanished in Goffstown in 1981 and was never found, as well as the Bear Brook murders, which refers to four female murder victims found in the Bear Brook State Park between 1985 and 2000. One of the victims was Rasmussen's biological daughter.[11]

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Age progression of Rahn to age 46

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.[8] 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.[8] Detectives spoke with the physician who maintained the hotline, and he initially denied having known anything of the call.[8] Five years later, in 1985, the physician 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.[8] 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.[8] However, law enforcement was unable to find any evidence linking Sprinkle to Rahn's disappearance.[8]

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.[8] During these calls, Judith claimed the caller never spoke.[8] The phone calls continued for several years after Rahn's disappearance, increasing in frequency during the Christmas holiday.[8] The calls eventually stopped after she changed her phone number several years after Rahn's disappearance.[8]

Judith hired a private investigator to visit California in 1986, who located the motels from which the October 1980 phone calls had been placed.[8] Local police in Santa Monica stated that one of the motels may have been used as a filming location by a child pornographer known as "Dr. Z"; however, law enforcement was unable to link Dr. Z to the hotline.[8] 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.[8] Maurais's mother answered the phone call and stated that the woman claimed to have been her son's former girlfriend.[8]