Sarah Rae Boehm:1994, Berlin Reservoir, Ohio

   


   Sarah Rae Boehm was born on the 18th of February in 1980 in Rochester in Beaver County, Ohio. (I recently wrote about the case of Carla Chunchick Mason who was also from the little town of Rochester. Their cases are not related. Coincidences like this just seem somehow more sad and poignant.)


   Sarah’s parents were Phyllis and Jack Boehm. 


   Sarah was born during the 1980 Winter Olympics.  I wonder if her Mom and Dad watched any of the events on tv before and after her birth. With a new infant in the house I can imagine they might have had that on the television. That was the year of the “Miracle on Ice” when the United States men’s hockey team defeated the Soviet team. Speed Skater, Eric Heiden, won five gold medals that year too. 

Sarah as a child.


  Sarah attended Rochester Junior High School in Rochester, Pennsylvania. She was a good student and a cheerleader. In one of her Junior high photos she is pictured in the band. She played the flute.

Sarah is in the front row second from right.



   In the Summer of 1994 she would have been 14. She was probably looking forward to high school and all the memories she would make there with her friends. Ace of Base was big on the music charts with “The Sign”. Lisa Loeb was making wearing glasses cooler than ever. Boyz II Men were also huge that year. 


   Sarah last spoke to her mother on July 14th, 1994. She called her Mom at work around 10:30 p.m. to say she was going to spend the night with a neighborhood friend. She planned to walk to the friend’s house. The next day when Sarah did not return home and was not located at the friend’s home, her Mom reported her missing. 


   Sarah was found on November 4th, 1994 several hours away in the woods of a spot in Ohio called the Berlin Reservoir.  As it often happens in the Midwest, hunters stumbled upon her remains there. 







  Sarah was found about 300 yards away from the spot where two other murder victims had been found in 1993. 


  Earlier in 1994, another girl had also been found nearby. Kathryn Menendez was a local Ohio girl. 


   That area where all the victims were found is not a well traveled road. It had houses on one side of the road and the lake, with a wooded border, on the other.

If you were a stranger to the area it seems an unlikely place to go. A stranger who had never been to the area would probably have taken a body to the side of the road, a dumpster or a more convenient place. 

None of these bodies were placed in the water. The killer takes them to a lake but doesn't put them in the water. Why is that? 


   Sarah was thought to be a runaway at first. Posters were made and tips trickled in. Several people over the years thought they had spotted her alive. Each of this tips turned out to be similar looking girls and young women. 


   Sarah was not identified right away. Her remains were in an advanced state of decomposition when found. DNA testing was attempted twice. In 2003, a positive identification was finally made. Sarah’s relatives were notified. 


   Is her murder related to the 1994 murder of Kathryn Menendez? Is her murder related to the murdered couple, Lisa Watters and Andy Hussey, found in 1993? 



   Who did this? Was Sarah taken by someone she knew in Rochester? Was she abducted by a stranger? 


   Sarah Rae Boehm was buried in Sylvania Hills Memorial Park in her hometown of Rochester, PA. 


   Rest in Peace, Sarah


The link to submit tips: 


https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/sarah-rae-boehm


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