FBI seeks assistance in solving cold case
Beaver County teen disappeared in 1994
Twenty- five years ago Sunday, 14- year- old Sarah Boehm walked out of her Rochester Township home and into the ether.
Investigations seeking the answer to “Where did she go?” eventually shifted to “Who killed her?” But the gap between was long and troubled as false reports, bad leads and missed opportunities bedeviled the case.
The FBI is marking the 25th anniversary of Sarah’s disappearance by renewing a call for the public’s help in the confounding case that has haunted local, state and federal investigators.
Over the years, multiple leads have been followed and multiple potential suspects have been identified, but no arrest has resulted. In November 2015, the FBI, working with other investigators, returned to the Ohio woods where Sarah’s remains were found in hopes that modern technology might help them find new or previously overlooked evidence. Such was not to be the case and the search for the killer continues.
“No matter how long it takes, the FBI will follow every lead in this case,” Robert Jones, special agent in charge, said in a news release. “This community deserves closure, and this little girl deserves to rest in peace.”
Similarly, the FBI is seeking information from the public about what happened to another girl, Kathryn Menendez, 17, of Alliance, Ohio. Kathryn went missing about a month after Sarah did so. Kathryn’s body was found days after she disappeared.
Months later, skeletal remains later identified as Sarah’s were discovered by a hunter only about 800 feet from where Kathryn’s body was found in the same Ohio state park about 75 miles from Beaver County. The FBI said it is unknown if the murders are connected, but they are being
investigated in parallel probes.
Law enforcement is asking the public to report any information they may have regarding the disappearance and murder of either teen to the FBI at 412- 432- 4000. Tips can remain anonymous and reward money is available for information leading to the successful identification and prosecution of the murderer or murderers.
In November 2014, Andrew Gall, now chief of detectives for the Beaver County District Attorney’s office, discussed Sarah’s case at a cold case symposium presented by the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne University. According to Chief Gall’s presentation, the problems in Sarah’s case began even before its beginning.
Eight months before she disappeared, Sarah was featured in a WTAE- TV report in which she said she fought off a man who tried to abduct her in a Rochester Borough alley. “I was thinking, ‘ Oh, God, please don’t let him kill me.’” But when Rochester police looked into the report, it didn’t ring true.
Sarah’s mother reported her missing to Rochester Township police on July 15, 1994. The previous night, Sarah told her brother she had their mother’s permission to walk to a friend’s home. He said he was supposed to watch his sister walk the route but was so involved watching a movie that he didn’t do so.
As it turned out, the story was false — Sarah’s friend knew nothing about a sleepover. Police discovered that Sarah may have been involved with an older man who abused her. Because police believed Sarah had run away, they didn’t enter her disappearance in the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children database.
Throughout the years, there were reported sightings of Sarah, including one by her twin cousins, but none was confirmed. Still, that led police to mistakenly believe Sarah was alive.
In 1998, when a Portage County, Ohio, detective contacted Rochester Township police about a girl’s skeletal remains found in 1994 by a hunter, police mistakenly said it couldn’t be Sarah because she had been seen. It took until April 2001 for that mistake to be discovered after a Beaver County detective thought a facial composite put out by the Doe Network was a match for Sarah and contacted Portage County about it.
DNA samples from the remains and Sarah’s mother were submitted for comparison to the FBI, but results were delayed by the 9/ 11 terrorist attacks. Finally, a positive match was made in May 2003. By then, nearly nine years had passed since her remains had been discovered.