Gone in a Blink
There are an estimated 8 billion people in the world. In the US, approximately 2,300 people go missing every day. While some of those cases may be of their own accord, others are because of something far more sinister. Gone in a Blink is a true crime podcast that dives head first into the most mysterious and terrifying missing person cases in existence. Hosts Heather and Danielle take a deep look into some of the most horrific missing person cases that will leave you on the edge of your seat and absolutely terrified at just how fast a person can be Gone in a Blink.
Gone in a Blink
Somewhere in the Dark: The Unexplained Disappearance of Laureen Rahn
A 14-year-old girl vanishes into the night after someone methodically unscrews every hallway light bulb in her apartment building. Her purse, clothes, and money remain behind. For years afterward, her mother receives haunting silent phone calls at exactly 3:45am.
Welcome to one of New Hampshire's most disturbing unsolved mysteries. Laureen Rahn disappeared from her Manchester apartment in April 1980 under circumstances that have baffled investigators for over four decades. What started as a possible runaway case quickly evolved into something far more sinister when mysterious phone charges appeared on her mother's bill months later—calls to California motels linked to a teen sexual assistance hotline and potentially to individuals connected with adult entertainment and child exploitation.
The eerie similarities to other disappearances in the area raise disturbing questions. Was there a predator targeting young women in Manchester? Suspected serial killer Terry Rasmussen lived just blocks away. Four other young women vanished within a short time and geographic radius. The phone calls that continued for years—silent callers using nicknames only Lorene would know—suggest she might have been alive somewhere, perhaps trying to reach out but unable to speak freely. Was she trafficked? Kidnapped? Or did something even worse happen that night when the hallways were plunged into darkness?
Join us as we examine the evidence, explore the theories, and shine light on this haunting cold case that continues to echo through the decades. Lorene would be approaching 59 today, and her mother still hopes for answers. If you recognize details from this case or have information that might help solve this mystery, please contact authorities. One tip could finally bring closure to a family that has waited far too long for answers.
Sources:
https://charleyproject.org/case/laureen-ann-rahn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Laureen_Rahn
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/601873/1
https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/the-disturbing-disappearance-of-laureenrahn
Music:
Crime Trap by Muza Production
Dark Music by Black Rose in Hell
Depression by Mood Mode
Gone in a Blink is created by Heather Hicks and Danielle E.
Written and produced by Heather Hicks and hosted by Danielle E. and Heather Hicks.
Gone in a Blink theme: Crime Trap created and produced by Muzaproduction
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At 14 years old. You can be easily influenced by your peers, your friends and pretty much everyone you choose to surround yourself with. But sometimes the ones that are drawn to you are not always drawn to you for the right reasons, and sometimes you may not even know the person who is drawn to you A stranger, someone who has had their eye on you all along. Maybe you are their type, you all along. Maybe you are their type. Maybe they see you as being too nice or too understanding or too vulnerable. Maybe you're young and naive. Whatever it is, they found the one, their target, and they won't stop until they have you. This is the case of Lorene Ron, and this is Gone in a Blink. Hey, true crime fans, I'm your host, heather, and welcome to episode 35 of Gone in a Blink. Spring is almost here and the weather is getting warmer, which I absolutely love. We definitely have spring fever at our house and I'm ready to get outside and plant flowers, relax on the deck and watch the sunset and really just be so, so glad that the frigid temps are behind us. Of course, now that I say that, the cold weather will probably come back with a vengeance. So you really can't get too comfortable. Here in the Midwest, to be quite honest, we've literally been known to have all four seasons in one day. It's seriously insane. So today's case is one out of Manchester, new Hampshire. Today we are talking about the case of missing 14-year-old Lorene Rahn. So if you're ready, let's jump right in.
Speaker 1:Lorene Rahn was born on April 3rd 1966 in Manchester, new Hampshire, and she was pretty much raised by her mother, judith, as her parents ended up getting a divorce when Lorene was just an infant. By the time Lorene turned four years old, she and her mother moved to Miami, florida. However, they didn't end up making it their permanent home, and six years later they ended up moving back to Manchester. By 1980, lorene appeared to be your typical 14-year-old girl. She loved to sing and dance and she had aspirations of becoming an actress, though she was also said to have been a bit troubled. Lorene spent much of her time alone. She drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and often talked about running away. She attended school at Parkside Junior High, where she had a group of friends that she loved hanging out with when she wasn't alone. At this time, lorene and her mother were living in a third floor apartment on Merrimack Street. Little did Judith know this would be the same apartment that her daughter would go missing from just a short time later.
Speaker 1:April 26th 1980 was just like any other day. Lorene spent most of the day hanging around the neighborhood before stopping in at a local convenience store where she was seen by some of her friends restocking shelves with wine coolers. It was later questioned if maybe she was doing this in exchange for alcohol. That, however, has not actually been confirmed, so we're not really sure what she was doing or why she was doing that. It's just kind of an assumption. Throughout much of the day, several family members had stopped by the apartment and nothing had ever been reported as being out of the ordinary. Judith's boyfriend, who was a professional tennis player, had a tournament that weekend, so Judith planned to go out of town to attend the tournament, and in the past Lorene would tag along with her mother and her mother's boyfriend to attend the tennis tournaments. However, this was during Lorraine's spring break from school and she really just wanted to hang out with her friends. So she asked her mother if she could stay home that weekend, and her mother obliged.
Speaker 1:That evening Lorraine had a couple of friends over to the apartment to hang out One female and one male friends over to the apartment to hang out one female and one male. The three of them shared a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine and sat around just talking and being typical teenagers. So at around 12 30 am on April 27th, lorene and her male friend were sitting in the living room when they heard voices in the hallway of the apartment building. Afraid that it might be Judith returning home, lorene's friend jumped up and hurried out the back door for fear he might get in trouble. The male friend later told authorities that he specifically heard the door lock behind him as he was leaving.
Speaker 1:Judith and her boyfriend returned to the apartment around 1.15 am to find that the light bulbs in the hallway on all three floors of the apartment building had been unscrewed, leaving the hallways completely dark. When they reached, in the darkness, for the front door, they discovered that it was unlocked. Once inside, they found that the back door was left wide open. Judith glanced around the apartment, noticing what appeared at first to be Lorene sleeping in her bed. After Judith moved closer to Lorene's room, she realized that it was not actually Lorene sleeping in her bed, but instead it was the female friend that had been hanging out with Lorene and the other boy was the female friend that had been hanging out with Lorraine and the other boy at the apartment. Earlier that evening Her friend told Judith that she had been sleeping in bed with Lorraine and that Lorraine later decided to take her pillow and blanket and move to the couch to sleep. The female friend claims that she couldn't really remember much about that night because of the fact that she had been drinking. So while searching the apartment, judith found that Lorene's purse, as well as her clothing and money, were still there. Judith began calling family members immediately to see if anyone had seen or heard from Lorene. Judith and her boyfriend then began to search the neighborhood for any sign of her daughter. Around 3.45 that morning they flagged down a police officer and reported Lorene missing.
Speaker 1:So I just wanted to touch on the fact that the light bulbs in the hallways of all three floors of the apartment building were unscrewed. We have seen this type of thing far too many times. In fact, we just saw the same scenario in the last episode we covered in the Teresa Butler case. Someone unscrewed the light bulb from her porch light right before she went missing, and this seems to be a common tactic and one that, in my opinion, is extremely creepy, and if you haven't listened already to the previous episode on Teresa Butler, I seriously recommend you doing that because it's so insane. It's so incredibly insane that this type of thing is happening far too frequently in cases, and it puts the victim in a really scary and yet very vulnerable situation where you cannot see who is at the door, such as in the Teresa Butler case, where, just to theorize, she may have heard a knock at the door, went to look out the window or the peephole and couldn't see anything because it was pitch dark. The abductor is hoping she'll open the door right, and when she does, she falls victim.
Speaker 1:Now I'm unsure of all the details surrounding Lorene's disappearance. However, we know that the light bulbs were unscrewed, making the hallways dark. The front door was unlocked and the back door was open. So, just to theorize once again, her male friend had just left out the back door and he claims he heard the door lock behind him. This was sometime around 1230 am. Judith and her boyfriend returned to the apartment around 130 am, so there's only about a one hour window. The female friend is asleep in Lorene's bed and never hears a thing, so is it possible that someone was watching the apartment, then made their way into the building to unscrew the light bulbs, saw the male friend leave and then knocked on the door to Lorene's apartment soon after.
Speaker 1:Lorene answers the door, thinking maybe her male friend returned or that maybe it was her mother. And herne answers the door, thinking maybe her male friend returned or that maybe it was her mother and her boyfriend at the door, since they thought the voices in the hallway were Lorene's mom and boyfriend anyway. So maybe she answers the door and they force their way in and then out the back door with Lorene. I don't know. There were no reports of anything being taken from the apartment and Lorraine's purse and money were still there, unless maybe that's not why they were there in the first place, maybe they were there only for Lorraine. So just trying to think of all these different scenarios or you know, I don't I don't typically like to theorize things, but just trying to get a feel for what they were, even after in the first place. Whatever it was, it was totally premeditated because of the light bulbs being unscrewed.
Speaker 1:So police thought in the beginning that Lorene was a runaway, and that is typically the first place police go with a teenage missing persons case, especially back in the 1980s. Judith, however, did not believe that her daughter ran away, mostly because of the fact that she left her purse and her clothes behind. Nothing appeared to be missing and after a few weeks police slowly began to retract their theory that Lorene was a runaway and begin to believe that everything looked as if Lorene had left the apartment on her own accord, but planned to only be gone for a short period of time. Then, on October 1st 1980, judith noticed that she had been charged for three phone calls placed in California. One was from a motel in Santa Monica to another motel in the area of Santa Ana. The third call was made to a teen sexual assistance hotline. Judith thought this was strange, since she didn't even know anyone who lived in California.
Speaker 1:When questioned, the physician who tends to the teen sexual assistance hotline initially denied knowing anything about the calls. However, in 1985, so five years later he changed his story, and anytime anyone changes their story in a situation such as this, it's almost always a huge red flag. I mean, why lie about it? It's kind of where I'm at with that. But the physician admits five years later that numerous young runaway girls had visited his wife at their home and it was possible that one of them may have been from New Hampshire. He claimed that his wife used to work in the fashion industry with a woman by the name of Annie Sprinkle and that she may have information pertaining to several runaway girls.
Speaker 1:It was soon discovered that Annie Sprinkle was a well-known name in the adult entertainment industry and was involved in numerous adult films. Police viewed several of these films in the hopes of spotting Lorene. Police viewed several of these films in the hopes of spotting Lorene. However, nothing was ever found and Sprinkle has not been linked to Lorene's disappearance. So I just want to make that clear. Annie Sprinkle was apparently, like I said, a huge name in the adult entertainment industry in the 1970s and 80s. She has since quit the adult entertainment industry and is now a big figure in sex education. After going back to school to receive her doctorate in human sexuality In 1986, a private investigator traveled out to California and visited the two motels that were involved in the phone calls back in 1980.
Speaker 1:It was discovered that one of these motels may have been used by an individual involved in child pornography who went by the name of Dr Z. After further investigation into Dr Z, authorities were unable to link him to the teen sexual assistance hotline or to Lorene's disappearance. So this case seems to be leading in the path of a lot of sketchy activity and people who are intertwined into some very questionable things. And I feel like those phone calls linking the mother of a missing teenager, which Judith gets the charges for these calls. So you're linking Judith to two motels clear across the country, one of which has been tied to child pornography, and then a call for a teen sexual assistance hotline manned by a physician who lies about being connected in the first place. I just think there is a strong possibility that those charges on Judith's phone could be a strong lead in the right direction, maybe down the path of sex trafficking is kind of where my mind goes and child pornography. It's all just very strange that this is the path that those charges have led to.
Speaker 1:There had been some other possible leads after Lorene's disappearance that had raised a lot of questions as well. In 1981, one of Lorene's family members claimed to have seen a girl that matched Lorene's description at a bus terminal in Boston Massachusetts. In Boston Massachusetts, an employee for the bus company told authorities that he sold a ticket to a girl who matched Lorene's description on the day that she disappeared. A driver who worked for the bus company initially confirmed that the girl he dropped off in Park Square, boston, was Lorene, based on a photo. The driver was later questioned again and claimed that he wasn't sure at that point anymore if the girl he dropped off was Lorene or not.
Speaker 1:For almost a year and a half after Lorene's disappearance, judith would receive anonymous phone calls on a frequent basis. The calls would always come in at 3 45 am and no one would say a word on the other end. For several years after Lorene went missing, an unknown caller would always make calls to Judith around the Christmas holidays, and after the call was answered, the person on the other end would sit in silence for several seconds before ending the call. Judith couldn't take the heartache any longer and she eventually changed her number, and this too, in my opinion, is just another thing that kind of takes me into the possibility that maybe she was in fact trafficked. Is it so far-fetched to believe that just maybe that was her on the other end of that phone, somehow possibly getting access to a phone at certain times, which could explain the frequent phone calls to Judith at 3.45 am, as well as the calls made around the holidays. So what if she had been trafficked or kidnapped and her kidnapper is away or something's going on at 3.45 am where she can have access to that phone and she reaches out to her mom, which I don't quite know why she wouldn't talk unless she is unable to talk on her end without getting caught? That's a possibility, a lot of this in my own personal opinion, and I want our listeners to build your own theory on this, because right now that's all we have is theories. But in my own opinion I think that this goes into the path of trafficking.
Speaker 1:In 1986, a childhood friend of Lorene's by the name of Roger Morris received a phone call from a woman and when Roger's mother answered, the caller said that her name was Lori and that she was a former girlfriend of Roger's. The caller remains unknown to this day. Lorene's aunt, janet Roy, also claimed that on numerous occasions since Lorene went missing, a young woman would call her home asking to speak to her son, michael. When Michael would come to the phone, the caller would remain silent. The caller would ask to speak to Mike initially when, when Jana answered the phone, mike was a nickname that only Lorene would refer to him as, and Jana believes the caller was Lorene. So there were also some other young women who disappeared right around the time of Lorene's disappearance.
Speaker 1:Whether these other disappearances are linked to Lorene's remains to be seen. However, they were disappearances that occurred very close to where Lorene was last seen. That occurred very close to where Lorene was last seen. 25-year-old Denise Denault lived two short blocks from Lorene and went missing from a bar in Manchester just six weeks after Lorene disappeared. Several years later, police discovered that suspected serial killer Terry Peter Rasmussen, who went by the name Bob Evans, was living in that area at the time, and Rasmussen was convicted of killing his wife in California back in 2003.
Speaker 1:Police believe that Rasmussen was possibly involved in as many as six more murders and or disappearances, one of which was the disappearance of Denise Boudin, who disappeared in Goffstown in 1981. She has also never been found. He has also been linked to the Deerbrook murders, which involved the murders of four women whose bodies were found in the Bearbrook State Park between 1985 and 2000. And if that wasn't crazy enough, one of the female victims was in fact Rasmussen's own biological daughter. Rasmussen was also linked to the untimely death of 17-year-old Elizabeth Lamott, who disappeared from Manchester, new Hampshire, on April 6th 1984. Elizabeth was last seen at a youth development center. Her lifeless body was found naked at the Geraldstown Tennessee exit on Interstate 81. She had been beaten and stabbed. The medical examiner determined that her ultimate cause of death was a single blow to the head. Rasmussen died in 2010.
Speaker 1:What is strange in this case is that Rasmussen lived a mile and a half away from where Lorene disappeared, and both Lorene and Denise both held a striking resemblance to each other, despite the age difference. Denise also has never been found. Then, one month before Lorene went missing, 15-year-old Rachel Garden disappeared after buying a pack of cigarettes and bubble gum from a convenience store on Route 108 in Newton, new Hampshire, on March 22, 1980. In Newton, new Hampshire, on March 22nd 1980. And, for geographical purposes, newton is approximately 40 miles, or approximately 64 kilometers, southeast of Manchester. Police are pretty insistent, though, that these two cases are unrelated, even though they both resemble each other and are from towns near each other. So she has also never been found.
Speaker 1:Another case that has been closely linked to Lorene's case was that of 15-year-old Shirley McBride. Shirley was last seen leaving her sister's house on Union Street in Concord, new Hampshire on July 13, 1984, around 9.30 pm. On July 13th 1984, around 9.30 pm. Concord is just about 18 and a half miles or 29 kilometers north of Manchester, so it's also pretty close. Shirley McBride has never been found and her family has to do the agonizing part of declaring her legally dead, which they did 12 years after she went missing.
Speaker 1:Lorraine's aunt, diane Pinault, describes her niece as quote an angel who hung around with the wrong people for a while, unquote. Her mother, judith, believes that some of the people whom Lorraine surrounded herself with know more about Lorraine's disappearance than they are willing to say, know more about Lorene's disappearance than they are willing to say. The boy who was with Lorene the night of her disappearance committed suicide in 1985. He was never a suspect in her disappearance. She believes that it was her daughter who placed those mysterious calls from California that night in October of 1980. Judith remarried in the late 1980s and relocated to Florida. She still hangs on to the hope that her daughter is out there somewhere and they will be reunited once again. Investigators continue to work Lorene's case and still believe foul play is involved.
Speaker 1:Laureen's case and still believe foul play is involved. Laureen was last seen wearing a white v-neck sweater, a blue plaid blouse, blue jeans and brown shoes. She was also wearing a heart-shaped gold ring and a silver and blue necklace. She was 14 years old at the time of her disappearance and would be almost 59 years old today. No-transcript. Thank you for listening to another episode of Gone in a Blink. If you like our show, please give us a five-star review on Apple Podcast or on Spotify. And for all the latest updates on the cases we cover, follow us on any of our social media sites and I will post those links in our show notes. And if you have an idea for a case you'd like us to cover, drop us an email at goneinablinkpod at gmailcom. And last but certainly not least, be safe, be smart and try not to blink.
