Back in October 2011, when the news first broke about a 19-year-old girl found dismembered in a duffel bag behind a Bethany, Oklahoma, grocery store, it felt like the kind of absolute darkness that only nightmares are made of. Since then, I’ve tried to track every twist, turn, false start, and dead end in the murder of Carina Saunders.
For a long time, the trail went cold. But as of yesterday, there’s been a surge of fresh momentum.
According to a new report, an anonymous donor has stepped up to offer a staggering $250,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. On top of that financial incentive, a new OSBI agent has been assigned to review the case files.
For anyone who has followed this investigation, the most compelling voice in this latest chapter is Carina’s sister, Sara Saunders.
Sara’s journey since 2011 is nothing short of relentless. Outraged and unsatisfied with the early years of the investigation, which saw botched leads, arrests made and charges dropped, and years of radio silence from local authorities, Sara didn’t just wait for answers. She became a police officer and eventually launched her own private investigative firm.
“I have dug and dug for quite a few years, almost a decade now, I’ve been investigating it myself,” Sara told News 9. She added that she has learned more about her sister’s case this year than ever before, noting, “I have a theory, and I think I know what happened to her. And I think I know who did it.”
Alongside the new investigator taking a look at the case, Sara is pushing for modern forensic technology to be applied to whatever physical evidence remains, hoping science can finally pull DNA or a hidden fingerprint out of the past.
But Sara’s mission isn’t just about looking backward; it’s also about changing the future. She is actively pushing for legislation dubbed the Carina Saunders Act, which would mandate that extreme homicide cases be handled from the jump by state-level agencies with the specialized training, education, and resources required for crimes of that magnitude, rather than leaving smaller departments overwhelmed.
“It won’t bring her back. It won’t solve our case. It won’t fix it,” Sara said. “But maybe it’ll stop another family from having to live what we’ve had to live for the last 15 years.”
Fifteen years is too long of a time to wait for justice. But with a quarter-million-dollar reward on the table, a fresh set of eyes at the OSBI, and a sister who has dedicated her entire professional life to hunting down the truth, maybe the wall of silence around Carina’s murder is finally starting to crack.
(Source)
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