Police canvas area for clues on anniversary of Robeson County teen's disappearance
The Charlotte Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a reward up to $5,000 for information leading to the location of Sara Graham, 18, of the Fairmont area of Robeson County, according to Shelley Lynch, FBI Public Affairs Specialist Charlotte Division.
The FBI has been helping the Robeson County Sheriff's Office investigate Graham's disappearance shortly after she went missing Feb. 4, 2015.
Several massive searches have been held for her in the Fairmont community of Robeson County since she disappeared. Deputies have also entered her in a national database for missing persons.
On Thursday, the anniversary of her disappearance, FBI agents and deputies stopped every car on a stretch of East McDonald Road in the Fairmont area of the county, handing out flyers to everyone they saw.
"We believe that someone knows where she is. We do not believe that she disappeared on her own," said Lynch.
Graham is the daughter of a Robeson County Sheriff's deputy and had moved to the area from Texas about six months before she went missing, according to Major Anthony Thompson with the Robeson County Sheriff's Office.
Graham was last seen Feb. 4, 2015 around 6:30 a.m. when she left her home on Centerville Church Road in the Fairmont community to drive to work at the Walmart in Pembroke. But she never showed up for work.
About 15 minutes later, at 6:45 a.m., Graham's white van was seen in a field off of East McDonald Road.
Later that afternoon, at around 12:15 deputies got a call about a suspicious vehicle that was found and discovered that her car had been abandoned in a wheat field near the edge of the tree line on East McDonald Road near I-95 in Fairmont.
Lynch said deputies are now working to trace the van's route from her home to that field.
"We need to build a timeline of the van's travel route that morning. And we're hoping that someone in the community saw something on the morning of Feb. 4, 2015 that can help us," she said.
Lynch says they're hoping the public can help complete an exact timeline of Graham's route that morning as she traveled in her van.
Robeson County Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said Graham's disappearance is strange because it appears she's vanished without a trace.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Robeson County Sheriff's Office at (910) 671-3100 or the FBI at 704-672-6100.
