FAIRMONT, N.C. — A new reward is being announced on Thursday for an 18-year-old woman who vanished a year ago in Robeson County.
Sara Nicole Graham, the daughter of a Robeson County deputy, disappeared the morning of Feb. 4, 2015 after she left her family’s Fairmont home to drive to her Walmart job in Pembroke, officials say.
The FBI and the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office announced a new reward OF $5,000 being offered in the case on Thursday morning at the Robeson County Emergency Operations Center. Officials also said they were going to patrol the area this morning that Graham traveled during that time of day in hopes of talking with motorists who may have seen her last year.
Graham left her home in the 4000 block of Centerville Church Road around 6:30 a.m. and did not show up for work by 7 a.m. that day, which is when she was expected at work, Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said.
Around 12:15 p.m. that day, a caller reported a suspicious vehicle in a field with its doors locked.
A license check showed the van was registered to Graham’s father, Hubert Graham. Detectives then learned that Sara Graham never showed up for work.
The van was found empty, parked in a wheat field on the edge of a forest along East McDonald Road between Chicken Road and Centerville Church Road, Sealey said.
A large search was conducted that afternoon with dozens of Robeson County deputies, a NC Highway Patrol helicopter and Bladen County Deputies, according to Sealey.
However, there was no sign of Graham and her family has still not had contact with her. Sara’s father Hubert at the time was 16 year veteran of the sheriff’s department.
Meanwhile, in March, Sealey fired Connie Graham, Sara Graham’s step-mother, from her job as a juvenile division detective after 23 years with the agency.
Hubert Graham’s employment status with the department was unchanged at that time.
Anyone with information that could help locate Sara should call FBI Charlotte at 704-672-6100 or the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3100.
