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She went missing in 2020 and her body was found days later. What happened to Sarena Turner?

Sarena Turner called her mother on a December night in 2020 to tell her she'll see her at church the next day. She never showed up.

SEATTLE — The mother of Sarena Turner says she’s confident investigators will find who killed her 29-year-old daughter. 

It’s a case that major crime detectives have been working on for more than two years and it’s one they say is still very active. 

“Sarena always wanted to be that June Cleaver in life. She wanted to be that housewife with a lot of kids and that was just her, that’s what she wanted,” said Rashon Turner, the mother of Sarena Turner.

Rashon saw her daughter last on Dec. 11, 2020. 

“She had just walked out the door and she said she’ll be back. She was headed to another county. She ended up calling and said, ‘Oh mom you know I’ll just see you guys tomorrow and we were supposed to go to church on Sunday and she never came home,” Rashon Turner said. 

Three days later, an off-duty King County Sheriff’s Deputy reported seeing something suspicious on the side of the highway. That deputy was driving eastbound on Highway 18, just a little bit east of Jenkins Creek near Maple Valley.

According to the King County Sheriff’s Department, deputies discovered a body, later to be identified as Sarena Turner, dumped on the side of the highway. 

That’s when Sarena’s mom received the phone call that changed her life. Her daughter was gone.

“It took me almost a year to stop playing that over and over again in my head because it wouldn’t go away,” Rashon Turner said.  

More than two years later and the Turner family is on a mission to get justice for Sarena. 

“I just want the hurt to come to an end so everybody can have some sort of closure. So our hearts can be at ease. We’ll never get Sarena back, but you know everybody gotta be held accountable for their actions. And that’s the big thing. Everybody got to be held accountable,” Rashon said.  

Shortly after Sarena’s body was found the King County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit was assigned the case.

Patrice Redic is Sarena’s younger sister. 

“I just wonder who could bring themselves to do that to any human being," she said. "That’s what bothers me the most.” 

The King County Sheriff’s Department does not consider Sarena Turner’s murder investigation a "cold case" they describe the status as “warm” and say they need the public to come forward with any information about who may have killed her.

Do you want to hear more about Unsolved Northwest? Text the word UNSOLVED to (206) 448-4545 to get messages from the team about the latest cases and updates on past stories, or to send them your questions.

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