On a summer day in 1973, the life of a fourteen-year-old girl from Austin, Minnesota, was tragically cut short. Rebecca Ann Rathbun, a Caucasian female, was working as a live-in babysitter for the Torgerson family in Rochester, Minnesota, on June 30, 1973. In a horrific turn of events, she became a victim in a brutal act of violence that also claimed the lives of the family she was caring for.
That day, Rebecca, along with 23-year-old Lana Torgerson and her two young children,
three-year-old Sylvia and 14-month-old John, were all strangled to death. The perpetrator was identified as David James Torgerson, Lana's 30-year-old husband. Torgerson had a documented history of mental illness and violent behavior, including previous stays in psychiatric institutions and convictions for assault. At the time of the murders, he had escaped from a work release program.
After the killings, David Torgerson was apprehended and taken into custody. While incarcerated, he confessed not only to the four murders on June 30 but also to the murders of two 18-year-old women, Julie Mehrman and Linda Wandrus, who were strangled in separate incidents in 1969. Following a psychiatric evaluation, Torgerson was deemed mentally competent to stand trial. However, he would never face a jury for his crimes. On November 6, 1973, just a few months after the murders, David Torgerson died by suicide in his prison cell, closing the case without a conviction. Rebecca Rathbun was laid to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery in Stewartville, Minnesota.
