Member-only story
Mom Murdered, Baby Still Missing: Rachel Timmerman and Shannon Verhage
Rachel Timmerman was just 17 years old when she had her daughter Shannon. Rachel had come from a broken home and was living in an adoptive home with Tim and Lynn Timmerman in Cedar Springs, Michigan.
She was a typical teenager but was described as a good mother who doted over her young daughter.
On the afternoon of June 3, 1997, Rachel told her parents she would be back in a couple of hours. She told them that she was going on a date with a man who had told Rachel to bring her daughter Shannon along. A man picked Rachel and Shannon up at their house. They never returned.
A Year Earlier
A year earlier, on August 7, 1996, Rachel, then 18, left a party with 43-year-old Marvin Gabrion, a family friend, and two other men. Gabrion stopped in a field and ordered the other two men out of the car and drove off with Rachel. He proceeded to violently beat her and rape her three times. He told her if she told anyone he would kill her and her daughter. She feared for her life and confided in her mother, telling her she did not want to press charges due to the death threat. Her mother tried to reassure her that reporting the rape to the police was the right thing to do. After thinking long and hard, Rachel reported the incident to the police the following day.
