When was Sarah Jenkins murdered in mn

Checked on February 2, 2026
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Executive summary

The available reporting does not establish a verified murder date for a person named "Sarah Jenkins" in Minnesota; sources instead point to different Jenkins cases, a 2002 University of Minnesota student death reclassified as a homicide, a 2023 Minnesota intimate-partner homicide memorial referencing a victim named Sarah without a surname, and widely circulated hoax stories about a "Sara/Sarah Jenkins" that researchers have debunked [1] [2] [3] [4]. There is no single, credible news or legal record in the provided materials that confirms "Sarah Jenkins" was murdered in Minnesota on a specific date.

1. The name Jenkins appears often — but not always as 'Sarah' — and contexts differ

Reporting collected under the search term shows multiple, unrelated cases carrying the Jenkins surname in Minnesota and elsewhere, and none of the credible items supplied unequivocally document a murder of a "Sarah Jenkins" in Minnesota with a date attached. A 2006 Minneapolis police acknowledgment concerned a University of Minnesota student whose 2002 death was later ruled a homicide, but that story references a Jenkins first name that in the material appears to be Chris, not Sarah, and thus is not a match to the user's query [1] [2].

2. A 2023 Minnesota memorial lists victims named 'Sarah' but does not supply 'Sarah Jenkins' as a confirmed case

A Minnesota intimate-partner homicide memorial (We Remember) profiles victims from 2023 and includes a narrative about a woman named Sarah who was murdered amid domestic-abuse indicators, describing the assailant’s behavior and the night before the killing [3]. That page, however, in the excerpt provided does not attach the Jenkins surname to that Sarah nor provide a specific murder date in the searchable snippet, so it cannot be used to assert that a "Sarah Jenkins" was murdered in Minnesota on a known date [3].

3. Viral hoaxes have created a phantom 'Sara/Sarah Jenkins' case — fact-checkers say it’s false

Two distinct fact-checking and debunking pieces in the sources trace a lurid viral tale about a missing hiker named Sara/Sarah Jenkins—stories that allege gruesome discovery details and named suspects—and find no credible media reports, court records, or official documentation to support the narrative; Lead Stories and similar debunkers report that the scarecrow-style story is fabricated [4] [5]. These fact checks are explicit that searches of news archives and legal databases turned up no corroboration, underscoring the risk of conflating rumor with an actual homicide report [4] [5].

4. Other Jenkins murders and cases in the record are separate and dated differently

The corpus also contains multiple historic Jenkins-related crimes that are unrelated to a "Sarah Jenkins" in Minnesota: for example, high-profile murders and cold-case items from other times and places (Ruthton killings in 1983, the Jenkins sisters in Pennsylvania, Carol Jenkins in 1968) which illustrate how the common surname can mislead searches [6] [7] [8]. These citations show why a targeted question about "Sarah Jenkins" requires care: the surname alone maps to many distinct incidents with different dates, locales, and victims [6] [7] [8].

5. Conclusion — the record provided does not answer the user's precise question

Given the materials supplied, it is not possible to provide a definitive murder date for "Sarah Jenkins" in Minnesota: the only items that appear to involve a "Sarah" in Minnesota lack the Jenkins surname or sufficient identifying detail [3], and the most prominent "Sarah/Sara Jenkins" tale found in social media is a debunked hoax [4] [5]. There is credible reporting about a 2002 University of Minnesota student death later labeled a homicide, but that reporting refers to a different Jenkins first name in the provided excerpts [1] [2]. To answer the question definitively would require searching primary police reports, court records, or authoritative local news archives for "Sarah Jenkins" in Minnesota — records not included among the supplied sources.

Want to dive deeper?
Are there Minnesota police or court records for a homicide victim named Sarah Jenkins?
What documented Minnesota homicides in 2023 involved victims named Sarah, and what are their dates and case details?
How have hoax stories about missing people named 'Sara/Sarah Jenkins' spread online and been debunked by fact-checkers?