Big Savage Creators & Guests

At a young age, Sarah James McLaughlin was left unattended in front of a family library littered with true crime/gore porn. Despite her initial aversion to the genre, from being terrified of what she read in the books, her morbid curiosity got the best of her and she eventually turned to television so satiate herself with Unsolved Mysteries.The WVU Coed Murders had been a recurring theme in her life – through conversations with her parents, a national guardsman tasked with searching for the coeds, and via chatter as a student at WVU. When her boyfriend (now husband) took a two-week vacation to Spain, she decided to indulge herself with more research into the coed murders and was hooked by the revelation of the Triangle letters. A chronological list of events she published on Reddit and a meeting with podcaster Kendall Perkinson led to a sit-down with writer and coed murder historian Geoff Fuller. Soon Mared and Karen: The WVU Coed Murders came to life.Next on Ms. McLaughlin’s agenda are the completion of her book (with co-writer Fuller) about the coeds, a brand new podcast murder mystery with Mr. Perkinson, and research on a host of other unsolved crimes that have occurred throughout Appalachia. Ms. McLaughlin attended both West Virginia and Fairmont State Universities, studying journalism and earning a degree in Graphic Technology/Graphic Engineering. She lives in Fairmont with her husband and her dog.