Crime & Safety

Unsolved Cases: Ranee Ann Gregor

In 2007, a serial killer confessed to killing the Robinson Township teen, missing since 1977—and claimed her body is 'unrecoverable.'

Ranee Ann Gregor was just nine days away from turning "sweet 16" the evening of Oct 21, 1977 when she and boyfriend John Feeny left her residence on Clever Road in Robinson Township and were believed to be headed for a pizza parlor.

They made it as far as a gas station, where they were last seen about 10 p.m. But they never made it home.

The next morning, John, a 17-year-old who lived on Maple Street in Coraopolis, was found slumped over the armrest of the rear seat of his blood-splattered van. He had been shot once in the neck at close range with a shotgun. The vehicle, with its engine still running, was parked on a secluded dirt road known as a lovers' lane, off Crescent Drive near the airport in Findlay Township.

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Ranee, 15, a junior, was missing, but her blue jacket and purse were still in the rusted yellow van. She was never seen or heard from again.

More than 400 volunteers, mostly from the Findlay, , North Fayette and Crafton fire departments, as well as Pittsburgh police, conducted a ground search near the scene. At one point, after someone in a police helicopter spotted an object in the nearby Massaros Lake, members of Groveton Fire Department dragged the lake, according to the Beaver County Times.

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The incident occurred during a 20-month period in 1976 and 1977 when 27 unsolved murders occured in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Thirty years later, in 2007, serial killer Edward Surratt, a former truck driver from Beaver County, confessed to murdering both John and Ranee. In an interview in a Florida prison, he told authorities that Ranee's body was "unrecoverable by anybody's standards."

While his confession provided closure, it didn't bring Ranee home to her family.

For that reason, she remains listed on missing persons websites, according to , who runs the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website and serves with the Doe Network and NamUs.

Ranee is described as a white female, 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 120 pounds, with blonde hair, green eyes and a scar on her right cheek. She would have turned 50 this year.

Anyone with information is asked to call the at 412-788-8115 or email info@robinsonpd.com.

For more information about this and other missing person cases, visit Pennsylvania Missing PersonsNamUs or the Doe Network.

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