On November 21st, 1987, Korrina Malinoski, a 26-year-old mother of three, vanished after an argument with her husband. Despite extensive searches of the area around the Mount Holly Plantation in South Carolina where she lived, Korrina has never been heard from again.

Nearly one year later, on October 4th, 1988, Korrina’s 11-year-old daughter, Annette Sagers, also went missing at almost the same spot as her mother had the year before. Annette was last seen waiting for the school bus outside the entrance to the plantation. A note found at the scene, believed to have been written by Annette, suggested that Korrina had returned, and Annette had left to join her.

Whether mother and daughter were the victims of foul play or if they really did reunite and leave together is a mystery that has puzzled investigators to this day.

The Disappearances

Korrina’s disappearance

Korrina Lynn Sagers was born on January 19th, 1961. She had a difficult childhood. Her mother died when she was very young, and her father was rarely around, leaving her and her brother Leon to fend for themselves. Even so, Korrina grew up a kind, thoughtful, and caring young woman.

In 1978, when Korrina was 16 years old, she gave birth to her first child, Annette Deanne Sagers. For three years, Korrina raised Annette as a single mother while keeping the identity of Annette’s father a secret.

Then, in 1981, when she was 20 years old, she met 32-year-old carnival worker, Thomas ‘Stephen’ Malinoski. Stephen had recently left the army and was working odd jobs all over the country. The pair fell in love, and on October 16th, 1981, they got married in Texas, only six months after they first met. They went on to have two sons together, James, born in 1982, followed by Thomas, born in 1984.

However, Korrina was not Stephen’s first wife. He had actually been married twice before and had a daughter from each of those marriages. Though bizarrely, he claimed that his first wife and oldest daughter had died in a fire. This was a lie. They did not die in a fire, and it is unclear why Stephen said they did. What is clear though is Stephen has a habit of abandoning his family and lying to those around him.

By 1982, the family moved to Berkeley County, South Carolina. Stephen had gotten a job as a caretaker at the Mount Holly Plantation, and Korrina worked at a convenience store in the nearby town of Summerville.

The plantation was located by Highway 52 on 6,000 acres of woods, swamps and wetlands. The family he worked for let them live in a cabin on the land. It was a secluded area, and they had no neighbours.

Korrina and Stephen’s relationship was tumultuous. Stephen took drugs and drank too much. They often argued, usually over money or Stephen’s drinking, and it was well known that Stephen was abusive towards his wife. In fact, Korrina’s brother, Leon, told Korrina that he and his wife Sandy would help her if she ever wanted to leave Stephen.

However, Korrina stayed in her marriage. That was, at least, what everyone believed anyway, until one night something happened, and the fates of Korrina Malinoski and her daughter changed forever.

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On the evening of November 21st, 1987, Korrina left her home, drove her car to the plantation entrance, and then was never seen or heard from again. She didn’t exit the plantation, and the entrance gate was still locked.

According to Stephen’s official account of his wife’s disappearance, the couple were arguing over his drinking. Korrina then got in her car and went for a drive to calm down. She was last seen between 11:00 and 11:30 pm driving out of Mount Holly Plantation towards Highway 52. That was the last time Stephen saw his wife.

The following morning, Bruce Clarkson, Korrina’s boss at the Oasis convenience store where she worked, became worried since it was highly unusual for Korrina to be late for her shift.

Concerned that her car had broken down on the highway, he went looking for her.

He soon found her car abandoned inside the locked gate at the entrance to the plantation. According to Bruce, the car was locked, and there were no signs of a struggle. He stated there was a layer of dew on the car, indicating it had been sitting there all night.

Later that day, Stephen filed a missing person’s report and called Korrina’s brother Leon to inform him of Korrina’s disappearance. Search and rescue teams from the State Law Enforcement Division combed the grounds on foot and by air searching the area around the plantation for any signs of the 26-year-old, but Korrina was nowhere to be found.

Annette’s disappearance

For the next eleven months, Korrina’s three children struggled without their mother. Thomas and James were still very young, and sadly, to this day, do not remember much about Korrina.

On the other hand, Korrina’s daughter, Annette Deane Sagers, who was born on March 16th, had turned 11 years old. She was a sixth grader at Westview Middle School. She was described as a quiet, smart, sweet girl, though one of her teachers also described her as unhappy and shy. Annette was clearly struggling after her mother’s disappearance, though it’s unclear if there was anything more concerning going on in the home.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 4th, 1988, Annette headed for the wooden shelter just outside the plantation entrance, close to the spot where her mother had disappeared eleven months earlier. She was wearing red pants, a red shirt, and white shoes. Her stepfather had constructed the makeshift shelter to protect her from the weather as she waited for the school bus.

When the bus passed her on the opposite side of the street at 7 am, the driver noticed Annette sitting patiently on top of her schoolbooks, waiting for the bus to turn around and pick her up. Her dog was at her side. Since no other children were picked up from her stop, the driver and a few other passengers who saw her were positive it was Annette.

At around 7:20 am, so 20 minutes later, the bus returned to collect her, but Annette and her dog were gone.

The shelter was on a relatively busy stretch of road, but no one reported seeing anything unusual. Annette was not seen walking away or being picked up by someone. It was as if she just vanished.

At around 4 pm, after Annette failed to show up at home from school that day, Stephen discovered she had not boarded the bus that morning and proceeded to go to the shelter where she was last seen. A note written in pencil on school binder paper was waiting for him inside the shelter. It said:

Dad,
Mom came back. I have to go with her. Give the boys lots of kisses and hugs and also you to [sic].
Love, Annette.

At around 4:15 pm, Stephen alerted law enforcement of Annette’s disappearance and turned the note over to them. Writing samples were provided by Annette’s teacher, and handwriting experts would go on to confirm that Annette did indeed write the note. The experts were unable to determine, however, whether it was written under duress.

Approximately one month after Annette went missing, law enforcement did a thorough ground and aerial search of the plantation and the surrounding area. However, just like her mother, Annette was nowhere to be found.

After the disappearances

Korrina and Annette have not been seen or heard from since their disappearances, and there have been no solid clues as to what could have happened to them.

Unfortunately, crime scene investigation methods were very different in 1987, and investigators were limited in what they could accomplish.

Nonetheless, events have taken place over the years that could help piece this intriguing puzzle together.

Court hearing

After Korrina went missing, her family were naturally concerned about Annette’s welfare as she was not Stephen’s biological daughter. According to South Carolina law, a child can be adopted by a family member one year after the parent dies or abandons them, and a hearing was actually scheduled for the same month as Annette’s disappearance. However, as Annette went missing, the hearing never took place.

What was in the attic?

Two weeks after Korrina disappeared, Korrina’s father, Leon, and her stepsister, Cheryl, travelled to South Carolina to check in on Korrina’s children. While they were at the house, Annette told her Aunt Cheryl she wanted to show her something in the attic and tried to get Cheryl to go upstairs with her. However, Stephen allegedly prevented Korrina’s family members from being alone with Annette and stopped them from going upstairs.

Korrina’s family believe that Korrina’s body could have been hidden in the attic, and Annette could have been trying to tell her Aunt Cheryl.

Stephen claims he had never been in the attic of the house and has no idea why Annette would want to go up there.

Detectives later did a search of the attic but didn’t find anything.

Stephen’s suspicious move

Three months after Annette vanished, Stephen moved with James and Thomas to his parents’ home in Florida. Soon after that, he gave up his parental rights to his sons, and the boys spent the next eleven years in foster homes.

Although Stephen was the main person of interest in Korrina and Annette’s disappearances, there were no actual charges brought against him, so he was free to leave the state if he so chose. It was however extremely strange behaviour as most family members of missing persons don’t want to leave the area in case their missing loved ones return. Unfortunately, considering he had just given up his sons and had a history of abandoning his children, it does not look like he cared.

Stephen’s new family

Despite abandoning his children from his first three marriages, Stephen did go on to marry again and have three more children. Unfortunately, it does not appear that he became a reformed character as he was still an addict, and James and Thomas refuse to even refer to him as their father.

The anonymous letter

An anonymous letter was sent to the police in 2000. The letter’s sender claimed Korrina and Annette were buried in Sumter County and included a map to a location an hour away from Mount Holly.

Despite taking a cadaver-sniffing dog to the location, investigators could not find any evidence of human remains.

In an interview with The Charlotte Observer, Chief Herod of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office said,

“We had a cadaver dog that could find Civil War-era bones, in a jar, buried four feet in the ground. We didn’t find anything”.

The letter was sent to a lab for analysis, but no fingerprints or identifying information were found. 

The identity of the letter writer remains a mystery.

The friend

In 2016, a friend of Stephen’s reported a conversation he’d had with Stephen before Korrina went missing. According to the friend, they were out driving one day, and Stephen pointed out a mound of dirt next to a pond which he said would be a good place to bury a body.

This revelation led to a new search. Dogs were alerted to the smell of human decomposition, but nothing came of it unfortunately.

The case was reopened

In 2018, thirty years after Korrina and Annette vanished, two police officers at the Berkeley County Police Department began looking into cold cases in the area. Korrina and Annette’s case was one of the first ones that they reopened. In an interview with ABC News 4, Lt. Kokinda said:

Just know we haven’t forgotten.

Both officers are treating the case as murder and, based on their strong belief that mother and daughter never left the plantation, have spent most of their investigation focused on searching the 6,000-acre property for Korrina and Annette’s bodies.

As of February 2019, the two officers were working with the College of Charleston to develop a formula that could calculate high-probability areas where Korrina and Annette’s bodies could be found based on typography and soil while also reducing the search area from 6,000 acres to less than 200 acres. The search would be completed using drones, ground penetrating radar, and other resources unavailable in the 1980s when Korrina and Annette disappeared.

The carpet

During their investigation, Lt. Kokinda and Detective Lewis discovered that at some time in the 1990s, a pond on the Mount Holly Plantation property was drained for maintenance, and a rolled-up carpet tied with an electrical cord was pulled out. The plantation’s caretaker reported it to the authorities at the time, but it was never tested for evidence or documented in the case file.

Detectives say there is no reason why anyone would need to dispose of a carpet in the pond. The area is secluded and difficult to get to, and very few people know the pond exists.

Although the authorities believe it may be connected to the case, unfortunately, the carpet was disposed of, so no testing can be carried out on it.

Lt. Kokinda and Detective Lewis have since had the pond searched by divers, but no further evidence has emerged.

Stephen’s jail time

According to ABC4 News, Stephen got out of jail a few years ago after pleading guilty and serving time for child abuse.

The charge is unrelated to Korrina and Annette’s cases.

Lt. Kokinda spoke to Stephen while he was in jail, but Stephen continued to deny any involvement in Korrina and Annette’s disappearances.

Theories

The following ideas, queries, and speculation have come about over the years in an attempt to understand what could have happened to Korrina and Annette. They fall into one of three broader theories that either 1) Korrina and Annette left voluntarily, or 2) they were victims of foul play by Stephen, or 3) they were victims of foul play by somebody else.

Domestic violence

The most obvious reason that Korrina may have chosen to leave her husband is because of the volatility of their relationship. We know her brother Leon encouraged Korrina to leave Stephen, and maybe something snapped in her that night causing her to walk out.

Of course, it does not explain where Korrina went and why she has not made any contact with her family since that night, which leads to the question, was she murdered?

Stephen doesn’t actually admit nor deny that he was abusive towards Korrina. In an interview on Up and Vanished, a reporter asked Stephen if he ever laid a hand on Korrina, and Stephen’s response was:

“I don’t remember. To the best of my memory, I don’t think so”.

This is an odd response, and it’s unlikely Stephen wouldn’t be able to remember whether he hit his wife or not.

According to Korrina’s sister-in-law, Korrina fought back and even hit Stephen on the head with a skillet one time, confirming there was domestic violence in the house.

It could have been that Stephen was angry with his wife for fighting back, or it could have been the combination of Stephen’s drug use and drinking that pushed Stephen over the edge, leading to a domestic argument turned bad.

Unfortunately, the theory that Korrina never left the plantation that night is the most likely explanation for her disappearance.

Stephen did submit to a polygraph test, but the results were inconclusive.

Did Annette see something?

Assuming Stephen murdered Korrina during a domestic incident, it does not explain what happened to Annette almost a year later. One compelling theory to explain this is that Annette knew something about her mother’s disappearance, and Stephen killed her to keep her quiet.

The incident where Annette tried to show her Aunt Cheryl something in the attic is linked to the idea that the then 10-year-old Annette witnessed her mother’s murder. Many speculate the rolled-up carpet discovered in the pond could also be evidence of this with Korrina’s body being kept in the carpet before being disposed of.

Allegedly, the incident with her Aunt Cheryl is not the only time that Stephen prevented Annette from being alone with family members. A couple of months before Annette’s disappearance, Stephen stopped Annette from staying with her Uncle Leon and Aunt Sandy over the summer.

Leon and Sandy were actually in the process of trying to convince Stephen to give them custody of Annette. If Stephen thought that Annette knew something about Korrina’s murder, it would explain why he wouldn’t want Annette staying with relatives several states away where she could have told them anything.

Ultimately, by killing Annette, Stephen ensured that no family member would ever take custody of her, thus preventing her from ever disclosing the truth about Korrina’s murder.

In fact, Stephen didn’t inform any of Korrina’s family members that he intended to give the boys up as well, despite Leon and Sandy being more than willing to take them in.

Child abuse

There is some speculation that Stephen could have abused Annette, and considering what we know about Stephen later serving jail time for child abuse, it is a possibility that there was abuse in the home.

If Korrina found out, it could have triggered her into leaving. However, it raises a big question over why she didn’t remove Annette from the home immediately. But nobody knows what happened that night and whether Stephen made any threats, so it is plausible that Korrina went back for Annette as soon as she could.

If Stephen was abusing Annette, this may also have been a reason Stephen prevented Annette from staying with family members, not because he murdered Korrina, but because he abused Annette, and didn’t want anyone finding out.

Another interesting account of events at the time is that after Korrina disappeared, Annette contacted a caretaker at the plantation asking for food as she and her brothers had not eaten for three days. When the caretaker saw the situation, he contacted DSS. Stephen could have been angry with Annette and ended up killing her believing her to be a liability.

The note

The note left by Annette – assuming it wasn’t written under duress – suggests that Korrina chose to leave, later returning for her daughter when it was safe to do so.

On the flip side, there are so many suspicious aspects to this note leaving one to conclude that there is more to this note than meets the eye.

Firstly, there are question marks over whether Annette wrote the note at all. Experts may have determined the note was written by her, but handwriting analysis is subjective and down to interpretation. It’s not an exact science in the same way that fingerprint or DNA analysis is.

Secondly, if Annette did write the note, was it done willingly or under duress? There is a lot of crossing out meaning she was in a rush, and maybe someone could have been shouting at her to get it finished.

Stephen’s behaviour around this note was extremely suspicious. When Stephen first found the note at the bus shelter, he crumpled it up. According to Stephen, his initial reaction was anger at Korrina for having done this to him, but it does seem strange that he wasn’t relieved instead to find out his wife was okay.

Furthermore, if Stephen genuinely believed the contents of the note, it is very strange that he didn’t take the opportunity to use the supposed evidence that Korrina was alive and well as an opportunity to clear his name. He didn’t even call Leon, Korrina’s brother, to tell him about the note or Annette’s disappearance.

In fact, Chief Herod told Up and Vanished that Stephen didn’t seem very upset about Annette’s disappearance at all and had very little emotion. To show no reaction to your stepdaughter’s disappearance is very strange indeed.

Is it possible Stephen staged Annette’s disappearance to make sure witnesses saw Annette at the bus shelter before having a twenty-minute window in which to take her? The note could have been placed there that morning or later in the afternoon when he went to the shelter to look for her.

If Stephen did murder his stepdaughter, the staging of the incident is very precise and would assume some intelligence on Stephen’s part, something family members have questioned, especially in light of his drug habit.

Something else to consider is how likely it would been for a sheet of binder paper to have sat in the bus shelter for an entire day, undisturbed by wind, other people, or animals, and may point to Stephen placing the note there at 4 pm when he supposedly went looking for Annette.

Were Korrina and/or Annette murdered by a stranger?

There had been other unexplained disappearances around that time, and investigators did explore the possibility of a serial killer operating in the area. For instance, on April 3rd, 1987 – the same year as Korrina disappeared – Sarah Boyd; Sarah’s 2-year-old daughter, Kimberly Boyd; and Sarah’s friend, Linda McCord, went missing while driving home from a gospel concert in Dorchester County, South Carolina, about 20 miles from the Mount Holly Plantation. The car was found abandoned a couple of days later, but to date, their whereabouts are unknown, and their bodies have not been found.

However, the odds of a mother and daughter pairing both being kidnapped and/or murdered by a stranger in almost the exact same location almost a year apart – although not impossible – is highly unlikely, and investigators do not believe Korrina and Annette’s disappearances are the work of a serial killer.

However, although the chances of a serial killer murdering Korrina and Annette are slim, we cannot rule out the involvement of a stranger altogether.

An interesting aspect to this theory is that perhaps Stephen murdered Korrina but then somebody else, either a stranger or someone aware of Annette’s family situation, took the opportunity to kidnap her.

It is quite possible whoever it was tricked Annette and told her they were taking her to her mother. This could explain the crossings-out in the note as well as the fact there did not seem to be a struggle.

Also, Stephen was Annette’s stepfather, and it is unknown whether she would have written “Dad” as the note says, or “Stephen” instead. This is something a stranger probably wouldn’t have known.

The dog

Annette’s dog was found back at the plantation the day she disappeared. According to Chief Herod, it was a big dog.

If a stranger had taken Annette, would the dog have tried to protect her, potentially leaving scratch marks or a bite mark on her attacker? However, if the dog did attack someone, it is hard to believe nobody saw anything making it more likely that Annette left willingly.

Korrina’s sons

The theory that Korrina left of her own free will is disputed by Korrina’s relatives living in Iowa and Illinois, whom she was very close to.

Not only do family members deny having ever spoken to Korrina or Annette since their disappearances, they also do not believe Korrina wouldn’t have made any contact with her family throughout the years. They also insist that Korrina would never have abandoned her two sons.

Of course, it may not have been Korrina’s intention to leave James and Thomas behind. She may have planned to return for all three children, but for some reason – perhaps because James and Thomas were too young to have been left unattended – Korrina could not get to her sons.

We also know that Stephen took the boys to Florida soon after Annette’s disappearance, and it’s possible Korrina did try to make another attempt to get them but had no way of knowing where they were.

Korrina may have also considered the legal implications of taking the boys, who were Stephen’s biological sons, and this could explain why Korrina only took Annette – at least initially.

Was Korrina having an affair?

Stephen told Korrina’s brother, Leon, that on the night she disappeared, he saw her drive to the entrance of the plantation, get out of her car, and into a van being driven by someone else.

However, this is actually a different version of the events he told the police. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense as the plantation entrance is down a very curvy road half a mile away from the caretaker’s cabin, and there is no way Stephen would have been able to see the entrance gate from the cabin.

Stephen later denied ever telling Leon this version of events insisting the story he told police was the only story he had ever given about that night.

The family insist Korrina would not have cheated on her husband. However, nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors, and given the way her car was abandoned, she could have met with someone else.

The car

Had Korrina left voluntarily, and there was no other individual involved in helping her, it seems peculiar that she would leave her car behind when that would have been her easiest means of escape.

Her taking public transport or having an accomplice – although possible – does seem unlikely when there have been no sightings of her over the years.

It could be argued that the way the car was left appeared staged, and if this was the case, Stephen was the most likely suspect. The car was discovered inside the plantation entrance, behind a locked gate, both of which Stephen would have had access to.

Conclusion

Other theories range from Korrina and Annette being targets over Stephen’s drug debts or even Stephen selling Annette over drug debts.

Unfortunately, with only Stephen’s version of events to go on, unless Korrina and Annette’s bodies are found or someone who knows what happened to them comes forward, we may never find out the truth.

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Sadly, Korrina’s brother Leon passed away in 2022. His wife Sandy believes his heart failed because of the heartache over the loss of his sister and niece. In an interview with WCIV, Sandy said:

He just wished he knew where his sister was. He loved and missed her. He wished he could hold his niece again, but he knew in his heart he would never be able to. I wish there was a sign that he could let me know that he’s home with his sister and niece.

Thankfully, despite being abandoned by their father, James and Thomas were eventually adopted, went to college, served in Iraq multiple times, and are now honourably discharged with families of their own. They have since reconnected with their biological relatives and are tirelessly searching for the truth about their missing mother and sister.

Thomas ‘Stephen’ Malinoski maintains his innocence in his wife and stepdaughter’s cases.

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It has been over thirty-five years since Korrina and Annette went missing, and everyone prays that it won’t be another thirty-five years before the family discovers the answers they so desperately deserve.

But with Korrina and Annette’s surviving relatives not giving up in their search, hopefully, one day, the truth will come to light.

Information

Korrina Lynne Sagers Malinoski was 26 years old at the time of her disappearance. She would be 63 years old today. She is described as a Caucasian female with brown hair and brown eyes.

Annette Deanne Sagers was 11 years old at the time of her disappearance. She would be 47 years old today. She is described as a Caucasian female with brown hair and brown eyes, 4’8”, and 95 pounds. Annette has small gaps between her upper front teeth, her ears are pierced, and she had a slight speech impediment. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing red pants, a red shirt, and white shoes.

If you know anything about the disappearance of Korrina and Annette, call Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office at 843-719-4465, or contact them via their website: sheriff.berkeyleycountysc.gov.

Sources

Court Documents

1. Petitioner Vs. Thomas Stephen Malinoski. (n.d.). UniCourt. August 12, 2019.

Newspaper Articles

2. Herald-Journal – Mom-Daughter Disappearance Still Puzzling. Mar 24, 2002. Via Google Books.
3. The Dispatch – Mother Missing Since Last Year; Daughter Vanishes 5 Weeks Ago. November 9, 1988. Via Newspapers.com.
4. The Item – Cryptic Note Interests Officials in Mirror-Image Disappearances. March 25, 2002. Via Google Books.
5. The Times and Democrat. Search Yields No Clues About Missing Trio. April 28, 1987. Via Newspapers.com.
6. The Tribune. Please Help Us Find Them. May 25, 1996. Via Newspapers.com.

TV / Movies / Videos

7.  Up and Vanished. The Vanishing Family. Oxygen. Aired February 22, 2020

Websites

8. Charley Project. Annette Deanne Sagers.
9. Charley Project. Korrina Lynne Sagers Malinoski.
10. Oxygen. ‌Cryptic Note Leaves Investigators Puzzled in Double Disappearance of Mother and Daughter. February 22, 2020.
11. WCIV. Bring Them Home: “Secrets in the Swamp” Explores the Story of a Missing Mother & Daughter. Orlins, Mel. November 16, 2022.
12. WCIV. Experts Take New Look at Berkeley County Cold Case of Missing Mother, 11-Year-Old Girl. Blackstone, Ashley. February 27, 2019.
13. Websleuths. Thread: SC – Annette Deanne Sagers, 11, Mount Holly, 4 Oct 1988.