Sarina Pretty Towle

Sarina "Pretty" Towle was a young child of Portland, Maine, whose life was rooted in a close neighborhood and a family home on Danforth Street. At two years old she lived with her mother and two young brothers; in that small household she would have shared the ordinary, bright moments of toddlerhood — discovering the world, learning to play, and offering the simple warmth that children bring to family life.

Though public records about Sarina’s daily life are limited, local reporting and the City of Portland’s public remembrance confirm the basic facts: she was a little girl known to those who loved her, and her loss on March 25, 1994 left a lasting impression on family members and neighbors in her West End community. Reporting from the time and later city materials refer to her by the affectionate nickname “Pretty,” a personal detail that underscores how she was known within her circle.

What is known through reliable public sources is that her death was a moment of profound sorrow for those who cared for her and a shock to a neighborhood that watched and hoped for answers. Over the years, community members and police records show that her name has not been forgotten: local law enforcement periodically asks the public for information and the City of Portland has preserved a public page honoring her memory among other cold-case remembrances.

Because publicly available, family-authorized tributes or a published funeral notice matching her exact death date have not been found in online obituary archives, this remembrance focuses on Sarina as a child with a place in a family and neighborhood. She is remembered here first for who she was in life — a two-year-old daughter and sister whose short time with loved ones mattered. The attention paid to her memory by neighbors and the city reflects the human wish to honor a small life and to keep that life present in community memory.

If you have personal memories, photographs, or family-authorized remembrances you wish to add to this page, they would help paint a fuller picture of Sarina’s life for future visitors. For now, this page holds a quiet place of respect for a little girl named Sarina "Pretty" Towle, remembered as a cherished child of Portland whose life, however brief, was important to those who knew her.