Pamela Sue Fearnow was an 18-year-old Western Michigan University student who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in August 1972 in the Kalamazoo area. Her killing was linked to a string of similar attacks that summer that left the community on edge.

Investigators tied the murder to Danny Ranes, 28 at the time, and his 15-year-old accomplice Brent Koster. In August 1972 the pair abducted Fearnow and subjected her to a violent ordeal before she was killed. The two had also been connected to the July 1972 murders of 19-year-old Chicago residents Claudia Bidstrup and Linda Clark, and to the March 1972 abduction, rape, and murder of 29-year-old Patricia Howk of Kalamazoo Township.

Koster later cooperated with authorities, and his testimony was central to the prosecution of Ranes. Ranes was convicted for the murders of Fearnow, Bidstrup, Clark, and Howk and received four life sentences without parole.