Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Janet Abaroa

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

After 25-year-old Janet Abaroa is discovered brutally murdered in her North Carolina home, her family suspects her husband’s involvement. But a lack of direct evidence means the case goes cold for years, leaving Janet’s family without closure and potentially putting another woman in danger. For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-janet-abaroa/ 

Hi Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is one that remained unsolved for years and it very well could have stayed that way if not for one family's relentless pursuit of justice and one detective's keen eye for detail. This is the story of Janet Abarowa. A little after 10 p.m. on the evening of April 26, 2005, 911 operators in Durham, North Carolina receive a frantic phone call.

Raven Abarowa is yelling into the phone, my wife, she's dead. He tells the operator that he had just arrived home to discover his wife, 25-year-old Janet covered in blood in their upstairs office. He says she's not breathing and he thinks she's been shot because there's blood everywhere. And the whole time, Raven is totally distraught, barely making sense while his six-month-old son is screaming in the background. This call is total chaos. Once the dispatcher gets the information she needs from Raven, she sends police and paramedics

to the scene. And when they arrive, Raven points them towards the upstairs where they find Janet. Janet shot, but stabbed, multiple times. We especially to an untrained eye and especially in a situation like this. Investigators continue to examine the scene and a few things stand out. First of all, Caden, the baby, had been home during the attack but thankfully completely unharmed. According to a 2020 episode about this case, there are no signs of forced entry and some

really obvious valuables just like left sitting out in the open. Like for example, Janet's wedding ring and engagement ring are actually sitting right out on the kitchen counter. So Ashley, you know this about me, but our listeners might not. I take my wedding and engagement ring off all the time. Constantly. For me, this would be weird if to have my ring sitting around for you. It's like a Tuesday.

It gets caught in my hair. It gets caught in my kid's hair. I don't like wearing it when I'm cooking or doing dishes or anything. We're living. I, yeah, like I wear it out basically. So this isn't out of the ordinary for me, but I could see how it's a little bit weird. But also like it's obviously not a robbery if they're right there. True.

I mean, the house doesn't even look like the scene of a robbery either. There are no real signs of a struggle, nothing's in disarray. That said, police learn that actually there are a few items missing from the house. In particular Raven's laptop and his knife. His knife. Yeah. So we're not talking like your standard kitchen knife here. Raven actually was a knife collector and there's one knife missing from that collection.

As they move through the house room by room, police find a few pieces of evidence that they hope will lead them to Janet's killer. There is a bloody footprint near her body, a fingerprint in the office closet and a blood stain on the interior glass door at the side entrance to the house. There is some blood spatter on the office walls too, but otherwise the house is actually in pretty good shape. Like they're not seeing the signs of a struggle even that you might expect from a violent murder like this.

Which that specifically really stands out to me considering their six month old son was in the next room. Yeah. I would assume that her like mama bear instincts would come out and really, really come to protect him and there'd be some sort of like protection or struggle signs. Yeah, but there's actually no real sign of that here. So investigators continue to process the scene spending almost 24 hours collecting evidence and canvassing the neighborhood.

They do collect a knife block and find some financial records. They also search the couple's car where they find a knife and a pawn shop ticket. And they also take the clothes Raven was wearing when he discovered Janet's body. In the hours after arriving on scene, investigators interview Raven and he walks them through his night step by step. He tells police that he and Janet put Cayden to sleep and then she got ready for bed herself while he headed out to play indoor soccer. When he came home a few hours later, he first went into Cayden's room to check on him.

And then that's when he discovered Janet's body. But he tells police he has no idea what happened in between leaving for the game and coming home. However, it doesn't take long for some red flags to start popping up around Raven. Like what? Well, like what Raven says when he calls Janet's parents to tell them what happened. At first, Raven is so inconsolable that they literally can't make out what he's saying, but eventually he collects himself enough to tell them the one thing no parent ever wants

to hear. Their daughter is dead. But according to a 2007 interview on WRAL's NC Wanted, that's not all he says. Because Raven actually tells them that she'd been shot. Same thing he told the dispatcher, but he adds something. He says that Janet died by suicide. Okay, what? Like I guess at that point maybe police hadn't told him that she was actually stabbed not

shot, but this suicide theory, like where is that coming from? I guess this is good as mine because I mean police certainly hadn't ruled it a suicide. By the time he's making this call, which is like 5am the morning after discovering her body, they haven't ruled anything yet. But considering they're probably still at the house collecting evidence, in my mind they were already treating her death as a homicide. Even in their grief and shock, Janet's family knows something's not right about what Raven is telling them.

First of all, Janet was a new mother. Like I said, their son, Kayden, was 6 months old at the time and Janet was elated about this new phase in her life. She had always loved kids, kids always loved her, she'd never leave Kayden, nor would she want him to grow up without a mother. So when police do very quickly rule Janet's death a homicide, some of Janet's family and friends start to suspect that Raven was involved in her death. So why are they jumping to that conclusion so quickly?

Just because he told them that her death was a suicide at first? I mean, I think that's part of it, but Janet's family also tells police that things weren't as picture perfect in the Abarowa household as they may have seen. You see, Janet and Raven met as teenagers. She was 19, he was 18, and actually she'd been seeing someone else at the time, but Raven basically swept her off her feet. They were both avid soccer players from big, devoutly Mormon families, and their relationship got serious quick.

According to Dan Abrams for ABC News, Raven charmed most of Janet's family, especially when he told them how important his Mormon faith was to him and about all the mission work he had done in Peru. So just two years after they met, they were married at the Mormon Temple in Washington, DC. Eventually, they both got jobs with the same sporting goods company and moved to Durham, North Carolina. But about three and a half years into their marriage, Raven admitted to Janet that he

had been unfaithful. I'm not just talking about like a one-time thing, but multiple times with multiple women. And he told her he wanted out of their marriage. Janet's family tells police that she was devastated by this, but she didn't feel like there was anything she could really do. She couldn't make him love her or want to be with her, so she let him go. The two separated and Raven moved out, but then Janet learned that she was pregnant. I mean, I can't even imagine, like, what do you even do in that situation?

She had no idea. And so, honestly, for a good while, she didn't do anything. It wasn't until she was five months into her pregnancy when she really started to show that Janet told Raven she was pregnant and that he was going to be a father. And it's at this point that Raven does basically a complete 180. In a 2007 interview with NC Wanted, he described having a personal revelation, and basically he realized he needed to get his life together. So he told Janet that she had nothing to worry about, that he was a changed man.

And while Janet was understandably a bit wary, she also didn't want to raise this baby on her own. So she let Raven move back in, and in October 2004, their son, Caden, was born. Okay, but was he a changed man? In terms of infidelity, it seemed like it, but that certainly was not the end of their marital troubles, because just a couple months after Caden's birth, Raven was caught embezzling over $10,000 from his employer, or really, their employer. They worked at the same place.

Raven obviously lost his job, and even though she had nothing to do with the whole thing, Janet was so mortified that she resigned. Okay, so we've got infidelity, embezzlement, and now money's gotta be tight because they're both out of work. I can see why Janet's family might be, you know, a little suspicious. And I have to imagine the police at this point would consider him at least a person of interest. Oh yeah, I mean, he's definitely on police's radar.

But they aren't calling him a suspect openly. They're very tight-lipped about this case. All they'll say as they continue their investigation is that they are certain Janet's homicide was not a random act, and that she knew her killer. So all signs point to Raven. Yeah, pretty much. You know what doesn't help alleviate those suspicions when just weeks after Janet's death, Raven takes Caden, packs up, and moves over 2,000 miles away to Utah.

Janet's family and friends have mixed feelings about Raven moving. On the one hand, that's where his family is, and so you can understand why he might want to be close to them, especially now. But on the other hand- On the other hand, your wife was just murdered? Yeah, and the case is unsolved. Many people think that he should stay there and try and do everything he can to help seek justice and find her killer.

But instead, he starts his new life in Salt Lake City while back in Durham the investigation into Janet's murder continues. In that time, police don't really say much. That is until August of 2005, just a few months after the murder, when Janet's autopsy report is released. And it's revealed that at the time of her death, Janet was pregnant. According to an interview Janet's family gave to WRAL, which is a local North Carolina station that extensively covered this case.

They didn't even know that she was pregnant yet. And since Caden was only six months old, I mean, she probably was likely very early on in her pregnancy. Now even though to many this pregnancy makes Raven look worse, it's not actual evidence police can use and the months tick by until one day her family looks up and it's been a full year without answers. So with nowhere else to turn, Janet's family is actually able to convince local police to consult with a psychic to see if that could lead to any new information.

But unfortunately, that doesn't even produce leads either. So it's been a year. What's Raven been doing this whole time? Like obviously he moved, but has he been in contact with the police or the family or anything? Yeah, that's a great question. So like I said, Raven is living in Utah with Caden. And according to an August 2005 article in the news and observer in the months after Janet's death, Raven does some traveling with Caden like mostly just visiting relatives.

I mean, they even stay with Janet's family in Virginia for a bit. But Janet's family and friends say that Raven really doesn't stay in touch with the police. Like he's not asking for updates on the case. He's not offering to help. He's just not acting like most people would expect someone to when their wife's murder is unsolved. And eventually he even stops responding to requests for interviews from police. And really at that point, it seems like Raven kind of drops out of the public view.

In fact, it isn't until February 2007, almost two years after Janet's death, that we learn police in Durham are working with the FBI in Utah to question Raven further. Now, it's not clear to me what their line of questioning is, but later that year, police do say that they cannot rule Raven out as a suspect. After they say that, Raven actually goes on the record with NC Wanted, which is this investigative series produced by WRAL. The episode covers the entire case, but it's really this interview that sticks out because Raven really hasn't spoken out much about the case publicly.

Like it's mostly been Janet's family up to this point. So in the interview, he talks about how he and Janet met their life together, but it definitely seems like the whole point of this is to like clear his name. So the episode airs and then things go quiet again. The third anniversary of Janet's murder comes and goes still with no answers for Janet's family, no justice for Janet herself, and then the fourth anniversary. And I have to imagine at this point that Janet's family is just waiting every day for a break in the case that could give them some hope for some kind of closure.

And finally, in May of 2009, that break comes. Because that's when police start talking to Vanessa Pond, Raven Aberroa's new wife. I'm sorry, rewind sound effect right here. Raven's wife? Yeah. And the story she tells police is a doozy. See in December 2007, about two and a half years after Janet's death, Vanessa met Raven. They crossed paths because Vanessa's daughter actually went to the same daycare as Caden.

So she and Raven were like running into each other all the time at pick up drop off. And that's where they started chatting just like small talk at first. And at this point, Vanessa really wasn't interested in dating. But as she tells ABC's John Kinyonia's in 2009, it wasn't long before Vanessa started warming up to Raven. She felt that he was very upfront about himself and honest. And of course, she learned that Raven was a single parent just like herself. And this is what really kind of sealed the deal for Vanessa.

She felt like she finally met, you know, like a nice guy, someone who could maybe prove to be a great father. And so she decided to give him a chance. But was she aware of the circumstances around why Raven was a single father? Yeah. No, Raven actually told her pretty early on in their relationship that his wife had died. And he basically told her the story as it was known to the public at this point that there was an intruder in their home who killed Janet and he later discovered her body.

So of course, Vanessa felt terribly for him and for Caden. But what's like the first thing you would do after learning that the new guy your dating's wife was murdered? I mean, the first thing I do when I meet a person is Google. So in this case, I'd be Googling like I had never Googled before. Yeah, exactly. And that is what Vanessa did. She literally stayed up all night learning all the details of the case.

She was reading blog posts, news stories. I mean, she even came across that interview Raven did with NC wanted just two months before they met. So she got to watch him talk about his marriage, about this woman he loved and the mistakes he made. And she watched him deny being involved in Janet's murder. And you know what? She didn't buy it.

I'm not saying she 100% thought that Raven murdered his wife, but she didn't 100% think he was innocent either. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So she decided to just talk to Raven about it. She went to him and asked him straight up, were you involved in your wife's death? Now, I don't know what exactly Raven said to her, but apparently he completely put her at ease and erased any concern she had.

In fact, he started to paint himself as a victim saying that he was being framed for Janet's murder. After that, their relationship got serious quick, so quick that it was actually a little concerning to Vanessa's parents who had still some reservations of their own about Raven's involvement in Janet's death. Not to mention, Vanessa's father is an ex cop, so if anyone was going to be paying attention to these major red flags, it's definitely him. So they actually sat Raven down and asked him, did you murder your wife?

And all Raven said was, I loved my wife. But I loved my wife, of course I didn't kill her because that kind of seems like a key phrase here. Yeah, just I loved my wife. He kind of completely sidestepped the actual question and then he just like broke down in tears. Vanessa consoled him and told her parents that she believed him and that she knew what kind of person he was.

And so even though they didn't really get the answer they were looking for, Vanessa's parents kind of felt like they had no choice but just to take Vanessa's word for it and support her. Vanessa tells police that it wasn't long after this conversation and in fact just six months after she and Raven first met that Raven proposed to her and she accepted it. Now you would think even in these bizarre circumstances that this would be a really happy and joyful time in Vanessa's life. She'd met this guy that she genuinely felt was a good person even if he came with baggage

and they were creating this beautiful blended family together with her daughter and his son and now they're engaged like everything should be good, right? Well two things happened that really pulled the rug out from under Vanessa and once again made her question everything. First she got a call and on the other end of the line was Janet's family, specifically her sisters and they'd heard about Raven's new fiance but they weren't upset or angry with Vanessa. They were afraid for her.

All they really had to say was get out now. Naturally Vanessa was shattered after this call but she still didn't want to believe that this man she loved could be capable of such a horrific act of violence. But Vanessa tells police that she was soon forced to face the truth when she experienced a side of Raven she never knew existed. On the day of her bridal shower, Vanessa had an encounter with Raven that shook her to her very core. She tells investigators that as she was getting ready to go out she and Raven got into an

argument. I don't know what the argument was about but things got really out of control. Not only was Raven yelling terrible things at her calling her awful names, he also jabs her in the chest with his fingers and I don't mean like a typical like a little poke or something. But as she felt these jabs for days afterwards, and as he's yelling at her, Raven told Vanessa that he didn't care if she died, that he wanted so badly to hit her and he almost did, like he took his hand, swung it far back and then rushed it toward Vanessa's face stopping

it right before he made contact. And as Vanessa jumped at the near impact, Raven laughed and walked out of the room. She must have been terrified and wondering like, is this the Raven that Janet knew? The Raven that Janet's family warned her about, the Raven that could have murdered his wife. I'm just sick to my stomach imagining what this poor woman must have been feeling in that moment. Like she's supposed to go to a party celebrating her marriage to this guy and is simultaneously

completely traumatized by him. Oh, I know, but she took some time, composed herself and she went to the bridal shower and eventually she decided to still go through with the wedding. Now I think it would be very easy to kind of like make assumptions and judgments about that decision. But we've always said that you can never understand what it's like to be in a situation like Vanessa's. Oh, 100%.

And I mean, she very well could have been worried about how he would react to her calling the whole thing off too. Oh, yeah. And I mean, of course, there's also the kids to consider. So I'm totally with you, absolutely no judgment. So on September 6, 2008, Raven Abarowa and Vanessa Pond were married in her parents backyard. And she tells police that it was on the very first night of their honeymoon that once again, those big red flags started waving.

Vanessa tells 2020 that while they're in Las Vegas, Raven became intoxicated and started talking, talking about Janet. Hey, maybe this is the kind of thing that would naturally be on your mind at this point, you know, you just married your second wife, maybe it's forcing you to remember your life with your last wife, except Raven wasn't talking about being sad about Janet's death or like missing her or wishing she were alive to see Caden grow up. Instead, he was talking about how mad he was after her death. That was all he could really focus on this anger that he said he felt.

You know, he didn't really elaborate on it, but he puts his arms around Vanessa at one point and pulled her really close and said in her ear, I promise, I'll never hurt you. Girl, run. Right. I promise I will never hurt you. I hope so. Like you just got married. You shouldn't have to tell me that.

But yeah, that's like the bare minimum of promises, right? For sure. And regardless, like this just doesn't sound like a good thing coming from a guy who is still under investigation for his wife's murder. So Vanessa says she was understandably disturbed by this. And honestly, things didn't really improve from there. Over the next few months, Raven experienced these severe mood swings. One moment, he'd be perfectly fine.

The next, he'd be screaming at her, calling her all these awful names. And as their marriage progressed, so did Raven's behavior. Raven on top of screaming at her, being physically violent with her, Raven was also reaching out to her friends and family and telling them that Vanessa was horribly depressed and she was suicidal. She had bipolar disorder and that she needed to be institutionalized. And Vanessa says all of this wasn't true, that she took this as Raven sort of setting her up and trying to make her seem unstable.

Setting her up like he wanted to make it seem plausible she might die by suicide? Well, that's what Vanessa thought anyway. And by this point, she simply didn't know what to do. She was terrified about how Raven might react if she tried to end their marriage. So she decided to wait him out, hoping that maybe he'd be the one to leave. And thankfully, that's exactly what did happen, but not before Raven could terrorize her one more time. On Christmas Eve 2009, just three months after they were married, it all came to a

head. When we were getting ready to visit Vanessa's family, Raven went into another one of his mood swings. And again, he was getting in her face, screaming terrible things at her. But as WRAL reports in 2009, what really sticks out with Vanessa is what happened when, just like she hoped, Raven decided to leave for good. But on his way out, he grabbed Kayden and said to him, come on, we have to go. Mommy doesn't want us anymore.

Oh my God, that is so disgusting and manipulative. And on top of that manipulation of Vanessa, to use your own kid as basically a tool to emotionally abuse someone like that, that's traumatizing two people in this situation. It's sickening. Yeah. After that, she said Raven and her were done. And it's after she tells police this whole story with all these horrifying details that the case really starts to pick up steam again, because she's not the only one talking.

Janet's family is talking too, and they, along with Vanessa, are talking to the media. At this point, it's been four years since Janet's death. And up until now, I think it's fair to say that Janet's family has been way more than patient and understanding. I mean, year after year has gone by with this case seeming to just get colder and colder. And now another woman has experienced violence at the hands of this man who they suspect is responsible for Janet's death. So they've had enough.

So it's later that year that they sit down with John Quinones on ABC's Primetime Crime. And they just lay it all out there. Raven and Janet's marital troubles, their personal experiences with Raven, their fear for Vanessa Pond's safety, I mean, they do not mince words here. They believe Raven Abarowa murdered Janet, and they want justice. Now, no one officially comes out and says this, obviously, but it's definitely implied that Janet's family going to the media is what kind of lights a fire under this investigation for real.

Because it's right around this same time that a new detective, Charles Soul, is assigned to the case. At this point, Janet's case has gone through like four other lead detectives, but this new detective is bringing a totally fresh perspective to the case. He's digging back in, looking at the crime scene photos, conducting new interviews, basically trying to get a full sense of what happened. But the whole thing's just not adding up for him. In what way?

Well, Raven has always said that on the night of Janet's murder, she was going to bed when he left the house for his soccer game. But when Detective Soul is taking like a really close look at the crime scene photos, he notices something odd, something that he wasn't expecting to see. Sitting out on the bathroom counter is Janet's contact lens case. Okay, in the same place, I also keep my contact lens case. Why is this standing out? Yeah, so the fact that it's there is not the weird thing.

What's odd to him is that the contact lens case is open, implying that Janet hadn't taken her contact lenses out yet, which Janet's family confirms she always did before going to bed. Like this was something she was strict about. So if she hadn't taken them out yet, then she wasn't going to or getting ready to go to bed. Yeah, and suddenly Raven's story doesn't line up with the evidence. And that's not the only inconsistency either.

Over the years, Raven's story about what happened when he found Janet's body hasn't always remained the same. Like I guess he told some people that he found her kneeling on the floor of their home office. Other people he told that he found her in their bed. According to WRAL, he even told some people that she was still alive and conscious when he found her. And she asked him, why do I hurt so bad? Which is totally at odds with what he told investigators and what he said on the 911

call. Yeah, and these aren't small details that could be written off as someone not fully processing during a traumatic event. These are huge deviations in the story. Yeah, these are major changes, and they're enough for Detective Soul to do what Janet's family has been waiting for all of these years. In February 2010, Raven Abaroa is arrested and charged with first degree murder. At this point, he's actually living in Idaho, so he's brought back to North Carolina to

face these charges where he pleads not guilty. But before the trial gets underway, Detective Soul wants to confirm once and for all that his hunch about that contact lens case was right on the money. And so, in July of that year, a judge orders Janet's body to be exhumed. And wouldn't you know it? When investigators examine Janet's remains once more, they find fragments of AcuVue contact lenses on her eyes. Now, following this discovery, it's actually a few years before Raven's trial begins.

Like I said, he's arrested in February 2010, Janet's body is exhumed in July 2010, but it isn't until April of 2013 that Raven's trial actually gets underway. And according to reporting by WRAL, the prosecution admits right in their opening statement that this isn't a case with a lot of direct evidence. You know, even the contact lenses aren't the kind of like slam dunk he definitely did at evidence you'd want if you were in the prosecution's shoes. Instead, they say this is all about words and actions. In other words, this is a very circumstantial kind of case.

The defense, meanwhile, says, well, actually there is direct evidence. It was just ignored because police were so laser focused on Raven. So remember way back when investigators were first processing the crime scene, they found that bloody footprint near Janet's body. They found a fingerprint in the office closet and a blood stain in the side entrance of the house. I'm going to be honest, I had completely forgotten about all of those things. Yeah, well, Raven's attorneys sure didn't because it turns out none of those pieces

of evidence were a match for Raven. Okay, that feels like it could be a huge oversight on the police's part. Is there any explanation for this in the trial? Well, sort of. So with the blood stain at the side entrance, they found unknown DNA in their sample when they tested it. But Detective Soul kind of explains it away, saying that the blood that they collected was found on a commonly used entrance to the house.

So DNA that was present before the murder could have like gotten in their sample? Okay, but what about the shoe print or the fingerprint? The only thing I can find about the shoe print is an article in the News and Observer in which Jane Porter covers the testimony of one of the police investigators at the crime scene. And that investigator says that she was told the shoe print was from a medical responder. But she doesn't know which medical responder and doesn't recall who even told her that. As for the fingerprint, that one's actually tougher than the all down. So there are references to it in a lot of stories on this case, but none of them ever

really say what conclusions were drawn about it. I actually watched some of the testimony of the trial in which Detective Soul confirms that the fingerprint was entered into AFIS. But it kind of just sounds like there was never a match? So I don't know, it feels like this is still kind of like the one open question mark. Yeah, and I'm not super loving any of this. I mean, you said the prosecution was already positioning this as a circumstantial case. And obviously we have the contact lens evidence, but how else are they sort of framing this

up for the jury to convict? Honestly, a lot of their case focuses on painting a really vivid picture of what Raven is like as a person and what his marriage to Janet was like. So I mean, to do this, they have friends and family members saying basically that Raven was this ultra controlling and abusive husband. One of Janet's friends actually testifies that in the months leading up to the murder, Janet confided in her that she felt like things were getting weird and that she was scared of Raven.

Of course, Vanessa Pond also testifies and details her horrific experiences with Raven. But there's also testimony from one of Raven's former co-workers who says that on a 2003 road trip, he made unwanted sexual advances toward her, which basically led her to having sex with him because she was worried about what would happen if she said no. She even says that she felt so uncomfortable and unsafe that afterward, she purposefully tried to leave strands of her hair in his car in case she were to go missing. Oh my God. I mean, I already believed that this guy was not great, but that's-

Predator. That's terrifying. Yeah. All of that aside, what was his motive? Like, I feel like that's been a really big missing piece in all of this so far. Well, it's interesting because it doesn't really seem like the prosecution ever comes out and gives an explicit motive. Like, they kind of just more imply one.

What do you mean? So one of the people who testifies is this guy named Benny Bradley, who was actually one of the earlier detectives on the case. And he talks a lot about the Abarrowa's financial situation leading up to the murder. And in particular, he describes paperwork he found for four different car loans, an $1,100 check for bankruptcy counseling, as well as two life insurance policies that had been taken out, one for Janet at $500,000, and one for Raven at $1 million. Is there a reason why Ravens is so much more than Janet's?

Yeah. It's actually, according to WRAL's coverage of that testimony, Janet actually had some pre-existing health conditions that basically meant it would be really hard to ensure her for more, or at least the same amount as Raven. Okay. That makes sense. And those life insurance policies also get brought up in that 2020 episode I mentioned. Specifically, they highlight how, despite all of the financial trouble the Abarrowas

were in, even though there's actually one point leading up to the murders where people were pitching in to help pay their rent for them, but despite that, someone else is paying your rent, you're going through all of this, Raven never once missed a payment on these life insurance policies. So basically, the prosecution is saying that Raven's motive was financial, but they aren't actually saying it. Exactly. So you have this controlling, abusive husband, he's got major financial problems, a life

insurance policy that could potentially give him a new start, and then of course you have all these inconsistencies in his story about what happened on the night of Janet's death and the contact lenses and the fact that there were no signs of forced entry and no real evidence of a struggle. And that in total is pretty much the case that the prosecution is putting forward. Okay. So at the risk of going down a rabbit hole, I've got to ask, whatever happened to the laptop and the knife that were missing from the house?

Did they ever find those? Yeah. So neither of those items were ever officially recovered? Uh, officially, that's a qualifier. What does that mean? Yeah. Well, a few weeks after Janet's death, Raven actually was staying with one of Janet's sisters.

And during the trial, she testifies that while he was there, she happened to find some CDs in Raven's bag and decided to just like check them out. And what she discovers is a backup of Raven's laptop dated the day before Janet's death. So she makes a copy and hands it over to police and it doesn't seem like there were like any files on the laptop that were particularly troubling or incriminating because I never really see that mentioned, but it's more like, hmm, quite the coincidence that he backed up his whole laptop just the day before it goes missing from his house. Totally.

And after the knife, that also never officially shows up, but it's revealed during the trial that years after the murder, Raven actually claimed in a video that he has the knife that apparently police overlooked during their processing of the crime scene. Basically it was just like packed up in his belongings when he moved out of the house after Janet's death. Okay. So he's saying that he had the missing knife all along? Honestly, it's not clear.

I think it's more that he's trying to say that police didn't do a thorough job processing the scene. And then he found it later or always knew it was, I don't know, but Detective Soul is adamant in the trial that the knife simply wasn't there at the scene. Like they didn't miss it. They think that he had it all along and hid it or who the heck knows. Okay. So not going to lie, it is a messy case.

And that's probably why after the trial spanned five weeks and 82 different witnesses, the jury deliberates for more than 10 hours and actually fails to reach a verdict. Oh, you're kidding me. Yeah, wish I was, but they were deadlocked 11 to one on a guilty verdict, but they just can't come to the unanimous decision that they need. And so the judge has to declare a mistrial. I mean, I just can't help but think about Janet's family and friends who have waited more than eight years at this point for answers, for any form of justice.

And just when it's almost in their grasp, this happens. And now they have to undergo this whole ordeal again. Well, not so fast because in March, 2014, this is one week before a second trial was set to begin, the defense and the prosecution actually reach a deal and Raven Aberroa enters a new plea, but not one that you might expect. Raven enters an Alfred plea for voluntary manslaughter. Britt, like, can you remind our listeners what that is if they're unclear? For sure.

And to be honest, I thought I understood what it was until I listened to your episode of precedent covering this and I learned so much. But quick answer is an Alfred plea essentially means the defendant is maintaining their innocence, but admits that there is sufficient evidence to convict them of the crime. So I'm guilty, not guilty, essentially. Precisely. By entering into this deal, Raven avoids a life sentence. In fact, he is sentenced to just eight to 10 years, including time served.

Okay, so I'm not great at mental math, but he was arrested the beginning of 2010. This sentencing happened in, what, early 2014. Yeah, yeah, you know where this is going. Ultimately, Raven Aberroa is released from prison on Christmas Day 2017. Oh, that's a punch in the gut. Yeah, but look, I think if we've learned anything by now, it's that not every story we tell is going to be wrapped up with a neat little bow at the end. The reality is a lot messier than that.

And so when we hear about cases like this, rather than dwelling on the what ifs or the what should have beens, instead, I think we need to celebrate the smart and talented woman that was Janet and be glad that she got some form of justice and just look to this case for what could be done better next time. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production.

So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?