True Crime Vault: The Secret in Her Eyes

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Speaker 2 This is the 2020 True Crime Vault.

Speaker 5 Why was this night so much different than the others?

Speaker 6 Because he was going to murder her.

Speaker 7 We wish you the best. And the warmest feelings this holiday season.
Janet, what would you like to say?

Speaker 4 One of these nights you'll search for the light.

Speaker 4 Only find the truth.

Speaker 4 From 911, we're in Raven Marketplace.

Speaker 4 My life is dead.

Speaker 9 My instantaneous reaction was, oh my god, Raven has killed Janet.

Speaker 7 That's my new knife.

Speaker 10 But then he married this woman.

Speaker 12 Did he mention his ex-wife?

Speaker 4 Yes,

Speaker 14 as we were just starting to date.

Speaker 12 Did he say she was murdered?

Speaker 15 This is the first night you're spending with your new husband. And the biggest topic is the deceased wife.
That's a red flag.

Speaker 14 Get out now.

Speaker 8 I was heartbroken.

Speaker 17 Nothing was happening.

Speaker 18 I was like, he's going to get away with this.

Speaker 20 The evidence just was not there.

Speaker 21 Evidence that can only be uncovered by looking directly into Janet's eyes.

Speaker 4 There's only one way to find out.

Speaker 26 The body of Janet Averroa, a young wife and mother, is being exhumed tonight.

Speaker 27 She can't even rest after she's dead.

Speaker 28 Someone who pretty convincingly had killed his wife is getting off almost scot-free.

Speaker 28 I can't wait to see the look

Speaker 28 on your

Speaker 28 face.

Speaker 15 So this is a typical college love story, you know, at Southern Virginia University.

Speaker 31 Raven Aberu and Janet Christensen met in college.

Speaker 34 They were both athletes, both very attractive, and he was smitten by her right away.

Speaker 27 Raven swept her off her feet. She was convinced that he was the one.
He's very charismatic. He knows how to talk to people.
He was Prince Charming, and she fell for him hard.

Speaker 28 She came from a big family, big close-knit Mormon family.

Speaker 15 Janet was a confident young woman. You even see it in the photographs, right?

Speaker 15 You see this beautiful smile, you see this warm spirit, and Janet's family described her as such, that she was smart, she was friendly.

Speaker 15 She loved children.

Speaker 38 She had an opportunity to watch all of mine as they grew up.

Speaker 39 It's not just that she loved them.

Speaker 38 I mean, they all gravitate towards her. They loved her.

Speaker 18 Janet was funny. She was sweet.

Speaker 17 She was kind.

Speaker 40 She treated everyone with respect.

Speaker 18 She made me laugh a lot.

Speaker 41 Outgoing?

Speaker 35 Definitely. Definitely she was outgoing.

Speaker 39 Soccer, swimming, basketball.

Speaker 42 She was, yeah, she was into a lot of sports and very outgoing with that.

Speaker 44 She already had a boyfriend, but he was very persistent in pursuing her.

Speaker 45 and finally cracked that veneer that she had.

Speaker 45 Raven Abaroa, he can be charming, he can be charismatic, he will win you over, he will make the room like him.

Speaker 47 What would she say about him?

Speaker 39 She was just infatuated.

Speaker 42 I mean, see, he has this going for him.

Speaker 39 He's going to be successful.

Speaker 25 He tried very hard to make everybody believe he has a perfect life.

Speaker 27 I was wary of him and My first impression was, why is he trying so hard?

Speaker 27 But I thought, you know, okay, Janet likes him. This is her boyfriend.

Speaker 18 He can make Janet happy, and I love seeing that.

Speaker 48 Raven talked about his courtship with Janet to a local North Carolina news program.

Speaker 50 She was beautiful, attractive. I just felt so much comfort when I was with her.

Speaker 15 It's the perfect equation, if you will. Attractive young woman, attractive young man.
We share the same faith. So for Raven and Janet, it just seemed like a natural progression of their friendship.

Speaker 51 They got married at a very young age and decided to live their life together.

Speaker 27 The fact that Raven was Mormon, that mattered to her.

Speaker 48 Raven had won over Janet's family by talking about what a devoted Mormon he was, that he'd gone and done mission work, including in Peru.

Speaker 25 She married in the Washington, D.C.

Speaker 38 Temple

Speaker 38 and always carried the spirit of Christ with her everywhere she went.

Speaker 31 Life for the two of them began in this small colonial town called Smithfield, Virginia.

Speaker 33 They went to the local church, they made lots of friends with their neighbors.

Speaker 9 We're just part of a big family. Raven and Janet both came from big families and they didn't have any family in the immediate area so they kind of adopted us.

Speaker 9 Janet has said, you know, Raven looks up to you, Tim, as a father.

Speaker 7 Hey everybody, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 51 There's this video Christmas card they sent out and they look very happy.

Speaker 55 They look like a loving couple.

Speaker 51 The picture of the perfect marriage.

Speaker 7 We wish you the best and the warmest feelings this holiday season.

Speaker 7 Janet, what would you like to say?

Speaker 57 I would like to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Speaker 58 Raven proudly shows off one of his presents, a new knife to add to his collection.

Speaker 7 That's my new knife.

Speaker 5 That for Christmas.

Speaker 7 Thank you. Bought it myself.
My dad would be very proud. I'd like to collect knives.

Speaker 9 Yeah, he appeared to have his act together.

Speaker 9 I mean, he was young, newly married, had bought their first home, you know, had a couple nice cars, you know, a motorcycle and like wow this guy's kind of off to a pretty fast start.

Speaker 28 They decide to move to Durham to take jobs with the sporting goods company and they find a house there out in the suburbs.

Speaker 31 But just three and a half years into their marriage, Raven tells Janet that he's having an affair. He's committed adultery.

Speaker 52 He came to her one day because he wanted to be out of the marriage and explained to her that he had been cheating on her with several different people. So he ended up leaving.

Speaker 52 And very soon after that she found out she was pregnant.

Speaker 16 She didn't know what to do.

Speaker 38 She didn't want to raise the baby as a single mother.

Speaker 33 He leaves, she's left alone, she doesn't know who to turn to.

Speaker 64 She confides in some of her neighbors, the only people that are close to her.

Speaker 9 You could tell she needed somewhere to go. She was crying, very distraught, and she told told me she loved Raven and that she didn't want to have this child by herself.

Speaker 15 Janet has to debate with herself, do I stay with this person who has disrespected our vows, our covenant, or do I try to salvage what's left of my family, even though it's a tenuous relationship at this point?

Speaker 9 And I kind of read him the Riot Act in a major way. You know, what the hell do you think you're doing? You're married, your wife is pregnant, you need to grow up real quick.

Speaker 52 He promised, swore up and down, that he would no longer cheat on her, that she was the only one for him. He would make it work.
Soon after, you know, Caden was born.

Speaker 27 After he moved back in, according to Janet, it was a day-by-day process. So she really never knew what to expect.
I wouldn't say that she was happier in her marriage, but she was happy to be a mother.

Speaker 9 He told me on several phone calls that Janet and him have mended the fence. He realized what the problems were.
It was lack of communication. He's grown up.
Is I'm going to make this work.

Speaker 21 Janet didn't know it, but her youngest brother, Mark Christensen, says he had already witnessed Raven's mood swings.

Speaker 10 He says one day, Raven falsely accused him of stealing money, and then things turned violent.

Speaker 5 He just snapped.

Speaker 18 He started saying the craziest things to me, and it still haunts me this day.

Speaker 45 He said, you don't know who I really am and what I'm capable of.

Speaker 18 And I just stared at him, grabbed me really hard, and slammed my head against the wall.

Speaker 17 I was scared.

Speaker 5 I was some scrawny little teenager. I've never seen someone's eyes turn like that before, just full of rage, full of hate.

Speaker 10 Mark says he never told Janet because he didn't want to add trouble to an already fragile relationship.

Speaker 19 The couple is now back together.

Speaker 43 But Raven is stressed about money.

Speaker 51 They go to the church for help and they're actually able to get financial assistance from the church.

Speaker 51 Their landlord is very gracious as well, giving them two months free rent so that they don't have to worry about that. Things were really tough.
Financially speaking, things were really tough.

Speaker 28 Raven's boss discovered that there was some unaccounted for inventory that was missing. He had been stealing merchandise.

Speaker 51 Raven was caught embezzling. Apparently, he saw this as a way to overcome some financial hurdles in this young marriage.

Speaker 20 Raven then ultimately pleads guilty to the theft charges. Raven appears to be sort of like the ultimate opportunist.

Speaker 20 People like him, they're basically antisocial, they don't really care, and they're going to do whatever makes them feel good or makes them money.

Speaker 31 One spring night, April 26, 2005, he says he's going to go play soccer and that Janet is at home getting ready to go to bed.

Speaker 67 And that's where the story takes a turn for the worse.

Speaker 51 Raven went off to play an indoor soccer game with his buddies

Speaker 51 and believed that Janet and their baby boy Caton would be going to bed.

Speaker 51 He stopped at a convenience store on the way home.

Speaker 28 Gets back at 10 o'clock, goes upstairs in their house, and finds Janet covered in blood.

Speaker 68 How old is your wife? She's 25. I'm sending the paramedics to help you now.
Stay on the line. I see exactly what to do.

Speaker 28 Raven sounds hysterical, very upset, on the verge of tears.

Speaker 30 He's frantic.

Speaker 28 He's saying Janet's dead.

Speaker 68 Can you tell how many times your wife has has been shot? Like, what is this chest?

Speaker 51 She was in a pool of blood. Couldn't be saved by the paramedics and first responders who arrived.

Speaker 26 There is another breaking story right now.

Speaker 65 Just before 11 Tuesday night, Durham police are called to this Ferrin Drive home.

Speaker 55 Responding to a call from the victim's husband, Raven Aberroa.

Speaker 65 When they arrive, they find 25-year-old Janet Aberoa murdered. Start saying how she was killed.

Speaker 38 My parents were called, I think, about 5 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 38 And Raven was on the phone, and they couldn't understand him.

Speaker 65 And the sight of police tape and investigators in this normally quiet neighborhood came as a shock.

Speaker 38 He was calling to tell them that Janet was dead and she had committed suicide.

Speaker 16 I just stared.

Speaker 18 I couldn't say anything. I was frozen.
I think I was in shock the whole day.

Speaker 35 We automatically knew that was not right. She wouldn't have done education.

Speaker 38 No, she would have never killed herself, ever. We knew that wasn't true.

Speaker 65 Friends tell us she was married with a newborn baby and was looking forward to to life as a mother.

Speaker 70 I got there and saw the, caught the yellow crime lab tape.

Speaker 70 I was like thinking, maybe it's not this house, maybe it's next door. But it won't, it was her house.

Speaker 39 I said, is it a little tiny blonde-headed girl that's dead?

Speaker 71 And I didn't want it to be her,

Speaker 72 but it was.

Speaker 65 Hours after the discovery, the body of the young woman was removed from the home.

Speaker 8 We watched as they brought her body out of the house.

Speaker 20 The police quickly learned that she stabbed multiple times, and that's what causes her death. She was not shot.

Speaker 15 Investigators captured images inside the house.

Speaker 15 There are things out on the counter. In particular, her engagement ring and her wedding band are out.

Speaker 15 You see these pieces of potential evidence scattered throughout this home that's now become a crime scene.

Speaker 20 The police find when they search the scene a bloody footprint, a fingerprint.

Speaker 15 What's noticeably absent is Raven's laptop as well as a knife that went missing apparently that night.

Speaker 20 It was clear that this is a homicide.

Speaker 51 Police immediately find that there are no signs of forced entry. No sign that anyone smashed a window to get in, broke down a door to get in.

Speaker 25 No evidence of anybody else being in the home that wasn't supposed to be there. As soon as you came through the door, she locked the door.

Speaker 51 You have an entire community rattled, concerned.

Speaker 73 Been safe up until now, I guess.

Speaker 48 I just hope to catch you overnight.

Speaker 51 Someone has come in and killed this

Speaker 56 pretty young mother.

Speaker 55 There seem to be very few clues. The killer is is somewhere in our community.

Speaker 37 They don't feel safe until they found out who did it.

Speaker 25 A lot to think about, considering where she was killed.

Speaker 16 Janet Eberoa was found inside her Faron Drive homes with what appeared to be a stab wound in her chest.

Speaker 15 Janet's family holds a vigil in downtown Durham. They want to bring as much attention to this case as they possibly can.

Speaker 74 When Caden was five months old, she brought him by the office to visit. I was holding him and he was looking at his mommy, squealing with excitement.

Speaker 15 People wore purple ribbons in honor of Janet, in honor of her life that was stolen so

Speaker 15 tragically.

Speaker 4 You

Speaker 4 are

Speaker 4 this child

Speaker 4 is

Speaker 4 my

Speaker 4 surroundings.

Speaker 39 At this time, no one has been charged and the case is still under investigation. It has been classified as a homicide.

Speaker 75 We'd like anybody that has any information to call us, no matter how insignificant they may think it is.

Speaker 9 I kept talking to Raven about, you've got to help solve this case.

Speaker 19 Janet's family is desperate to find out what happened to her.

Speaker 32 But Raven, it seems, not so much.

Speaker 44 Just days after the murder, he leaves the state with his little boy, Caden.

Speaker 63 Was it just too painful for him, or was he running away?

Speaker 27 His family was in Utah, so to me, I mean, that made logical sense.

Speaker 39 But he hasn't helped the police.

Speaker 42 He hasn't set out a reward of, oh, you know,

Speaker 35 help me find my wife's killer.

Speaker 9 My thought is: if somebody murders my wife or a child or any close family member of mine, I'm banging on the police door saying, what have you done lately?

Speaker 76 Raven did nothing.

Speaker 9 He left and never came back.

Speaker 75 Raven provided cooperation at the beginning of the investigation, but there have been subsequent requests for interviews that have gone unanswered.

Speaker 31 Janet's sisters start playing detective.

Speaker 34 Like amateur sleuths, they discover some things that just don't add up.

Speaker 52 He had taken out a life insurance policy soon after she was pregnant with Caden.

Speaker 34 Even before his wife is buried, he calls to cash in that life insurance policy.

Speaker 41 How much was the policy?

Speaker 52 $500,000 on her.

Speaker 41 Is he capable of doing that, doing it for the insurance money?

Speaker 62 Absolutely.

Speaker 53 Any doubt in your minds that Raven killed your sister?

Speaker 77 No. No.

Speaker 41 And Caden, the baby, was in the next room.

Speaker 47 Yep.

Speaker 78 How could a father do this?

Speaker 25 It's all about him.

Speaker 52 It's not about Janet. It's not about Caden.
It's about him and his needs and his wants at that point.

Speaker 8 He...

Speaker 18 is a violent person. I've seen that side of him.

Speaker 79 I've seen the evil in him.

Speaker 16 We would obviously like to talk to Raven.

Speaker 75 He hasn't been ruled out as a person of interest, but it's still an open investigation.

Speaker 15 Raven goes on a local Fox program called NC Wanted. He makes clear that he's not the killer and that he wants Janet's case to be brought to justice.

Speaker 50 The bottom line is that I wasn't involved with the death of my wife, that I would do anything in the world to keep her here with me.

Speaker 50 And that's something that I think that people who truly know me can understand and appreciate.

Speaker 34 And there's physical evidence that seems to back up his claim.

Speaker 80 That bloody footprint doesn't match Raven, and the fingerprint found at the scene, unidentified.

Speaker 47 Who was that?

Speaker 54 Whose finger was that?

Speaker 8 One of these nights, you search for the light.

Speaker 4 Only find the truth.

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Speaker 43 Terms apply.

Speaker 15 To see a young mother killed while her baby slept on the other side of the wall was rather shocking for everyone.

Speaker 51 This community is still really desperate for answers, wondering, where's the justice? Where is this killer? This killer is still out there.

Speaker 51 Raven moves to Utah, where his family is.

Speaker 15 Janet's family was troubled by the fact that he wasn't there with them, advocating for Janet, fighting for answers.

Speaker 28 Raven doesn't seem to be taking Janet's death too harshly. He's actually back on the dating scene.

Speaker 15 Back in Durham, everyone is focused on the case or trying to get answers and Raven is in Salt Lake City and then you learn that he's fallen in love, that he's started a relationship with a young woman named Vanessa Pond.

Speaker 53 She wasn't interested in a relationship, but she meets Raven at the kids' school. Her daughter went to school with his son, Caden.

Speaker 14 I wanted nothing to do with him or the conversation he was trying to have whenever we'd see each other at daycare picking up our kids.

Speaker 14 He just started small talking and he asked me to lunch.

Speaker 3 He charms her and she feels sorry for him.

Speaker 34 She feels he's Mormon also like she and they decide to go ahead.

Speaker 31 She agrees to have lunch with him.

Speaker 15 Raven has a way with women. He has a way of getting them to trust him.
He has this pattern of sort of sweeping these women up in this whirlwind.

Speaker 15 Before they know it, they're too invested in the relationship to pay attention to what may be some red flags.

Speaker 12 What was it about him that you liked?

Speaker 14 He seemed very upfront, very honest and genuine.

Speaker 14 And I found out that, you know, he was a single father. And I really, really admired that.

Speaker 14 I've been a single mom for five years. I know what it takes to raise a child.

Speaker 14 I thought, you know, maybe I'll give him a chance because, you know, he could be be a fantastic father, fantastic husband.

Speaker 12 He might be.

Speaker 14 I finally fell for the

Speaker 14 nice guy is what I thought.

Speaker 12 Did he mention his wife or what happened to her?

Speaker 14 Yes. As we were just starting to date, you know, he just mentioned that, well, I should probably tell you, a lot of people think that my wife's not around because,

Speaker 14 oh, she's a... drug addict or she's crazy, but my wife actually died.

Speaker 14 I immediately felt so sorry for him and I felt as though I wanted to be there for him and accept him and

Speaker 59 Caden

Speaker 14 and to take them in and give them all the love that they're missing out on.

Speaker 12 Did he say she was murdered?

Speaker 14 He said that there was an intruder

Speaker 14 and that his wife was killed and that he'd found her.

Speaker 25 And he left it at that.

Speaker 51 Vanessa's the daughter of a cop. Vanessa decides to do a little homework.
Find out about this guy.

Speaker 14 So my curiosity got the best of me.

Speaker 14 And

Speaker 14 I googled her name. And then I googled his name as well.

Speaker 26 Breaking story right now.

Speaker 65 25-year-old Janet Aberoa murdered.

Speaker 39 She was stabbed to death.

Speaker 88 Stabbed three times.

Speaker 62 Stab wound in her chest.

Speaker 16 No one has been ruled out as a suspect.

Speaker 51 She was really rattled when she found out the truth about Raven.

Speaker 14 That night I stayed up until about four o'clock in the morning reading blogs, watching his interviews.

Speaker 14 Reading all the news stories about it, going out of my mind.

Speaker 12 Thinking what.

Speaker 14 I wasn't convinced that he was innocent.

Speaker 32 And she sees an interview that Raven had done with a local TV station back in North Carolina.

Speaker 14 I remember watching the interview and I wasn't convinced. In the interview, they asked him, you know, what he saw, what he came home to.

Speaker 50 I don't like talking about what happened to her and it's not because I don't love her and it's not because I don't want to find out who did it, but it's because

Speaker 46 I have so many good memories with her.

Speaker 14 So I went over and I spoke with him, asked him the questions that I had

Speaker 86 and he removed.

Speaker 14 any and every doubt from my mind. He had his stories about how people were trying to frame him, about how horrible the cops were.

Speaker 47 Were you worried that this might be a mistake?

Speaker 86 I didn't have a question in my mind at the time.

Speaker 15 Vanessa's parents definitely were concerned for the pace of the relationship, so they even took it upon themselves to ask Raven directly if he was responsible for Janet's murder.

Speaker 51 And they confront him about this. What happened to Janet? What's the real deal here?

Speaker 91 His response was, he kind of sidestepped the question. He didn't say, yes, I did it or no, I didn't do it.

Speaker 14 He said I loved my wife.

Speaker 14 I loved her so much.

Speaker 71 Which insinuates that he didn't do it but he didn't come right out and say that he didn't.

Speaker 67 He was in tears and

Speaker 14 she went over and put her arm around him to console him and comfort him.

Speaker 91 She says, no,

Speaker 91 I know the guy by now and I'm really convinced that he's not guilty of this.

Speaker 15 Raven was able to calm her fears.

Speaker 15 Raven was able to convince her that he loved his wife, that he loved his son, that he was fighting for justice, that he wanted answers just as badly as Janet's family did.

Speaker 15 And Vanessa was willing to accept this.

Speaker 14 Soon after that, Raven asked my dad for my hand in marriage.

Speaker 61 Raven may be ready to move on in Utah, but back in North Carolina, Janet's friends and family can't let it go.

Speaker 19 When they hear about his new love interests, they pick up the phone and they give Vanessa a call.

Speaker 38 We were fearful for her, as we are fearful for any woman that he becomes involved with.

Speaker 89 And

Speaker 14 they said, Well, Vanessa, if we can tell you one thing, it's get out now.

Speaker 6 Get out.

Speaker 8 I was heartbroken.

Speaker 8 I did not want to believe

Speaker 93 at all

Speaker 86 that he had done this.

Speaker 40 And she still married him?

Speaker 47 Yes. What does that tell you?

Speaker 39 That he is a really good salesman.

Speaker 67 The wedding and the reception took place in September in our yard. We asked Raven,

Speaker 39 just take good care of my little girl.

Speaker 90 He promised me he would.

Speaker 15 They're on their way to starting this new life and that's the veneer. That's the presentation.
But what's actually happening behind the scenes is the polar opposite of that.

Speaker 51 It's in Las Vegas on their honeymoon where there's the first sign of Trump.

Speaker 38 And then he cuddled up closer to me.

Speaker 14 And he said, I promise I'll never hurt you.

Speaker 25 That's a red flag.

Speaker 34 It's been three years now since that awful murder of Janet Aberoa. But now Raven is happily married, it appears, to a new woman in Utah.

Speaker 15 They go on their honeymoon in Vegas, and Vanessa recalls Raven talking about Janet.

Speaker 15 You're talking about your deceased wife on the evening of your honeymoon.

Speaker 14 He started talking about Janet

Speaker 14 and how mad he was after she died. Not how sad, not how heartbroken.

Speaker 14 Just mad.

Speaker 38 And then he cuddled up closer to me.

Speaker 14 And he said, I promise I'll never hurt you.

Speaker 15 This is the first night you're spending with your new husband. And the biggest topic is the deceased wife.

Speaker 25 That's a red flag.

Speaker 28 Yeah, it is an odd thing for a newly married husband to confess to his wife. I would never hurt you.
I mean,

Speaker 28 I'm sure Vanessa's like,

Speaker 59 oh,

Speaker 28 you would never hurt me. Why would you say that? You know, I would just assume that you would never hurt me.
You're my new husband.

Speaker 13 Within moments, he could switch.

Speaker 14 He could say the most horrible things.

Speaker 14 And then moments later, later,

Speaker 30 he would apologize. I'm sorry, I was just mad.

Speaker 14 That's just what I say when I'm mad. That's just what I do.

Speaker 34 According to Vanessa, things start getting really bad.

Speaker 41 What started out as verbal abuse is now physical abuse.

Speaker 14 He grabbed me from the door and threw me up against the wall, and then I fell.

Speaker 14 Later, he tried to convince me that I had tripped.

Speaker 15 Vanessa is able to make the determination based on the deterioration of this new marriage

Speaker 15 that something is amiss here and that she may not have married the person that she thought she'd married.

Speaker 34 The ink hasn't even dried on Vanessa's marriage license and she realizes she's made a terrible mistake.

Speaker 13 The light just disappears from his eyes and he becomes another person.

Speaker 90 And that part is terrifying.

Speaker 33 Are you convinced you would have been his next victim? Yeah.

Speaker 97 And just like that, after just four months, the marriage is over.

Speaker 19 Vanessa no longer believes in Raven's innocence, but police back in North Carolina are still struggling years after the murder to find direct evidence of his guilt.

Speaker 58 And Janet's family, well, they've just about had enough.

Speaker 45 At this point, we pretty much all knew he did it.

Speaker 18 I couldn't fathom why he hadn't been arrested. I was so mad because nothing was happening.
I was like, he's going to get away with this.

Speaker 56 The family had their suspicions all along.

Speaker 18 When I found out that she had died, even when it was believed at first that she committed suicide, because that's what Raven told us, I knew that he had something to do with it.

Speaker 27 I wanted to believe that it was somebody else, but it kept just going through my mind and the only person I pointed to was Raven.

Speaker 9 My instantaneous nanosecond reaction was,

Speaker 9 oh my god, Raven has killed Janet.

Speaker 62 Raven was flat broke.

Speaker 96 He had lost his job for embezzling.

Speaker 44 They were getting assistance from the church.

Speaker 23 He would do anything to get more money.

Speaker 71 He desperately needed cash.

Speaker 51 Not long before Janet's murder, Raven took out a half million dollar life insurance policy for his wife, and they never missed a payment. Raven never missed a payment on those life insurance policies.

Speaker 9 I mean, here's a guy who's on church welfare. He's lost his job, but he's still paying his $154 a month life insurance.

Speaker 9 You know, me, if I can't put food on the table, maybe I shouldn't be paying for life insurance.

Speaker 32 Danet's sisters then start cataloging all the lies that Raven has been telling him, and they realize he has been lying to them ever since he said, I do.

Speaker 64 Even lying about whether he did missionary work, he claimed he did in Peru.

Speaker 9 He never went to the mission training center. He never had a passport.
He never went to Peru.

Speaker 9 So if you're going to enter into a relationship with a young Mormon woman and you're going to lie to her parents about what happened on your mission that you didn't even go,

Speaker 9 his whole existence with that family and with Janet was based on a monumental lie.

Speaker 41 From the very beginning.

Speaker 4 From the very beginning.

Speaker 43 Liar, cheater, deadbeat, but a murderer?

Speaker 31 Well, the Durham police were not willing to take that step, at least not yet.

Speaker 44 The police have a huge handicap.

Speaker 61 No direct evidence tying Raven to the murder.

Speaker 34 The direct evidence they do have, that mysterious bloody footprint, the inconclusive fingerprint, points away from Raven Aberroa and suggests there may have been a stranger in the house.

Speaker 75 With cases like this, we are constantly looking for enough information where we feel we can present this to a jury and we can win beyond a reasonable doubt. That's the burden of proof.

Speaker 9 This is a circumstantial case. It's hard.
It's not easy. Well, you know what? Sometimes justice isn't easy.

Speaker 95 It's been four years. I don't.

Speaker 34 And nothing.

Speaker 31 The family's very frustrated.

Speaker 96 The sisters decide to turn up the heat on this very cold case, so they sit down with me on ABC's primetime crime in an effort to get some more attention.

Speaker 83 Cases that seem impossible to crack.

Speaker 34 Crimes that seem impossible to solve.

Speaker 56 That's why there's primetime crime.

Speaker 21 He's out free, out there.

Speaker 62 Yes, he is. Doing what he wants.

Speaker 98 Yes, he is.

Speaker 47 Does that anger you?

Speaker 38 Very much so, yes.

Speaker 40 And fearful.

Speaker 89 for

Speaker 35 other women or other people that come in contact with him. But he needs to be stopped from from hurting anybody else, like Vanessa.
I mean, we're concerned about other people getting hurt.

Speaker 35 If we could prevent that,

Speaker 35 then we feel like at least we're accomplishing something, and that Janet's death wasn't just for nothing.

Speaker 44 We wanted to get Raven's side of the story, so we go to his mother's house outside of Salt Lake City.

Speaker 34 I knock on the door, I talk to them,

Speaker 96 but they turned me away, saying they would not comment on this case, and neither would Raven.

Speaker 18 I was very happy that my sisters went to ABC and went public about him. I was hoping that this would put pressure on the police, put pressure on the DA.

Speaker 18 Now this made public, people are going to start getting outraged. I think when TV gets involved and tells the story and what's going on,

Speaker 17 it helps move justice along.

Speaker 22 After our program airs, my interview with those sisters, something remarkable happens.

Speaker 9 The very next day we get a call from the Durham Police Department saying we've assigned a new detective to the case.

Speaker 53 A new detective takes over this case and he's about to change the course of this entire investigation.

Speaker 77 I feel myself getting frustrated.

Speaker 77 I'm not 100% sure why.

Speaker 51 Inside the Durham Police Department, this case is going from one detective to another detective to another detective.

Speaker 15 Eventually, it's assigned to an investigator who starts to see things that others didn't see before.

Speaker 40 I came with a fresh set of eyes, and then I kind of ran with it.

Speaker 31 Charles Sowell was one of the first police officers on the scene the night Janet got murdered.

Speaker 19 He showed up with a canine unit.

Speaker 31 Well, now, four years later, as a detective, he takes over the entire case.

Speaker 40 Raven, who's a talker, which for a detective, that's a home run. I mean, if your suspect's talking, regardless of what he's talking about, that was good.

Speaker 48 Raven seemed comfortable talking. He'd already done an interview with NC Wanted that was later published online.
I'd always go in and give Kid a kiss, and that's,

Speaker 50 you know, that's when I

Speaker 50 found out that something wasn't wrong, and Kennet died that night.

Speaker 50 I wasn't there.

Speaker 40 Raven basically, within two weeks, packs up and moves across the country. He had left and gone to Utah.

Speaker 40 My training was, hey, let me call this guy and see if he wants to talk to this North Carolina detective. I kind of studied Raven.

Speaker 40 I mean, he's certainly a narcissist and I played the dumb southern cop and he ate it up.

Speaker 15 What's sort of odd is that Raven records his conversations with Detective Soule. And this is sort of predates the social media selfie video time that we live.

Speaker 15 But he's literally shooting video of himself and then offering courtside commentary.

Speaker 15 I don't feel too good about that.

Speaker 15 I feel myself getting frustrated.

Speaker 15 I'm not 100% sure why. You know, the more stuff I give them, the more stuff they get to leaked.

Speaker 51 He was unnerved by these conversations. He knew this detective was drilling into things that hadn't been been scrutinized that closely before.

Speaker 77 I need to win the lottery.

Speaker 77 You know, if I were to win

Speaker 77 $3 million,

Speaker 77 I would dedicate $2 million to fighting this.

Speaker 77 Two-thirds of my winnings, if you would.

Speaker 40 I thought it was very bizarre that he talks about, I need to win the lottery. Oh, by the way, I would do something for Janet as well.

Speaker 100 So come on.

Speaker 20 Narcissistic, antisocial, egotistical personalities do things like this because they think they're clever.

Speaker 20 Unfortunately for them is that they're also sort of giving the police additional pieces of information about you and how you think.

Speaker 51 Very quickly, Detective Soule realized that Raven was telling different stories at different moments in time. He wasn't keeping his story straight.

Speaker 100 The lights lights were on, the lights were off, the child was crying, the child wasn't crying.

Speaker 15 The night that your wife dies is something that you would probably have emblazoned in your mind and you would remember it in rather vivid detail.

Speaker 100 You don't get those things wrong if you're telling the truth.

Speaker 68 Do you feel like doing CPR would help?

Speaker 4 She's not with me.

Speaker 92 She's not.

Speaker 68 I need my best up.

Speaker 68 You need your what? My best job without church. I gave my home to you.

Speaker 40 Not once does Raven ever ask for help for his wife.

Speaker 100 And when people call 911, that's what they do.

Speaker 68 Tell me exactly what you tightened to. I came around to my house.
I came upstairs. The lights were off.
The door was cracked open.

Speaker 48 I thought I left it open. As a detective looks at the crime scene to assess the possibility of an intruder, he wants to see if there was a struggle.

Speaker 48 Because if she didn't know the person who came in, there likely would have been a fight.

Speaker 15 They expected to see items smashed, doors off hinges.

Speaker 40 Nothing was disturbed in that room. As a matter of fact, the blood was contained in a very small space.
And you got to remember, just on the other wall is her child.

Speaker 100 So it would have been normal for that room to be destroyed.

Speaker 40 in the struggle.

Speaker 51 The detectives see very little that would lead them to believe this was a home invasion or a burglary.

Speaker 20 So then the question would be,

Speaker 20 who could have done that?

Speaker 40 To have someone break into your house, pass a wedding set, you know, her diamond ring, her engagement ban, the electronics which are common stolen in a break-in, and go upstairs to steal a knife and a computer, it was very odd.

Speaker 3 Remember, Raven had told police there was a knife missing from his collection.

Speaker 58 Detective Soul says when he asked Raven about it, he was very touchy on that subject.

Speaker 40 When I brought up the whole throw-in knife thing, it always was kind of like the dentist poking at a tooth that's bad.

Speaker 100 He became frustrated with me like why do you care about this? Well it's kind of important your wife was stabbed to death.

Speaker 20 Raven then makes another video where he actually has a two-edge knife that he holds and he twists.

Speaker 58 Now all of a sudden Raven has a knife that he says was overlooked by investigators at the crime scene.

Speaker 50 This is a knife that has been in my possession since I got my stuff back from my brother.

Speaker 40 My dad moved out of my house for me after Dana passed away.

Speaker 51 His message to the police in that video holding that knife is this was in the house where my wife was murdered. How did you not find this in the crime scene?

Speaker 20 One ploy that I think Raven's trying to put out there is that the police are incompetent, that the knife in question was there. It wasn't there and they didn't find it.

Speaker 20 But I think Raven's trying to obviously discredit whatever investigation they're working on that involves him.

Speaker 40 You got to remember, we're talking about less than a 10 by 10 room.

Speaker 100 So for a knife that's that big and you're there cleaning up a room where there was a murder, a stabbing, you're going to overlook a knife.

Speaker 50 It's a throwing knife, but I'm going to be mailing this to the detectives.

Speaker 100 It just kind of was bizarre that, you know, he would all of a sudden mail a knife.

Speaker 47 Was he taunting police officers?

Speaker 41 Could this be the murder weapon?

Speaker 40 There's something else that intrigues detectives so in the crime scene scene photos, the first thing I'm looking at is, well, her contact lens case is open.

Speaker 40 I said to myself, well, if she's ready to go to bed, you know, and she still has her contacts in, you know, that's unusual.

Speaker 15 That gives him a hunch that maybe Raven Averroa's story about Janet going to bed before he left for that soccer game may not be the case.

Speaker 31 The only way for detectives to find out if Janet was wearing her contact lenses when she was killed is to exhume her body.

Speaker 15 It definitely seemed like Detective Soule was digging deep, literally and figuratively speaking.

Speaker 53 Detective Soule comes face to face with the victim, looking for a piece of evidence that can only be uncovered by looking directly into Janet's eyes.

Speaker 76 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 68 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 53 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 21 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 101 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without leaving him. I'm scared.

Speaker 21 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 51 We've got something big going on here.

Speaker 94 The first thing that hit my mind is a monster.

Speaker 102 A new series from ABC Audio and 2020, The Hand in the Window. Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Speaker 94 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

Speaker 25 Mom Talk started as a sisterhood and that's gone to flames. New secrets, Eliza are coming out.

Speaker 39 This is gonna be catastrophic.

Speaker 73 We're biting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell.

Speaker 54 They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 2 I can't.

Speaker 13 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

Speaker 94 Watch the Hulu original: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundling subscribers.

Speaker 43 Terms apply.

Speaker 14 At first, he comes off very charming.

Speaker 14 Prince charming.

Speaker 14 Within moments, he could switch.

Speaker 59 He told me how much he hated me.

Speaker 57 And how much he didn't care if I died.

Speaker 33 Are you convinced you would have been his next victim? Yeah.

Speaker 47 Did he mention his wife?

Speaker 12 Did he say she was murdered?

Speaker 18 He got away with murdering my sister.

Speaker 26 The body of Janet Averroa, a young wife and mother, is being exhumed tonight.

Speaker 40 To physically check her eyes.

Speaker 3 And now, finally, her husband Raven is on trial for her murder.

Speaker 5 He's waiting for her with the knife.

Speaker 4 Bam!

Speaker 23 Then suddenly, the proceedings come to a screeching halt.

Speaker 51 Lawyers discover email between Janet's ex-boyfriend and Janet.

Speaker 40 The defense tried to paint it to could this guy have done this.

Speaker 48 Less than 60 days later, she was murdered.

Speaker 51 And we get this bombshell announcement.

Speaker 18 Screw the justice system, screw the defense. I know this happened.

Speaker 24 He's going to walk free. In my mind, that makes every woman out there a target.

Speaker 95 Don't walk, run.

Speaker 76 It's been five years since Janet Eberoa was found dead in a pool of blood in their home by her husband.

Speaker 99 The investigation is painstakingly slow.

Speaker 36 Janet Eberoa was found inside her fair and drive home with what appeared to be a stab wound in her chest.

Speaker 73 Durham police have not named any suspects, but will only say say her murder was not random.

Speaker 56 Days went by, months went by, eventually years went by.

Speaker 27 It was frustrating and upsetting and it was also sad for us because we wanted justice for my sister.

Speaker 15 For Janet's family, there was only one suspect and that suspect was Raven Aberroa.

Speaker 40 The common sense stuff in the case, it just didn't add up.

Speaker 53 And one of the more intriguing pieces of evidence is that half a million dollar insurance policy that Raven bought on Janet just months before her murder.

Speaker 40 Certainly the insurance policy is a quick one to jump right to.

Speaker 40 When I got the case, I dug back on one of the first police incidents that a vehicle that he's financing just spontaneously can bust. An insurance claim is made.

Speaker 63 It just burned up, no longer existed.

Speaker 9 I just thought, wow, that's kind of strange.

Speaker 40 And then he lands this job where he eventually is charged with embezzlement. It's important for this case because I think that that was a big part of the motive is the financial situation with Raven.

Speaker 34 And then there's that picture of the contact lens case that belonged to Janet.

Speaker 48 At this point, they have a possible motive, they have leads, they have strong suspicions, but they want physical evidence. The contact lenses, if they can find them, could be just that.

Speaker 27 She always took out her contacts before going to bed. And I mean always.

Speaker 30 We shared a bathroom all through high school.

Speaker 27 We went to college together. We shared hotel rooms.
She always took out her contacts.

Speaker 20 It's an important piece of information to punch holes in Raven's story of ⁇

Speaker 20 Raven's story is that she was going to bed as he was leaving.

Speaker 27 The fact that her contacts were not out, I knew right away that she was not in bed. I knew that he was lying.

Speaker 40 The only way to support it would be to physically check her eyes because, you know, the ME's report didn't denote contact lens being present when they did her autopsy here in North Carolina.

Speaker 47 Contact lenses on a dead body are often overlooked during an autopsy because medical examiners won't necessarily look for them unless they're given reason to do so.

Speaker 32 Detective Soule needs to determine, were

Speaker 104 her contact lenses in her eyes at the time of the murder?

Speaker 48 And there's only one way to find out.

Speaker 105 I received a strange phone call from Detective Charles Soule. He said if somebody exhumed a body that had a contact lens in it, would it still be there?

Speaker 105 And I said, soft contact lens will degenerate over time.

Speaker 40 The exhumation was something that we didn't want to have to do unless we felt like it was going to be necessary. And the family was supportive of it.

Speaker 27 It's hard because she was being dug up and then, okay, she was already murdered. Now she can't even rest after she's dead.

Speaker 18 It's a little emotional, but at the same time, I was thinking, if this is what it takes, we have to do this.

Speaker 51 It was a big deal when her body would be exhumed.

Speaker 56 It was the lead story that night on our newscast.

Speaker 51 At the cemetery, workers began the process using a backhoe to remove Janet Aberoa's vault and casket.

Speaker 34 When they exhume Janet's body, the medical examiner's office finds little bits of fragments.

Speaker 53 Could those be Janet's contact lenses?

Speaker 41 They send them out for analysis.

Speaker 105 After I received these fragments and I then cleaned them, the material actually resumed a convex shape typical of your contact lens. But the key was finding the numbers 1, 2, 3.

Speaker 105 This was conclusive evidence that this was an AccuView contact lens.

Speaker 10 But this type of evaluation had never been done before.

Speaker 34 So to prove the scientific scientific validity of his work, this ophthalmologist had to conduct an experiment.

Speaker 105 So I then did a burial simulation study using pig eyes. With regular contacts, I had to show what happens to a contact lens over a period of time if it is buried with a body.

Speaker 105 I applied the contact lens, I applied a lens cap, which is done at your funeral home, and I got these little caskets. and buried them actually in my backyard.

Speaker 105 And the final analysis showed that the contact lenses did change just like the ones we discovered.

Speaker 28 That's the physical evidence that kind of shoots down Raven's stories about Janet getting ready for bed and him going off to a soccer game.

Speaker 15 And Detective Soul believes that these inconsistencies are evidence of someone who may not have told the truth from the start.

Speaker 48 Now that the body's been exhumed, they're also looking for more.

Speaker 40 For some reason, I'll never understand, he mailed mailed us a knife.

Speaker 40 We did some tool marking based on the bones that

Speaker 40 were cut to match them up with the knife that had been sent to us.

Speaker 48 They were able to say that the wounds were consistent with the knife that was found. If the knife is clean, you're never going to be able to say it was the murder weapon.

Speaker 15 After a while, Detective Soule is building a profile.

Speaker 28 They have his financial history, they have his odd behavior, they have his infidelity.

Speaker 15 And what he sees is a person who appeared to be this loving, attractive, doting father who may in fact be someone who is a murderer.

Speaker 56 This was a tough case to build, but finally they felt like they had enough to tip the scales to charge Raven and bring him in.

Speaker 40 I'd never really had face-to-face with Raven at the time.

Speaker 40 When I explained to him who I was and where I was from and then, you know, presented him with a warrant, I mean, he was, you know, visibly nervous and tripped.

Speaker 19 Raven is arrested and then extradited to North Carolina, where he will be put on trial for the first-degree murder of his wife.

Speaker 44 And by the way, he's about to come face to face with a trail of mistresses.

Speaker 90 Just wanted to be done with her.

Speaker 51 Raven Abero. He's living in Idaho at the time.

Speaker 51 He's arrested and then extradited back to North Carolina to face the murder charge.

Speaker 27 The fact that it took so long for him to be indicted and arrested, It was frustrating and upsetting.

Speaker 15 The arrest of Raven Aberroa puts Janet's death back into the spotlight front page news again.

Speaker 106 Tonight jury selection is underway in the Raven Aberoa murder trial.

Speaker 27 I was concerned because a lot of the evidence was circumstantial, but I felt that If the juries looked at the evidence and all the circumstantial evidence objectively, they would see that it was him.

Speaker 34 Eight years have passed since Janet Aberro's death, and now finally her husband Raven is on trial for her murder.

Speaker 97 For Janet's sisters, it's been a long journey.

Speaker 10 Remember, they helped reignite the investigation when they spoke out publicly to us.

Speaker 28 The court was packed every day. Raven's family was there, Janet's sisters, lots of reporters, lots of spectators, members of the public, online sleuths.

Speaker 53 Her sister Erica gets chills when she sees Raven for the first time in years.

Speaker 27 The whole trial, every time that he was brought in, he never looked in her direction. He never looked at me.
He never looked at my sister. And he just had his head down the whole time.

Speaker 27 I mean, an innocent man would want to reach out to the family and say, I didn't do this.

Speaker 28 Raven went from just this baby face kid to he looks a little grizzled, a little hardened, and just very emotionless.

Speaker 51 Adrienne Nelson provides really pivotal testimony in this trial. She is one of Janet's very best friends.
Janet seemed to talk to her about what was happening in her marriage.

Speaker 37 She was concerned that Raven was bipolar and that he would not take his medication. She didn't know what she was going to get from day to day,

Speaker 37 but that most of the time, if it was good, she was waiting for it to get bad again. I can't stand to look at you, get out.
I don't want to be around you, I don't want to see you.

Speaker 37 And then the next week, he's up on the stand at church sharing how much he loved his wife and how much she meant to him.

Speaker 51 She spoke with Janet the day of the murder and broke down in tears on the witness stand, talking about losing her friend to this violent murder.

Speaker 37 I spoke to her the day of her murder.

Speaker 5 I felt like something was wrong

Speaker 107 and what she did.

Speaker 37 I asked her, I said, is, is Raven being nice to you? Is he treating you good? Then I asked her like three times.

Speaker 37 She wouldn't answer me. She would turn it on Caden.

Speaker 32 The prosecution uses a classic technique.

Speaker 34 When you don't have enough forensic evidence, you attack the character of the defendant.

Speaker 96 One of the the best ways to do that is parade all the ex-lovers, his mistresses.

Speaker 30 Did he flirt with you?

Speaker 86 Yes.

Speaker 107 Did you flirt back with him?

Speaker 90 Yes.

Speaker 30 How soon after he moved into that apartment did you and the defendant become physical?

Speaker 14 Pretty soon.

Speaker 28 Annabelle Haviza was a student and she and Raven met at a college party. While Raven was married to Janet.

Speaker 109 What if if your wife finds out?

Speaker 110 You know, what if she looks at your cell phone records or anything like that?

Speaker 110 You said, I've got a different SIM card that I use, and I switch out the SIM card so

Speaker 110 she won't ever know, you know, that I've text messaged you or called you.

Speaker 80 She's actually a teenager, 17-year-old, and talks about how frightened she was when she was on a date with Raven.

Speaker 64 Annabelle testified that one night in his car, Raven pressured her aggressively to have sex with him, and she panicked.

Speaker 109 We pulled off and

Speaker 25 eventually we ended up having sex

Speaker 110 and I just wanted it to be over and I just kept going like this and saying, okay, if something happens to me, I'll leave, you know, my hair in here, something,

Speaker 110 you know, so if they search the car, then they'll be able to find my DNA or something knowing that I was here.

Speaker 51 Raven seems oddly disengaged.

Speaker 55 He seems

Speaker 51 unplugged, disinterested in what's happening moment to moment in this trial.

Speaker 110 The whole thing just makes me feel small and little.

Speaker 90 Just wanted to be done with it.

Speaker 48 Typically you say that the most powerful evidence can be physical evidence. But in a case like this, being able to have woman after woman testify about how scary he was,

Speaker 71 it's arguably even more powerful.

Speaker 9 The stories in that trial were horrific. The hair in the back of my head was standing up.
I had chills.

Speaker 9 I think that what happened to her, again, part of the mosaic.

Speaker 9 You know, if you put your nose up next to a mosaic, you're not going to see anything.

Speaker 9 But as you back away, and starting putting these pieces together in a circumstantial case, which this is, if you put it together and back away, it tells a story and tells a

Speaker 76 What was it like being in the courtroom and seeing Raven?

Speaker 27 That was very

Speaker 95 hard.

Speaker 13 More than anything, it was really

Speaker 25 hard to see his face.

Speaker 99 How did he look?

Speaker 8 He looked cold.

Speaker 90 If an innocent man were sitting in the courtroom

Speaker 95 hearing all of this

Speaker 95 about his own wife, shouldn't he be heartbroken?

Speaker 32 The star witness in this case was Raven's second wife from Utah, Vanessa Pond, and she testified how horrible the abuse was, psychological and physical.

Speaker 71 He told me how much he hated me

Speaker 73 and how much he didn't care if I died

Speaker 13 and he expressed how much he wanted to hit me

Speaker 13 and he swung his hand back and he stopped

Speaker 71 right before he hit my face

Speaker 90 He got in my face and laughed at me for flinching.

Speaker 86 I then had to

Speaker 90 compose myself and

Speaker 3 be late to my bridal shower.

Speaker 95 It was very painful

Speaker 13 and oddly enough I still felt conflicted.

Speaker 33 Still?

Speaker 13 I knew that it was the right thing and I knew exactly how I felt about it. And I knew that he had done it.
I knew he was responsible.

Speaker 33 But you had once loved this man.

Speaker 90 I had once believed he was the love of my life

Speaker 95 and that confliction was very very strange to feel.

Speaker 33 Vanessa Pond became one of the most important witnesses.

Speaker 51 But there was an additional layer of heartbreak to this tragedy. Not only was Janet a young mother with a six-month-old baby boy,

Speaker 5 She was pregnant too.

Speaker 49 She cried and said that it wasn't going to be good, that Raven wasn't going to be happy that she was pregnant.

Speaker 23 In the weeks before her murder, Janet was keeping a secret.

Speaker 51 Months after her murder, we finally get her autopsy report.

Speaker 51 And it hits our newsroom and we realize not only was Janet a young mother with a six-month-old baby boy, she was pregnant too, which was just another heartbreaking layer to this tragedy.

Speaker 27 I did not know that she was pregnant. She did not tell us.

Speaker 25 I believe that that put a lot of extra stress on him.

Speaker 24 And it wasn't just the issue of killing his wife, Janet.

Speaker 111 There was the unborn child that he slaughtered, who never had a chance.

Speaker 54 Why?

Speaker 63 Very few people knew about that, but among those who did, her friend Kathy Cheek.

Speaker 49 She went to the doctor. She cried and said that it wasn't going to be good, that Raven wasn't going to be happy that she was pregnant because he didn't want a child at that time.

Speaker 20 When you look at a murder and believe that it's a domestic murder, you then go to motive. In this case, a couple things jump out.

Speaker 20 One is that Raven had taken out a fairly large insurance policy on Janet and that she was also pregnant, which means that he was then going to have to deal with a child.

Speaker 108 He's used to living Highland Hall.

Speaker 108 He's used to stealing, getting his money. Then he got insurance.

Speaker 107 They couldn't afford anything else, but he kept paying that.

Speaker 111 He was bidding his time.

Speaker 108 He was waiting.

Speaker 107 Problem with that is, Janet got pregnant again.

Speaker 40 I think that Raven thought that the grass was going to be greener on the other side of the fence. And I think what Raven saw is the ability to collect this money.

Speaker 48 Next, the state presents evidence that Raven carefully planned his alibi and the home burglary story.

Speaker 48 And Janet's sister Sonia says she found his behavior odd.

Speaker 25 It felt like he wasn't fully cooperating with the detectives.

Speaker 91 So I went through his belongings.

Speaker 108 And what anything did you find?

Speaker 32 Janet's sister Sonia says that she found some computer discs.

Speaker 43 She found that odd because remember, on the night Janet was murdered, Raven says his computer was stolen.

Speaker 25 I looked through the discs on the computer.

Speaker 25 All the files had modified data for 2505, which was the day before her murder, which, like I said, was alarming to me because one of the things the detectives first told us was they didn't believe that it was a break-in because the only thing that was missing was his laptop and knives.

Speaker 24 He downloads, backs up all of his files off of his laptop onto discs. Just hours before his laptop is stolen and his wife is murdered by an intruder.

Speaker 108 That's how he spent his day, ladies and gentlemen, on April 25th, 2005, dropping and dragging

Speaker 108 so he could get everything on that desk.

Speaker 57 He knew what he was going to do. He knew what was going to happen the next day.
He couldn't lose his computer stuff.

Speaker 108 So he backed up his computer stuff.

Speaker 34 Raven says that on the day of the murder, he took off from work.

Speaker 63 He spent the day at home watching Caden, his son, and running errands.

Speaker 32 But before he went out to play soccer, prosecutors say he did something he had never done before. He locks the family's guard dogs in a back shed.

Speaker 51 Normally the dogs sleep in crates under a counter in the kitchen inside their home.

Speaker 108 Do you know whether the dogs stayed inside or outside?

Speaker 49 Janet said they stayed inside. She said while Raven was away at games, she liked to keep him in the house because she felt protective.

Speaker 51 Detective Sowell believed that the dogs were removed from the house because Raven didn't want them to be around this violent murder, that the dogs would have reacted and tried to protect Janet.

Speaker 108 Why was this night so much different than the others?

Speaker 5 Because he was going to murder her.

Speaker 48 The prosecution also attacks Raven's alibi for being almost too perfect.

Speaker 20 Raven tells the police a story that he leaves the house, he goes to a game, he interacts with people.

Speaker 20 They find witnesses to support that he was at these locations, sort of during the timeframe that he claims that he was there.

Speaker 88 Raven indicated that he got to the game location with just enough time to warm up before the game started. He indicated the game lasted one hour.

Speaker 88 After the game, he left the sports arena and only made one stop before arriving home.

Speaker 88 The purpose of the stop was to buy a Gatorade.

Speaker 20 What he's obviously trying to do is create a situation where he physically was not at home, so he could not have harmed his wife. So he's sort of building his own defense as he presents this story.

Speaker 40 But he tells me in a phone conversation, well, you knew where I was at,

Speaker 40 you know, afterward because I went to the gas station and it was videoed. And I'm saying to myself, well, where would you have known that? Again, I go back to the staging.

Speaker 40 He's smart enough to know he's got a document where he's at.

Speaker 32 It seems to prove Raven's story, but detectives say it proves something else: that Raven was planting his alibi.

Speaker 48 Despite all that planning, Raven still makes a big mistake when asked about the moment that he finds Janet's body.

Speaker 88 He said once he entered the residence, he made his way down the hall toward the master bedroom and the office. He stated that he saw that Janet's eyes were open and her lips were blue.

Speaker 51 Raven told a church member something very different from what he told police that further highlights inconsistencies from the night of the murder.

Speaker 103 He said he came home, went upstairs, and found Janet on the floor and he immediately grabbed her. And I believe he said to me that

Speaker 103 she had asked him, why do I hurt so bad? And his response was, I don't know.

Speaker 40 The jury, when they heard that, they were shocked. And it's like, how could Janet say say that? Because you said when you found her, she was dead.

Speaker 71 I mean, you can't have it both ways.

Speaker 15 These inconsistencies in Raven's story help bolster the prosecution's case because the sense is that he's there that night and these are details that he should remember.

Speaker 10 At this point, the prosecution feels they've done their job, they've proven their case, but what about that bloody footprint and fingerprint that don't match Raven?

Speaker 98 Yeah, this time we moved for some.

Speaker 21 That's when the defense team throws the prosecution a curveball, calling a new witness to the stand,

Speaker 22 Janet's ex-boyfriend.

Speaker 98 Did anybody ask you to submit a DNA sample of fingerprints or anything?

Speaker 99 No, no one's asked.

Speaker 102 Could he be the intruder?

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Speaker 83 Coming to Disney Plus in Hulu. Cassidy, get us home.
Jonas, brothers, you got it. It'll be the best Jonas Christmas ever.

Speaker 47 Can't wait to see you guys. We love you.

Speaker 84 If they can only make it home.

Speaker 55 What's going on? Our tour plane burned? No.

Speaker 15 We cannot miss Christmas.

Speaker 82 Nothing can stop us from getting home now.

Speaker 6 You won't be alone this trip.

Speaker 55 You lost all three of your passports.

Speaker 32 It's Christmas. Anything can happen, right?

Speaker 83 A very Jonas Christmas movie now streaming on Disney Plus in Hulu with the TBPG DL.

Speaker 34 The prosecution is about to rest in the case of North Carolina versus Raven Aberola, but then suddenly the proceedings come to a screeching halt.

Speaker 63 Someone in the DA's office discovers a long-forgotten hard drive from Janet's computer.

Speaker 15 This surprise hard drive was definitely a pivotal moment in the trial because it spoke to the thoroughness of the investigators. It spoke to whether this was something the prosecution had withheld.

Speaker 108 As soon as the state became aware Thursday morning that these items did exist, we immediately brought it to the court's attention and it was turned over Thursday afternoon.

Speaker 51 They're trying to dissect what kind of internet searches were being done before the murder, what kind of email contact there was.

Speaker 51 Lawyers discover email back and forth between Scott Hall, Janet's ex-boyfriend, and Janet.

Speaker 71 Miss Avaroa and a former boyfriend of hers, they're emailing each other every single day and they're trying to hide this. Some of the emails are flirty, some of them are sexual in nature.

Speaker 27 Janet dated him for a very long time and she

Speaker 27 was always, I guess you would say, flirtatious with Scott. You know, she still communicated with him, but when Raven moved in,

Speaker 27 she officially ended it with Scott. to start dating Raven.

Speaker 51 The defense immediately went to the judge and asked for a mistrial.

Speaker 72 Withholding those emails has allowed the state with its witnesses to present a very dishonest portrait of Miss Apparola, a dishonest portrait of my client, and a dishonest portrait of their relationship.

Speaker 72 Let's create this portrait of this domineering, controlling, awful person.

Speaker 5 And by doing so, that helps us convince the jury, well, no one else would have done it.

Speaker 72 It had to be him.

Speaker 15 But the judge is then buying it.

Speaker 104 The motion for mistrial in the court's discretion is denied.

Speaker 44 The judge says that this was just sloppy record keeping by the prosecution.

Speaker 40 The defense tried to paint it to be as if she were in some type of relationship with an ex-boyfriend and

Speaker 40 could this guy have done this because that relationship wasn't moving forward. That was, I think, their presentation of a possible suspect.

Speaker 5 And one of the things you talked about in these emails was other people not finding out out about emails, right? That's correct.

Speaker 33 I mean specifically you didn't want your wife to find out about me.

Speaker 99 Of course not.

Speaker 98 Let me ask you something, Mr. Hall.

Speaker 5 This is a woman you dated for three years in high school.

Speaker 98 Is that right?

Speaker 33 That's correct.

Speaker 5 And these text messages are March 3rd of 2005. Is that right? So less than 60 days later, she was murdered.

Speaker 4 Is that right?

Speaker 99 Yes.

Speaker 98 Did anybody ask you to submit a DNA sample or fingerprints or anything for exclusionary purposes?

Speaker 99 I'm happy to do it, but nothing on the path.

Speaker 4 Nothing for.

Speaker 51 He did say that he was at home in Virginia and there's no way that he was anywhere close to Durham, North Carolina on the night of the murder.

Speaker 108 We're working here on April 26, 2005.

Speaker 99 I was home.

Speaker 108 And why were we home?

Speaker 99 I had injured my back the weekend prior, so I was pretty much dead everywhere. I couldn't walk.

Speaker 8 Nothing for the guy.

Speaker 51 The defense, through this whole trial, they're trying to create reasonable doubt.

Speaker 16 Raven may not be a model husband, a model father.

Speaker 51 He's got some problems, but he's not a killer.

Speaker 28 There is this footprint on the property, and the defense attorneys just drive home that it was never matched to any of Raymond's shoes.

Speaker 113 We do know that all of Raymond's shoes were tested, including the ones that he was wearing that night, and there was no blood on the bottom of those shoes.

Speaker 113 There was no blood on the bottom of any of his shoes.

Speaker 48 But the state shows the jury one photo in particular that may show why a match for the footprint was never found.

Speaker 108 The defense told you they tested all of the defendants' shoes, but none of these were tested.

Speaker 4 None of them. And what do you see right there?

Speaker 8 409.

Speaker 108 So he had time to plan, he had time to act, he had time to clean up.

Speaker 32 The defense argues that the state always had it in for Raven Aberoa, and they keep holding up that missing hard drive from Janet's computer, pointing to it as Exhibit A.

Speaker 33 Let's talk about what that hard drive represents because it symbolizes as much as anything the prosecution of this case.

Speaker 4 It shows a pattern of the way the state deals with information.

Speaker 48 The defense went on picking apart the state's case piece by piece, trying to blow up that beautifully crafted mosaic.

Speaker 5 When it points away from Raven Apparol,

Speaker 79 without the presumption of innocence, everything's suspect.

Speaker 5 When you back up a computer disk, that becomes suspect. Leaving the dogs outside, somehow that is suspect.

Speaker 79 Everything is suspect when you presume the guilty.

Speaker 51 The prosecutor had this dramatic moment in closing arguments where she's trying to mimic what Janet went through after she was stabbed.

Speaker 24 He calls her.

Speaker 108 Come upstairs, Janet.

Speaker 107 He's waiting for her with the knife.

Speaker 101 Bang.

Speaker 108 She never saw it.

Speaker 54 Coming.

Speaker 108 She clutches her chest. She goes down to her knees at this point.

Speaker 108 What's he do? He comes up behind her. He's got to finish it.
He's already started it.

Speaker 108 He's going for her neck. She's trying to block him.
He stabs through her finger and ends up making a little mark. She falls face down.

Speaker 108 That's what this defendant did.

Speaker 10 The prosecution lists all the motives that Raven had for wanting to kill his wife.

Speaker 34 An unhappy marriage with an unwanted baby on the way, that deep financial hole.

Speaker 53 Did that half a million dollar insurance policy provide a way out?

Speaker 34 And they drag out that bizarre video by Raven.

Speaker 15 After a five-week trial, everyone's ready for closure.

Speaker 104 So the jury who'll be responsible for the verdict, guilty of first-degree murder or not guilty.

Speaker 24 Raven Aberoa was a horrible husband. There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 106 Verdict watch happening now in the Raven Aberoa murder trial.

Speaker 24 But defense attorneys will tell you, an adulterer does not a murderer make.

Speaker 48 It's been 34 days, a lot of emotional testimony, and now the jurors are going to have to decide, is that proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Raven Aberoa killed his wife?

Speaker 69 We were all pretty unanimous in that the defendant had done some fairly reprehensible things. It was just a matter of whether that was to the level of committing murder.

Speaker 51 This was a long trial.

Speaker 94 Janet's family was there watching every moment of it, hoping, praying for a guilty verdict.

Speaker 51 They believed Raven was guilty of murdering Janet and they wanted him locked up for life.

Speaker 21 It takes the jury three days, but they finally walk into the courtroom and they deliver a shocking decision.

Speaker 104 We consider ourselves to be at an impasse

Speaker 5 and that no additional time for deliberation will be of any benefit.

Speaker 8 We are a home jury.

Speaker 51 The jury was divided. Divided 11 to 1.
One person was a holdout. One person voting not guilty.
And that was Raven Aberroa's ticket to freedom.

Speaker 5 We can't make you reach a verdict.

Speaker 4 The court in this discretion will declare a misdrawal.

Speaker 15 You could see Janet's family is just crestfallen. They're heartbroken.

Speaker 15 Their pain is palpable, quite frankly, in the courtroom, because they really thought this was the case that was going to seal Raven Aberua's fate.

Speaker 18 That was our chance.

Speaker 17 We did our best

Speaker 18 and we failed

Speaker 18 by one person. We couldn't convince him enough.
We couldn't make him see the truth.

Speaker 69 When they played the 911 tape, it felt very real to him.

Speaker 4 You shot her something of blood.

Speaker 69 We felt like it was maybe a little bit of remorse over committing the crime, whereas he felt like he generally was shocked by finding his wife dead.

Speaker 68 Is your wife conscious?

Speaker 68 I'm with me now, just calm down, okay?

Speaker 69 He decided that it was better to let a guilty man go free than it would be to send the innocent man to prison.

Speaker 56 Prosecutors very quickly decide that it was just one holdout on that jury.

Speaker 51 They're going to try him once again and try to get a guilty verdict.

Speaker 19 So when you hear we're going to have to retry the case, what goes through your mind?

Speaker 29 He pretty much collapsed.

Speaker 4 Dread, definitely dread.

Speaker 39 It's going to be another long six weeks.

Speaker 62 You didn't want to go through another trial.

Speaker 8 No, no. We wanted it over.

Speaker 29 Over and done.

Speaker 51 Everybody's ready to sit through this trial once again, and we get this bombshell announcement from the district attorney's office.

Speaker 4 Have you pleaded guilty this morning pursuant to a plea law?

Speaker 98 Yes.

Speaker 106 A coward's plea.

Speaker 51 One of Durham's most high-profile murder cases coming to an end tonight.

Speaker 56 Raven has agreed to enter what's called an Alford plea, and it becomes essentially a guilty verdict on a manslaughter charge with a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Speaker 48 An Alford plea is an odd wrinkle in the law because you're basically saying, I'm going to take responsibility for this, but I'm not admitting guilt.

Speaker 48 I'll take the sentence, but I'm not saying I did it.

Speaker 34 Janet's family told me they accepted that deal for a lesser charge reluctantly because they didn't want to risk Raven getting acquitted after another lengthy trial.

Speaker 24 I believe that they did not want, under any circumstance, for Raven Ambaroa to get away to escape justice. Is it justice?

Speaker 24 It's a rough shot at justice.

Speaker 92 The defendant will receive an active active sentence of 95 to 123 months.

Speaker 34 Raven sentence eight to ten years, the maximum allowed under the deal.

Speaker 64 And with time served, Raven could be out in less than four years.

Speaker 48 Taking this deal and getting eight to ten years instead of the possibility of life in prison is a big win for Raven Aberoa.

Speaker 24 Raven Aberoa is going to be released from jail. He's going to walk free.
In my mind, that makes every woman out there a target.

Speaker 15 Raven was quiet throughout the trial. He never said a word.
But during this last part of the sentencing, he stands up and he explains why he's accepted this Alfred plea.

Speaker 46 I would just like to state that I didn't receive a fair trial the first time.

Speaker 46 I don't think I'll receive a fair trial the second time.

Speaker 46 And the fact is, I love my family very much.

Speaker 46 And I don't think it's worth risking the possibility of spending the rest of my life in prison for something I didn't do.

Speaker 79 I take this plea to ensure that that doesn't happen. And that's the only reason I did not kill my wife.

Speaker 29 That was like he was stabbing us right in the heart.

Speaker 35 We've had an open wound.

Speaker 39 It hasn't been healing at all. And him doing that just put salt in it.

Speaker 27 I'm angry for him taking her

Speaker 71 and him taking Caden's mom away.

Speaker 27 I wish that he would have just left.

Speaker 95 He would have just divorced her and left her alone.

Speaker 27 He just didn't leave her alone. He just let her go.

Speaker 24 I've asked this question so many times, I've quit asking it. What happened to divorce? Why not just get a divorce?

Speaker 9 When he gets out, I hope he goes back to Utah and tries the best to raise his son and put this behind him and correct the error of his ways. But I'm not,

Speaker 54 I don't know.

Speaker 9 His record tells us different, doesn't it?

Speaker 34 And Raven's ex-wife, Vanessa Pond, well, she has a warning for any woman involved with Raven.

Speaker 41 Your advice to women who

Speaker 62 come in contact with

Speaker 51 On Christmas Day of 2017, Raven Aberroa walked out of prison in North Carolina, a free man.

Speaker 40 You don't kill someone you love and just go to prison for a few years.

Speaker 18 I didn't think that would happen.

Speaker 17 I thought you go to jail the rest of your life.

Speaker 18 I guess that was naive of me.

Speaker 87 Raven Aberroa was one juror away from serving life in prison.

Speaker 48 He should feel very lucky

Speaker 48 that he's a free man.

Speaker 47 Was there justice here?

Speaker 29 It's not justice,

Speaker 30 but it is an end. Right.

Speaker 30 And we can move on.

Speaker 47 Guilty despite what he said in that courtroom.

Speaker 78 He's guilty.

Speaker 30 Definitely.

Speaker 4 Without a doubt. Pled guilty.

Speaker 39 He is guilty. It is on the record that he killed Janet.

Speaker 61 According to these photos posted by his mother on her Facebook page, Raven is now sporting a beard and living happily, it appears, alongside his now teenage son.

Speaker 13 I feel for him so much because everything

Speaker 13 will be out there as he grows.

Speaker 13 He'll learn all these things about his father. He'll learn these things about his mother.

Speaker 90 A mother that he never knew.

Speaker 95 And I really hope

Speaker 8 he turns out okay.

Speaker 34 Since Raven's release, we hear he's working and has even started dating.

Speaker 20 Human beings tend to repeat their behavior time and time again. For people like me, it would be a concern that he could easily repeat past behavior.

Speaker 9 Do your homework.

Speaker 47 Talk to somebody.

Speaker 54 Google Raven Aberoa.

Speaker 76 There's a lot of truth there.

Speaker 9 You know, I mean, he's a charming, engaging individual who's smart, but what you see is not what you're going to get. What Janet bought is not what she took home.

Speaker 9 And unfortunately, it cost her a life.

Speaker 33 We reached out to Raven Aberoa for comment, but he declined our request.

Speaker 41 Your advice to women who

Speaker 33 come in contact with?

Speaker 13 Please, please don't be drawn in.

Speaker 111 And please

Speaker 14 get away as fast, as fast as you can.

Speaker 95 Don't walk, run

Speaker 8 before

Speaker 8 you're caught in the trap.

Speaker 13 I was lucky enough to get out.

Speaker 13 Janet was not. I don't want to see that again.

Speaker 1 Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes.

Speaker 3 See you then.

Speaker 114 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 47 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist.

Speaker 51 At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 114 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.