Post by Sher on May 17, 2005 5:59:55 GMT -5
A Real Crime from April 26, 2005 - The Murder of Janet Abaroa
About 3 hours before John Mason first called police to report his bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks missing in Duluth, Georgia, adjacent to Atlanta, a true, unrelated crime was committed 385 miles away in Durham, North Carolina. While Jennifer Wilbanks, the now infamous runaway bride, was on the first leg of the bus trip that eventually landed her by that payphone on a "seedy strip" of legendary Route 66 in Albuquerque, someone was murdering a young woman in Durham. This woman was only 25, and a mother to a 6-month-old baby. Her husband found her upon returning from a soccer match.
While the runaway bride was busy shedding the skin of her obligations on that bus, Janet Abaroa of Durham, N.C. was being stabbed to death.
From the Durham Herald-Sun:
"It was shocking, they seemed to be getting their act back together and we were working everything out," (Landlord Peter) Greijn said. "We had lowered their rent and we had worked it out for a year. They were glad because they could stay in the house."
Greijn said the arrangement was necessary because both Abaroas had lost their jobs, but had eventually found work at other places.
He said the couple had just signed the forms for the change in rent April 22, just four days before Janet Abaroa was killed.
"They came into my office and signed the paperwork," he said. "They were here with the baby and everything was fine." .
From later on in the Herald-Sun article:
Raven Abaroa, 25, had worked at Eurosport in Hillsborough, where he allegedly embezzled thousands of dollars and was charged with five counts of embezzlement on Feb. 2, according to court documents.
The alleged offenses occurred last year on the first of July, September, October, November and December.
The charges are pending and Raven Abaroa is scheduled to appear in court on June 10...
Raven Abaroa began a blog on April 25, 2005. He titled it "West Coast Collides With Tobacco Roads." There is only one entry.
The day before Janet was killed, he wrote the following:
In my early childhood I began to develop strengths that would help me in both my personal and professional life. I learned how to adapt to change, become outgoing and personable, and become aggressive in all my endeavors. The same experiences which made me strong also created weakness. As I was forced to grow up quickly I began to overlook my education, second guess myself, and loose focus easily. The strengths and weaknesses I developed in my childhood have played a role in my personal and professional life. As I grow in wisdom I am making efforts to improve upon my weaknesses while developing my strengths...
The lone blog entry is very long and one gets the impression it is both biography and inner dialogue, the man pouring out some things he'd kept in a while, just as many of us tend to do with blogs. He was talking to himself, perhaps working through this crossroads time on the screen, sorting things out.
This article from Durham's Channel 11 News website tells a bit more about the couple:
The couple had been married almost five years. They met while playing soccer at Southern Virginia University, where Janet Abaroa was an All-American.
It was their love of soccer, according to family members, that led Raven to go to a soccer game Tuesday night. When he returned, he went to Kaiden's room and kissed him good night. Raven discovered his wife's body moments later in another part of the house, according to one of his brothers...
The photos that accompany the article show an attractive young couple with their baby, both of them looking fresh out of college and like the athletes they were, Janet's smile easy, Raven looking relaxed in a gray hoodie as he holds the baby.
They were young and perhaps hitting some hard bumps, but things were picking up. The charges against Raven for embezzlement had yet to be tried in court, and more than one person has been accused of such financial indiscretions and been proven innocent, or at the least not had to serve jail time. Their baby son was chubby cheeked, charming.
This article from WRAL News, a station serving the Raleigh-Durham area, gives some early details that are intriguing:
Investigators spent nearly 24 hours on the scene, collecting evidence and talking with neighbors. However, police are not talking much at all, saying they don't want to hinder the investigation...
All the news articles I could find said the same thing - currently authorities have no suspects. At least one recent article however, contained the following pointed statement from Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael; "Nothing in the investigation so far indicates that the homicide was a random act..."
The pointed reference by the police spokesperson to the crime not being random could be construed as a vague reference to someone known to the victim being the killer. It could also indicate that perhaps Janet Abaroa was being stalked, or was targeted in some very specific way. The authorities also didn't spend nearly a full day at the scene for their health. That could indicate exhaustive and precise evidence-gathering.
This is a situation too that is not, initially, too grateful to Raven Abaroa, considering the financial pressures the family were experiencing, considering that he already had the embezzlement charges pending. However, at the moment he appears to have a solid alibi in his attending the soccer game, and if the Wilbanks case taught pundits, bloggers, messageboard posters anything, it taught us not to jump to abrupt conclusions about the present and/or living spouse in the wake of a disappearance or mysterious death. The crimes Abaroa is already accused of are financial, and do not indicate any proclivity for violence. The man is right now is a most likely emotionally tortured single father. The murder of one's wife at such a young age and the burden of an infant who will now never know his mother are two tremendous lodestones in addition to the charges of embezzlement.
Words from this article, published in the News-Observer, speak volumes about what Abaroa may be going through right now:
Janet and Raven Abaroa were together nearly seven years and would have celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary in August(...)
When the victim's parents tried to speak to Raven Abaroa by phone this week, the only words he could utter were so grief-stricken that they were incoherent(...)
Raven wrote these words in his blog the night before Janet was murdered:
I also understand that I am able to change my weaknesses through my ability to adapt and that by doing so I will achieve success...
He may not have had any idea at all just how terribly things were about to change in his life, and just how much he would have to adapt.
There are no known suspects in this case and anyone who believes they have pertinent information should call Durham CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200.
. It sickens me that so many families are hurting because there is no justice to the crimes being commited against them. when is it every going to stop?