MURDERED: Janet Abaroa
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.
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Episode Source Material
- ABC 20/20: The secret in her eyes (TV episode)
- Statement Analysis (blog): 911 call analyzed: Raven Abaroa
- WRAL: Search warrant reveals details in stabbing of Durham woman
- WRAL: Medical examiner: Janet Abaroa died quickly from fatal neck wound
- WRAL’s NC Wanted: Who killed Janet? (TV episode)
- WRAL: Picture further emerges of Janet Abaroa’s worries about husband
- The News and Observer: Woman’s family mourns. By Samiha Khanna
- Tears For Janet (website)
- WRAL: Raven Abaroa’s October 2007 interview with NC Wanted
- ABC News: How contact lenses blew a 2005 murder case wide open and led to a husband serving prison time, by Lauren Effron, Joseph Diaz, and Denise Martinez-Ramundo
- ABC News: Murder Mystery: What happened to Janet Abaroa, by John Quinones, Steven Schnee and Rena Furuya
- WRAL: Abaroa stole $15k in products from job, says former boss
- WRAL: Durham Police tightlipped about woman’s murder
- ABC 20/20: Sleeping with the enemy (TV episode)
- WRAL: Autopsy: Durham mother found dead in home was pregnant
- WRAL: One year later, no suspects in Durham mother’s slaying
- WRAL: Psychic called in to help solve Durham slaying
- The News and Observer: Slain woman was pregnant. By Samiha Khanna
- WRAL: Husband questioned in wife’s 2005 slaying
- WRAL: New info on husband in unsolved Durham murder
- WRAL: Durham widower’s new wife talks to police about unsolved murder
- WRAL: Second wife testifies of physical abuse by Raven Abaroa
- WRAL: Slain Durham woman’s body exhumed
- WRAL: Witness thought Janet Abaroa committed suicide
- WRAL: Husband arrested in Janet Abaroa slaying
- WRAL: Man charged in wife’s death returns to Durham
- WRAL: Judge orders remains of slain Durham woman be exhumed
- WRAL: Trial in Durham woman’s 2005 death approaches
- WRAL: State: Abaroa murder case comes down to words, actions
- WRAL: Lead detective faces tough questions from Abaroa defense
- The News and Observer: Jurors in Abaroa case see photos from 2005 stabbing. By Jane Porter
- WRAL: Abaroa trial testimony (Day 12, Pt 1)
- WRAL: Janet Abaroa was scared of husband, friend testifies
- WRAL: Detective: Abaroas spent more than they made
- WRAL: Lead detective was bothered by Raven Abaroa’s inconsistencies
- WRAL: Janet Abaroa’s family ‘terrified’ by deadlocked jury
- WRAL: Lone juror’s vote forces mistrial for Raven Abaroa
- WRAL: Abaroa pleads guilty but maintains innocence in wife’s 2005 death
Suggested Episodes
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 2
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. In Part 2, we look into cases of two other female dismemberment victims in Wisconsin with striking similarities to Rhys Pocan’s.
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 1
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. But while we were in the field, we uncovered a disturbing pattern of murders with similarities to Rhys’ that were just too blatant to ignore. So, we spent the next three years working with local and federal law enforcement to try and get to the bottom of it.
WANTED: The Keddie Cabin Killer
A family’s brutal murder rocks a tiny California town and leaves behind too many unanswered questions.
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