Published: Jan 25, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 25, 2006 02:53 AM
$5,000 reward offered in slaying
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Samiha Khanna, Staff Writer
For nine months, family and friends have been waiting desperately for an arrest in the killing of Janet Abaroa, a young mother stabbed in her home.
On Tuesday, Durham police released more details about her last day alive and announced a $5,000 reward in the unsolved case.
In his first interview about the killing, the victim's husband said Tuesday that he hoped a reward, if not someone's conscience, would bring clues forward.
"Someone knows something," Raven Abaroa said in a telephone interview. "I don't know what it's going to take."
Janet Abaroa, 25, was found dead by her husband the night of April 26 inside her home at 2606 Ferrand Drive. Her 6-month-old son, Kaiden, was in the next room, uninjured, police said. At the time, police said there were no signs of forced entry and the crime was "not random," but they have not named any suspects.
On Tuesday, police said a laptop computer was missing from the home. They also said that on her last day, Abaroa went to pick up her son from day care, then she and her husband dropped off her car for repairs, according to a Durham police news release.
That evening, the couple hosted a friend from church at their home. About 8:30 p.m., Raven Abaroa went to Morrisville for a soccer game, the release said. About 11 p.m., he returned and found his wife dead, kneeling on the floor of a bedroom, according a medical examiner's report.
An autopsy report later showed that Abaroa was in the early stages of pregnancy when she was killed.
Little information has been released by authorities, but the case is still active, said Dena Kendall, 38, the victim's older sister.
"Our family has been in constant contact with the police," Kendall said Tuesday. Waiting for developments from police is frustrating, she said, "but we have to let them do their job."
Meanwhile, Raven Abaroa, 26, has moved to Utah with Kaiden. He left Durham shortly after his wife's death, he said, because there was no reason to stay.
"The only thing I had there was my family, and my family was taken from me," he said.
Months went by and Kaiden, now 1, took his first steps. He learned to kick a soccer ball, something that would have made his soccer-star mom proud, Raven Abaroa said.
"He knows who his mom is," he said. "He sees pictures of her and says, 'Ma,' " he added, sobbing.
Raven and Janet Abaroa were private people, and now strangers speculate on the details of their lives and the killing on Web sites, he said. He recognizes that even strangers want to see justice for his wife, but he also worries that people personify Janet as weak, as being helplessly victimized. They should remember her as the strong woman she was, he said.
"She [was] the epitome of what a woman should be," he said.
For the next six months, the Carole Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, based in Modesto, Calif., will pay $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the killing.
Carole Carrington, 72, started the foundation in 1999, when her own daughter, granddaughter and family friend were murdered on a trip to Yosemite National Park.
It was publicity of the reward that broke open that case and put a serial killer behind bars, Carrington said. Now, it is how she helps other families.
"When you've got a tragedy in your life, helping other people helps you, too," Carrington said in a telephone interview. Since 1999, the nonprofit foundation has offered more than $2.5 million in 364 cases, including the killing of congressional intern Chandra Levy. Durham CrimeStoppers also is offering up to $1,200 for information. Anyone with information is asked to call Investigator S.W. Vaughan at 560-4440, ext. 247, or CrimeStoppers at 683-1200.
Staff writer Samiha Khanna can be reached at 956-2468 or
skhanna@newsobserver.com.
