tv 2020 ABC August 9, 2014 9:00pm-10:01pm PDT
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. >> announcer: tonight a special two-hour "20/20" saturday. "sleeping with the enemy. a young mother, bleeding on the floor, her baby asleep in the next room and her husband devastated byes his wife's murd. then why does the second wife start playing detective on the internet. i thought, there's no way, there's no way. tonight we take you back to the crime scene to finally solve a mystery that stumped a southern town. a fingerprint they can't chase and bloody shoe print much was there a stranger in the house? >> never saw it coming. >> or was the killer closer to home?
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>> his laptop gets stolen and his wife is murdered by an intruder. >> watch as a cold case turns red hot with "20/20" putting it back on the radar. >> the suspect -- >> that's my new knife i got for christmas. >> the wife with secrets of her own and the detective's hunch to solve this crime needs to look in the victim's eyes literally. >> a secretary ordered the body to be exhumed. >> what happened to a divorce. why not just get a divorce? here now, john quinones. >> tonight, did a man get away with murder? it's the story of two wives, one dead, one arrived. a murder investigation that reached a deadend until "20/20" gets on the case. this evening what happens when a
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second wife does some digging on her own. you'll see why investigators insist on opening the case, by opening a grave. >> reporter: sometimes when you meet someone, you just know it's love. janet christiansen knew that from the moment she met raven abaroa in college. >> oh, raven swept her off her feet. he's very charismatic. he knows how to talk to people. he was prince charming, and she fell for him hard. >> reporter: janet grew up in a conservative mormon household, the seventh of ten siblings. her sisters say she was so easy to get along with. >> a very sweet spirit. loving, kind. she loved children. she had an opportunity to watch all of mine as they grew up. it's not just that she loved them. i mean, they all gravitate towards her. they loved her. >> reporter: outgoing? >> definitely. definitely she was. soccer, swimming, basketball. she was, yeah. she was into a lot of sports and very outgoing with that.
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>> reporter: at southern virginia university janet was a popular athlete with a steady boyfriend, but raven is smitten, and he persues her anyway. >> she was beautiful, attractive. i just felt so much comfort when i was with her. and we started this journey of just getting to know each other. it was just amazing. >> reporter: what would she say about him? >> he was just infatuated. i mean, he has this going for him. he was going to be successful. >> he tried very hard to make everybody believe he had a perfect life. >> reporter: janet's younger sister erika also attended svu and had a front-row seat for raven's courtship of janet. >> he did seem to be good to be true. he was going to make this much money, he was going to take care of my sister, they were gonna have the perfect marriage, the perfect family, the perfect life together. >> reporter: erika, however, is not so sure about the new man in her sister's life. >> i was wary of him.
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and my first impression was, why is he trying so hard? but i thought, you know, okay, janet likes him. this is her boyfriend. >> reporter: janet is convinced they can have a storybook life together. a fairy-tale wedding at the mormon temple in washington, d.c., is not far behind. >> she was 20, i believe. he was 19. i wouldn't say that it's abnormal for a lot of lds people to get married at such a young age. >> it was awesome to be able to kneel across from her and marry her for time and eternity. >> reporter: for these newlyweds "time and eternity" begins at their new starter home in the small colonial river town of smithfield, virginia. they attend the local church where they meet neighbors tim dowd and his family. tim becomes a sort of father figure. >> we were just part of a big family. they both came from big families, and they didn't have any family in the immediate area, so they kind of adopted
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us. >> hey, everybody, merry christmas. >> reporter: in their christmas video card, the abaroas seem like the perfect, happy couple. >> we wish you the best and the warmest feelings this holiday season. janet, what would you like to say? >> i would like to say merry christmas and a happy new year. >> yeah, he appeared to have his act together. i mean, he was young, newly married, had bought their first home, had a couple nice cars and a motorcycle. like, "wow, this guy's kind of off to a pretty fast start." >> reporter: but the perfect man tim admires, is secretly breaking the seventh commandment, thou shall not submit adultery. the young couple soon moves to durham, north carolina, where they both land jobs at a sporting goods company, and that's when raven confesses to janet that he is sleeping around. >> 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. and very soon after that she
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found out she was pregnant. >> she didn't know what to do. she didn't want to raise the baby as a single mother. >> reporter: just two and a half years into their marriage raven moves out, leaving janet alone, pregnant and completely lost. she desperately reaches out to a family she trusts. >> you could tell she wanted -- she needed somewhere to go. she was crying, very distraught. and she told me she loved raven and that she didn't want to have this child by herself. she took her marriage very seriously. i mean, she's a member of the mormon church. she was sealed in the temple. so this was a commitment for life and beyond. so she was trying to figure out, "how do i fix this, given all this, the terrible circumstances i find myself in." >> reporter: tim agrees to talk to raven, man-to-man. after all, he sees him almost like a son. >> 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." >> he promised, swore up and down, that he would no longer
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cheat on her, that she was the only one for him. he would make it work. >> reporter: months later, raven moves back in when janet gives birth to a boy, kaiden. raven appears to be a loving father, in awe of his son. >> after he moved back in, according to janet, it was a day-by-day process. one day he was happy, one day he was not. so she really never knew what to expect. but he was there, and he was saying that he wanted to raise their son together. i wouldn't say that she was happier in her marriage, but she was happy to be a mother. >> reporter: it doesn't take lo for raven to once again stray from the path. this time, he is caught stealing high-end athletic equipment from his employer and reselling it to make ends meet.
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the young father pleads guilty to embezzlement, avoiding time behind bars. and once again, janet stands by her man. >> he picked the perfect wife where he could continue to, you know, do what he wanted, basically. someone who would stay devoted to him and committed to him because she had made that commitment. >> reporter: and for a while, janet makes it work. the young parents seem back on track. one spring night raven says he was getting ready to go play soccer. >> we looked at kaiden sleeping, made sure everything was good with him, and put our arms around each other and said, "i really love you." >> reporter: as raven recalls, janet is getting ready for bed when he leaves. later that evening he says he returns to make a horrifying discovery. >> i'd always go in and give kaiden a kiss and just feel his warm little body. and that's, you know, when i found out that something was wrong. >> reporter: that would prove to
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>> durham 911, where is your emergency? >> i'm at home. my wife -- she's dead! there's blood everywhere. >> reporter: police and e.m.s. respond, but they arrive too late. >> just before 11:00 tuesday night, durham police are called to this ferrand drive home. when they arrive they find 25-year-old janet abroa murdered. police aren't saying how she was killed. and the sight of police tape and investigators in this normally quiet neighborhood came as a shock. >> reporter: early the next morning janet's parents are awakened by a phone call. it's raven. >> he was calling to tell them that janet was dead, and she had committed suicide. >> we automatically knew that was not right. she wouldn't have done that to kaiden. >> she never would have killed herself, ever. we knew that wasn't true. >> reporter: in fact, police quickly realize raven's claim of suicide is flat out wrong. janet has been murdered, and not with a gun. she's been stabbed to death. cathy cheek and janet were
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co-workers and close friends. that same day she turns on the morning news. >> hours after the discovery the body of the young woman was removed from the home. >> reporter: she races to janet's home on ferrand drive. >> i got there. saw the yellow crime lab tape. i was thinking maybe it's not this house, maybe it's next door. but it was her house. a little tiny blond-headed girl that's dead. i didn't want it to be her, but it was. >> reporter: crime scene investigators find a bloody footprint and an unidentified fingerprint. raven also reports his laptop and a knife have gone missing. was this a robbery gone bad? janet's murder is the talk of the town. >> janet abaroa was found inside her ferrand drive home last -- >> -- with appeared to be a stab wound in her chest. >> reporter: but nobody has any answers. police inspect all the windows
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and doors in janet's home and find no sign of forced entry or a break-in. >> we'd like anybody that has any information to call us, no matter how insignificant they think it is. >> reporter: in an outpouring of greif, janet's family hosts a vigil in downtown durham. purple ribbons, janet's favorite color, are worn, candles are lit, and hymns are sung. janet's family and friends are desperate to find out what happened to janet. raven, on the other hand, not so much. >> i kept talking to raven. "you've got to help solve this case." >> reporter: tim dowd is shocked when only four days after the murder, raven leaves town, taking kaiden. they go to his boyhood home outside salt lake city. is it too painful for him to stay? or is he running? >> my thought is, if somebody were to murder my wife or a child, or any close family member of mine, i'm banging on
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the police door saying, "what have you done lately?" raven did nothing. he left, and never came back, with the exception of sneaking into ton once to pick up his furniture, and he left. >> he hasn't helped the police. he hasn't, like, set out a reward of, you know, help me find my wife's killer. >> raven provided cooperation at the beginning of the investigation, but there've been subsequent requests for interviews that have gone unanswered. >> reporter: police would like to ask raven some questions, especially about the knife that went missing the night janet was killed. remember that christmas video? with janet in the background, raven weirdly brags about a brand-new knife for his collection. >> that's my new knife. i got it for christmas, thank you, i bought myself. my dad would be very proud. i like to collect knives. >> reporter: but could someone else have used one of raven's knives to stab janet? the bloody footprint and fingerprint at the crime scene don't match raven. janet's sisters start playing detective.
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the amateur sleuths uncover several things that don't add up. he said it was an intruder. >> raven said it was a break-in. the detectives didn't say it was a break-in. >> there were no signs of a break-in. >> there was no signs of an intruder. >> no signs of a struggle. >> i said, "no way." there is no way that somebody came into her home because i know janet's habits. number one, she always locked the door. number two, there was no broken glass or anything like that, so it wasn't an intruder. >> reporter: the sisters might not have experience in criminal law, but nancy grace does, and she doesn't buy the intruder story either. >> there is no forced entry. there is no sign of struggle. there is no sex attack. there is no robbery for anything of value. her rings are still sitting there by the sink. this is what was missing -- some of his beloved knife collection. his wife was stabbed to death. and his laptop.
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>> reporter: the sisters also uncover a possible motive. >> he had taken out a life insurance policy soon after she was pregnant with kaiden. >> reporter: how much was the policy? >> $500,000. >> reporter: is he capable of doing that? doing it for the insurance money? >> absolutely. >> reporter: any doubt in your minds that raven killed your sister? >> all: no. >> reporter: and kaiden, the baby, was in the next room. >> uh-huh. >> yup. >> reporter: how could a father do this? >> someone who's very self-absorbed with no conscience. it's all about him. it's not about janet, and it's not about kaiden. it's about him and his needs and his wants at that point. >> reporter: the abaroa's old neighbor, tim dowd, is also studying every detail of the case. >> it all points to one, and only one, place, and that's raven abaroa. and i, it tears me up to say
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that 'cause i looked at him at one point in my life as a son. he was on the inner circle of our family. you know, and that's a -- that's pretty shocking. and it was hard for me to come to that realization, but i had no other alternative. everything points back to raven. >> reporter: but opinions of grieving family and friends are not enough to make an arrest for murder. without new evidence that will hold up in court, police have nowhere to go. >> we would obviously like to talk to raven. he hasn't been ruled out as a person of interest. but it's still an open investigation. >> reporter: raven may have stopped talking to police, but he's not keeping his mouth shut. he makes his case for the court of public opinion on a local tv show. >> i wasn't off involved with the death of my life. that i would do anything in the world to keep her here with me and that's just -- that's something i know and i think that's something the people who truly know janet and truly know me can understand and appreciate. >> reporter: was raven innocent? could the murderer be a stranger who left a bloody footprint?
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or is raven a killer on the loose, out in utah, now a smiling bachelor with a new woman in his life. did he mention his ex-wife? >> yes, as we were just starting to date. >> reporter: did he say she was murdered? see what happens next. ice: gogo go go go...a go... vo: kraft mac & cheese teenage mutant ninja turtles shapes. you know you love it. it's breakfast.nd crackles and comes from a kitchen, have breakfast for breakfast.
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>> announcer: "sleeping with the enemy" continues. once again, john quinones. >> reporter: in durham, north carolina, time stands still for the friends and family of janet abaroa. just as it does for the investigation. what's left is one of the biggest unsolved crimes in durham history. meanwhile, on the other side of the country in the heart of utah's salt lake valley, single mom vanessa pond raises her 11-year-old daughter. the only man she can depend on is her father, and he says, she's fine with that. >> i used to jokingly refer to her as the "president of the man-hater's club." >> reporter: so when this man, raven abaroa, a good-looking 28-year-old widower, tries to chat her up at their children's school, vanessa is less then impressed. >> i wanted nothing to do with him or the conversation he was trying to have. >> reporter: but within minutes,
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raven cracks vanessa's hard shell, and she agrees to have lunch with him. what was it about him that you liked? >> he seemed very up-front, very honest and genuine. and i found that, you know, he was a single father. and i really, really admired that. i'd been a single mom for five years. i know what it takes to raise a child. i thought maybe i'll give him a chance because he could be a fantastic father, fantastic husband. >> reporter: he might be. >> i finally fell for the nice guy, is what i thought. >> reporter: vanessa and raven were both raised mormon, and she felt she could take raven and his son, kaiden, under her wing. did he mention his ex-wife? what happened to her? >> yes. as we were just starting to date he just mentioned that, "my wife actually died." so i immediately felt so sorry for him, and i felt as though i
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wanted to be there for him. and accept him. and kaiden. and to take them in, and give them all the love that they're missing out on. >> reporter: did he say she was murdered? >> he said that there was an intruder and that she was killed. and that he'd found her, and he left it at that. >> reporter: but vanessa, the daughter of a policeman, can't leave it at just that. she immediately goes online to learn all she can about raven's first wife. >> breaking story right now -- >> 25-year-old janet abaroa has been stabbed. >> stand wounds. stabbed in the chest. no one has been ruled out as a suspect. >> that night i stayed up until about 4:00 in the morning reading blogs, watching his interviews, reading all the news stories about it. and going out of my mind. >> reporter: thinking what? >> i wasn't convinced that he was innocent.
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>> reporter: and this doesn't help -- a local tv interview ravens taped after his wife's death. >> janet died that night. >> i remember watching the interview, and i wasn't convinced. in the interview, they asked him, what he saw when he came home to? >> 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. it's bus i have so many good memories with her, you know, that i hate thinking about the bad times. >> so i went over and i spoke with him, asked him the questions that i had. and he removed 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. >> reporter: vanessa becomes convinced that raven is not responsible for his wife's murder.
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now he would try to persuade her to start a life with him. >> he started talking about me moving in after probably just a few weeks, and that was very, very fast for me. especially since i had my daughter to think about. and i told him that i wouldn't be moving in with anybody if i wasn't at least engaged to them, knowing that i'm going to spend the rest of my life with them. >> reporter: were you worried that this might be a mistake? >> i didn't have a question in my mind at the time. >> reporter: vanessa's father may be retired from the police force, but he has a cop's hunch and a father's instinct. >> the christian side of me wants to believe that he is innocent till proven guilty. the police officer side of me says there is just -- there is something wrong with this picture somewhere. >> reporter: raven is summoned to an awkward face-to-face meeting with vanessa's parents. >> they asked him if he had had anything to do with his wife's death. >> and his response was, well, he kind of sidestepped the question, and he didn't say, "yes, i did it," or, "no, i didn't do it."
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>> he said, "i loved my wife. i loved her so much." >> which insinuates that he didn't do it. but he didn't come right out and say that he didn't. >> he was in tears. and vanessa went over and put her arm around him to console him and comfort him. >> and she says, "no, i know the guy by now, and i am really convinced that he is not guilty of this." >> at the end, they still had their reservations. but soon after that, raven asked my dad for my hand in marriage. >> it happened fast. it was like they met december-ish, i am thinking, in 2007. and by march, he was having her move in with him. by may, they were engaged. >> reporter: back east, janet's family learns through the grapevine about raven's new life. and they are alarmed to learn he's planning to remarry. so they reach out to vanessa with a dire warning. >> he's a dangerous person. >> we were fearful for her.
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as we are fearful for any woman that he becomes involved with. >> and they said, "well, vanessa, if we can tell you one thing, it's get out now." >> reporter: get out. >> yeah. i was heartbroken. i did not want to believe, at all, that he had done this. >> reporter: and she still married him. >> yes. >> reporter: what does that tell you? >> that he is a really good salesman. >> reporter: vanessa and raven are married in her parents' backyard. it would be a blended family, his 7-year-old son and her 6-year-old daughter. vanessa's mom gives her a kiss and gives raven a message. >> just take good care of my little girl. he promised me he would. >> reporter: a honeymoon in las vegas follows, and raven tells his bride something that still makes her shudder to this day. >> he started talking about janet and how mad he was after she died.
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not how sad. not how heartbroken. just mad. >> reporter: at whom? >> just that she was dead. and then he cuddled up closer to me, and he said, "i promise i'll never hurt you." i didn't know what to think about that. or how to feel about that. it scared me. >> reporter: and that's not all that scares her. even before the honeymoon is over, an outburst from nowhere. >> within moments he could switch. he could say the most horrible things. i was an f'ing whore, a lot, an f'ing "b" word, and that one thing you never call a woman, that "c" word. and then moments later, he would apologize.
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"i'm sorry. i was just mad. that's just what i say when i'm mad. that's just what i do." >> reporter: then, vanessa says, the mood swings become physical. >> he grabbed me from the door and threw me up against the wall, and then i fell. later, he tried to convince me that i had tripped. he began to call my own family and my own friends and my co-workers, telling them that i was horribly depressed and bipolar, and that i probably needed to be institutionalized. >> reporter: just weeks into her marriage, vanessa's living a nightmare. back on the other side of the country, a man she has never heard of, begins working to prevent vanessa from becoming the next victim. >> i kind of studied raven. i mean, he's certainly a narcissist, and i played the
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dumb southern cop, and he ate it up. >> reporter: stay with us. t's g. okay! a toshiba touch laptop just $349. that sounds good! 8-sharpie permanent markers, only $3.97. that sounds good! $99 for a 10-inch tablet with a built-in keyboard? that sounds good! get a smarter start to school. save $25 when you open a new walmart credit card account and spend $75 today at walmart. paid as a statement credit. offer valid through 12/31/14. apply today. save money. live better. walmart. [ male announcer ] over time, you've come to realize... it's less of a race... and more of a journey. so carry on... with an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. go long.
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continues. once more, john quinones. >> reporter: before the honeymoon is even over, raven abaroa's second wife, vanessa, suspects he got away with murdering his first wife janet. he could get away with murder. >> i think he thinks he has. >> reporter: but vanessa says, at least for a while, raven is able to fool her and police. >> he would make me believe full-heartedly that everyone else was trying to pin everything on him and that he was an innocent man. >> the bottom line is that i was not involved with the death of my wife, that i would do anything in the world to keep her here. >> reporter: but janet's family and friends say they were never fooled. >> i knew he killed her the morning i found out, the exact second. there was no doubt in my mind. >> i wanted to believe that it was somebody else.
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but it kept just going through my mind, and the only person that pointed to was raven. >> and my instantaneous, nanosecond reaction was, "oh, my god, raven has killed janet." >> reporter: so if raven is the monster janet's family and friends say he is, how did he get two smart, independent women to marry him? >> he's a master at what he does. he -- at first he comes off very charming. prince charming. he studies you. learns everything about you. everything that you want him to be. and he plays that part to a tee. >> reporter: he becomes the person you want him to be? >> yeah. and then you find out later what's really behind the facade. >> reporter: janet's family also saw raven's chameleon-like transformations. he could turn it on and off. >> all: oh, yes. turn it on and off.
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>> depending on who he was with is whatever image he wanted you to believe he was. i mean, he -- he should've been a hollywood actor. i mean, he's perfect. he can do any image you want. >> reporter: janet's sisters catalog all the lies. they discover he started deceiving everyone even before he said, "i do." >> we always attended church every sunday as children. so we were brought up religious. and she continued that on. she chose a person to marry who was also lds. >> reporter: in order to be married in the washington, d.c., temple, raven told church officials he did his missionary work in peru. true? >> false. he never went to the mission training center, he never had a passport, he never went to peru. 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
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you didn't even go. his whole existence with that family and with janet was based on a monumental lie. >> reporter: from the very beginning? >> from the very beginning. >> reporter: and remember how impressed tim was by raven's "fast start"? the nice house and all those fancy cars? well, tim recalls one car in particular. >> they had a brand-new honda sc2000,which is about a $30,000 car. that car mysteriously burned up in the middle of the night, at 4:00 in the morning. it just burned up. no longer existed. and i just thought, wow, that's kind of strange. and then he commented several weeks later, he was upset with the insurance settlement, because they weren't paying him full value of the car. >> reporter: raven needed that insurance money, he was flat broke. after losing his job for embezzling, things got so bad for janet and raven they began receiving assistance from the church. >> he spent way beyond his means. and then subsequent, i find out that, he took out a $500,000 life insurance on janet, which just doesn't sit
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right with me. 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. you know, me, if i can't put food on the table, maybe i shouldn't be paying for life insurance. >> reporter: liar, cheater, deadbeat perhaps. but a murderer? the durham police are not willing to take that big step. >> 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 our -- the burden of proof, and for us, we're going to make sure we present the best case possible. >> reporter: the case gets passed from one detective to the next, and still the durham police make no arrests. tim dowd meets with investigators constantly and is convinced they should be doing more to charge raven.
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>> i think there's a total lack of consistency and continuity in this thing. this is a circumstantial case. it's hard. it's not easy. well, you know what? sometimes justice isn't easy. >> reporter: so janet's family decides to go public appearing on abc "primetime crime." >> cases that seem impossible to crack. crimes that seem impossible to solve. that's why there's primetime crime. >> reporter: i sat down with the sisters who were hoping to turn up the heat on this cold case. >> it's been four years. i don't -- and nothing. >> reporter: he's out free. out there -- >> yes, he is. >> reporter: doing what he wants. >> yes, he is. >> reporter: does that anger you? >> very much so. >> yes. and fearful for other women or other people that come in contact with him. but he needs to be stopped from hurting anybody else. like vanessa. i mean, we're concerned about other people and other people getting hurt.
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and if we could prevent that, then we feel like we're -- at least we're accomplishing something. and that janet's death wasn't just for nothing. >> reporter: as part of our story, we went to raven's mother's house to get his side of the story, but raven and his family didn't want to talk. >> reporter: after our program airs, something remarkable happens. >> the very next day we get a call from the durham police department saying, "we've assigned a new detective to the case. detective charles sole." and then charles very quickly reached out to the family, reached out to myself. it was absolutely critical. >> reporter: so critical that the case is back in the headlines. nancy grace begins looking into the facts and sees no reason why the investigation is stalled for so long. >> very often you will hear the defense argue that it's only circumstantial. let me remind everyone that under the law, circumstantial evidence is deemed as powerful, if not more so, than direct
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evidence. a jury can weigh it as such. >> reporter: do you think it -- the police got involved because they saw it on television after our piece? >> i like to think so. because it started becoming much more active. the case started becoming -- becoming much more active once we put things out there. and i'm very grateful for that. >> reporter: remember. it's been four years since janet was stabbed to death in her own home as her 6-month-old son slept in the next room, detective charles sole is determined to bring the killer to justice. he has his work cut out for him. >> the hard part about this case, too, is, for me, is it's almost like you had to have like a time machine to go back. >> reporter: what detective sole couldn't have known was that his trip back in time would bring him face to face with the victim. a clue police can only uncover by looking directly into janet's eyes. and to do that, he'll have to
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>> announcer: detective charles sole was one of the first to respond to the janet abaroa murder with a k9 police dog. five years later he's made detective, and the cold case is now all his. he starts by going over raven's version of events. >> i'd always go in and give kaiden a kiss. and that's, you know, when i found out that something was wrong. janet died that night. i wasn't there. >> reporter: now sole reaches out to raven, who is 2,000 miles away in utah. >> hey, let me call this guy and
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see if he wants to talk to this, you know, north carolina detective. i kind of studied raven. i mean, he's certainly a narcissist, and i played the dumb southern cop, and he ate it up. >> reporter: but raven is suspicious about the call. watch this strange video he records after one of those nosy phone calls form detective sole. he wonders what that cop is really after. >> all right, we'll see you later. i don't feel too good about that. i feel myself getting frustrated. i'm not 100% sure why. you know, the more stuff i give them, the more stuff that gets leaked to any type of pending litigation. >> reporter: as always, money is the first thing on raven's mind as he wonders how he might bankroll a defense. >> i need to win the lottery. you know, and if i were to win $3 million, i would dedicate $2 million to fighting this. two-thirds of my winning, if
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you would, so -- and oh to make janet's name more recognizable in southern virginia. >> "i need to win the lottery. oh, by the way, i would do something for janet as well." so, come on. you know, those type of things certainly were interesting. >> reporter: sole speaks with raven several times, and his story keeps changing. >> the lights were on, the lights were off. the child was crying, the child wasn't crying. you don't get those things wrong if you're telling the truth. >> reporter: detective sole is also struck by what he doesn't hear in raven's ten-minute 911 call. >> the most important thing about that call is, not once does raven ever ask for help for his wife. >> yes, and my baby's crying.
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you need to breathe, honey, you need to breathe. >> he never called for help than when people call 911, that's what they do. >> reporter: next on the detective's list, studying the crime scene photos. if janet was killed by an intruder, as raven stated, sole would expect to see signs of a violent struggle. >> nothing was disturbed in that room. 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. so it would've been normal for that room to be destroyed in the struggle. >> reporter: the veteran detective simply doesn't buy raven's story that this was a robbery gone bad. >> to have someone break into your house, pass a wedding set, you know, her diamond ring. her engagement band. the electronics, which are commonly stolen in a break-in. to go upstairs to steal a knife and a computer, it was very odd. >> reporter: the missing knife from raven's beloved collection, detective sole says raven is very touchy on that subject.
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>> when i brought up the whole throwing knife thing, it always was like a dentist poking at a tooth that's bad. he became frustrated with me like, why do you care about this? well, it's kind of important. your wife was stabbed to death. >> reporter: knowing police are desperate to find the murder weapon, raven records another strange video, which police will later find. that's raven's hand, caressing the blade. >> all right, this is a knife that has been in my possession since i got my stuff back from when my brother and dad moved out of my house for me after janet passed away. >> reporter: raven says the knife was in his office at the time of janet's murder, but that it was overlooked by crime scene investigators, a story detective sole finds highly unlikely. >> you gotta remember, we're talking about less than a 10 by 10 room. 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? >> it's a throwing knife.
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i'm going to be mailing this so that he can give it to detectives. >> reporter: is raven taunting detectives? could this be the murder weapon? >> it just kind of was bizarre that, you know, he would all the sudden mail a knife that would be consistent with the wound that she received. >> reporter: one more thing nagging at sole. remember raven told police janet was getting ready to go to bed when he left the night of her murder. so detective sole is struck by one crime scene photo in particular. >> the statement of "my wife was ready to go to bed, you know, when i left." well, when you look through the crime scene photos, the first thing i'm looking at is, well, her contact lens case is open. >> reporter: sole learns from janet's family that she would always take her lens out at night. if janet was wearing her contacts when she died, that suggests raven may have been lying about her going to bed
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before he left. >> i said to myself, "well, if she's ready to go bed, you know, and she still has her contacts in, you know, that's unusual." >> reporter: if that hunch is right, it could blow a hole in raven's alibi. detective sole decides to take a drastic step. >> the only way to support it would be to physically check her eyes. because, you know, the m.e.'s report didn't denote contact lens being present when they did her autopsy here in north carolina. >> the body of janet abaroa is being exhumed tonight. >> 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. but i understood why, and i knew the importance of it. >> reporter: in an age of csi and dna, authorities go to work in a peaceful pennsylvania cemetery with the bluntest investigative tool of all, a backhoe. >> it was a necessary part of the process, but it was, it was horrible to see the family have to go through that. >> reporter: would sole find
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what he was looking for? would this be the piece of evidence to finally answer the question, who killed janet abaroa? >> announcer: stay with us as a cold case suddenly turns to ice in a courtroom. >> stab wound in her chest. >> the new wife still alive but now in fear for her life. >> are you convinced you would have been the next victim? >> and their baby-faced husband. >> raven aboroa is a horrible husband. but an adulter does not a murder make. >> was he yielding the knife in real life movies. tonight, a trail of frightened mistresses in court. >> if something happens to
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