Episode 422: Rachel Hansen

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1:00The first degree. First degree. First degree. First degree. The first degree. Get on the news. Get on the K-grade. Get on the face. These things are supposed to happen in movies, not real life. She was by herself and weird as thing. She woke up at two or three in the morning to this guy standing over her. Next to her bed, looking down at her. And she didn't hear until then. He had a key to come in the apartment. The apartment was locked that night. He had a key. So it was probably somebody related to the gang that was there before. So when she woke up and saw him, obviously she screamed. Welcome to the first degree of the True Crime Podcast that you might end up on.

2:00My name is Jack Vannick. I'm sitting here at the Alexis Lindgletter. Happy hump day. Happy hump day. Happy hump day. We're getting into the fall. It's feeling good. I hope everybody is in a good mood. Maybe the air is a little crisp where you are. It's definitely not crisp here. But that's okay. Yeah. It's making me my problem with it. It's making me so sluggish this heat. I know. I'm so tired and I have so much to do. And it's like weighing me down. I know. And all I want is a festive little drink. I know. And it's not hitting. I'm dying to want a hot toddy. I don't want it because it's hot. But I can't wait till that moment where I'm like, ooh, a warm mug in my hand sounds like exactly what I want. We'll get there in January. That's the whole day. It's for kind of. Yep. It'll be cold till March. Uh, California. Well, before we start today's episode, of course, I have to remind you, if you want more first degree content, we have this thing called the Underground. It's where all of our premium content lives.

3:01So many episodes for you to binge, a brand new episode for you every single week. We would love to have you because it really is how we keep our podcast to float with your support. So how can they join Lux? You can join through Apple subscriptions or you can join through Patreon and link your Spotify and soon YouTube. Soon YouTube. But with Apple subscriptions, you get a seven day free trial. You can try it out. So if you like it, and then of course you should stay because you love us. And then yeah, you could also start watching us on YouTube if you would like to because our episodes are up there now. Literally yes. Nice. All right. Well, that's enough of that. So let's turn down the lights and turn up your anxiety because this could be you. When someone is murdered, their family is left with questions they never expected to have to ask who did this?

4:03Why did this happen? And how could something like this happen to someone that they love? For Rachel Hansen's family, those questions changed everything. But in the years since losing Rachel, they found a way to keep her name, her passions, and even one of her dreams alive. Because Rachel's story is about far more than what happened to her. It's about the life she lived and the legacy her family continues to build in her honor. Today's case begins on Saturday, June 4th of 2022. The top songs on the charts included as it was by Harry Styles, First Class by Jack Harlow, to wait for you by future featuring Drake and Thames. The most popular movies and theaters were Top Gun Maverick, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and the Bob's Burger movie. The setting for today's case is Gilbert, Arizona, located southeast of Phoenix, Gilbert as a population of just under 300,000 people. And despite having that many people, it's still incorporated as a town, not a city.

5:04And it's actually because the most populous incorporated town in the United States and has been dubbed the largest town in America. Our first degree for today's case is Kim Hanson, and she raised her family in Gilbert. In Kim's family is a big one. She and her husband Todd have four biological children, along with nine adopted children. And since the early 2000s, they fostered more than 100 children. And one of the children Kim and Todd fostered and later adopted was Rachel and Hanson, born on June 12th of 2002. Rachel came to the Hansons when she was just six years old. She was actually the oldest child Kim and Todd had ever fostered or adopted, because most of their children came to them as babies. The Hansons got the call about Rachel because they had already adopted her older sister Grace. Grace had come to the Hansons when she was a newborn. She came up birth because when she was born, mom was in jail for drugs.

6:05And so she was taken at birth and then mom was out of jail in a rehab facility when Rachel was born. So she was allowed to keep Rachel during that time. When Rachel was around two and a half years old, her mom abandoned her. Her birth mom abandoned her, then the guy that she was living with that took care of her from three to five years old, who she thought was her dad, because she didn't know any different, because she was only like two and a half when her mom left. But he was an older man. He was like 60 when you're three, you don't really, you don't know. Anyway, she got home from kindergarten one day and he was dead on the floor of their apartment. So that was an abandonment for her. And then she went into emergency receiving foster care. And she was with a family for about six months that told her that they were going to adopt her and then they changed their minds and told her, we're not going to adopt you now,

7:07but you can live with us and tell CBS Finds Your Forever Family. Eventually Rachel's case was transferred to the adoption section. A case worker started researching Rachel's family and learned that her sister had been adopted by the Hansons. So in late January of 2009, the worker reached out to see if Kim and Todd would be interested in adopting Rachel as well. Kim was actually at a jewelry store with one of her adult daughters who was shopping for an upcoming wedding. When she got that call, I was actually we were actually in a jewelry store buying things for the wedding because at that time we had three little girls grace. We had another foster daughter named Jayanna and then we had faith. And so we were buying necklaces and things for them to wear in the wedding and my phone ring. And I was like, I'm going to wear a necklace. So I handed my credit card to my daughter that was getting married and said, here, pay for this. I've got to go out and take this call. So I went out in the parking lot and took this call and it was about Rachel and she told

8:10me the story and said, we're we found you because you adopted her older sister who's just one year older. And we're looking for an adoptive home. Would you be interested? And I said, absolutely 100%. I feel like she's already ours. And so we hung up. I went back inside and I said, Lindsay, we need to go get everything for one more little girl. So we bought one more of everything and she was in the wedding in May with the other girls. So yeah, it was just that fast. Kim and Todd were so glad to have Rachel in their home with her sister. But things weren't always easy. Rachel came to us at six years old and had a very traumatic six years of her life. So that made her a little bit of a challenge in that she was extremely independent, which

9:12remained through all of her life. But especially when she was little because she had just cared for herself most of that time. And I had learned so many things and was very independent, like I said, in food, take your herself in a lot of ways. So initially it was really a process of helping her learn that she didn't have to be the mom. She didn't have to be in charge of everything. She was just a little independent soul that just I would try to help her brush her hair and she would say, I can do it myself. And she was diagnosed with rad reactive attachment disorder, very common for children that are in foster care that have traumatic early beginnings and having so many abandonments. Because when we would try to parent a little too much, she would push us away. Like she wanted to do it.

10:12She wanted to do it her way. But she also didn't want to be away from us. So we took a few years working through some of that just reassuring her that she didn't have to do everything and she could let me help her. And she thrived on that once she realized that it was okay. And so she just really began to thrive in being able to be a child and do things for fun not because she had to take her herself. Three months after the Hanson started fostering Rachel, her adoption was about to go through. And at that point, Rachel got to pick her name. She always loved to brag that she got to name herself. Because when she came to us, her birth name was Rochelle. And when her adoption was coming up, she was, I was making dinner and she was sitting

11:17on the counter in the kitchen next to the stove where I was making dinner. And we were talking about it. And she said, when I'm adopted, do I get a new name? I said, that's up to you. Because you're old enough to choose, if you want a new name. And all of our other kids have Bible names. Matthew, Zachariah, Andrew, Grace, and Faith, and Benjamin. She said, I want to name from the Bible. And so we thought about it. And I suggested Rachel. I said, because it's close to Rochelle, starts with an art. It's close. And she said, yeah, that's perfect. I want to be called Rachel. Rachel was officially adopted on May 14th, a very special day. Oh, my birthday. And that day became incredibly important to her.

12:17She eventually got 514 tattooed on her arm in Roman numerals. That's how proud she was of the day she was officially adopted. As Rachel settled into the hands and home, she became close to Kim and Todd in her own ways. One of the things Rachel and Kim bonded over most was their shared love of horses. When she was so little, she was just six years old. And she would climb up on the fence of our pasture. And she would just sit on the fence and look out there and say, I wish I had a horse. And so we got a horse. We got back into the horse business. And she just, it was so natural for her. She had never been around one, had no experience, also had no fear. She would just climb up on that fence.

13:18She figured out how to pull the horse up to the fence. And this was an older gentle horse and throw her leg over the back. No saddle or anything, but then she'd be on top and she would just lay there. And she would do, she did that just all the time. Barefoot never worried about having the horse step on her toes or anything. And I would come down the stairs some mornings in the summer when the sun was up at five or five thirty. And she'd just be out there laying on the back of a horse. Loved it. It was so natural for her. So that is, that's where the her life with horses started. She could do things that other people just wouldn't even think of doing. And she was always scaring me to death, but she always did it. And Rachel's passion for horses only grew deeper as she got older. She started going to rodeos.

14:20And when she was old enough, she began teaching writing lessons. Rachel loved horses so much that she'd rush home and finish her homework early, just so she could spend time with them. She also loved wrestling and soccer. And she was on both teams in high school. In 2018, Rachel graduated high school a year early when she was just 16. She graduated with honors straight days. She had a full-ride scholarship to NAU, which is Northern Arizona University. And she was going to go up there and play soccer. And we went up and toured the campus. We paid the deposits for the dorm and the, I don't know, all the things that you do. And the weekend before we were supposed to move her up there, she just basically had a panic attack. And I said, I can't do this. She couldn't be physically that far away from us. So she gave a first scholarship and decided to start a business. Because that's what most 17-year-olds do, right?

15:23Rachel started her own business working with horses. She trained, rode, hauled, and sold horses. And she helped find horses for her clients. And then she turned 17 in June. And it was that summer that she just, she was doing rodeos. She was riding a lot. She was trying to, she was training horses for other people. She was rescuing horses, mustangs. Even before she could drive, she didn't drive till 18. But I would call with her the horse trailer out to either some place where she had learned of a horse that had been abandoned. Like the people moved and left the horse there with no food and water, that kind of thing. And we'd go out and rescue the horse. So when she decided she could not leave for college, she decided she'd make what she was doing into an actual business. And she developed a website and a business plan and everything. It was called Arizona Hanson Horses.

16:23And it was really successful. She was doing great at it. After Rachel turned 18 years old, she wanted to live on her own while still staying close to home. So she rented in an apartment in a really nice complex at 1900 South Coronada Road in Gilbert, Arizona. It was only three miles from her parents' ranch. Rachel continued working with horses, and she also was dating a guy named Joe Met. They went to different high schools, so they didn't know each other in high school, but just met through some friends. And started talking and she didn't let us know or bring him around for a few months until she was more certain about it. But they started dating in the summer. And I think we met him maybe August or something. And then, yeah, it was very early. And I felt they were young, but she was sure he was the one.

17:26And they went to Mexico, his family, his mom, it's from there. And so they would go often. And she went down with him. And this is just across the border here to a place called Rocky Point. In January, maybe the end of January of 22. And that's where he proposed to her on the beach. Rachel and Joe Met started looking for a place to get married, but they ran into a problem. COVID was finally winding down, and people were able to have regular riding ceremonies once again, which meant that most venues were booked out for years. So Rachel and Joe Met decided to have a long engagement and wait until late 2024 to get married. She was very adamant about they were going to travel and do all these things before ever even considering starting a family. So that was far in the future. Though she knew she wanted one, she wanted to be closer to 30 before actually starting a family.

18:31She had a lot on her mind that she wanted to do and travel and see before that. So I think those were their plans. By May of 2022, Rachel and her dad were planning her 20th birthday, which was on June 12th. For her birthday, we she wanted to go out to the lake and grill. That's like on the beach and spend the day at the lake. And so they were already planning that. He had already bought several things for that outing to celebrate her birthday. That Sunday. But tragically, that celebration would never happen because eight days before her birthday, Rachel was murdered. Kim got the news while she was in Indiana visiting her grandkids. Her husband had to tell her over the phone. I was blown away. I just couldn't even I couldn't even comprehend even what my husband was telling me.

19:32And he calls and I was like, because we need to go sit down somewhere. I was like, I can't mean I think I just want to go to shock. I was like, no, no, no way. And another of our girls was with us. And so I walked away. I said, stay with the kids and I walked away and tried to understand. And my husband kept saying, you can't drive. And I was like, I have to drive. Work them driving. And driving back and we're going to take it to self. As Kim flew home to her family in Arizona, her mind was racing with so many questions. How could something like this happen? Who would do this and why? To try to answer all those questions and discuss just how bizarre Rachel's murder was, you know the drill. We got to go back. Back in 2021, Rachel landed what seemed like a dream job working and living on a horse ranch.

20:34But she couldn't get out of the lease on her apartment. So Rachel decided to sub lease it to other people. She found the girl on Facebook Marketplace. I don't know if she was advertising. She was looking for an apartment or Rachel put her apartment on there. I'm not sure. But I know she found her on Facebook Marketplace did not know her before. They made this arrangement or whatever. And when we found out about it, her dad and I, we really tried to talk her out of it. And I was saying, from more of a safety issue, you don't know them. I don't think this is a good idea. You can't you just still live in your apartment, but work at the ranch and all of this. And then her dad was more from a legal perspective. Like, that's not legal. You're not going through the apartment complex itself. Your name is still on the lease. You can't sub lease it. And she's, oh, yeah, I can. It'll be fine. Everything's fine.

21:36So we did everything in our power to talk her out of doing that. But she did it anyway. Once her apartment was sub leased, Rachel moved into a small casita on the horse ranch. Her fiance, Jomet, moved in with her. And Rachel brought her prize horse, Dash, to live there with her too. There's this little casita on the property where she lived. The front door opened to the can area where these horses were. And so they were literally right out her front door. And so she spent a lot of time with them while also working with some older horses that were on the property. The job on the ranch was supposed to be a dream job, but it wasn't long before Rachel started having problems with the owners. She was struggling with the people at the ranch that owned the ranch where she was working. She'd been really having some troubles with them. They were putting a lot of pressure on her to do things faster with some of the horses

22:40that she was working with. Sadly, I wish she had never met them or gotten involved with them. It's two older women that had never ridden the horse, wouldn't get on a horse. They just did this horse ranch as an investment. And so they were not knowledgeable in how to train or what's required and what's reasonable and what you can and can't do. In the process, in in gosh, in January, they wanted to invest in four year, maybe six yearlings that were really well bred, quarter horses, some ranch up in Montana. And so that was her project. Let's to get these yearlings started, the halter broke, get a bridal on them. You can't sit in the saddle of the yearling. You need to be two years old before you do that, but you can saddle train them if they're

23:42used to wearing a saddle. And that was her work every day, but I don't know, maybe sometime in early April, she said the owners were insisting that she get on one of them to show that she'd been making progress. And she tried to explain to them, they're not even two yet, they're yearlings. They shouldn't have weight on their backs and they're not ready for that and they're like, well, you need to or you're fired. Oh my gosh. And so she called me one Saturday morning and she's, I might die today. I was like, excuse me, what? And she told me what was going on. And I said, Rachel, absolutely not. That's not even safe. Put your foot down and just say, this is not safe for me. It's not okay for the horses. But she said, no, I'm just going to, I'm going to do it. I'm going to show them this, they're nowhere near ready for this. Anyway, there was that struggle and then some others of different things related to these people not knowing anything.

24:43There was also another issue involving a badly broken finger. They were working with a super expensive horse named Fancy that they were trying to get an attraler to take somewhere and the horse was struggling. She'd been in and out of trailers, but she was high bred. I don't know, having a little bit of trouble getting in this trailer. And somehow she reared a kickback and caught Rachel's hand and broke her pointer finger, which she also sent me a video of. And she said, do you think this is broken? And like, it's in half. It's definitely broken. Anyway, they, in surgery, they obviously straighten it and they had to put some pins in it. It's a folded straight. She had a kind of, not a cast, but something on it, it could hold it in place and then it was wrapped. And the surgeon told her she would not be in the barn or around the dirt or the horses for at least six weeks.

25:45And he knew her by then and looked at her and I said, I know you're going to be out there in a couple, but it's your finger. So he had a fight. But that caused some more conflict with these two people that owned the ranch. So then she began to worry about employment and she didn't really want to work for them anymore. And so she was trying to work through all of that and that, that became a financial issue because they wouldn't pay her for the month of May because she wasn't working horses. Even though the reason she wasn't was because she had surgery on her finger. So I think everything was boiling up all together and really wearing on her. At the same time, all of this was going on. Rachel was having major problems with the people sublacing her apartment. She realized the people that were sublacing the apartment weren't paying for the apartment. I think they didn't pay for it for two months and then they were giving her a little bit of a hard time about moving out.

26:47With everything happening all at once, Rachel was extremely stressed and she didn't know what to do. She would just come over and cry about it and what am I going to do? And I would always say, well, first of all, sweetheart, you have a bedroom downstairs. This is our home and you have a room and your horses are here and or you can bring dash back here. They had always been here. We just always tried to reassure her, but she was so independent. It really bothered her because she didn't want to have to rely on us or moving back in her room. She wanted to be independent. She wanted to work all these things out. It was a difficult time where they weren't all working out as they should. She just needed to quit at the ramp, which she ended up, she did. And that's why she asked the sublacers to get out because she needed to move back into her apartment and figure out things financially.

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28:52Head over to bombas.com slash audio and use audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash audio. Code audio at checkout. Someone never arrives all at once. Verse the air, then the light, and slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer. An old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it, layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. And fall your way at Ross. After Rachel quit the ranch, the plan was for her to move on June 1st. But on May 29th, a bunch of drama went down with the ranch owners. They said, if you have all of your belongings out of the casita and dash off the property

29:57by May 31st, we won't charge you rent for June or whatever. Her dad and her brothers and everybody went out on that day and loaded everything out of the casita, all her furniture, dishes, clothes, everything, and brought them back to our house, parked that trailer in the driveway. On June 1st, Rachel moved back into her apartment and Joe Matt moved in with his parents. On the night of June 3rd, Joe Matt came over to Rachel's apartment. They had dinner together and went to the apartment complex's swimming pool. After that, they planned to watch a movie and spend the night together. Kim spoke to Rachel on the phone at around 9 p.m., nothing seemed off of her at all. She was just happy to be back in the apartment. But at around midnight, Joe Matt left Rachel's place, even though he had planned to spend the night. His dad called at 11.30 and told him he needed to come home right now, which in all of

31:01their time of dating and everything, and Joe Matt lived with her at the ranch in the casita. They had lived together out there. So, this was not like home because I don't want you to spend the night with your fiance. It was just really weird and he had never done that before. And Joe Matt being the kind of kid he is, respected dad and but at midnight. Just a few hours later, at around 2 a.m., Rachel called 911. She told the dispatcher, I've been shot, someone broken and shot me, before giving her address and her apartment number. Rachel said that the shooter had already left and pleaded, please hurry, please hurry, oh god, I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding. The dispatcher tried to keep Rachel calm. She urged her to stay on the line and put pressure on the wound with anything nearby,

32:02like a clean cloth, shirt or a towel. But Rachel said she didn't have anything within reach. The dispatcher kept trying to engage with her, saying Rachel, I need you to talk to me, okay? Rachel replied, I can't. About five minutes after Rachel called 911, firefighters and police arrived. They found Rachel lying on the bathroom floor and she was rushed to the hospital. For three hours, surgeons worked to save Rachel's life. She had been sleeping on her back when she was shot. And because of this angle, the bullet entered her lower left abdomen and exited through her top right shoulder. But the damage was too extensive and Rachel died. I did talk to the surgeon for gosh, I don't know, an hour and a half. One day after he was so kind and so patient and went through everything with me and he said because the pathway of the bullet crosses over the lungs and the heart, it just does

33:03a significant amount of damage. It has a specific name and he said in 93% of cases, it's fatal. It's because there's just too much damage done. He said that because she was so young and so strong and so healthy, he really thought that she could pull through. And that's why they fought her so long. With Rachel's death, Gilbert Police now had a homicide to investigate. And detectives immediately began processing Rachel's apartment, trying to figure out what actually happened. And what Gilbert PD still stands behind saying is that the shooter kicked the bedroom door open and I saw a footprints on the door of her bedroom. So I know that's true. Kicked the door open, took one step inside and she had a king size bed. So it was only like one step and then the bed is right there, took one shot and left.

34:09Nothing had been stolen from Rachel's apartment. She had only moved a small number of belongings back into her place, including a mattress and box-prang. And when investigators looked for surveillance footage, they discovered there weren't any operational cameras anywhere in the apartment complex. So there was no footage of Rachel's killer and I honestly can't believe that in 2022. Yeah, that's crazy. So irresponsible. Investigators spoke with Rachel's family to find out if she had any enemies or was involved in anything illegal. The answer to both questions was no. Rachel was a super sweet soul and her death came as a complete shock to everybody who knew her. But that didn't mean the police were starting with zero leads. They actually had a few things to look into right away, including Rachel's horse, Dash. So remember that drama we told you about earlier, with the ranch owners and how Rachel had to move out sooner rather than later? Well, it turns out that they had actually kidnapped her horse, Dash, who was pregnant and held her for ransom.

35:10And all of this happened within hours of Rachel's dad helping her move all of her belongings out of the Casita on May 29th. As soon as they got Rachel's stuff back to her parents house, Todd hooked up the horse trailer and headed out to get Dash. They headed back out there to pick up Dash and he got a text on the way out there that Dash had been removed from the property and here was the phone number of their attorney. And that's all it said. So he was like, what the heck? You told us to get everything off the property. I'm headed out with the horse trailer right now at 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday. And so she had been removed from the property and nobody knew where. And so then, of course, on Monday, my husband was contacting the attorney and what in the world is going on. They felt like Rachel owed them some money for a deal that she had brokered involving this really expensive quarter horse named fancy in trade for what they were supposed to

36:14get a gilding. I don't know what happened exactly, but it didn't all transpire like it was supposed to. And so the people that owned the ranch where she worked felt like she still owed them some money from that. And so rather than being adults and business people, they took her horse basically as rent. Rachel was absolutely in a panic. And her last few days of life, she spent posting on Facebook, trying to get her horse back, trying to reach these people and like putting her saddles up for sale and anything so she could get dashed back. And then she was killed on Saturday night. And we were working with the attorney. And basically, he just said they want this amount of money. And at that point, we were like, we'll pay it. We just need dashes all we have left of Rachel.

37:15We need her back. So we'll pay the ransom money. We were at that point, we were grieving, obviously. And so another friend stepped in and offered to help with that and said, I can take the money, I can go meet, I can get dashed back. And at that point, we didn't know if that was related to her murder at all. And so we did not feel safe bringing dashed back to our property because we were out there as her parents. Everybody would know where she was. And we didn't know if it was something about dash that somebody was envious and wanted her or something. I don't know. So this friend took dash, made the transaction, paid the money, met the transport people, got dashed and took her to her property far away from here in Santan Valley until we,

38:16for one, could get cameras up, could get paddles on everything until we felt safe to bring her back here. Dashers looked into whether the situation with dash could have been connected to Rachel's murder. But in the end, it determined the owners weren't involved in Rachel's murder. It was just a really bad coincidence. Once the owners were cleared, dash was brought back to the hands and property. Another lead investigators had involved Joe Met's dad. So remember how we called Joe Met at around midnight, just hours before Rachel was killed? Well, that seemed odd to Rachel's mom, Kim. But there was more to it than that. She had already been a history between Rachel and Joe Met's dad. They really just didn't get along. Back in April, Rachel had actually called the police to report that he had threatened her. April 22, of 22, there was a confrontation between her, Rachel and Joe Met's dad, Gary.

39:18And he was so angry he's threatened to kill her. He said something like, if I ever see you again, I will kill you. And she took it seriously enough that she called the police and let them know. That threat led to Joe Met's dad becoming a suspect. However, Kim said investigators have not spoken to him. And we want to make it clear that Rachel's family doesn't believe that Joe Met was involved in anything at all. The other primary lead investigators had involved the woman who previously sublet Rachel's apartment. Kim says that they learned from neighbors and police reports that while the woman was subletting the apartment, she had her boyfriend and other people constantly coming and going. They were selling drugs and regularly getting into loud arguments. And apparently she had a boyfriend and there were others that were in and out of the apartment a lot. And then they ended up selling drugs out of that apartment.

40:20And we didn't know that before, but we learned that after because neighbors started talking and we pulled a police report or whatever of all the number of times that police were called to that apartment because of, I don't know, arguments and things going on. And it was on a regular basis. Eventually, the subletters stopped paying rent and Rachel had to have vicked them. They were not happy about it. And as soon as Rachel moved back into her apartment, a whole new series of problems started to unfold. It doesn't matter how massive your closet is, we always have those same few pieces on rotation. A sweater you throw over everything, that silk skirt that goes with every top. And guess what?

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43:27On June 2nd, just two days before Rachel was murdered, she woke up to someone standing over her. She was by herself, jimette was not there that night. And where does she think she woke up at two or three in the morning to this guy standing over her next to her bed looking down at her. And she didn't hear until then, he had a key to come in the apartment. The apartment was locked that night. He had a key. So it was probably somebody related to America and the gang that was there before. So when she woke up and saw him, obviously she screamed. He took off right out the door, didn't touch her, didn't touch anything, just took off. And she should have called 911, but she didn't.

44:28She called jimette and said, this is what happened. She was crying, and sterical, whatever. And jimette came straight over and was there with her. And when I talked to her in the morning, I said, why didn't you call 911? That's not okay. Somebody was in your apartment. She said, yeah, I did, but he had a key. So we probably thought it was the other people still. And I think she just didn't want to cause any more trouble with them. It's the only thing that I can imagine. So there was not a police report about that. The other thing that's weird about that night when this guy came in, he had a jar of dill pickles. And he said it on the kitchen island that you would walk past just on the way to the bedroom where she was sleeping. So it's like he walked in carrying this jar of pickles. He said it on the counter, went in and saw her, and then took off. What relevance there is to that, we have no idea.

45:29But that's a thing. And she told me that Friday morning, she said, whoever this was that came in here, left a jar of dill pickles on the counter. I was like, that's weird. I don't know. After that creepy incident, Rachel and jimette replaced the lock on her unit. Next after she called him, it's three or four in the morning, calmed her down, whatever they were talking about what to do. And she said we have to change the locks. We have to change this lock because whoever came in had a key. At four in the morning, no places like home depot or whatever were open. And so he said, oh, there's some extra locks in the garage. Am I dad's house? I'll go over there. Just go over there and just get a lock and put it on right now for safety. And so they did. They got a lock out of his dad's garage, brought it over. He changed out the lock.

46:30So anybody else that had a key could not come in. But the problem was they didn't have a key to this lock either in order to lock it from the outside. You could only lock it from the inside of the apartment by turning the deadbolt. You know what I mean? So because it was an older one, it was used. It had been on a bathroom in their house or something. And the key was long gone. So it could only be locked from the inside. Of course, we didn't find out any of this until after Rachel had been killed and was really difficult for her dad to listen to. And he was like, why didn't you call me? I want to pick up a lock and then there that day I would have had it completely secure and safe with the key working on the outside all of that. So that was really hard for us to work through. On the night of June 3rd, Jemet was planning to spend the night with Rachel. But like we said, then his dad called and told him that he had to come home.

47:32So the night that she was killed, when Jemet's dad called and said, come home. And he went to leave. He tried to wake up Rachel and said, you've got to come lock the door. Remember, it only locks from the inside. And I guess she said, I will. I'm going to lock it. And anyway, he went out. He said he walked down about 20 or 30 feet or whatever. And he never heard the lock turn. So we went back in and woke her up again and said, Rachel, get up and lock the door. And again, I guess she said she would and he left and she never did. So the night that she was killed, the door was not locked. Police have interviewed the subletters multiple times. And it doesn't seem like investigators believe the actual subletters were responsible for Rachel's murder. But they also haven't rolled out this angle completely. It's possible that someone the subletters knew was involved, or that the killer thought

48:34that they were shooting the subletter who resembled Rachel. The only thing investigators believe for sure is that Rachel was not targeted. I don't necessarily think they had anything to do with it necessarily, but you have to consider it the clientele that they would have coming there. Obviously, all the time to buy drugs or whatever they do. So that's one of the main things that we wondered was there a dispute, a financial dispute or a drug deal gone bad or something where the murder came in thinking that was this girl and not Rachel or didn't realize it was Rachel. The girl resembled Rachel in that she is all Hispanic. Rachel was half Hispanic, long dark hair like Rachel had. Despite all of these potential leads, Rachel's case went unsolved. Her family did everything they could to honor her.

49:37Todd and Kim both got tattoos on their forearms in Rachel's honor. They also created a dog rescue, something Rachel had dreamed of doing for a long time. So when COVID started, Rachel was living at home as were six other teenagers at the time. We needed some joy in our home at that time and there's nothing more joyful than puppies. And so Rachel said, her suggestion, why don't we foster a litter of puppies? And I said, great idea. Let's do that. So for two or a years anyway, we fostered for different rescues, mom and dogs with litter of puppies. And it did bring joy to our home. It gave us something to do because nobody could go anywhere during COVID and took care of these puppies and helped them get adopted when the time came and all that kind of thing. And we actually got our notice from the IRS that we qualified as a 501 on June 1st of 23.

50:45So a year after losing her and that's where it began. And I just called it Rachel's rescue in her honor and said, all right, this is what you want. And here we go. That's how it started. Since starting the rescue three years ago, the Hansons have helped rescue and find homes for hundreds of puppies. And in addition to helping animals, the rescue has given Todd and Kim a great way to spread awareness about Rachel's case. Kim said that people will ask if she is Rachel, which opens the door for her to tell them all about Rachel. People, because of that, learn about the case where they might not, otherwise know about Rachel's case. Because a lot of people I've learned don't watch TV. Some people don't even have social media. And there are just too many people. Like, for example, I had an adoptor come yesterday that lives in another suburb of Phoenix called Mesa

51:46that we border up with at her house with 10 minutes from our home. And she had never heard of Rachel's case. Actually, from Chandler this morning, another close by he was here this morning. And I always know they don't know anything about it because when they first call, they say, is this Rachel? And I'm like, clearly, you don't know the story. But we're going to before you leave my house. I just keep doing that and that really helps. And it gets it out there. And of course, once people learn, they're just very compassionate and just so sorry that they didn't know before and they're very interested in all that. So the rescue really has made a big difference as far as awareness. We asked Kim how people can support the rescue if they want to. Obviously adopting, but they'd have to be local. Or I guess we, I don't know, I did have a family come from Santa Fe, New Mexico last week

52:51for a puppy. But of course, donations, if anybody is inclined to do that. People ask sometimes if they can donate. And so I say probably the easiest way is like on Amazon or something. The things we need most for all the puppies is any sort of laundry detergent. Chlorox, paper towels, and puppy toys. Those are the most important things. I really, it's hard for me to take donations of food because with puppies, you have to, they have to be on the consistent same type of food. On the same type of food consistency. So that's a way they can help any donations that help with puppies. Of course, locally, people donate old towels and blankets and dog beds and things like that, which is so nice because puppies being puppies,

53:54two up dog beds after a while they'll sleep on them and then they'll chew them up. We do go through a lot of dog beds and toys. They're hard on toys, but that's all helpful. As for supporting the family, Kim just wants people to talk about Rachel. As of today, Rachel's case remains unsolved and no suspects have been named. All the Hansons wait for answers. They continue focusing on sharing Rachel's story and running Rachel's rescue. It's definitely a full-time job. That is for sure, but it's good because it keeps me busy and keeps me from sitting around pondering why in the world it's been over three years and we don't know anything. So that's one reason I do it. It's not the most important reason, but it's one reason. There have been so many things that have happened that I absolutely 100% know that Rachel's been involved. Like she is watching, she is making connections, she's bringing people and puppies

55:01together in different ways. It's absolutely amazing and it just I know she has to be involved. As we sit here today, Rachel's murder remains unsolved. Her family still doesn't know who took her life or why, but while they wait for those answers, they refuse to let Rachel be forgotten. Through Rachel's rescue, one of her dreams has become a lasting part of her legacy. Hundreds of puppies have been given a second chance in Rachel's name. And with every life they help save, Kim and Todd have another opportunity to share their daughter's story, to remind people of who Rachel was and to keep her name alive while they continue waiting for justice. A huge thank you to our first degree, Kim. And if you have information, you can leave an anonymous tip by calling Silent Witness at 480 Witness. There's a $25,000 reward available. If you were listening out there and you have a story to tell, please email us. Hello at the first degree podcast

56:02.com. Follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook page. We're talking true crime all the time. Join the underground. This were all of our premium content lives and stick around tomorrow will have a brand new episode of the deep dive right in your feed. And remember, only you can prevent serial killers and keep your friends close, but not that close. Shout out to Gerard Monaco for scoring original music for the first degree, writing and research by Haley Gray, sources for this episode are police reports, ABC 15, Fox 10, AZ family, crime online, 12 news, Gilbert Sun News, and the East Valley Tribune. And as always, our first great guest is always our largest source. You know that feeling when too many things fall through the cracks? Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at Monday.com.