How Contact Lenses Helped Solved Janet Abaroa’s 2005 Murder

Janet Abaroa was a bright, athletic young mother committed to family and faith. The 25-year-old was full of life when she was found murdered on April 26, 2005.

Around 11 p.m. that night, police arrived at Janet’s home in Durham, N.C., after her husband, Raven Abaroa, called 911. Raven, who had been playing soccer earlier that night, told police that Janet had been watching TV in her bedroom while their 6-month-old son, Kaiden, slept in the next room, when someone brutally stabbed her in the neck and chest. Kaiden was uninjured, but Janet was pronounced dead at the scene.

The home showed no signs of forced entry or any struggle, and Janet had minimal defensive wounds. Raven’s laptop and a hunting knife from his collection were the only things missing. Other valuables, such as Janet’s engagement and wedding rings, were left in plain sight.

“This is like a mosaic,” Detective Charles Sole of the Durham Police Department, who was assigned to investigate Janet’s murder in 2009, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “There were so many little pieces to put together to make the whole picture.”

Eventually, Sole pieced together the case, which is covered in a season 1 episode of A&E's Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, and his work led to Raven’s arrest and conviction for Janet’s murder.

Janet was the seventh of 10 Christiansen siblings, a large, close-knit family devoted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “She came from a very strong family,” a Christiansen family insider, who chose to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation from Raven, tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

With the faith and strength of her family to bolster her, Janet grew into a friendly, outgoing and trusting person. “She didn’t know a stranger,” the family insider says. “Whenever she met somebody, she was automatically friends with them.”

Janet became a star soccer player at Southern Virginia University, where she met Raven. The couple married when Janet was 20 and Raven, 19. “She fell head over heels,” the insider says. “When you’re young and do that, you don’t see the flaws or red flags.”

But those red flags soon appeared. Raven lost his job at the sporting goods store where he and Janet worked after he was caught embezzling nearly $10,000 and stealing and reselling high-end merchandise. He later pled guilty to five charges of embezzlement, but did not serve any jail time.

Raven also admitted to a string of infidelities, which were hard for Janet to overcome. She briefly left Raven.

Then Janet learned she was pregnant with Kaiden.

Soon after Janet’s death, Raven moved with Kaiden to Utah and remarried.

Quickly after being assigned to Janet’s case, Det. Sole zeroed in on Raven’s financials and his behavior toward women.

Janet’s autopsy revealed that she was pregnant—another mouth to feed amid mounting debt and financial strain.

Raven had taken out a life insurance policy on Janet that he cashed in on days after her death. Despite being behind on bills and receiving aid from the church, Raven never missed a payment on the policy.

Raven’s new marriage in Utah ended after four months. His new wife, Vanessa Pond, testified that Raven had become controlling and violent.

But one key piece of the mosaic propelled the case forward.

Det. Sole noticed that Janet’s contact lens case was sitting open in the bathroom, indicating she had not taken out her contacts that night. This contradicted Raven’s story that she was getting ready for bed when he left the house that evening. In July 2010, the Christiansen family agreed to have Janet’s body exhumed to determine if she was still wearing her lenses.

Forensic analysts determined there were Acuvue contacts in her eyes—the very lenses Janet was known to take out as she got ready for bed every night. “It’s not the smoking gun,” Det. Sole says of the discovery. “It’s just one more piece.”

It was the piece that allowed authorities to charge Raven with first-degree murder.

Raven’s trial, held in spring 2013, lasted five weeks. Despite the testimony of 80 witnesses, including Raven’s ex-wife and a string of women who testified to his violent and volatile behavior, and over 500 pieces of evidence, the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction. The judge declared a mistrial.

In addition to the women who testified about Raven’s behavior, several of Janet’s friends took the stand to recount the times he behaved this way toward her.

“I think a lot of times it’s dismissed if there isn’t the physical abuse, but I think the mental abuse was enormous with her.” Det. Sole says. “The control aspect was tremendous.”

Rather than risk another first-degree murder trial, which carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, Raven entered an Alford plea for voluntary manslaughter in 2014. An Alford plea is a guilty plea that allows the accused to maintain their innocence, while admitting that the court has enough evidence to convict.

The Christiansen family reluctantly agreed to the plea. “I think it’s an easy way out,” the family insider says. “As soon as they take that plea, they only give them a couple years.”

In March 2014, the judge sentenced Raven to 95 to 123 months in prison, with four years’ time served. He was released on Christmas Day 2017.

“From a professional standpoint, families are looking for closure in these situations,” Det. Sole says of the plea. “And this didn’t give them closure.”

The Christiansen family’s strong faith brought them closer during the trial. “Another family may not have that,” the family insider reflects. “And their families are gonna be destroyed. There’s no reason for that.”

Janet confided in a couple friends about Raven’s behavior, but her family didn’t learn about the state of her marriage until after her murder. When asked what advice they would give to someone in Janet’s position, the family insider doesn’t mince words. “Get out. Get help,” they say. “It’s not easy just to walk out the door, especially if you have children. Reach out for help.”