5 of 6: The Theories

Nineteen year old Rachel Hansen from Gilbert, Arizona, was asleep in her apartment when an intruder broke in and shot her in her bed. She manages to call nine one one to report the incident and is immediately rushed to the hospital. This is episode five the Theories. Rachel was lying on her back in her bed when she was shot. She was shot in the lower left abdomen and the bullet exited through her top right shoulder. Doctors worked diligently on Rachel's wounds and do everything they can to try and save her life. Unfortunately, after three hours of efforts, Rachel succumbed to her wounds. Rachel Ann Hansen tragically passed away on June fourth, twenty twenty two, just eight days before her twentieth birthday. Since Rachel's mom, Kim, was out of state in Indiana, her father was the one that received the call about her passing. As the Hanson family copes with the news of Rachel's untimely passing, the Gilbert police departments start their investigation. Unfortunately, based on the details of this investigation and what the Gilbert police did or didn't do, I think it's fair to point out that a large portion of this investigation was mishandled from the very beginning, but we'll get more into that later. Let's start by looking at the facts of this case. Now, if you've listened to previous seasons of the Unseen Truth, you know I like to use puzzle analogies, and that's because it's the most fitting when it comes to these cases. Every piece of information and detail is like a puzzle piece, and in order to get the full picture, you need to be able to put all those pieces together. So let's start by looking at the facts of this case. A nineteen year old girl who just moved back into her apartment after subleasing to a previous tenant was shot dead while she was asleep in her bed. The area that Rachel lived was a safe area, and she lived in a gated community. This was only the second murder in Gilbert that year, so this was not a common occurrence here. The front door was shut when police showed up, so there was speculation whether or not the door was locked or if the intruder had a key, although the key theory is unlikely because Rachel and Joemett had just changed the locks prior to her moving in What is believed is that when Joemett had told Rachel when he left that night to lock the door, Rachel fell back asleep and didn't end up locking the door behind him. Police investigated surveillance footage to see if they could spot the intruder at any point before or after the shooting, but unfortunately the complex only had cameras in the common areas. According to reports, Rachel's neighbors didn't see or hear anything that night, not even the gun shot. So we have no suspects, no witnesses, and no motive at this point, according to police, How could that be? How could someone come to a gated apartment complex at two o'clock in the morning, break into an apartment and murder a nineteen year old girl with no one seeing anything? Hard to believe, right. This brings us to look at the bigger picture of this case, and in order to do that, we have to take a step back and really look at all the pieces that we've already talked about so we can bring them together to get that full picture. So this brings us to the theories of what really happened to Rachel. We're going to discuss three different theories and probably the most popular, but also the most speculated to date. Because Rachel's murder is still unsolved, the Hansen family has no answers, and with the lack of support and communication from the Gilbert police, they're no closer to finding out who killed their daughter. So with that said, let's talk about the first theory, the ranch owners. It's no secret that Rachel did not leave on good terms with her previous employer. They unexpectedly and quickly fired her and kicked her off their property. Not to mention, they held her horse Dash for Ransom, who was also pregnant at the time. The ranch owners do eventually return Dash to the Hansen family, but not until after Rachel's murder. They seem to have a pretty big motive to want to kill Rachel, and it involves money. But according to the Gilbert Police Department, after investigating this potential lead, they found no evidence to support this theory that these individuals were involved. The police claimed that the ranch owners have more than enough money and have no need to kill Rachel over money. But I do want to note here that even if that is true, then why go through all the trouble of holding Rachel's horse for ransom if money wasn't a factor, seems a little suspicious to me. But let's move on to the next theory, the previous tenant. A big theory is that Rachel's murder was mistaken identity. It's theorized that the previous tenant was allegedly involved in drugs or was associated with those who were, and the person who shot Rachel intended to shoot the tenant. This is a likely scenario considering Rachel's quick move into the apartment, But the Gilbert police again claimed they've investigated this lead and state that there was nothing found to prove this theory true. So let's move on to the next theory, and that's Joe Matt's father. Now, this theory is again all speculation, but based on Rachel's encounter with him just six weeks prior to that that warranted a call to the police, makes him a likely suspect in this case. But again, police haven't released any additional information to prove or deny this theory. And because Rachel's not here to defend herself, I have to throw out that word allegedly because at this point all we have is the one police report from Rachel stating that encounter with Jomett's father. There's one last theory that many have considered and speculated on, and that's that Rachel may have had a potential stalker, But this theory doesn't have any supporting evidence to rule it as viable. Plus, most stalker encounters where the victims are tragically killed are in most cases I say most cases because this is not always, but in most cases are sexually motivated and results in a very different type of killing than what has up into Rachel. So that leaves the dreaded question who did kill Rachel Hansen and why. In the final episode, we discuss the aftermath of Rachel's tragic passing and what her family's currently doing to keep her memory alive. The Unseen Truth is Reignited Media Production and is hosted and produced by me John Rivera. Make sure to follow Unseen Truth Podcast on social media and visit Unseen Truth podcast dot com for more case information. 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