Husband arrested in Janet Abaroa slaying

Durham police investigators arrested Raven Abaroa on Monday and charged him with murder in the 2005 death of his wife, Janet Abaroa.

Posted 1:54 a.m. Feb 2, 2010 — Updated 7:01 p.m. Feb 2, 2010

DURHAM, N.C. — Durham police on Monday arrested the husband of a pregnant woman who was killed in her home almost five years ago.

Raven Abaroa, 30, was taken into custody at his Montpelier, Idaho, home without incident, police said.

He was placed in Idaho's Caribou County jail without bond and was being held for extradition to North Carolina. He was scheduled to appear in an Idaho courtroom Tuesday afternoon.

Janet Christiansen Abaroa, 25, was stabbed to death in an upstairs bedroom at her 2606 Ferrand Drive home on April 26, 2005. The Abaroas’ 6-month-old son, Kaiden, was also in the home but was unharmed.

There were no obvious signs of a break-in, but a laptop computer was missing from the house.

In an October 2007 interview with NC Wanted, Abaroa said he had nothing to do with his wife's death. He told police he was at a soccer game in Morrisville when she was killed. He found her when he returned home, he said.

Tim Dowd, a spokesman for Janet Abaroa's family, issued a statement late Monday expressing satisfaction that an arrest had been made.

"Throughout the years, the Christiansen family has remained confident and held to the faith that one day there would be justice for Janet’s murder," the statement read. "The Christiansen’s are especially grateful to tireless efforts of detectives and agents with the Durham Police Department, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI.

"As far as commenting on Raven’s guilt or innocence, the family will leave that to the judicial system."

NC Wanted also spoke with Dowd via telephone late Monday about the family's reaction. Dowd and his wife were friends with the Abaroas when they lived in Virginia.

"(The arrest) revolves around his financial motive," Dowd said. "It revolves around things that his wife, that Janet actually told me. I'm not comfortable talking any specifics at all, but there is just a pattern there that raises a significant red flag."

After his wife's death, Raven Abaroa moved to Utah with his son and later remarried.

His arrest was a joint operation by the Durham Police Department, the FBI Task Force, the SBI, the Montpelier Police Department in Idaho, the East Idaho Special Tactics and Response Team and the Bear Lake County Sheriff's Department in Idaho.

“This arrest is the result of hard and tenacious work by our investigators and a strong partnership with the FBI and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Investigators continued to follow leads and never gave up,” Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said in a statement.

Anyone with additional information on the case is asked to contact Investigator Charles Sole at 919-560-4440, ext. 29350, or by e-mail at Charles.Sole@durhamnc.gov or Sgt. Sheldon Perkins at 919-560-4440, ext. 29326, or by e-mail at Sheldon.Perkins@durhamnc.gov.

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