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- [00:00]
A
Hi, I'm Emily. I'm Ashley.
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B
This is Books with your besties. Well, hi besties. We're back and we have been gone because we've been really focused on Reconsidered, unsolved, the Rachel Hansen case. Our other podcast where we have investigated this Rachel Hansen case pretty extensively. And then last week we flew to Arizona to go to her press conference and actually speak at her press conference. This was put on by her parents the four year anniversary of her death and coordinated by Justin Yentes who is a investigator who has worked on this case. And we were invited, we spoke. It was a wonderful event and a way for them to really share a little more about Rachel and just get a renewed interest in the case among the community. It was all over the news that night, the four year anniversary of her death that it's unsolved. It was a fantastic event and I'm so glad that we went. But obviously we have been busy and
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A
we are going to play the press
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B
conference for you on the back half
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A
of this episode if you want to listen to it, if you want. Also, we just did a behind the scenes episode for our Patreon members where we talked for 20 minutes about a little bit of our experience with recording this podcast and what we're thinking we may or may not do next. And we're asking our members kind of what path you want us to take as well.
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B
And then today let's chat a little about where we are with reading, what we are going to be reading and talking about. We owe you a couple of episodes. I think we told you that we were going to do an episode on Long Bright river by Liz Moore, which we have read and we indeed are preparing an episode for you. So that should be coming soon. Also, did we tell you we were going to do an episode on Drowning in Paper Flowers? Did we say that?
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A
We might have if we did, we can and we have an interview already done with the author that we'll be sharing. It's being re released in August because it's kind of caught fire again and people want to read it. So maybe we said we will. It would be an interesting one to talk about.
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B
Okay.
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A
Did we say we were going to do the one?
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B
Oh, we did not say that yet, but that's what we have to do. So John Marrs, the book, the one fantastic book, loved the kind of whole concept behind it and it's worth a discussion.
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A
And then the other one that everybody is all heated about, they either love it or hate it or really need to connect on it is Yesteryear, and we were doing it as our. So for our Patreon members, we always have a second book that we do. That's the book because people begged for it. So we will be doing a chat for that at the end of the month. So if you're someone who's read it and you feel like you need to talk about yesteryear, we are here for. For your therapeutic purposes.
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B
Yeah. There's a zoom chat at the end of the month for that. And then also that's live. And then also we should record an episode on that. And then the other thing is, I have such a big stack of books to read.
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A
It's overwhelming.
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B
I've been tearing through books on audiobook and on paper, and I'm just really enjoying them. Noelle Eiley. Have you all read Noel Eiley? She did run on Red and Gray. After Dark were two of her really popular titles. I just finished the Thicket. Oh, Ask for Andrea is probably her biggest one. We did an episode on Ask for Andrea. I loved it. I did forget she was here. I forget. But it's the forget one, so that was really good. I really appreciated that one. And then the Thicket was such a different one for her. It was like, set. I really recommend the Thicket. It was set Halloween time at a haunted house, like, experience. So the Thicket is basically like a corn maze type thing and like a pumpkin patch. But for adults who like to be absolutely terrified, it sounds like a nightmare. There's no chance I would ever go. But, like, everyone's wearing costumes and they're carrying, like, fake cleavers and change saws and there's like, clowns and, you know, all the terrifying things and they, like, jump out at you or have, like, bloody scenes in things that you walk through. And people are screaming everywhere. Like, I'm a no for haunted houses. I. My adrenaline gets too high just, like, having to stand up and whatnot. So certainly can't do a haunted house.
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A
That book sounds absolutely terrifying, but I'll read it. I just started the live Constantine arc that we both got for Promise Me Never or whatever it's called. I'm excited to see where it goes. I just finished the Revenge Party, which is our book of the month by Emily Paulson, and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It's not like a popcorn thriller summer read, but it's not super dark. It's like happily meets you in the middle of those two themes. So it has some very dark themes, but it's also A very quick thriller read. I think I blasted through it in two days. And it has themes of things that I think I love and you also love in a thriller. Like, it has corruption, family secrets, politics, wealth, just all the reasons that people would hide these huge secrets that they have. And it's set in the Pacific Northwest, which is where we live. So that just felt really fun to be like, oh, I kind of know where she's talking about and where this is happening. So anyway, Emily Paulson was one of our expo authors and this is her debut thriller. And I just want to say bravo because it was fantastic.
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B
Very cool. I can't wait to read it. It's on my list. I have the new Kelsey Cox book Pretty Dead Things, and then I have the Revenge Party and one other book I took downstairs. Buyer beware.
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A
Yes. Katherine Howard.
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B
Katherine Howard. I have those three books are my paper books right now that I'm reading because I just finished the Liv Constantine and I'm actually really excited to hear to talk to you about the Liv Constantine. But I don't know if it's stuff we can share on the podcast because it's like there's some stuff that authors talk about that we are like, I don't know, they never say publicly and so we don't say publicly. Anyway. I think you're gonna like it. It's very. The whole first half, I was like, this is a la Verity. Like the last Mrs. Parish esque. Like the housemate. Like the wealthy families, you know, or the wealthy man. And like the love story. Like, I couldn't figure it out. But I was like, this is a riff on all of those. All of that genre of the wealthy man love story.
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A
But then does the second half. Well, I just have to read it because I'm. Where I am is your part right now where I'm like, this feels like every thriller book I've ever read in my life.
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B
Right. And I like that it's comfortable. I felt like it went really fast. I really enjoyed that. Like, you hand me a book like that. It's like, I guess it would be called like a popcorn thriller, but also like domestic suspense is what it is. And I love a domestic suspense. I love it. Any domestic suspense, any kind of like fun, fast paced that I'm into.
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A
I am too. The other two books that I have in my stack right now to read are the Spin, which is by Faith Gardner, who's another one of our expo authors. And before youe Were Anne by Emiko Jean. And we used Ellie Black as our book of the month and chatted with Emiko. That would have been, what, almost two years ago? So I feel like I've been waiting for another thriller. So I'm excited to see. I don't have any idea what it's about at all.
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B
I like our system of sometimes we read books together, but here's the problem is we have started books before that both of us have purchased and started. And then we're like, let's not read it. And we DNF it. And that sucks because then we both wasted our time. So I like our current system, which is both of us just reading whatever and then recommending to each other. Like, this is one you have to read, right?
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A
We need to ask our friend Kristen or I'm trying to think of who else. There's a book out right now that seems like a lot of people are talking about called Calamity Club that's a historical fiction. So I don't know as a, like, palette cleanser book if that's something we should look at or not. Can we talk about something more important than that is about how when we were together, we finally watched the Housemaid and loved it.
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B
I loved it.
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A
I did, too.
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That actor is so handsome. I don't understand Sydney Sweeney. I don't think I ever will. Like, she's just not for me. But here's the thing is there was all this hype about the hotel sex scene. Like, it is a lot is what people were like. My husband saw it. I'm like, dude, that dude is way hotter than Sydney Sweeney. What is. Are you worried that your husband is looking at the man because he showed more than she showed? It wasn't that racy. I didn't think. I mean, yeah, a little bit.
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C
I'm like.
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B
And the music made it so weird, right?
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A
Oh, I'm like, do you watch movies? Like, that was very tame. There's worse stuff on tv. I'm like, do you have something called Netflix? Right?
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B
Have you seen Netflix? Because I'm not worried about my husband seeing that scene at all. He should be more worried about me seeing that scene because that man is good looking. And also, what was the song? It was some country twangy song. And it was, like, real upbeat. And I was like, this is not a romantic song. It made it more kitschy. I don't know. That made me laugh. I loved Sydney Sweeney's part when she was breaking the dishes. I will give her that. Other than that, I was like, why would he fall in love with her? There Was no personality there.
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A
Right. I also think sometimes it's hard. Like I wonder what the experience is of watching that movie if you hadn't read the book. Because I'm so critical sometimes of like that happened too fast. Like that's not how it was in the book.
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C
I don't know.
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Because the book is just basically always, always better.
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B
It is. I did love Amanda Seyfried in it. Yeah, she's fantastic. She was good.
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A
Well, we've also been absolutely up to our eyeballs in retreat planning. I don't know if we want to talk about that, but that's been a lot.
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B
It's been a lot. And we're super excited because we are minutes away from getting you dates and a location. I mean, you know, it's San Diego, but like a hotel.
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A
Right.
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We are going to get you info on booking and tickets in the next month. That's the goal. And we may not have everything ironed out by the time we open tickets. Right, right.
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A
But we will have a place for you to come and people for you to see. And if you've been, you know, it's going to be an absolute blast.
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B
I can't wait.
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A
I want it to be here.
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B
I hope at least one author agrees to come, don't you?
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A
I hope at least one or two. Maybe two if we're lucky. We'll see. We'll see. We have a good list. Other than that, I don't know. That's it. We've been reading a lot, planning a lot for retreat. You've been busy with real life. That's it. We're boring otherwise.
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B
I've been busy with my university having a budget crisis and that is not really a hint of where I work. Since most universities are having a budget crisis. We are in an academic and higher education crisis. And here' rant is for our besties because they don't want to get into anything serious. But if they're going to listen to me, then they have to know my position on education. And clearly I'm a professor, so I'm biased on this.
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A
But I'm going to interrupt you and say I think as a community of readers, you're going to find some people who are in agreement with you here.
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B
Yeah. There has been a systematic devaluation and defunding of education over the last 20 years. And that's K12, that's trade schools, that's. And vocational schools, that's higher education colleges. The vast majority of the United States population is not college educated from a four year university we generally use. There's about a quarter of the population is college educated. So we are not talking about that. All of the masses are going to college. So it is probably one of the talking points that I hate the most is we need more trade schools instead. Instead of. So the 25% of the population that completes college is too high, it's too much. And we need to shift some of those people over into the trades. No, no, what we need is another percentage of the population who are not going to college to have access to trade education. Both can exist. So that whole. No, no, everyone should be a plumber. Well, are they going to do your colonoscopy? That's a real question that I have. Because you know what? We have a shortage of medical providers. You know what else we have a shortage of? Mental health facilitators, counselors, clinicians, psychologists. We have shortages in lots of educated fields, including in some of the trades. But we do not need to trade them out for each other. So that's very frustrating to me. The other thing is, is that people say, oh, there's no value in a college education anymore. You don't get the bang for your buck. That is not the fault of education, that is the fault of our economy. Guess what? Nobody can afford groceries. So saying oh, you can't get any bang for your buck as a college educated person. Guess what? College educated people still make 66% more money than like on average overall than non college educated people. Facts. And are we truly done with the passing down of knowledge? Are we sure as a society that we are comfortable saying nobody anymore should have a well rounded look into different types of knowledge and information and then specialize in a specific topic to really have a broad understanding of that. Are we good with that?
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A
Two things not to completely go off on this tangent and I've said these to you before. One, I just listened to this whole podcast about how DNA was used to solve a crime and it was from a specialist who knew how to get DNA from like a specific type of bug that helped him. And that person had to go to school for like a trillion years to figure out how to do that. But now this person has been exonerated from a crime because this one person learn how to do that. So that kind of knowledge matters too. As someone who has attended college, the value for me in the education was huge. Right? I majored in sociology, I majored in religion. But the takeaways, I think what people are missing is also just the experience of college itself and learning how to Organize your time, how to handle conflict, how to have relationships with professors, with staff, with. That's the piece that it's like. People think, well, you're just going to school and learning about a topic or a subject. And I just feel like that is about 15% of college. And the other 85 is figuring out who you are, how to learn, how to be a part of a community. It's just so much bigger and it's so disappointing that it seems like it's being valued so much less.
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B
People don't understand research methodology, right? Or statistics and how those things work. And so without a really, really deep understanding of those things, how can you be a critical consumer of information in our world? You can't. You can't. So you face value, take whatever people say because you don't understand in a deeper way what goes into those numbers and how they can be manipulated in specific ways. I could go on all day, but I think anti intellectualism is going to be the failure of our country. I think we are getting dumber and dumber. I think we are making a huge mistake in our valence. I even had somebody who's an educated person who's like quote unquote pro education say in front of me the other day, we shouldn't be spending our money there about spending on a professor who studies a very specific type of bird and their migration patterns and how ridiculous it was that that's where our state is spending money. And I was like, you fool, the amount of salary that faculty gets is probably a hundred thousand dollars a year even at the close to the top, maybe 150at the most at some universities. So we're talking about $150,000 in investment in this faculty member who, okay, let's stop studying the migration patterns of that bird. That bird now is doing whatever it wants, right? And it's now eaten all of the certain type of insect, right? Because nobody actually paid any attention to what was happening with this bird. And that insect was eating another type of insect that now is harmful to a specific crop. And now there's a crop infestation that we have wiped out all of the crop, all of one specific type of food in. In an area. That's the kinds of implications for discontinuing studying everything that we know. Everything is connected. And I got really upset. I was like, that is not our problem. Our problem is not funding a bird expert. Our problem is in that we are funding massive tax breaks to major corporations that billionaires.
- [17:13]
A
I'm just gonna yell at you and we have trillionaires. Like, we should have. No, tr. This podcast could go absolutely off, off the rails right now. We don't need trillionaires in this country. Yeah.
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B
Guess what? You can look this up. I just looked this up. Billionaires paid in independent taxes an average of 8.2% on their income taxes. I paid like 25% on my income taxes, but they paid 8%. Is that fair? That's the problem.
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A
And I think to you saying this particular person looked at this very, very specific, you know, let's get rid of this professor, this program studying this. And that just shows I'm using my hands to talk here, but that shows like, you're not looking at the bigger picture. And I think that that is also an issue we have right now where you just focus on like, there's this fire. I'm going to choose what looks like the simplest, quickest option to put it out instead of actually looking at where does this put us 10, 20 years from now and what are the bigger ramifications instead of just what can I do right in this moment to make it better? Which is usually not the right answer.
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B
Right. It's a sad time for America that we just devalue education so wholeheartedly. I think we don't want to create well rounded kids. We don't want to invest in their future. And guess what that leads to. Poverty. Guess what the number one thing is that prevents poverty. Education. Guess what? We have increasingly poverty. So what do we do? Okay, well, let's invest in affordable housing. Well, that's great. Affordable housing is great. But let's divest in healthcare, which is one of the other bigger predictors of poverty because people get into debt that they cannot get out of. And let's no longer invest in education as well. Well, that is the other one. So we are just creating a cycle here in general where we are going to have a dumber, poorer populace, which
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A
I think is what some people want. Yep.
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B
And here's the other thing is, oh, colleges are getting rich. All these, everyone's getting rich. Where I'm a public university, go look up my salary. You will be absolutely horrified that with a PhD and 15 years of teaching experience, what I make. Okay, let's just say my base salary isn't six digits. How messed up is that? Okay, it's not us getting rich. You know why it's so hard for colleges to stay afloat? Because every year we get less funding because costs go up and the state gives us the same amount as last year, which is is actually less because we now have to pay more and we now have less money to work with. The other thing is health care costs. It's insurance. It's the scam that is our health care system. Insurance goes up. Our cost has gone up so much to be able to provide health care benefits to employees that we are gutted in terms of how many employees we can have, how many people we can have serving the students. So then tuition has to go up because there is nowhere else that we can get more money. There you go. There's my big rant. Why don't you comment on Patreon about why you hate education and then all engage. Let's do it.
- [20:33]
A
Well, there we go. We got to talk about things that make us mad. Books. We're loving that retreat. Information is dropping soon. And now if you want to hear the press conference, we're going to play it for you. Okay?
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B
Thanks, besties. Sorry to yell so much at you, but you know, it's kind of something that I do and I can't change that. So. Okay, bye. Bye, guys.
- [20:53]
A
Here's the press conference, besties. Hi, everyone. Last week, Emily and I traveled to Arizona to attend a press conference for Rachel Hansen. On June 4, 2022, Rachel was brutally murdered in her apartment. On the four year anniversary, June 4th of 2026, Rachel's parents held the first ever press conference to reignite public attention on Rachel's unsolved case. Justin Yentes, private investigator, opens and closes the press conference. And you'll hear from Kim and Todd, Rachel's parents, and Emily and I and Johnny Martinez, the director of Silent Witness. We are going to play for you the unedited press conference. Thank you so much for listening.
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D
All right, good morning, everyone. My name is Justin Yentes and I'm an investigator with Arizona Investigative Associates. And I'm here today to assist the the Hansen family. Four years ago today, Rachel Hansen was killed. I want to take a few minutes to lay out plainly and factually what we know about how she died. Because the people of this community deserve the truth. And because somewhere out there, someone hearing these facts knows more than they've shared. Rachel Hansen was 19 years old. She was a Gilbert resident building a life of her own. In the early morning hours of June 4, 2022, that life was taken from her. At approximately 2:11am Rachel called 911 from her apartment. She told the dispatcher that someone had broken into her residence and that she had been shot. During the call, Rachel was able to report that she had been shot. But based on the information that has been made public, she did not identify the shooter. Police officers and emergency personnel responded to her apartment and found Rachel suffering from a gunshot wound. She was transported to the hospital where medical staff performed life saving measures. Despite those efforts, Rachel succumbed to her injuries. She was pronounced deceased at 5:12am on June 4, 2022, four years ago this morning. Here is what the evidence establishes at this stage. Rachel was shot inside her own apartment after an apparent unlawful entry. She was alive and conscious long enough to place that 911 call herself. The identity of her assailant and the motive remain unknown. Gilbert. Gilbert Police classified the case as a homicide and have investigated it as such under Arizona law. I want to pause on one fact because this fact matters. At the time Rachel died, her mother Kim was out of state visiting her grown children and grandchildren. Her father. Her father Todd, who's with us today, was not notified until several hours after Rachel had already passed. Rachel died without her family beside her. Rachel died without her mother and without her father. Without any of the people who loved her even knowing what had happened until hours later. No family should learn the truth that way. And no family should be waiting for the rest of the truth four years later. Now, I want to be specific about where this happened because specifics are what jog memories and bring people forward. Rachel was murdered at 1925 S. Coronado St. In Gilbert. The Redstone Apartments on the southwest corner of Greenfield and Ray, apartment 3133. You all that are from the area, know the area probably very well. It's right by San 10 Mall, across the street from the main event, across the street from Topgolf, a very safe area. If you lived in that complex In June of 2022, if you were a resident, a visitor, a neighbor, an Uber driver, a a door dash driver, anyone who is in that area, we are asking you to come forward. If you have knowledge about this case, however small it may seem to you, we are asking you to come forward. You may not realize that what you saw or heard is the piece that matters, but please let us and the police be the judge of that. There is a phrase that has come to define this family's fight for truth. Rachel for eat fight six years ago sat on dash her beloved horse holding a sign that read silence is betrayal. These these years later, those words are why we're all standing here. The silence around Rachel's death is is a betrayal of her and of every family member still waiting for answers. And today we're hoping to break that silence, you'll hear from several people this morning, each of whom carries a piece of the story. First, you'll hear from Rachel's parents, Kim and Todd Hansen. They'll tell you who their daughter truly was, what these four years have cost their family, and what they're asking this community and of the investigators involved in this case of today. After that, you'll hear from Dr. Emily Reader and Ashley Desano, hosts of the Reconsidered Unsolved podcast, who dedicated an entire season of their show to Rachel's case and have traveled here from Oregon to be here with us. Also, you'll hear from Johnny Martinez, the executive director of Silent Witness, who will explain exactly how anyone with information can come forward safely and anonymously. With that, I'd like to introduce Rachel's parents, starting with her mother, Kim Hansen.
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C
All right, thank you, guys. Thank you to all of you for coming and for your continued support and interest in Rachel's case through the last four years. We're grateful for all of you and that you have stuck with us and continue to as we fight for answers. Thank you to Modern Law for letting us meet here, and especially thank you to Justin. He has been a tremendous support, personally and professionally, just helping us in Rachel's case. Honestly, this was really hard to do to collect my thoughts of what I wanted to say because I never imagined we would be here four years later. Sometimes people say to me that, oh, it'll get easier in time. And I know they mean well, but that's not truth. It doesn't get easier, especially when there are no answers. It gets harder because fear sets in. The fear that we may never know. Are we going to get answers? Are things being investigated? Will we ever really know? And we fight that fear. But it's a fear that comes as the years go by. We've always wanted to hold a press conference. We have asked from day one to have a press conference regarding Rachel's case. We wanted the community to know that this tragedy happened in the middle of Gilbert in what is supposed to be one of the safest communities in the US In a very nice area that's highly populated, and yet Rachel's life was taken. And we needed the community to come forward and help to find answers. As many of you know, there's very little evidence. And we understand that. No. No weapon, no motive, no cameras, sadly, no witnesses at 2 in the morning. And that's why immediately we ask that the community be notified. A press conference held so that everybody would know, not just a select few. And that never happened. And that's why we decided to do this, because we continue to seek answers. We also felt that the community had a right to know for their own safety. It's been four years, and the person that took Rachel's life is still out there somewhere. So four years later, we still are sharing this information with the community to raise awareness and press for answers in the investigation. We're very disappointed that the Gilbert Police Department chose not to make a statement about the case, not to be here and be present. They were invited to do so, but sadly, that's one of the things that's been most difficult in this case. In the past four years of waiting and hoping for answers, there has been very little communication, few updates. Weeks and sometimes months have passed of hearing nothing, no contact at all. And for a grieving family, grieving parents, that's really hard. It's been an emotional rollercoaster of wondering, waiting, hoping, and praying that something is actually happening and that an investigation is ongoing. So we would like to ask the Gilbert Police Department, like to publicly ask them to engage other law enforcement in this investigation. We're asking that they reach out to the FBI or other law enforcement that is familiar and has experience solving homicides like Rachel's. We've been patient for four years, and it's time to move the investigation forward. Rachel did not deserve to have her life taken. She had her whole future ahead of her, and it was stolen from her and from us and all that loved her. So we made a promise just the days after we lost her that we will never stop. We will continue to seek for justice and answers and not let this case be forgotten, not let her smile. We won't let it go. So we made a promise to her, and we intend to keep it. Thank you, guys.
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D
So next we're going to hear from Rachel's father, Todd.
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E
Yeah, I get to follow that. My name is Todd Hansen. I'm Rachel's dad. And I want to thank all of you for being here. Particularly, I want to thank the media. You folks have come and you have come to our home and interviewed us, and you have kept this story alive for four years now. And anytime we've asked you or told you there was an event or something, you have shown, and we are so very grateful to you. We want you to know that four years ago today, my daughter. Bear with me.
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D
My daughter.
- [33:02]
E
I'm going to get through this. My daughter Rachel was murdered. I've been largely silent. I do not have all the words to say and have a real Hard time holding my emotions as I speak about Rachel. As you can see, my wife does a much better job than I ever could. Let me assure you, Kim and I are in lock step. We're unified together as Rachel's parents to find the person who took our daughter's life. I feel the need today to set the tone of our family for this press conference to give you a little bit of an idea who and what we are and also to give one example. This is what happens when I go away from my notes. To give one example of how losing our daughter has affected our family, her friends and the world. I awoken at 7:00am Saturday, June 4, 2022 to loud and obviously important knocking at our door. My wife was out of town. It was rather unusual. It was a police department. I gathered myself, dressed and sat down with them. I was told my daughter had been shot and had died, was murdered. After they left, two of my sons had heard the commotion and asked me what happened. We spent the next couple of hours talking, settling anger and getting mad and crying together. At that time, my role in this became evident. Then I had to break the news to my wife over the phone. That's a whole another conversation I obviously can't do today. Since then and to this very day, it has been my job as a husband and a dad to not allow hate in our home. I learned this principle from my dad who taught me to never allow hate in my heart or in my home. Hate destroys, it can never build or rebuild. Hate cannot mend a broken heart. It can't. It's impossible. It has been my duty to follow the will of God and to keep our family strong. It has been my duty to comfort my wife in times and through hurt I cannot even state in words. Times when her whole body hurts from head to toe. And also it has been my duty to honor Rachel in keeping our other children on the right track and away from the path of hate. I believe we have reasonably done so. Today we are here to bring her story to the community and to ask for your help to find the person who took her life. I would like to just share one single experience out of so many. To tell how how taking her life has affected us and taken so much away. Early in 2022, I think February or March, Rachel asked me if we could go to the lake for her birthday on June 12th. We hadn't been in a couple years as a boat needed some work and I hadn't been able to get to it. I made a solemn promise to her that Day that we would in fact go to the lake on her birthday. I'm not a man who takes promises lightly, and I try my very best to fulfill any promise I make. This was a big promise in my heart toward a young lady who asked something of me. She was very respectful, planning ahead, knowing I had a lot of work to do. She didn't come to me the last minute asking if we could go to the lake. And for something that I then probably couldn't provide, she gave me notice and said, hey, dad, it's months away. Can we go to the lake for my birthday? I did so. Boat fixed, ready to go. She was excited we were going to Canyon Lake, one of her favorite places to be. She would be water skiing, swimming, driving the boat, and of course, cliff jumping, which was a fear she had that she overcame. It was rather comical watching her up on the cliffs. It took her quite some time, but she conquered her fears and then she enjoyed it so much. This promise has haunted me for four years. On Rachel's 20th birthday that we had planned for months, we had a celebration of her life and then we buried her.
- [39:34]
C
Ah.
- [39:36]
E
Take a moment and think about that. Instead of a wonderful day celebrating her 20th birthday, we celebrated her life on earth and then laid her to rest. We laid a beautiful, beautiful young lady. Now we're here today as a family, and I humbly stand before you and I beg and I plead. We ask you, the community, for help. If any of you knows anything, even the smallest of things of what happened to my daughter, please step forward and tell somewhere someone knows something about my daughter's death. I love you, Rachel, with all my heart. And I miss you deeply every single minute of every single day. And like mom said, we will not stop fighting. Thank you.
- [41:07]
D
Thank you, Todd. Next, I want to bring up Dr. Emily Reader and Ashley Desano from the Reconsidered Unsolved podcast. They dedicated a season of their show to telling Rachel's story and we've come to work with some of these independent media outlets to try and spread awareness of these unsolved cases. I'd like to give them the opportunity to explain what the case means to them.
- [41:38]
B
Good morning. Thank you for having us. We are Emily and Ashley and we
- [41:43]
A
are the producers of the podcast Reconsidered Unsolved, which is a multi episode deep
- [41:48]
B
dive into Rachel's case.
- [41:50]
A
We're honored to be here today.
- [41:53]
B
When we began looking into true crime cases, we didn't anticipate becoming so involved with one case. But as we got to know Rachel and Her mom, Kim, and people that we spoke with that cared about her. We knew we couldn't look away and that justice needed to be served in this case. We learned through this case, through looking at this, that Rachel was spunky and spirited and as you can tell from today, deeply loved. She was a 19 year old. Like many other, navigating challenges, relationships, hopes, uncertainties about the future. And she was working toward the future of her dreams that was brutally robbed from her four years ago today. And she was prevented of becoming exactly who she wanted to become. Through our months of investigation on Rachel's case and through conversations with many sources,
- [42:59]
A
we believe Rachel's case can be solved. We'd like to address the Gilbert Police Department. Though we recognize the Gilbert police initially put a lot of effort into this case, it feels like the case is currently at a critical turning point. We urge the Gilbert Police Department to reconsider their communication around this case. We note the absence of the Gilbert Police Department here today. We are dismayed by the continued lack to engage the public. While we understand that there are limitations to what can be shared, we believe more consistent engagement with the public could help move this case forward. The release of additional information could potentially help spark recognition or memory in members of the public who may not realize what they know is relevant. Rachel deserves to be remembered, and her family deserves answers. We are hopeful that the Gilbert Police Department will choose to release further information to help solve the case. Because from what we have discovered, along with Justin, there is much to be shared. We want to work together to keep her story alive and move the case even one step closer to resolution. We will not stop our pursuit of information and justice for Rachel. Rachel deserves more than silence. Her family deserves more than uncertainty. And four years is a very long time to wait for answers. Thank you.
- [44:40]
D
Next, we want to bring up Johnny Martinez, the executive director of the Arizona Sylvia's program.
- [44:55]
F
My name is Johnny Martinez. I am the executive director of Silent Witness. First and foremost, I do want to start off talking about how we collect our information, how we get tips, and most importantly, we keep them anonymous. Silent Witness is a separate entity. We are our own nonprofit. And even though we partner with law enforcement, we are not law enforcement. The technology that we use is managed outside of law enforcement agencies. Because you do understand that the community may have a fear, a concern, or may just not want to talk to police, you are able to call in. Sorry about that. 480-WITNESS or for Spanish speaking, 480 Testigo. Rachel's media case number is number 2022, 4150. When these cases are called in, we do not share any personal identifiers or take any personal identifiers. Information is taken, it is given to the department that is working on the case, but no personal identifiers are shared. An anonymity is very, very important to us. And we hope that this gives somebody who may be concerned about speaking up a little bit of peace to be able to call in. If you do not want to speak to law enforcement, please again call 4 Idol Witness or Florido Testigo. You could be eligible for a reward of up to $20,000. But you know what? I do understand that sometimes it is not about collecting that reward for people. This could bring hopefully some sense of peace to a community, to Rachel's friends and to Rachel's family. If you are concerned about your identity being discovered. I know I sound like a broken record, but the anonymity portion is very, very important. And just know that we do not share any information. Please call in. You know, even if you don't think the tip is important, it's too small, not big enough. Call in and let law enforcement let the investigators be the judge of that. You never know what type of information can break open a case. Bring peace and solve this crime. I will be here for a little while after if anybody has any questions. We do have the new poster printed and out in the back. You can submit a tip online through our website, website silentwitness.org or you can call the phone numbers. You can also get a copy of this flyer and this case information on our website as well. I want to join in with everybody else and urging the community to take time, really remember, dig deep and anything that you possibly remember, call in anything. Thank you very much for having me today. Thank.
- [48:51]
E
You.
- [48:53]
D
I want to thank everyone for coming today. I want to thank the Hansen family. I want to thank Billy Terrasio from Modern Law for allowing us to use her, her, her beautiful facility. I want to thank Alicia Cordova, who's also a, a victim who is, is present with us and seeking answers in her case. I thank her for joining us today. And I would like to ask the community one more time to please, please reach out, reach out to Silent Witness. Reach out to Gilbert Police Department. If you're nervous about either one of those, you can call our office. We have a tip line on our website. If you were the one responsible for this, we'd ask you to please come forward. Working in defense investigations for coming up on 20 years, I've worked with a lot of people who have pled guilty, who have accepted responsibility and been remorseful for what they have done. I'm asking the person that is responsible for this crime to do just that. With that, we'll open up for any questions.
- [50:05]
B
Yes, Ashley, is there an example that
- [50:08]
A
you can share publicly of something that you feel like Gilbert could put out there?
- [50:17]
D
I've been a proponent of community based policing. I believe that involvement with the community. This is not an us versus them environment. We're not fighting against the police. We're not fighting against the prosecutor's office. We're wanting to partner with them and help them in any way that we can. There are times that witnesses would much rather talk to a private citizen than a cop. And if that can be helpful, we'd like to avail ourselves and the community as a whole to do that. Yes, Alexis?
- [51:08]
B
Pieces of evidence, the medical examiners report.
- [51:12]
A
How could something like that help you guys move the case forward?
- [51:18]
D
We were given the redacted police report the same day that it was released to the media. So the information that you all have is the same document that we have. So we. We are limited to. To. We're limited in what we actually know was collected. We're limited as to the. The forensic evidence that was collected. There are facts that the police have that have led them into investigative avenues that. That we don't know about. It could be helpful to the community or to private investigators to follow those leads. We had conversations with their public information office as early as or as late as yesterday. They were notified as well as Gilbert leadership. In fact, Vice Mayor Bon Jovani is here. They were notified about the press conference a week or so ago, and we had a conversation to discuss what their potential involvement would be and heard yesterday that they would not be able to participate but would put out a statement on their social media. There's nothing else. Thank you all for coming.
- [52:53]
B
Thanks for listening. For more content, find us on Patreon at the creepy book club.
- [52:58]
A
Happy reading.