Disturbing: They Stood Over Her While She Slept?! | Forensic Files

There's something intuitive in [music] us that if we trust can tell us when we're in trouble.
It's not always an alarm. Sometimes [music] it's a quiet feeling warning you of someone's presence
telling you that you're not alone. That is the very feeling that woke up 19-year-old Rachel Hansen from sleep one
June night in 2022. The adrenaline coursing through her spiked when she opened her eyes to find someone standing
over her bed staring at her. Rachel let out a scream and that sent the person running out of her room and
then out of the apartment completely without ever uttering a word. And that should have been the worst thing that
happened to Rachel in that Gilbert, Arizona apartment, but it wasn't. Because the very next night when Rachel
was asleep in bed just after 2:00 a.m. a dark figure entered her bedroom again held up a gun and shot her in the
abdomen before fleeing. Was the first break-in unrelated? Or was it a warning? A bad omen of what was to come? To this
day no suspects have been named. And if you read the heavily redacted 338-page police file that Gilbert Police
Department released in 2024, you'll learn a whole lot of nothing. But to leave it at that is not exactly
the Crime Junkie nature. So our team did some investigating. Join us as we unravel the mystery of who killed Rachel
Hansen. >> one. Rachel knows that she's in bad condition, [music] so she wastes no time
when the call connects. "I've been shot," she tells them. "Someone broke in and shot me." In about 5 minutes, first
responders are there at the scene. They start working on her there before rushing her to the hospital, but the
bullet that went [music] through her just did too much damage, and after 3 hours in surgery, doctors couldn't save
her. But here's the tragedy on top of the tragedy. When Rachel went to the hospital [music] and while she was in
surgery, her family had no idea. Our reporter Nicole Kagan spoke to Rachel's mom, Kim Hansen, and she said that no
one came to notify the family until 7:00 a.m. after Rachel had died. No one called them when Rachel was found or
when she was in surgery at the hospital, which still bothers Kim to this day knowing that her daughter was there all
alone. But that is far from the only thing that bothers her. There would be plenty more heartbreak and
disappointment [music] coming. She just didn't know it yet. Because like so many
people who never have to live the true crime story, when this all unfolded, Kim was under the impression that the
criminal justice system worked, that all detectives knew how to do their jobs, and that they did them well. Well, that
bubble would burst in a hard [music] way, which brings me back to the crime scene. Now, as far as scenes go,
Rachel's was simple to process. According to the police file, aside from the blood on her mattress and in her
[music] bathroom and the bullet and shell casing, nothing seemed out of place. In fact, there was barely any
furniture at all in sight, just her box spring and mattress. I mean, the only thing really notable about the state of
the apartment that I can tell from the police file is the smell because apparently it like reeks of marijuana.
And as officers began canvassing neighbors, they learned that this smell had been there for like the last 6
months. And over that time, there were random people coming and going from the unit and loud arguments. And those who
lived around unit 3133 assumed that drugs were being sold out of there and that the young woman who lived there
clearly had a bad relationship with her boyfriend, which they would have gotten a front row to because when Nicole went
to this apartment complex, not only are the units pretty close together, but like just walking the hallway, she could
clearly hear people talking and watching TV inside their apartments. >> Paper-thin walls.
>> Yeah. But here's what's so strange. On the night Rachel died, they heard nothing. How? I mean, even if you were
sleeping, I mean, I feel like you would hear a gunshot. Like that would totally wake you up. Which Yeah, I mean, could
they have used a silencer on the gun? So, that was my first thought, right? But I don't know if this killer was
being mindful of noise because while there were no signs of forced entry to Rachel's front door, we actually know
from pictures of the apartment that Kim took after it was cleared by police that
someone kicked the crap out of Rachel's bedroom door. And this is one of those details that just like doesn't compute
for me. Like even if Rachel's bedroom door was locked, you can see from the picture, I don't know if like you had
those where it's like you can like use a nail to like Yeah. turn it. So, why go through the trouble of like kicking it
in and making all that noise? [music] And what's even weirder still is that even with the door kicked in, apparently
the neighbors still heard nothing. Like I personally spoke to the neighbor who lived right across from Rachel and they
said that they weren't even sleeping when this happened. They had just gotten back from bowling at like 1:30 or 2:00
in the morning. They're like fully awake when the shot would have been fired, which means they would have been awake
when the door was kicked in. If it happened then, too. And they were awake when Rachel would have called 911 and
awake when police were showing up to the apartment and like talking to the people
who are now across the hall. How did they hear nothing? Not just like the stuff I mentioned, but like no hurried
footsteps, no no running away, no no argument. Yeah, they didn't see anything either. And a shady person lingering, I
think would have stood out because despite whatever was going on for 6 months in unit 3133, this was a nice and
safe area, like a gated community, in fact. >> Does it have any cameras then? Oh, it
does, but kind of like the gatedness of this community, it feels like it was a little all for show. The leasing office
told investigators that there were no operational cameras anywhere in the complex. And when Nicole went to the
complex, now mind you, this is like 3-plus years post homicide, but every time she went down to check the gate,
it's just like wide open. Cool. But building security aside, one of Rachel's neighbors did have a working Ring
camera. And this is the first frustrating roadblock in the highly redacted records that we got. Nearly all
of what they learned from the Ring camera footage is redacted. Some of the only information that is not says that a
camera caught Rachel on June 3rd, like 5 hours before the shooting, so it'd have
been like 9:15 p.m. And she was with a long-haired man walking to the east on the first floor hall. Now, she lived on
the third floor, so this might have been when she like first gets there. Then, a
different investigator wrote in another report that at 9:33, quote, "The two are
seen walking away from her apartment." And that Rachel is dressed in what looks like a swimsuit when they come back.
What other cameras they might have been seen on, I don't know, all redacted. But
listen, we don't need to spiral and speculate too much, at least about who this long-haired man was, because once
police finally do notify Rachel's family of her death, again, 5 hours after she [music] was shot, they figure that out
pretty quickly. When police knock on Rachel's parents' door, her dad Todd answers. Her mom Kim was actually in
Indiana visiting grandchildren. But officers figure out that the guy with long hair, that is probably Rachel's
fiance, Joe Met Bailey. And they learn something else critical. Rachel had just moved back into that apartment. June 2nd
was her very first night staying there. So, she's not who everyone thought was selling drugs and fighting with her
boyfriend. She hasn't been there. No, no. And that's also why the apartment was empty. Her dad tells police that the
apartment, it was in Rachel's name, but she had been doing like an off-the-books
subletting thing for like the last 6 months. >> And who is this subletter? In that
moment, dad's not sure. I mean, it it wasn't someone she was super close with. So, it like takes a minute to track
[music] that down. Which honestly is like fine because first things first, detectives want to talk to her fiance,
Joe Metheny. Now, the police report says that they bring Joe Metheny the next day, which
would have been Sunday, June 5th. But, Rachel's mom told us that that's wrong. That they brought Joe Metheny right in
after [music] they talked to Todd. So, this would have been like 8:00 a.m. on the 4th. And she's certain of it. We
tried to ask [music] police to verify this, but a spokesperson for the department said that they could not
provide clarifying information citing [music] an active investigation. And Joe Metheny didn't respond to our request
for comment. But, either way, in this interview, which lasts about 4 hours, Joe Metheny is super distraught. But, he
readily admits to being with Rachel that night. He says that he stayed with her at the apartment until around midnight
when he went home. >> And of course, we can't corroborate that because we don't know what else was on
the Ring cameras. >> Yeah, we can't. But, I assume police did because they end up clearing him after
what Kim described as like weeks of merciless interrogation. And Kim and Todd are on the same page as police?
Like, they're not suspicious of Joe Metheny? Well, Kim told Nicole that they didn't have an ounce of doubt that Joe
Metheny was innocent. I mean, day one when like, you know, they were fresh and like the throws of things, Todd did sit
him down and was basically like, "Look, look me in the eyes. Tell me the truth, man-to-man, did you kill my daughter?"
And apparently, Joe Metheny looks right at him and without even wavering says, "No, I would never do that." And they
believe him. Kim and Todd had gotten to know Joe Matt really well since he proposed to Rachel earlier that year.
Like they just couldn't see him doing something like this. And Kim says that Joe Matt was absolutely destroyed in the
wake of Rachel's death. And for like 6 months afterwards, he couldn't eat. He had this like tremendous guilt. He
couldn't hold down a job. And he actually lived with the Hansens for a good portion of that time.
>> Did he and Rachel live together? No, they didn't. But he did stay with her a lot. And actually, between him and Kim,
they're actually able to give police one of the most interesting leads in this whole case because they both knew about
the intruder who'd come into Rachel's room and stood over her the night before she was killed.
>> Wait, did police not know about that right away? Well, no, because after it happened, Rachel didn't call the police
about it. >> What? Yeah, so let me just tell you like the whole story that got pieced together
because it is really strange. In the parks [music] and forests you love, there are stories waiting to be
told. I'm Dilia D'Ambra, the host of Park Predators, a true crime podcast that reminds you sometimes the most
beautiful places hide the darkest secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
So Thursday, June 1st, is the first [music] day that Rachel gets access back to her apartment in like the last 6
months. Now she had no idea what had been going on there while she was gone. So she was pretty shocked to find the
place a mess. Like super dirty and the smell of marijuana was so strong. Like replace the [music] carpet strong. So
she knew that before she began moving any of her stuff back in, she was going to need to do like a really
>> [music] >> deep clean of this place. So that's what she spent Thursday doing. She literally
had next to nothing in the place. Just her box spring and her mattress. I mean, there wasn't even food in the kitchen.
So that first night she ends up staying with Joe Matt. She comes back the next day, does like more cleaning. And that
second day is the first night she's like staying in her place. And that was the opening of this story. She is just woken
up by this feeling of someone there watching her in her room. But when she wakes up, the person runs. And
afterward, Rachel didn't want to be alone, so she texts Joe Matt and asked him to come over.
>> I I don't get why she didn't want to call the police. Because I don't think she actually believed that she was in
danger. So her door had been locked. So for this person to get in, they had to have had a key. And because they didn't
actually do anything, she kind of figured that it was someone who was maybe connected to her subletter,
someone who had a key, came in, and then when they saw that she was someone else,
they realized their mistake and just like booked it. So she's like chalking this whole thing up to like a
misunderstanding. But here's a weird little fact I cannot let go of. This person didn't do anything, didn't take
anything, >> Not much to take. but they did leave something behind. A jar of pickles. Like
sitting right there on the kitchen counter. Okay, I didn't know what I thought you were going to say, but jar
of pickles was like very, very far down on the list. >> It's It's so odd. I mean, so weird that
Rachel pointed it out to her mom and >> Well, yeah. >> Joe Matt. And I mean, the benignness of
this is probably part of what made her think that this wasn't some like knife-wielding maniac and just like a
friend coming to see the wrong person with a jar of pickles. Anyway, that night when she texts Joe Matt, they
decide that like at a minimum, they need to change the locks, right? Like cuz even if this person didn't do anything,
who knows how many other people might have keys, right? So Joe Matt grabbed this spare deadbolt from his dad's house
and installed it on her door that night. Situation handled. Wait, then how would
an intruder be able to get into her apartment the next night? This is the part of the story that makes you just
want to like reach back into the past and like if we could change one thing, maybe everything would be different. So,
so this this night, Friday, June 3rd, we know her and Jomant are at the apartment
together. And by the time Jomant leaves around midnight, Rachel was asleep. Now, according to what he told [music]
Kim and his own mom, who we talked to as well, Jomant woke Rachel up and he's like, "Listen, I have to go, but when I
leave, I need you to get up and lock the door behind me." And it was like a deadbolt, so you had to physically turn
and lock the door. And Rachel agreed, but then when Jomant left, he said he didn't hear the door lock. So, he
actually went back inside and told Rachel again, like, "Listen, you have to get up and lock the door behind me. Are
you going to get up?" And she said yes, and so he left, but apparently, he never
heard the door lock. So, if she fell back asleep, uh someone didn't even need a key. They could have just walked right
in. Yeah, it seems that way. But, they wouldn't have known that. So, this person was either planning on using an
old key, which wouldn't have worked, or breaking in. Yeah, I I mean, I guess so.
I don't know what it means. Everything I just told you is about the extent of what you can learn from the police
report. There are a lot of little snippets of information, but with all the redactions, it's almost impossible
to piece together anything coherent. And when we reached out to Gilbert PD to try
and get some clarity, they said that they, quote, "continue to actively investigate Rachel's case," end quote,
but that was about it. And by the way, this isn't just like all we have to work with. This is all that Rachel's own
family has to work with. I mean, for the first 2 years, Kim was meeting with detectives every 4 months or so, but she
rarely learned anything new. And she believed that investigators were working on her daughter's case because that's
what they kept telling her they were doing. And she doesn't know how this works, right? Like, she has to trust
them. But, a lot of trust is lost by the winter of 2024 when Gilbert PD declares
Rachel's case inactive. And that's right about the same time that the Hansons start working with a private
investigator named Justin Yentes. He said that he kind of went into the meeting with them more to just like
listen, see how he could advise them, but after learning Rachel's story, Justin knew that he needed to help. So,
he took on the case pro bono and has been working it ever since. And after talking with him and Rachel's mom and
Joe Metz mom and others, it is safe to say that there is way more bubbling under the surface of
this case than the police report would lead you to believe. Specifically, these conversations that we had revealed three
investigative theories. None of them are perfect, they all have holes, but each also has the potential to be the answer
as to what happened to Rachel and why. But to understand each [music] of them, we almost need to work backwards from
the shooting and take them one by one. Starting with the subletter theory. Now, I'm starting with the subletter theory
because if you were looking at this case from [music] the outside, it seems the most obvious. So, let's rewind to a year
before the shooting, June 2021. That is when Rachel moved out of her childhood home and rented that one-bedroom
apartment at the Redstone at Santan Village complex in Gilbert. She was there for about 6 months when she got
her dream job. Basically, she was offered to live and work at a horse ranch less than 30 minutes away in Queen
Creek, Arizona. And Rachel had been working with horses her entire life. Like this job would allow her to live in
this little casita on the ranch with the horses literally right outside her window, plus she could bring her own
horse Dash with her. Like she just could not pass this up. But that meant that she had to find someone to sublet her
apartment and like pretty quick. So, she posted an ad on Facebook Marketplace and
through that she connected with a woman named America [music] and they basically
just like work out this deal. So, they didn't know each other before this. According to Kim, no. Rachel and America
only met like once or twice and then America moved in. And remember, Rachel didn't quite go through the proper
channels at her apartment complex to get permission to sublease. It was very like
off the books, which her parents say they were not supportive of. Both of them tried to talk Rachel out of this
arrangement, but she assured them that she and America had met everything would be fine. So for 6 months, Rachel and
America had a strictly business relationship. So Rachel had no idea what she was up to at the apartment. But
Rachel's neighbors had their guesses, like I said before. They believed that there were drug sales happening out of
the unit. But again, Rachel knew none of that. So it's not like she kicked America out because of everything going
on or because she was afraid she was in trouble or going to get in trouble or anything.
>> No, she ended up kicking America out because she got fired from her job at the ranch. And so without her ranch job,
she didn't have a place to live. >> Exactly, which meant that she had to tell America that she needed to like get
out of the apartment ASAP. So everything moved kind of quick. America leaving, Rachel coming back. And this is the
basis for the subletter theory, which is that Rachel was the unintended target. That whoever shot her was actually
targeting America and didn't know that she had moved out 2 days prior. So in this theory, are the intruder and the
shooter the same person? In this theory, that wouldn't really make sense for them
to be the same person because the intruder would have realized that Rachel wasn't America on that first night. But
I mean, we know from neighbors that like people would come and go from there. So
like even if they weren't the same person, it doesn't mean that they weren't both there for America, if that
makes sense. Yeah, but don't you think if they weren't the same person that the first intruder would have come forward
though? Like and said like, "Hey, like this happened. It wasn't me the second night."
>> Not necessarily. I mean, like as sad as it sounds, if that person's not the shooter, they could be afraid of being
pinned as the perpetrator. Or like maybe they were there to buy drugs and they don't want to put themselves on police's
radar for that. Especially if, and this is just a theory, but they especially don't want to be associated with
anything drug-related happening out of there if there's any chance the shooter could have been targeting America for a
related reason. Can you tell if police ever looked into this theory? We think so based on what Kim told Nicole. Like
she said that early on in the investigation police took Rachel's devices. So they had access to everybody
she had talked to, and they told Kim that they were bringing in people for questioning every day as they went
through Rachel's contacts and got warrants for her social media accounts, including Facebook, which Kim knows is
how Rachel met America. Now from what I can make out reading between the redactions, it looks like at least one
individual who was involved in drug sales while America was living in Rachel's apartment was questioned, but
that seemingly [music] went nowhere. In fact, all we and Rachel's family know about America is her first name. We
don't even know what she looked like. I was just going to ask if she and Rachel like resembled each other at all. No
idea. Justin the PI said that he's actively working to connect with America, but he wouldn't give us any
more information about how. So at least in his eyes this theory [music] is still
very much like on the table. I feel like it seems so unlikely that two different
people would enter the same apartment two nights in a row. >> I know. And so it's more likely to be
the same person, and if it's the same person it can't be mistaken identity. Which
brings me to theory number two. The horse ranch theory. Now I want to note, this is one of the theories that the
public really ran with after Rachel's death. But to be upfront with everyone, at least at this point, I think it's the
least likely for reasons that we'll get into. But I am going to lay it out because the context around it is really
important in terms of understanding Rachel's mental state at the time of her death. So, let me rewind to before the
shooting in June 2022, before Rachel ever even moved out of her childhood home in June 2021. We're going to go all
the way back to Rachel's childhood. Specifically, a period of time that Kim refers to as the dark years.
Kim and Todd brought Rachel into their family in February of 2009, and she was just 6 years old. They were experienced
foster parents active in the system for about 18 years, and there were about a hundred kids that passed through their
home. Now, in 2009, they weren't actively looking to take in any more kids, so it was a surprise when Rachel's
case worker reached out, but it quickly became clear that this wasn't just like a routine call. This was a last resort
because Rachel was in a really bad situation, [music] and she needed a new home like right then.
You see, Rachel's bio mom had her while she was in rehab, and when she got out, she and Rachel went to live with a man
that Rachel assumed was her father or grandfather, but Kim says that this guy was actually an unrelated cocaine
dealer. Now, Rachel remembered very little from this time of her life, but she told Kim that one night her birth
mom said that she was going to go to the store for some milk, and then she just never came back. [music] And from then
on, it was just Rachel and this older guy. And it is like during this time that people seem to know nothing about.
[music] These are the dark years. Like, even Rachel couldn't or wouldn't fill in
the blanks. But she was little. All Kim knows is that one day Rachel came home from
kindergarten to find the man that she lived with dead on the floor of the apartment, apparently an accident, and
then 5-year-old Rachel was promptly taken into a child crisis center in Phoenix, and then placed into a foster
home with a couple who promised that they would adopt her. But, 6 months later, they changed their
minds. So, that is when Rachel's case worker called Kim. Now, when Rachel got to the Hansen house, she fit in
perfectly. I mean, there were nine other little boys and girls, and Rachel like fell right in the middle, which meant
that there were always like other kids to play with. Plus, she loved her new school, but the trauma from those dark
years was like impossible to ignore. And Rachel ended up being diagnosed with reactive attachment [music]
disorder. Which meant that like forming, I'm sure you know this, forming healthy
relationships with caregivers was like incredibly hard for her. And for a while, nothing seemed to break through.
Until Rachel herself suggested something unexpected. Horses. Oh, like equine therapy. Exactly. Like 6-year-old Rachel
likely didn't know that equine therapy was a thing. >> Right. But like Kim says she was just
drawn to horses. Like she would ask to be around them constantly. So, I mean, Kim's like, "Why not?"
>> Yeah. And from the moment that they got Rachel her first horse, there was like
no going back. She fell head over heels in love with being a horse owner, and it
helped her build confidence and just like blossom as a young girl. >> Horse girl. As a as a horse girl, I'm
sure you know. [laughter] And listen, this passion stuck with her through middle school and high school.
She ended up graduating early at just 16. She earned a full scholarship to Northern Arizona University. And all the
while, in her free time, she was still riding, still caring for, still working with horses. First her own, and then she
was being hired to care for theirs. And after graduating from high school, she decided to make these gigs official
by like starting her own business with it. >> like a college side hustle. >> No, so Rachel never ended up actually
like going to college. She enrolled, she made the arrangements, right? She got that full scholarship. But she was going
to begin her freshman year, and then like a week before move-in, Kim said that Rachel had this like panic attack.
Like being that far from home suddenly felt super overwhelming to her. So, instead of going to college, Rachel told
her mom that she was ready to start her life now. Like she'd get her own place, focus on her business. Like if she
wanted a degree, like she could go back and do that later. But I mean it's also pretty rare to like know what you want
to do that young. So, when Rachel got the offer to live and work at the horse ranch in Queen Creek, clearly she
couldn't turn it down. This was her dream job and it only took her 30 minutes away from home. So, how did
things go sideways? It sounds like it happened gradually. So, the owners of the ranch, Liz
Robinson and Amanda Krueger, they didn't respond to us on advice of their attorney and they wouldn't [music] speak
to Kim and Todd's PI either. But our reporter Nicole was able to reach their attorney. So,
what I'm going to outline is everything I know from Nicole's conversation with their attorney, her conversation with
Kim, and then the little we can glean from the police file. So, it sounds like things at the ranch started out great. I
mean Rachel got the impression that the owners didn't necessarily know a whole lot about horses, but like she didn't
mind. Like this is her job. I mean she loved the work and she was getting paid to do it. Like this was amazing.
But then things started going wrong. In an interview in the police file, which I'm going to guess is with Amanda, like
her name I only guess this because her name was left unredacted one time. Like I don't know if that was a mistake, but
in this interview it says, quote, Rachel was not keeping up with the agreement regarding training the horses, end
quote. What was the agreement? >> Nicole asked Kim and she gave us this example. So,
there was a young horse that Rachel was training for riding and if you know anything about horses, you know that you
can't just like hop on one once it's big enough and expect to be able to ride it.
Like It's like a process. >> Yeah. A long thing. >> Yeah. Like it it takes a while before
someone can get on a horse and like get on a horse and it be safe. >> Mhm. But Kim says that apparently the
owners felt like Rachel was moving too slowly. They wanted her to get on this horse like ASAP. Now, Rachel told her
mom that she knew the horse wasn't ready, but she was afraid that if she refused, she would get in trouble.
So, she got on the horse, and within like 30 seconds, the horse threw her off. Now, she wasn't injured, but that moment
created a trust fracture, basically, between Rachel and the owners. And it feels like things just went
downhill from there. Like, there was this one time that Rachel, quote, caused approximately $10,000 worth of damage to
a horse trailer, end quote. There was another time that Rachel needed surgery on her finger after being kicked by a
horse, which led to a disagreement with the owners about when she could safely return to work. But the final straw came
in May of 2022. So, Rachel had helped broker a sale, like one of the horse at the ranch in exchange for three other
horses. But, only one horse arrived. And so, because this deal fell apart, layered on top of everything else, the
owners fired Rachel. And so, this is right around May 24th, 2022. And this took a huge toll on Rachel's mental
health. There's actually an incident outlined in the police report that says on May 27th, so this is 3 days later,
Rachel took her handgun and drove up to Sedona, and she called the ranch owners,
told them she was thinking about suicide. Thankfully, they called 911, and police were able to get to her
before she did anything. [music] And they were able to convince her to check herself into Verde Valley Medical
Center for treatment. And I want to add that it wasn't just the job that was weighing on Rachel. She and Joe Matt
were having relationship troubles, too. And to make everything worse, the day after Rachel was admitted for treatment,
she learned that the owners of the ranch were refusing to return her horse, Dash,
until they received $5,000 that Rachel allegedly owed them for services rendered to Dash while she was living on
the property, like things like vet care, feed, stuff like that. The owners basically gave Rachel's dad, Todd, their
attorney's number and is like, "Listen, work it out with him." So, hearing that her horse was essentially
being held for ransom, Rachel decided she needed to like get out of this treatment center ASAP. Like, she had to
sort everything out. Dash's return, her relationship with Joe Met, moving back to her apartment now that she had
nowhere to live. So, on June 1st, we're now like right here. This is the first day she's back.
She checks out. As we know, the next day we get the pickle intruder. Mhm. And then after that we get the shooting.
So, I guess what's the theory that the owners targeted Rachel? Basically. And this is this is what I'm saying, like it
it's it's far-fetched in my mind. >> Well, yeah, especially when they were the ones to call 911 about Rachel's like
mental health incident. >> but for some reason this is the one theory that got like a ton of traction
online and even in the news. Liz and Amanda's attorney said that everybody was taking to Facebook and like dragging
his clients' names [music] through the mud, accusing them of Rachel's murder. People started leaving them harassing
messages and like calling investigators about them. I mean, are these women dangerous? Like, I don't I I guess I'm
like missing the jump here. So, like from what we found, like they both have criminal records, but like mostly for
driving infractions, nothing violent. >> Okay. And Kim said that Rachel never felt like she was in danger at the
ranch. It was actually Amanda and Liz who gave Rachel the handgun that she took to Sedona. They gave it to her for
protection like earlier on. But because there was so much negativity swirling around the ranch owners with Dash and
the job, everyone I think just like kind of jumped to this conclusion. Now, Liz and Amanda's attorney said that they
both spoke to investigators within the first few days of the murder and they were cleared based on alibis.
And he also said that he thought the police files were over redacted, which like
same. But in his case, if Liz and Amanda really were cleared right away, then I would think that there are lines that
could actually like prove their innocence like in the file. Like why wouldn't we and I think they would even
want that. >> Yeah, and with the files being so redacted, it's just keeping Liz and
Amanda under public suspicion. >> Exactly. Did the Hansens ever get Dash back? I don't want to like force them
too hard. >> Yeah, no, they did. So, Liz and Amanda's attorney said that the fee was paid and
that the Hansens were able to get Dash back like I think it was like a month after Rachel was killed. So.
This brings me to my third theory. The Gary Bailey theory. AKA Joe Metheny's dad. What?
So, remember how I said Rachel and Joe Metheny were having relationship trouble around the time she was fired?
>> Yeah. Well, a lot of that tension centered around Gary, his dad. By all accounts,
he and Rachel did not get along. Joe Metheny was extremely close with his dad [music] and Nicole actually spoke with
Joe Metheny's mom, Ava, for this episode and she said that Joe Metheny didn't have many friends because he and Gary
would just like do everything together. Like to the point where Ava actually felt bad for her other son. Now, things
were fine at first when Rachel and Joe Metheny got together. But their relationship progressed pretty fast.
Like 8 months after they met, they got engaged. And the closer Rachel and Joe Metheny got, the more Gary had someone
to compete for Joe Metheny's attention. And Rachel told her mom, Kim, that she felt like Gary was disturbed by the
possibility of losing Joe Metheny. So, he intentionally would try to cause conflict between them. And to make
everything worse, right around the time Rachel and Joe Metheny were getting really serious,
Ava filed for divorce from Gary. Something that she'd been wanting to do for a long time. And may I take you on a quick
side quest? >> [laughter] >> You never have to ask for permission, but of course.
>> So, I need to tell you about Ava and Gary's relationship. So, back in 2015, she told us that she
had been suspicious Gary was cheating on her. So, she put a recording device in his
work truck every day for a month. He ran a landscaping business, spent a lot of time riding around his truck. So,
if something was going down, she knew this is where she would catch him in the act.
Girl got more than just wind. >> [laughter] >> She got recordings of Gary on tape
>> Mhm. cheating on her with the men he employed. What? Yeah, so she went to Gary with these recordings being like, I
know what you've been doing. I want a divorce. Literally, you can have everything. I just [music] want the
kids. But freaking Gary, he's like, oh, that's not me cheating. I knew you were recording, so I staged all of this. I'm
sorry. >> [laughter] >> I know. We tried every possible way to reach Gary for this episode, but he
never got back to us. But I know from Ava that in response to her request for a divorce, Gary apparently said that he
wanted to take Ava to court over it. So, not wanting to lose her kids, Ava promised herself that she would stay
with Gary until all the kids were adults. Whoop, which brings us to September 2021.
Ava was ready to end it, and she texted her bishop to like let him know. But what she didn't know is that [music]
when she texted her bishop, she made a group chat with bishop and Gary. That's like constantly my worst
nightmare. >> And when Gary received that text, dude lost it. Apparently, he had this major
personality shift, and he started acting really strangely. Him and Ava started sleeping in different rooms, and Ava
said that she heard that Gary was badmouthing her all over town and at church. Nicole actually spoke to one of
these church members. Her name's Jennifer Simmons. And she said that Gary's whole temperament [music] changed
so much. Like he was just angry all the time and constantly ranting that they started referring to him as scary Gary
>> [music] >> and like avoiding him at all costs. And things just escalated from there. In
November 2021, there was this one day where Gary recorded himself barging into an apartment that Ava was staying at
saying like awful things about how she was cheating on him and that he was there to catch her having sex. Mind you,
Ava was like fully clothed watching TV in her bedroom. And she called the police after this, but not before Gary
sent the video to their entire family and like people from church. >> A video of her watching TV? Yeah.
[laughter] Dude, you're the only one who looks bad in this video, scary Gary. >> I know. So after this incident, that's
when Ava got an order of protection against him. Then in December, there was an instance where the Hansons actually
had to kick Gary out of their home because of the way he was speaking about Ava at their dinner table. That was like
the first and only time that he was ever in their house. And right after that, Joe Matt proposed to Rachel,
which apparently just like sent Gary off [music] even more. He started conflating the two women in
his head. Ava said that he started calling Ava Rachel and Rachel Ava. And according to what Kim said happened
next, it sounds like things might have finally come to a head. On April 27th, 2022, this is like just over a month
before Rachel would be murdered. Everything boiled over. So Rachel was at a point where she was like fed up with
Gary inserting himself into her relationship with Joe Matt. So, according to Ava, Rachel texted Joe Matt
an ultimatum. It is either your dad or it's me. The conversation spiraled. Joe Matt
messaged back that he was tired of life and that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts. So, Rachel panicked, tried
calling him, but he like wasn't answering. Wasn't even answering for his mom, either. So, Rachel drove to Gary's
house to see if Joe Matt was [music] there. He wasn't, but Gary was. He was actually
in his car in the driveway. And at this point, Rachel might have actually been happy to see him because she knew if Joe
Matt was going to answer the phone for anyone, it was going It was his dad, right.
But she asked Gary to call him and Gary's like, "No." He refused. Why? Gary's like, "Well, you know, I don't I
like basically he said he didn't take the suicide [music] threat seriously." But like Rachel still was. So, she
blocked the driveway with the car that she was driving and refused to let Gary leave until he would call his son. And
what happens next happened fast. Gary put his car in reverse, backed into the car that Rachel was in, tried and failed
to pull her out of it, and then like gave up and drove away right over the front lawn. Now, when this happened,
Rachel called police, and then shortly after they arrived, Joe Matt was found. He's safe. But Rachel, understandably,
is like totally shaken up. >> Yeah. According to the police report, officers found her crying in front of
Gary's house, and she recounted the whole confrontation to them. Including another chilling detail. She
said that day Gary sent her a text that read, "If I ever see you in my house again, I will shoot you in the head."
And she said that he had been threatening her for a while. Now, no charges were filed after this.
And then, Rachel was killed. And what is Joe Matt saying about all this? Like whose side is he taking? He
seemed to have been torn down the middle. Like I said, he never got back to us for this episode, but what I do
know from his mom, Eva, is that he and Rachel's relationship got so rocky after this that they actually called off their
engagement. And then, as you know, Rachel gets fired, her mental health declined, she spends some time in that
facility, but her first night out, remember she goes to clean her apartment, but then rather than staying
there or going to her parents, she actually went to Eva's to stay the night with Joe Metheny. And Eva said they
basically just like she called it like hitting the reset button. They talked everything out and
got to a really good place. So, that's June 1st. >> June 1st, yes. And Eva said the next
day, June 2nd, legal intruder. Yes. That day, one of her daughters told Gary that
about the rekindling, that they're like back together. >> Oh. And Gary is pissed. Then,
there is a part of June 3rd that I haven't told you yet. So, the night of the shooting, Joe Metheny
is with Rachel, right? >> Yeah. And he's there till like midnight. Well, here's the interesting part.
He wasn't planning to leave. He was actually sleeping shortly before he left. The only reason he left was
because he got a call from his dad telling him to come home. >> [snorts] >> What? Mhm. Wait, what he
like why did he tell him to come home in the middle of the night on the same night that Rachel got
murdered? There is no explanation in the police records that you could see. But, we
found one somewhere else. So, remember that woman, Jennifer, who went to church with Gary? The woman who gave us the
scary Gary moniker. >> Jennifer. So, she said that Gary told the whole congregation why he called on the
morning of June 5th at church. So, apparently it's scary Gary showed up to church by himself, went up to the pulpit
to you're going to love this phrase, give testimony. And he allegedly said of the night
before, quote, I called Joe Matt to come home because the Holy Spirit told me so
and it saved his life. End quote. So, So, he called Joe Matt home because he had some kind of revelation?
>> That's what Jennifer said, yeah. I still don't understand the reason for the call
though. Like did he just say, come home? And Joe Matt is just so loyal to his dad still that he
leaves no questions asked? Or was it something like I know something bad's going to happen,
get home, and then Joe Matt just left his fiance to fend for herself. Like and if that's it, like this would have been
after an intruder had been there the night before. >> change the lock? >> Right, like when she's already scared
and like maybe needs someone there. Also, if it's really the Holy Spirit speaking to Gary,
why didn't he mention anything about Rachel? Literally, Jennifer said that she asked
him that and he said, I only received revelation about my son, not her. Yeah. Okay. Listen, the more
conversations people at church had with Gary, the more suspicious they became of
him. We haven't been able to corroborate this, but Jennifer said that many of the
women in her ward called the police to report him acting strangely. So, then that means the police looked into him. I
mean, he's actually mentioned on the second page of the police chronology report from the night of Rachel's death,
which in the timeline is before Rachel even had been pronounced dead. An officer noted the death threats from
Gary that Rachel had reported weeks before. But get this, according to Kim and Ava, to this day, Gary has never
been brought in for questioning. Now, Nicole asked like how they knew this and Kim said that she had asked the chief of
police face-to-face [music] why Gary was never interviewed and he said, "Because
we can't force somebody to talk." Have they tried? Kim said that the police told her that
they left a phone message, they've tried to follow him, they've reached out in all these like different ways and he's
just never responded. Much like, by the way, we reached out to him in all these different ways and Gary has never
responded to us. And we tried phone, mail, text, Nicole even stopped by his church in Gilbert,
but we have not been able to make contact with him either. I mean if you have nothing to hide, why not
clear your name? Especially because according to Ava, Gary couldn't have been the one to pull the trigger. What
do you mean? So, she told us that Gary [music] was home with their daughter the night of
the shooting. All night? I don't know, but like that's what Ava told us. And listen, I don't think she
has a reason to want to give this guy an alibi. So, I don't think she's covering
for him. In fact, basically in the same breath she was saying he couldn't have pulled the trigger, but she was also
telling us that Gary had a history of talking about hitmen. And Jennifer from his church backs this up, too. They both
told us that he would go around basically telling people that if you ever want to like off someone, the best
thing to do would be to hire someone who is really hard to track and like the case would just be impossible to solve.
Cool. Cools. So, let me just play this out for a sec. If Gary hired someone to kill Rachel,
where does the intruder the night before come in? All I can put together is that
maybe the first night was like a trial run or like a super inexperienced hitman. Like one that
would use a silencer, but then kick down a door. Yeah, like maybe I I maybe the first one wasn't even like a hitman at
all. Maybe the first one was someone Gary knew, then like they go in Well, they realize they're not a hit
man. >> Yeah, Rachel wakes up and they're like, yep, yeah, in over my skis, but also
brought pickles. Dude, the pickles. I am obsessed with the pickles. I was trying
to look up like, was this a symbol? Like, what could this mean? Like, I even made Nicole find out exactly what kind
of pickles? [laughter] Like, and Kim Kim's like, it's a medium-size standard jar of pickles, kosher dill, in case
you're wondering. Got it. And it didn't look like they had been opened. >> Wait, so Kim saw the pickles herself? Oh
my god. I have it I have to tell you about this part. So, I think this encapsulates so well why
Kim, Rachel's mom, has lost so much faith in the investigation and those leading it. So, Kim knew about the
pickle jar because after that person came into Rachel's apartment the first night
>> She's like, "Hey, Mom, this weird thing happened and also they left pickles."
>> Yeah, here's a super weird detail. Well, Kim said in the days after the shooting, when her and Todd were told by
police that they could finally go get Rachel's things from the apartment, they opened the door and the pickle jar is
just like sitting right there on the counter. Police didn't collect it. I mean, Kim and Todd at the time assumed that
they must have like at least like fingerprinted it or something cuz by then they told police the story of the
person who came in the night before and left the pickles. >> Mhm. So, they're assuming police, you
know, did the bare minimum. Yeah, did did their job. >> Right, like fingerprinted it to see what
strange person was in her place. >> Right. So, Kim just like took it home along with Rachel's clothing, which by
the way was also left behind. And the jar sat in her garage for a while until she ultimately decided that it was time
to throw it away. But Kim has come to regret that now because she told Nicole that in one recent conversation with
police she asked them about the pickle jar. And they looked right at her. And they said, "What pickle jar?"
You've got to be kidding me. Nope. They said that they never saw a pickle jar. What do you mean never saw one? There
was nothing else in the apartment. It was literally just her bed and pickles. >> Which this started to make us feel like
maybe we were losing our minds or like the whole pickle thing got conflated with something else over the years. Like
maybe people are mistaken. Like we just couldn't make sense of it. Why would you
not take the one thing that might be evidence in an apartment where you have barely anything to work with.
>> nothing. So, [clears throat] our amazing reporter Nicole culled through everything that we have from
Gilbert PD. Files, blurred body cam footage, and there are no mention of pickles at all.
Except God bless this tenacious little reporter. There is one barely audible offhanded comment caught at the very end
of one officer's police body cam as he's walking through Rachel's apartment. And
I've got it here for you to see. Oh, watch the blood on the floor. Very empty. Guess the store was closed.
I don't know. All right. That's kind of weird. Kind of a weird thing to ask for, huh?
I don't know what that >> No pickles. No pickles. No pickles. Now, here's the tricky part. I don't
know the date of this video. And Gilbert PD wouldn't give us the date. >> [laughter]
>> But it must have been after the Hansens took the pickle jar home because Kim said that in the empty apartment, it was
[music] like impossible to miss. And yet, we're here. Was it I don't even know how
important [music] the pickle jar is to this investigation. But now we will never know. I mean, at
the very least, it could have helped identify the first intruder. Yeah, and by the way, speaking of other
identifiable things, when the shooter kicked in Rachel's bedroom door, they left a pretty clear
partial shoe print. Like, did police do anything with that? I mean, they left the door. There's not
like they took it. So, I don't know. And listen, this is my call out to all the sneaker heads. Like, come out and tell
me if you recognize this pattern on the door. But you can see like all of this it like this is what makes Kim worried
that she'll never know who killed her daughter. Kim said Gilbert police told her that they have exhausted every lead.
But even Justin the PI doesn't know what Gilbert PD is up to with anything. And he is probably the closest with the
department of anyone that we spoke to. According to him, if this case is going to be solved, it's because someone
courageous is going to come forward with information, which is why Kim wanted us
to share Rachel's story with Crime Junkies. Coming up on 4 years, Kim's greatest fear is that Rachel's story
will be forgotten. It's actually why she created Rachel's Rescue, which is a dog
and puppy rescue in her daughter's memory to keep Rachel's story alive. We're actually going to link out to it
in the show notes. If you're in Arizona and looking for a new furry family member. Kim wants people to keep talking
about Rachel, to know her case, and most importantly to speak up if they know something, anything, about her murder.
So, if you have even the smallest bit of information that could help move Rachel's case in the right direction,
listen, there are a lot of ways you can come forward. [music] You can reach out to the Gilbert Police
Department at 480-503-6500. Or if you want to remain anonymous, you can call Silent Witness [music] 480-
948-6377. There is a posted reward for information that's now up to $20,000. [music]
And listen, if you feel more comfortable or have any trouble reaching Gilbert PD,
you can reach out to Justin Yentis at Arizona Investigative Associates by calling 602-252-2474.
[music] You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkie.com.
And you can follow us on Instagram at Crime Junkie Podcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

On June 4, 2022, 19-year-old Rachel Hansen was shot inside her apartment at the Redstone at SanTan Village complex in Gilbert, Arizona. Just one night earlier, she had woken up to find a stranger standing over her bed. He ran when she screamed.

The next night, around 2:00 a.m., someone entered Rachel’s apartment, kicked in her bedroom door, and shot her while she slept. Rachel managed to call 911 before collapsing. She was rushed to the hospital, but after hours in surgery, she died from her injuries.

Nearly four years later, no one has been arrested. Rachel had just moved back into her apartment after subletting it for six months. Neighbors believed drug activity had been happening there before she returned. She had recently been fired from a horse ranch job in Queen Creek, Arizona, and had experienced escalating tension in her personal life, including documented threats made against her weeks before her death.

Investigators have examined multiple theories: Was Rachel an unintended target tied to her former subletter? Was the shooting connected to a dispute at the horse ranch? Or was someone in her inner circle responsible? Adding to the mystery is a jar of unopened pickles left behind after the first intrusion, partial shoe print on her bedroom door, and Ring camera footage heavily redacted in police records.

In this episode, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat take a deeper look at the evidence, the unanswered questions, and the frustrations Rachel’s family continues to face with the investigation.

Rachel Hansen was 19 years old. She had just started a new chapter of her life. And someone knows what happened inside Apartment 3133 that night.

If you have even the smallest bit of information that could help move Rachel’s case in the right direction, there are lots of ways to come forward. You can reach out to the Gilbert Police Department at 480-503-6500. Or if you prefer to remain anonymous, you can reach out to Silent Witness at 480-948-6377 – the posted reward for information is now up to $20,000

-------- Key Episode Moments: 0:00 - 1:35 - Case Intro 1:36 - 2:54 - Rachel Hansen’s 911 Call 2:55 - 3:14 - Family Not Notified 3:15 - 6:18 - Crime Scene Issues 6:19 - 7:52 - Ring Footage: Long-Haired Man 7:53 - 10:18 - Joemet Interview 10:19 - 13:17 - Intruder Night Before 13:18 - 15:19 - Unlocked Door 15:20 - 20:25 - Theory #1: Subletter 20:26 - 31:13 - Theory #2: Horse Ranch 31:14 - 42:14 - Theory #3: Gary Bailey 42:15 - 49:21 - Pickle Jar & Missing Evidence 49:22 - 50:40 - Outro

Follow Crime Junkie: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimejunkiepodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrimeJunkiePodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CrimeJunkiePod Crime Junkie is created and hosted by Ashley Flowers.

About Ashley Flowers Ashley Flowers is the top female podcaster in the U.S. and the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 podcast among women and the #1 true crime podcast globally. As the Founder of audiochuck, she has built a top-tier podcast production company that has garnered over 2.6 billion downloads, captivating audiences with its gripping storytelling through 10+ chart topping podcasts. Ashley and her team are dedicated to creating responsible true crime content that respects victims and their families.

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Check out these other great crime channels: @kallmekris The Mysterious Life & Death Of Michael Jackson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucNUZxsv1v8 @annieelise The Car in the Garage: The Dark Secrets of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sitagOUjks @KendallRae Evidence In Their Home Proves The TRUTH Behind Her Murder: Who Killed Heidi Firkus? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bh0Mthq2gM @christinaarandall Her Dad Told Her She Couldn't Date Her Boyfriend & They Did This! Ellie Friar Interrogation Shocking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVdeQ52Ai0M

Brief Summary

Rachel Hansen was shot in her apartment, raising questions about the police investigation and potential motives behind her murder.

Key points

The Night of the Attack. Rachel Hansen wakes up to find an intruder in her room, leading to a tragic series of events.
The Mystery Deepens. Questions arise about the intruder's identity and the police investigation's effectiveness.
The Aftermath. Rachel is shot and dies after surgery, leaving her family in shock.
The Subletter Theory. Rachel's subletter may hold the key to understanding the events leading to her death.
The Subletter Theory. Rachel was the unintended target in a shooting that was meant for America.
Rachel's Dark Years. Rachel's traumatic childhood led to her struggles with attachment and mental health.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How did they hear nothing?

Questioning the silence during the shooting.

5:29WatchFeb 23, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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