Rachael Abraham’s life was never easy. At 10-years-old, her mother signed away her rights to children, placing Rachael and her younger siblings in the foster care system.
Then, while Rachael was in high school, her white foster parents abandoned her and drove to California without leaving a forwarding address, the Washington Examiner reported last December. For years, Rachael moved from friend’s house to friend’s house, until she met Shay Whitaker while working at a Subway restaurant at 19-years-old. Rachael moved in with Shay and her mother, and life started looking up.
Rachael Abraham and Shay Whitaker. (Shay Whitaker, Washington Examiner)
Rachael met Mario Abraham, married, and had three children. Before their marriage, however, Rachael’s little sister Marissa was sent back to Eugene, Oregon, on a bus by the same foster parents who abandoned Rachael years earlier. Rachael cared for her 16-year-old sister, who eventually met a man named Cevelino Capuia. In 2006, Capuia kidnapped a man and shot him. When he was arrested, he confessed to the crime and named his accomplice, Shawn Ryan Womack. On the day Capuia was arrested, Womack took Rachael’s little sister to the Oregon coast and shot her in the head.
