New documents shed light on Rachel Hansen's murder

GILBERT, Ariz. – New documents revealed more information about the death of a 19-year-old Gilbert woman.

Rachel Hansen was murdered two years ago and her death remains unsolved to this day. 12News went through more than 300 pages of police reports and spoke with Rachel Hansen's mother, Kim Hansen, about the new information.

“We really believe that someone, somewhere knows something,” Kim Hansen said. “I think we can all agree that this was not a random act of violence.”

12News obtained the transcript of the 911 call and police bodycam footage from the night Rachel Hansen was shot in her Gilbert home.

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Hansen was just 19 years old when she was shot in her Gilbert apartment in June 2022. Hansen had called 911 and reported that a stranger had entered her apartment near San Tan Village Parkway and Ray Road.

Bodycam footage, which is completely blurred, partially blacked out and the audio is heavily blacked out, shows the perspective of several officers as they arrived at the scene. It's unclear how long they waited to go in and what they found.

Documents obtained by 12News state that someone threatened Rachel Hansen in the weeks before her murder.

The Gilbert Police Department noted that she called police in April 2022 to allegedly report that her fiancé's father had threatened her, documents show.

When 12News asked Gilbert Deputy Police Chief Jim Bisceglie whether or not the father of Rachel Hansen's fiancée was under investigation, he did not confirm or deny such an investigation.

“Unfortunately I can’t speak to everyone we spoke to,” Bisceglie said. “Our detectives tirelessly pursued every lead, spoke to many people and pursued every possible lead.”

Much of the reporting has been redacted, including information gathered from interviews with people of interest and others.

“The redactions are made because we believe releasing this information could jeopardize a case,” Bisceglie said. “Like I said, people know exactly what happened.”

But the editorials are difficult for Rachel Hansen's family to bear.

“It's so hard for a grieving family to wait so long without answers,” Kim Hansen said. “It’s just really hard to carry on with everyday life.”

RELATED: Valley family still waiting for answers two years after daughter's murder

At the top of every page of the police report it says the case is “inactive – suspended, lacking leads or suspects,” which is what Rachel Hansen's family has been concerned about.

The detective's last entry in the case is from February 2024, when he announced that the case had been referred to Silent Witness and wrote, “The case remains DNR inactive until new information or possible leads become available.”

“I can tell you that the case is not inactive. The case is an active case,” Bisceglie told 12News. “There are some system limitations with our computer-aided CAD sending to someone. How we fundamentally classify cases when new leads come in. We are investigating these new leads.”

Bisceglie said some information has come to police through the Silent Witness program, but not recently.

“I implore the people out there who know what happened to do the right thing and come forward,” Bisceglie said. “Rachel’s family deserves justice for her for what happened to her two years ago.”

A GoFundMe has helped raise additional funds to supplement the Silent Witness reward in the Rachel Hansen case. There is a $10,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest in the case. Tips can be obtained from Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.

“We're just hoping that as we continue to raise funds for the reward money, that at some point that will encourage someone who knows something about something to come forward, share something or provide a silent witness tip anonymously,” Kim Hansen said.

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