In the early morning hours of June 4th, 2022, 19-year-old Rachel Hansen called police to report someone had just entered her Gilbert, Arizona apartment, and shot her while she slept.
The bullet grazed her lower right abdomen and went out of her shoulder. Rachel specifically told the 911 operator “I’ve been shot by someone I don’t know.”
Paramedics arrived and transported her to a hospital in Chandler, but Rachel did not survive. Rachel had just returned to her apartment located near the San Tan Village mall after subleasing it out to an unidentified couple. She previously lived on a Queen Creek horse ranch and was working as a horse trainer.
The apartment complex did not have any video surveillance on their property. And the lock on Rachel’s door was broken, allowing the killer to slip inside without breaking down a door.
Rachel grew up in Gilbert after being adopted at a young age by her foster parents Kim and Todd. She developed a love of horses at a young age. Her dream was to operate her own equine business.
At the time of her death, she was engaged to be married to a man of the same age. He was never named as a suspect.
But according to Gilbert Police records in April 2022, the man’s father had allegedly threatened to kill her. The night before her death, she was awakened as she slept by a man who came into the apartment and went into her room. Rachel got up and saw the man had left a jar of pickles.
Rachel did not report this incident to police, thinking the man was connected to her former tenants.
Rachel’s case was inactive for a time. But in June 2025 it was reported in local news that Gilbert PD has reopened the investigation.
Silent Witness offers a cash reward of $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Rachel’s killer.
Sources https://silentwitness.org/cases/homicide-rachel-hansen-1900-s-coronado-road-gilbert/ https://www.gilbertsunnews.com/news/1-year-later-gilbert-teen-s-slaying-remains-unsolved/article_90d3217c-00d6-11ee-8cd2-8356edf129b1.html https://www.azfamily.com/2025/06/04/3-years-without-suspect-motive-shooting-death-rachel-hansen/ https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/26597207/rachel-anne-hansen
Edited to say "father" instead of stepfather that was a mistake on my part.
I’m baffled by the pickles…
Right? It’s so…odd
Could be a red herring
I met her a few weeks before her death when my family adopted a dog from her family. They are avid animal lovers and run a rescue out of their home. She was a really kind girl and we treasure the headstart they gave our girl.
I pray the family finds justice and peace.
I just feel like it has to be connected to the previous roommate who possibly dealt drugs out of the apartment, they came for her and didn't realize Rachel was staying there now.
It reminds me a bit of the murder of Egypt Covington, who was killed in 2017 by people who mistook her for her drug dealing neighbor. (They had planned to rob the drug dealer)
So did that get solved?? I read about it like a year ago and thought it was still unsolved..
Yes, they found Egypt’s killers by using cell phone geofencing, which is not allowed in many areas.
The Dateline episode & podcast about her case is titled “A Girl Called Egypt”.
Her brother Dewayne’s girlfriend was interesting but she worked hard to get to the correct police to get solved.
I lived in an old drug den in Phoenix and this was my main fear. Turns out we just got the random John looking for a dominatrix 🤣
When I moved into my last apartment, it was extremely clear to me that there had been people living in the place while it was empty. I found clothes around, a LOT of drugs and paraphernalia and the sliding door to the back deck was unlocked and because the back steps led down to a path through the bushes and you wouldn’t be seen until you exited through an industrial park (where you wouldn’t be seen by anyone after 6pm) I was TERRIFIED these people would come back, especially as a former addict, there’s no way I’d let that amount of drugs slide.
I put all the drugs and paraphernalia, clothes and other things I found around, in bags, wrapped in plastic bags and left them on the back deck with a note saying that I had gathered up all their stuff and just take it.
I slept on the living room floor for the first week, just far enough from the door that if someone had somehow broken the lock I’d have enough time to jump up and I kept a can of bear mace and a baseball bat with me (I’m surprised I didn’t mace myself in my sleep but I wasn’t going to risk my kids getting hurt). It took 4 days but finally just past 3am, I heard people coming up the back steps, they were talking and then took the bags and left.
A week later they left a letter in my mailbox saying thank you for letting them have their stuff, they were sorry for the situation and that they wouldn’t bother myself or my kids.
I don’t know why but that letter still makes me emotional.
Omg, the part about the mace sounds just like me! I'm always so worried that I'll end up macing myself or my kids too.
You're smart for leaving their stuff on the porch, and very lucky that they came back peacefully, took their belongings, and left.
I will say, though, that it was cool of them to leave you a letter. How many dealers or addicts would do that? I've known a few and none of them would do that lol. They would most definitely want their drugs though!
I had people knocking on the kitchen window in my ground floor apartment. The neighbours told me that the guy, who lived there before, was a dealer.
Omg that's so funny 😁
I thought that, too, until I read about her fiance's dad threatening to kill her. He could have hired someone. So bizzare
I’m curious why a man would threaten to kill his son’s 19-year-old girlfriend? What could she have possibly done to warrant that?
Secondly, I wonder if he entered her apartment the day before to purposely have an explanation for his prints or other evidence that might turn up after her murder. (“Yes, I went there yesterday and dropped off some groceries.”) He grabbed something to intentionally leave behind and it happened to be a jar of pickles.
You took the words out of my mouth in regards to her fiance's father wanting to kill her. Like why is that? Also, how was it reported to police that the fiance's father had threatened to kill her? Did I miss that part? This is such a bizarre case from threats from potential in-laws, to pickles being left from an intruder to her sleeping there the next night.
Wouldn't that risk Rachel recognizing him? Was she aware what her boyfriend's father looked like or had she never met him? If she had never met him face to face, why would he be threatening to kill her?
And assuming it was the boyfriend's father, how would he know she would not have immediately called the police when she saw a man in her bedroom dropping off a jar of pickles?
None of this makes any sense.
I just did a little digging to see who the stepfather is and found the fiance's mom's TikTok... her bio says she's divorced.
I think the reason might be as simple as not liking her as a match to his son. There's so many bigoted or gross reasons people choose to hate others for.
This is wild. Gilbert is considered one of the safest cities in the US, so I guess that’s why people feel safe leaving doors unlocked, etc.
Rachel was a foster kid and was adopted at age six or seven by a family that got back in to having horses when they adopted her, they had sold them off as all their children were grown and out of the house. She came to them with a lot of trauma. They sound like amazing people.
I will never understand the mentality of not locking doors. Wasn't it Richard Ramirez that would only choose to continue his crimes if the door was unlocked because he took it as an invitation?
Not sure about Ramirez, but this was exactly the belief of Richard Chase, The Vampire of Sacramento.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chase
That sounds like who I was thinking of. I generally try not to focus on using too much memory in my brain on the names of killers, admittedly.
The nightstalking vampire
Idk ive lived by san tan valley mall and certain parts are sketch. Not saying her part was. A lot of gilbert is nice. Id also add weird shit goes on in some of these ranches. Im sure some are nice but for example i hung with people near that area who had horses, a “ranch” you can say, and the trailer was rented to all shady folks. It just depends.
San Tan is sketchy? Huh?
Same reaction over here.
I’m out there like once a week doing real estate and I’ve never seen a sketchy area lmao
I used to live in Simi Valley, CA. Still one of the safest places in America. (Also where the command center for Power Rangers is located, it's a Jewish temple). The kind of place where you could leave your front doors wide open and no one would bother you. Even there, I kept my doors locked. Not that I actually thought people would break in. But just because it's basic privacy.
So the day prior, someone either breaks in or has a means to enter her apartment, goes into her room, and leaves a jar of pickles?
And she sleeps there the next night before figuring that one out?
With no working lock on the door!
I mean, it’s pickles. I wouldn’t stay that night but I’m a different person. It also assumes she had a different place she felt safe to which she could escape. She should have been able to go to bed that night without being shot and killed. I’m sure she regretted it as soon as she realized she was shot.
Pretty sure the jar-of-pickles dude was the perp here.
Also, what kind of fucking creep does that?
The fact that she still slept there the next evening, knowing that the lock was broken, and after waking up to some fucking weirdo leaving a jar of pickles in the room is fucking insane—and this is from a full grown imposing man. Most women I know would seriously sleep in their car in a Walmart parking lot before ever doing that shit.
Yeah that really struck me too. After the pickle incident i wouldnt be sleeping there until the lock was repaired. Im also a full grown imposing man.
That was insane to me too. I would not stay there without a functioning lock, let alone right after a man broke in. I don't understand why she wasn't in a rush to get the locks replaced.
Im more deeply confused by her not reporting it. Maybe she thought it sounded too silly to waste police time ?
Wouldn't the pickle jar have DNA or fingerprints?
I can't believe I'm writing this sentence, but did the police recover the pickle jar? I can see her throwing it away the next day
This is the first time I've ever seen this story. It sounds like Rachel was a beautiful soul and I hope whoever is responsible is caught.
There’s nowhere near enough information to even begin to formulate a theory. The default for a murdered woman is the current/former boyfriend/partner. Do we have any info on that regard?
Idk the person they subleased to that was unknown is pretty sus to me
There was information she was living on a horse farm, which was the reason she sublet her apartment. The owners of the horse farm purchased two very expensive horses Rachel was hired to train. The training was taking longer than expected and the owners were angry with her. She couldn't live there any longer and moved back to her own apartment.
In the write up it definitely mentions that the stepfather of her fiancé had allegedly threatened to kill her…
So was that followed up? Did he actually make the threat? Was he investigated? How does that square with her saying she didn’t know her killer?
You’re the one saying it’s usually related to lovers- this is evidence that it possibly could be that.
The tip came in in 2022, they are investigating, as said in the write up. I know it’s frustrating that there’s not more information being released, but the point of the article is that it’s being investigated.
Did you actually read what I wrote? I said that there’s not enough information to even begin to speculate. I then, as natural follow-up, asked if the obvious investigative path looking into the most likely culprit had been taken.
“According to Gilbert Police records in 2022” does not say a tip came in in 2022; there’s no mention of a tip at all. As written, it means either that’s when the records were consulted, or that’s when the threat was made. The latter doesn’t make sense, so the former must be true.
So... let me get this straight,
The case happened in... 2022
The records were consulted in... 2022
Yet you can't figure out how that means the tip came in 2022?
I meant "father" and corrected it.
I lived in Gilbert until late 2023 and never heard this story, I must have missed it. Nothing like this ever happens there.
Those kinds of places often suppress reporting crime so people can continue to believe that nothing like that happens there. Crime happens everywhere.
It’s obviously been mentioned, but some strange events, reactions in this crime. There is no clarity
Why was she threatened by her father in law?
The pickles. Could it have been someone who accidentally walked in the wrong room and got spooked or embarrassed when they realized it and left the pickles behind? Someone mentally ill? Some type of symbolism?
Her reactions to the pickle incident. 99.9% of people, men included, would be sleeping somewhere else or get a strong lock put on the door
I would in no way stay in an apartment by myself with a broken lock after it was broken into and someone left a jar of pickles. That it was the night before she was shot…there has to be some connection. Also, maybe the step-father was eliminated (or at least not arrested) because she told 911 that she didn’t know who shot her. Maybe the guy wore a mask or didn’t speak, or she didn’t get a good look before he left. Maybe he was hired. However, you’d think she say she wasn’t sure but I got a death threat from X.
I commented on this post on another sub so I'll add my thoughts here too. The pickle incident is one of the strangest crime facts I've ever heard. That's wildly bizarre and I can't think of what the pickles were meant to symbolize. This seems like a hired hit and that likely makes it more complex and difficult to solve. Her future in-law is likely on their list but they need evidence. Somebody she knows hired a man to kill her.
I’m confused how the pickle part is even known if she didn’t report it to police. It means she likely told someone about it, whether family or friends or the landlord or whoever. Even if she thought the person was connected to former tenants, that doesn’t explain why someone would enter her bedroom. And you would think the first thing you do is to figure out what the hell is going on rather than brush it off when you don’t even have a functioning lock. I’m certainly not blaming her but if that were me, I would have been staying elsewhere for the time being.
Yeah this is soo bizarre - why the hell would you not CALL 911 when a stranger comes into your bedroom at night???? What???? You just shrug it off and go back to sleep after that?? And then you also have no lock.... What the hell?
From what I understand, she told her fiancé via text about the man who left behind the pickles. When police went through her phone history, they came across that text.
Her fiancé didn't tell them about it? If my partner texted me that someone came into her apartment at night, went in her room, and left a jar of pickles, and then the next night someone came into her room and shot her, the first thing I would tell the cops would be that she told me someone she didn't know had been in her apartment the night before.
You and me both. A jar of pickles is almost scarier than something scary lol
Oops I replied to the wrong comment
for this reason i think it is most likely that pickle-person actually was a former tenant or something like that who wandered in on accident. In my old apartment i accidentally walked into a strangers apartment a couple times while doing laundry on different floors, it does happen.
Voodoo Pickles?
my guess is someone was holding pickles and walked into the wrong apartment and maybe set them down absent mindedly before they realized and scurried off. just a guess.
The pickle person was probably on drugs. Not long before she was killed, Rachel had sublet her apartment to drug addicts. Maybe the apartment was a gathering spot to hang and get high while the drug addicts were living there, and pickle guy didn’t get the memo that they no longer lived there.
I dont think it is meaningful. It was a friend of the previous couple that sublet. They were used to walking right in due to the broken lock. They walked in with the pickles as a snack for hanging with friends. They put the jar down and went to look for their friends. They found Rachel and got spooked and left without getting their pickles. Whether they came back the next night to commit the crime is undetermined. That how i interpret it.
I feel like the pickles is a red herring
They may be but that would be quite a coincidence that she has an intruder one night and the following night an intruder enters and murders her. Very strange case.
This post is confusing.
It mentions "apartment" and "room".
Was it a building ("apartment") with flats and was she sleeping in the bedroom of a flat?
Or was this building ("apartment") just a bunch of rooms with a door to a common corridor?
"... man who came into the apartment and went into her room. ..." How did se know that this unknown man also broke into the building ("apartment") and not just her room? How could she be sure it wasn't a neighbour or anyone from the same building?
"Rachel got up and saw the man had left a jar of pickles." Got up in the morning and found the pickes and assumed someone was in her room or did she actually see that person at least leaving her room?
How can we know this happened? Who did she tell it before she was killed the next night?
What about the jar? What about the fingerprints on the jar?
This could be a regional difference, but "apartment" is the part of the building she rents and "room" would be her bedroom within that apartment. The building as a whole would be "apartment building"
thanks, I'm form Europe and English isn't my native language.
In American English an apartment is a flat. She was sleeping in the bedroom (often just referred to as a person's "room") of her apartment/flat. I've never heard an entire building called an apartment in any variety of English?
thanks for the clarification, English isn't my native language.
Rachel told her fiancé about the “pickles” guy via text.
When the police went through her phone history later, they came across that text and that’s how they knew it happened. I’m not sure why the fiancée would not have already informed them of this already, though.
Via means by way of or travels through. After using the word I realized that you may not be familiar with it, Juan, so that is the definition.
You do a great job with the English language in your comments, btw. Take care.
Thank you for this info. So odd he would not offer that information as a lead when his fiance was murdered...wtf. I'd be scratching my head for the smallest possible lead to help solve it
thank you!
thanks everyone for the downs. care to give any answers by the way?
Downs?
yes, my question was downvoted quite a lot, then it went up to 0 :D
sometimes the people of reddit is jut a bunch of bored morons, still i wanted to know what was wrong with my questions because the answers weren't in the post.
I don't think the police would have taken her seriously about the pickles anyway.
Trying hard not to judge her actions of not reporting the first break in (maybe we’re missing some info that would make it more reasonable?). But, even as a man, staying there that night would be a hard pass.
It is nice that this is getting visibility finally.
This is an exercise in what not to do in these circumstances. Rachel handled all of this in the worst possible way and this is the outcome.
Very sad. I hope they catch whoever did it.
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What’s your dill, man?
Just saw this on Facebook!
Yes, you should never make assumptions like that in a mystery. We should only say a tip came in at a certain time if we have proof of it.
What assumptions are you referring to?
Any assumption of any occurrence.