SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Editor's note: This story includes mentions of human trafficking. If you or a loved one is experiencing human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.
A woman’s remains were found in a bag roughly six years ago in Sacramento County, and her murder has yet to be solved.
On April 8, 2018, a teen on the Mokelumne River in Isleton reportedly reeled in a bag containing 22-year-old Raven Labit’s body while fishing off the docks of Lighthouse Sports Bar and Island Pizza.
Homicide detectives with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office told ABC10 in March they can’t comment on many facts of her murder because intimate details are used to determine between the truths and lies someone puts forth, but authorities confirmed she fell victim to a violent homicide.
“Her last moments were very terrifying,” said Detective Garth Keffer.
Labit moved to Sacramento in November 2017 and her last contact with family was in January 2018, according to law enforcement. Detectives said they know she was alive for some time after January 2018, but they don't know when she was killed.
“Through our investigation, we also know that she had at least a brief period of time where she was in the Sloughhouse (and) Rancho Murieta area,” said Detective Robert Ranum. “That kind of stood out to us in the investigation, so we wanted anybody in that area if they knew anything or saw anything… reach out to us.”
Detectives believe Labit was involved in human trafficking and frequented Stockton Boulevard and Watt Avenue, Ranum said. She used her given name, “Raven,” and aliases including “Alexa” and “Amore.”
“I think that human trafficking played a major role in how she ended up in Sacramento, but ultimately what led to her death? We're not sure on that. We just don't know,” he said.
Trafficking’s role in the murder of Raven Labit
Law enforcement believes Labit fell victim to human trafficking sometime before she arrived in Sacramento.
Detective Neay Chhlang said he believes she moved from her home state of Arkansas to Dallas, Texas, to make quick money in sex work. Authorities believe a sex exploiter, or "pimp," contacted Labit in Dallas and further coerced her into the sex-working field, detectives said.
In 2023, Labit's family told Sacramento deputies she began dating a man sometime after high school and had a child with him. The couple was strapped for cash while trying to raise their daughter.
“We know that that individual was exploiting Raven in the world of human trafficking, but as far as being involved in any other crimes, we do not know,” Chhlang said.
Detectives said traffickers will attempt to separate victims from their families. Once they create a divide, they can manipulate victims. The process is gradual, authorities said.
Most of the time, human trafficking begins as advertisements on an application or computer website, Chhlang said.
"They are just making transactions through these apps and websites without anybody... without even law enforcement knowing," he said.
In a short time, detectives believe Labit moved from Dallas to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to San Francisco, San Francisco to Reno, then Reno to Sacramento in what authorities believe to be a California human trafficking circuit.
“When she’d gotten out of high school… I would talk to her fairly frequently,” said her father, Rich Labit. “Then, just one day out of the blue — no texts. I’d get a text every month or two, then it was four or five months.”
He said Raven sent him very short texts often from different phone numbers, and he would question: “Is this really Raven?”
Something wasn’t right when his daughter wouldn’t call him or send a text on days like Christmas and Father’s Day, events she would never miss, he said.
While texting him from Sacramento, Raven told her father she “escaped Reno.”
“I tried to get her to elaborate,” he said. “What do you mean you ‘escaped Reno’? Are the cops hunting for you? Did you do something wrong? She would never really elaborate on what that meant.”
Chhlang said the homicide bureau sees lots of violent crimes and murders, but Labit’s case is uncommon.
“In the case of Raven Labit, it's a heinous crime,” Chhlang said. “We feel that this could happen to anybody. But, as far as it being prevalent, it is not."
If you or a loved one is experiencing human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888.
Who was Raven Labit?
Detectives said the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office used genetic genealogy to investigate Raven Labit’s remains and found known family members including Rich Labit, who lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“(Raven) was always very big-hearted and very selfless,” Rich Labit said. “If she ever saw anybody who needed anything, it didn't matter what, she was there. She was there to help. She was there to offer.”
During high school, one of Raven’s friends lost almost everything they owned in a major house fire. Rich Labit said his daughter gave the friend clothing and furniture; her mentality was they needed it more than she did.
“I wish more people were like that,” he said.
She aspired to be a medical transcriptionist and made arrangements to start classes at Blue Cliff College in Fayetteville, he said.
Will Raven Labit’s murder get solved?: ‘I’m cautiously optimistic’
Detective Keffer said Labit’s case is not a cold case by any means, and investigators have written search warrants as recently as last month.
“I think about Raven’s case every day,” Keffer said. “It's still one of our cases that we have up on our whiteboard that we focus and track every single day that we come into the office.”
Keffer’s partner, Ranum, said the case can be solved in a variety of ways, including through technological advancements and the public’s contribution.
“Six years have gone by,” Ranum said. “Relationships have changed. People that felt an allegiance to one person or an allegiance to the condition that they were in… maybe they knew Raven, and now is the time they feel like coming out and saying something.”
Rich Labit said he’s careful to hope his daughter’s murder will be solved.
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said. “But, there's part of me that wants to be realistic. When six years has gone by, what can you turn over?”
He said he associates rage with the case and doesn’t know if sending a perpetrator to jail would make that go away, but he still has a message for anyone with information in finding his daughter's killer:
“My message to them is, ‘Hey, if you knew Raven, if you met Raven, (if) you came across Raven at some point in some place, reach out and let the (Sacramento County) Sheriff's Office know. It may be a piece that they're missing in the puzzle.’”
Anyone with information about Raven Labit’s murder can call the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 916-874-5115, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 916-874-8477 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357.
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