YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – “We try to get justice, but sometimes it comes late, but its better to get it late and not get it at all”, says Deputy Solicitor John Anthony.
Justice is what officials with the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office say they got today for a baby who never lived her life.
“We were the representatives of that baby. We tried to speak for her when she was never given a chance to speak for herself”, says Anthony.
In a York County Courtroom, a judge sentenced Stacy Michelle Rabon to life behind bars after she was found guilty by a jury of Homicide by Child Abuse. This comes after Rabon’s infant daughter, named Angel Hope by the community was found by a person camping in 1992. Officials say the baby girl was stabbed to death, tied in a plastic bag, floating in the Catawba River.
“In 2016 the Sheriff’s Office did a review of their cold cases and they put a DNA profile from the sheet the baby was wrapped up in a database. Then in 2019 Rabon, who had never been a suspect before, got arrested for possession of meth. And her profile went into the database and it matched up in that database”, says Anthony.
Officials say Rabon told investigators she gave the child to a couple from Tega Cay, but investigators couldn’t confirm that story.
Those with the 16th Circuit Solicitors Office say its thanks to witnesses and law enforcement from nearly 3 decades ago who came forward to be a voice for a child who had hers taken away.
The Solicitor’s office says Rabon will be eligible for parole in eight years because of when the crime occurred.
A jury again found Rabon guilty of Homicide by Child Abuse but was hung on the charge of Murder. That charge is still pending. Baby Angel Hope would have been 31 years old and was buried by the community at Forest Hills Cemetery in Rock Hill.
