<div>My wife, Rachel, was wrongly accused of murdering her mother in July of 2023, and formally charged in February of 2025. The full story is both horrifying and tragic, and should hit close to home for anyone who has ever cared for a dying loved one.
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<div><strong>As Rachel's husband, I want to add something she would never say herself: Rachel is extraordinarily good at fighting for other people and extraordinarily bad at asking for help for herself.</strong>
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<div><strong>Since her charges were dismissed, she's poured all her energy into telling this story, advocating for caregiver protections, supporting other families facing similar situations, and working toward Marsha's Law. What she talks about far less is what this ordeal cost her.</strong>
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<div>The legal battle that saved her life destroyed our finances. We lost our savings, retirement accounts, and financial security. She lost a career she spent years building, and despite being cleared of all charges, she continues to be unable to find work because of what happened.
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<div><strong>If you choose to support this fundraiser, you're not just helping Rachel pursue justice or advocate for change. You're helping her rebuild a life that was shattered. You're helping her pay down crushing debt, regain stability, and create the space to continue this work without sacrificing her own future in the process.</strong>
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<div>Rachel believes deeply that what happened to her could happen to someone else. I believe that too. But I also believe she deserves the chance to heal, recover, and build a life beyond this tragedy.
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<div><strong>For those who have supported her, encouraged her, shared her story, or contributed financially: thank you. It means more than you know.</strong>
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<div>Full story:
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<div>Rachel’s mother suffered from Alzheimer's and multiple myeloma. She was in hospice living in a memory care facility in Evans, Georgia. In July 2023, Rachel gets a call from the facility informing her that her mother was actively dying and that she had days or maybe just hours left to live. We had to move heaven and earth to get to Georgia since a storm had grounded almost all flights out of NYC.
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<div>On July 10th, 2023, Rachel arrived at her mother’s bedside. On July 12, after days without food or fluids and no responsiveness except to groan in pain or gasp for air, Rachel's mother dies.
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<div>Within hours of her mother dying, Rachel was accused of murder. Although these accusations had no substance, Rachel became ensnared in the criminal legal system. A search warrant was issued, an investigation had begun.
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<div>Not knowing who her accusers were or the nature of their suspicions, we believed that the truth would be revealed through medical and hospice records, as well as an autopsy. We kept quiet. This would all blow over soon enough.
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<div>But it didn’t.
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<div>In February 2025, Rachel was indicted on 2 counts of murder in Columbia county, Georgia, and the ground beneath us fell away. The nightmare of being accused had now become a waking, all-consuming fight for our lives.
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<div>At this point her pro-bono attorney got us in touch with the best criminal defense attorney in the country, and on a late night call with him driving down the Atlanta highway he agreed to represent Rachel, becoming her champion, and in his words “We are now one.”
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<div>The most harrowing part of this story was the 48 hours surrounding Rachel’s bond hearing. Through her new attorney we had arranged for her to be turned in to the Columbia County police on the same day as her hearing to show good faith in cooperation and minimize the time she had to spend incarcerated.
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<div>We were not hopeful. This judge was known to promote a “tough on crime” attitude and no one knew of anyone in Columbia county that had been granted bond for murder charges. The details of these 2 days could fill a book, but miraculously she was granted $200k bond.
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<div>I say “miraculously” but in truth it was due to so much love and support for Rachel in the form of all those who showed up in the courtroom that day and the tireless work of her legal team that made it happen.
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<div>The one detail I will share from that experience is a feeling I hope none of you ever have to experience: standing in a courtroom watching the person you love most on a TV, locked in jail for an undetermined amount of time that could possibly be measured in years, at the mercy of someone you have no influence over.
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<div>She was free from jail, but definitely not free. The criminal legal system doesn’t grant visitor’s passes. Even without evidence of wrongdoing, justice departments don’t like to admit mistakes and dismissals are rare. That’s why most people accept plea deals, even if they’re innocent.
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<div>Luckily, Rachel had many things in place to fight for her freedom. She was meticulous in her record of events. She is medically knowledgeable and highly intelligent. She has a wide base of support and commands a lot of trust in the community. She had an impressive resume. She had a connection that enabled her to find the best attorney in the country. She had (barely) enough savings to afford him. If any one of these things were not true, this story would have ended up very differently.
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<div>After sending the medical examiner abundant evidence of her innocence and the missing context surrounding her mother’s death, he revised her cause of death. And with that the case died. Without a murder there could be no murderer. Rachel’s case had been dismissed and now begins the rest of her new life.
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<div>There is no going back to “normal” after something like this. There are many details of this story that will be revealed in time as more news outlets cover the story and investigate how this happened to a woman who was called down to witness the death of her mom. Because everyone dies and almost everyone wants to be surrounded by loved ones when that end comes.
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<div>The reality in which we live does not correspond with the concept of justice as we understand it. It takes surprisingly little to ruin another person’s life if you can get the right people to cooperate.
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<div>There is one thing that might make some of this suffering worth something. And it’s in this part of the story, of Rachel’s new life, that we all have the opportunity to make this world a little bit safer and less cruel.
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<div>Thank you for helping Rachel to get back on her feet so she can do the thing that matters most to her: preventing this from happening to others.
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<div>Warmly,
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<div>Chet Hay
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<div>Rachel's story and mission:
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<div><strong>In February of 2025, I was charged with two counts of murder in the state of Georgia: Felony murder and malice murder, both of which carry the possibility of the death penalty.</strong>
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<div>Luckily, I had collected ample evidence showing that I had acted in good faith, much of which didn't seem to have been available to the medical examiner or district attorney at the time of my arrest. This evidence included eyewitness testimonies to her death and the days leading up to it, videos and photos of her condition, proof of her prescribed morphine, phone and text records, as well as hospice records that showed she had been declared "actively dying" and that I was called down from NYC to be with her.
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<div><strong>With this new information, the medical examiner updated her cause of death and it was no longer rules a homicide. The DA then dropped all charges in August and I was released from bond.</strong>
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<div>Though I was cleared, the experience shattered my life. I lost my career, life savings (and my husband's), my family, and my reputation while grieving my mom's death and fighting for my own life.
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<div><strong>Now, I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that what happened to me and my mom NEVER happens to another family ever again.</strong>
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<div>Every year, MILLIONS of American families are prescribed and instructed to use comfort kits with their dying loved ones. These comfort kits typically contain controlled substances like sublingual morphine, lorazepam, and other medications meant to ease distress at end of life.
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<div><strong>But although caregivers are expected to medicate their loved ones using these “comfort kits," there are no legal protections that help shield them from criminal allegations once their loved one dies. </strong>
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<div>In fact, depending on the hospice company, there is often little to no documentation showing that family members -- who are not trained medical professionals -- are authorized to give their loved ones these medications at all. <strong>As a result, law enforcement, medical examiners, and district attorneys who are unfamiliar with hospice practices may think that family members who give their loved one morphine are committing a crime,</strong> as appears to have been assumed with me.
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<div><strong>This is why I'm proposing Marsha's Law.</strong>
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<div>Marsha's Law would mandate that, as soon as families are prescribed a comfort kit, hospice must document and confirm, in writing, that the kit is for the family to use in accordance with their training/guidelines.
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<div>The law would also require that family members be given a copy of this documentation to be kept with their comfort kit so that, in the event of an investigation or search warrant, law enforcement could see that the family had been officially authorized to administer these comfort medications to their loved ones.
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<div>The funds you donate will enable me to begin to pay down my debt so that I can focus on securing:
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<li>Legal counsel to hold systems accountable for what happened
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<li>Media outreach to raise awareness and create momentum for Marsha's Law.
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<li>Travel costs to state and federal legislatures to lobby for Marsha's Law.
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<div>Though I've been shattered emotionally, financially, and professionally, I feel obligated to use my privilege to do all I can to prevent this from happening to another person. Most of all, it's how my mom raised me, and I owe it to her and her memory to live up to the principles she instilled in me.
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<div>Thank you for helping me channel the most traumatic and agonizing chapter in my life into a force for lasting change.
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<div>— Rachel Waters
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