Text messages reveal possible motive in mother, daughter's murder

Police believe man fatally stabbed girlfriend, baby daughter at Eastpointe home

EASTPOINTE, Mich. – The mother of a 29-year-old Eastpointe murder victim says that her daughter was planning to have her boyfriend arrested the day before she and her 13-month-old daughter were killed.

Investigators are reviewing text messages sent by Monique Rakowski at around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday from her Eastpointe home. Rakowski and her daughter, Carmon, were found stabbed to death Thursday night.

"She was trying to get away," said Sharon Rakowski, Monique's mother. Monique's family says they are now learning that her relationship with her boyfriend had reached a dangerous point before her death.

Local 4's Shawn Ley learned that Monique was desperately texting a friend Wednesday night, saying that she and Carmon were in danger.

Sharon said that Monique's boyfriend, C.J., had a meeting with his probation officer the next day. He was on probation for putting Monique in the hospital last summer.

Sharon says that the boyfriend feared he was going to jail because he violated his probation after getting a speeding ticket. He was worried that while he was in jail Monique and their daughter would move on with a former boyfriend, who was recently released from prison, Sharon said.

Monique's text messages to a friend revealed a plan to have her boyfriend arrested Wednesday night.

"What their plan was, was when C.J. left the house to go get cigarettes or liquor or whatever, Monique was going to call [a friend], who was going to call his Eastpointe police friend and he would be arrested when he was out of the house and away from her and the baby," Sharon said.

The friend who was texting Monique on Wednesday did tell a police officer about the text messages before Monique's father found the two bodies in their home.

Monique's boyfriend, a person of interest in the murder, turned himself in to police Friday afternoon.

Now, more of Monique's friends are telling her mother that Monique was in a very abusive relationship. Sharon says Monique stayed silent because she wanted her boyfriend to be a father to their baby.

"She wanted a family," Sharon said. "Her whole wish in life was to be a stay-at-home mom."

The family says that services for Monique and Carmon will likely be held next weekend.


About the Author:

Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.