‘My daughter held Sabrina’s hand when she died,’ mother says

Sabrina did not die alone on Friday, May 12, 2017.

Two juvenile females were imprisoned in a bedroom along with Sabrina when she took her last breath, and the birth mother of one of the little girls at Sabrina’s side lives with the hope that her daughter comforted her older sister at the end by holding her hand, stroking her cheek and praying that the justice denied to her in this world might be found by her in the next.

In the records of the court, the juveniles confined with Sabrina were identified only by their initials, H.R. and M.R. The mother of H.R. recently made contact with ThePerryNews.com and identified herself as Traci Vargas, 40, of Springfield, Mo.

“My story starts as a child,” Vargas told ThePerryNews.com. “I was given to the foster care system by my mother, who claimed to the state of Iowa that I was born with a whole bunch of chemical imbalances that caused me mental illness. I was in and out of group homes and highly medicated throughout my childhood. My first three children were taken from me by the Iowa Department of Human Services.”

Vargas’ two younger children were placed in foster care in the home of Marc and Misty Ray in 2008, the Perry couple facing first-degree murder charges in the starvation death of Sabrina. Vargas’ daughter, H.R., was 3 years old when she was removed from Vargas’ home, and her son was 6 months old.

H.R. and her little brother were eventually adopted by the Rays. At the time of Sabrina’s death, H.R. was 12 and her brother 10.

“After DHS took my two kids that were in the Ray home,” Vargas said, “when I could leave Iowa, I left because I’m too scared to live there anymore. The DHS has done so much damage to me and my children that I had to go.”

In her account, Vargas’ own troubled childhood spent in Iowa’s foster care system joins hands with her children’s circumstances in the Ray home, and she moves readily between tears of pity for those innocents and a voice filled with anger and indignation toward the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS).

“My daughter was locked in that basement with her when she died,” Vargas said, her voice quavering with sobs. “Oh, I’m sorry. I can’t believe that happened to them babies.”

At the April sentencing hearing for Carla Raye Bousman, the adoptive grandmother of Sabrina and the younger children, Bousman admitted confining H.R. and M.R. to the room with Sabrina as she was dying, and she did not feed the younger children. Other rumors enrage Vargas that she hears about the condition of her daughter, whom she has not seen in a decade.

“My daughter’s 12,” she said. “She was born healthy, fine, and now she’s special needs and is wearing diapers again. She was potty trained when they took her from me.” Tears again well up, and a pause ensues in the dialogue.

During the sentencing of Justin Ray, the adoptive brother of Sabrina and the other children, Assistant Dallas County Attorney Stacy L. Ritchie read a victim-impact statement made by H.R.

“You have destroyed my sister’s and my life with your actions,” H.R. said to her cruel older brother. “We did not deserve what you gave us. Nobody ever deserves that kind of treatment. I’m having so many flashbacks because of what you did to my sister.”

Vargas is adamant in demanding justice for her blood relations.

“My daughter held a dying girl when she took her last breath,” Vargas said, “and it will not be in vain. I swear to you it won’t. That’s wrong. They did me and my kids so wrong, and I have been on a mission for truth and justice for my children and me.”

Vargas’ life in Missouri is now stable and secure. Her two youngest children, brothers ages 9 and 7, are medalists in jiu-jitsu and singers in the children’s choir at church and successful, well-adjusted students in the local grade school. Her eldest child, whose custody Vargas once lost, is now an 18-year-old woman who has reconciled with her mother, with whom she now lives.

But the Sabrina story has brought a turbulent year for the Missouri family, including what sounds like sympathetic starvation in Vargas.

“Since May when all of this came out, I have lost 55 pounds,” she said. “Here are my two boys that I’ve been raising just fine, and my daughter is here with me again, while my other kids are being tortured and abused on a daily basis.”

Like many others, Vargas longs for justice for Sabrina and for the other victims of the Rays, the living victims who must bear their scars.

“I have zero faith in our system,” she said, “but I know my God will see to it they get the ultimate punishment. God and God alone has been my only saving grace.”

In sentencing Carla Raye Bousman to 20 years in prison, Dallas County District Court Judge Terry Rickers castigated the grandmother for her “reckless and wanton disregard” for the dependent children’s welfare.

“You broke your grandchildren’s hearts,” Rickers said. “You allowed two of them to watch their sister die. Anything less than the maximum sentence in this case would just further degrade the memory of Sabrina Ray and what you did to her sisters.”

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