Inset: Jamie Drain (John J. Ferry and Sons Funeral Home), Background: Raja Drain during her arraignment after she was charged with killing Jamie Drain (WVIT).
Authorities in North Carolina have indicted a mother who allegedly beat her 2-year-old daughter to death and then tried to claim the injuries were caused by the girl falling down the stairs.
Raja Drain, 28, faces charges of murder and felony child abuse in the December death of Jamie Drain in Bertie County. Cops arrested Drain in Connecticut on Monday.
Bertie County Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin told reporters cops responded to a home on Dec. 2 for a report of an unresponsive child. First responders rushed to the scene and found Jamie unconscious. After performing CPR, they transported the girl to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead. Drain claimed she was cooking in the kitchen when she heard a “thud,” Ruffin said. She saw her daughter “foaming at the mouth and shaking.”
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Drain also told deputies that Jamie fell down some stairs around Thanksgiving.
“But that wasn”t the case,” Ruffin said.
The autopsy “revealed something totally different had happened,” according to the sheriff. The medical examiner classified Jamie’s death as a homicide and determined she died of blunt force trauma and injuries to the head. Her injuries could not have been inflicted by herself or another child, rather by an adult — and Drain was the only one in the home at the time, per Ruffin.
“Baby Drain had a beautiful smile,” said Ruffin. “I’m sure that she was a bundle of joy and she had a life filled with dreams. But on Dec. 2, 2024, the bright light of Jamie and her family turned into a dark and unreal reality.”
Detectives needed time to put the case together, including awaiting the results of the autopsy. Once those facts were in hand, prosecutors presented their case to a grand jury, which indicted Drain. Authorities have not publicly divulged what led up to the child’s death nor what weapon, if any, was used to kill her.
Local NBC affiliate WITN reports that the Bertie County Department of Social Services had previously taken custody of Jamie following a child abuse case. The agency returned the girl to her mother not long before her death. Jamie’s death sparked a state takeover of the child welfare agency, WITN reported.
Drain traveled to Wethersfield, Connecticut, to stay with family after her daughter’s death. Cops there were initially called around 6:20 p.m. for a domestic-related incident. While investigating, they discovered she had a warrant out for her arrest from the Tar Heel State. She was arrested and, during a hearing in which she wiped away tears from her face, was ordered held on a $2 million bond, Hartford NBC affiliate WVIT reported.
She is awaiting extradition back to North Carolina.
