\n<\/p>\n
Rachel Waters was in her apartment in Queens, watching food reviews on YouTube, when a nurse called: her mother was dying.<\/p>\n
She needed to get to the memory care facility in Evans, Georgia, immediately. A physician had said Marsha could pass within hours.<\/p>\n
The call was devastating, but not unexpected. Marsha Foster, 74, had advanced Alzheimer\u2019s disease and multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer. She had been in hospice care for nearly eight months and weighed just 80lbs. Her spine was so weakened by the disease that she was permanently hunched over at a 90-degree angle.<\/p>\n
When Rachel arrived at Marshall Pines Assisted Living and Memory Care, she found her mother nearly unresponsive. Marsha\u2019s eyes wouldn\u2019t close, her mouth was drooping, and her toes had started to turn black \u2013 the result of reduced blood flow as the body begins to shut down. In accordance with her \u201cdo not resuscitate\u201d order, she had not been given food or fluids for about a day.<\/p>\n
When aides repositioned her, Marsha\u2019s face crumpled into what Rachel described as \u201cone of those Greek tragedy masks\u201d.<\/p>\n
She begged staff to give her mother morphine, an opioid commonly used to treat severe pain in palliative care settings. They refused and told her Marsha was comfortable.<\/p>\n
Rachel could not stand to see her mother in agony. Marsha had been clear about how she wanted to die. Before her cognitive decline, she had told Rachel she wanted to die naturally, but without unnecessary suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was committed to that with every fiber of my being,\u201d Rachel says.<\/p>\n
She told her partner to go to her car and retrieve the morphine that had been prescribed when Marsha first entered hospice, to be used in emergencies, then dabbed the liquid opioid along the inside of her mother\u2019s dry, cracked lips \u2013 a decision that would soon come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
This was not the first time Rachel had clashed <\/strong>with staff. Later, a nursing aide named Casey Sheppard would tell an investigator, referring to Rachel: \u201cShe told me she did not fear death like most people. She said a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n Just before 7am on 12 July 2023, Marsha died.<\/p>\n That should have been the worst thing to have happened that day. But four hours later, Rachel got a call. It was the funeral home. They couldn\u2019t pick up the body, because it had been sent to the Georgia bureau of investigations in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Rachel\u2019s blood ran cold. She could only come up with one reason a body would be taken to a crime lab \u2013 someone alleged a crime had occurred.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I could think was: \u2018Oh my God, did someone accuse me of killing my mom?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>A photo of Rachel Waters with her mother, Marsha Foster, in hospice on Mother\u2019s Day, 2023.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Within hours, police cruisers pulled up outside her childhood home.<\/p>\n By the end of the day, officers had executed a search warrant, seizing her electronics and the medical equipment she had used to care for her mother.<\/p>\n Rachel secured an attorney. Then, nothing. For more than a year, she was left in limbo \u2013 no charges, no explanation, no way forward. Without a death certificate, she couldn\u2019t settle her mother\u2019s estate, sell her house, or even cancel her bills. She couldn\u2019t grieve.<\/p>\n Her lawyer told her he didn\u2019t think a case would come of it. Marsha had been in hospice, he said, \u201cand there\u2019s only one way people come out of hospice\u201d.<\/p>\n Eighteen months after Marsha\u2019s death, the charges came down: felony murder and malice murder. Both are capital crimes in Georgia, meaning Rachel could face the death penalty.<\/p>\n Rachel\u2019s case quickly spread across local news sites and tabloids, becoming something of a Rorschach test. Some people saw a devoted daughter trying to ease her mother\u2019s suffering. Others saw something far darker.<\/p>\n Most people, Rachel believes, misunderstood what had actually happened that day.<\/p>\n \u201cI lost everything,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd a huge chunk of people believe I\u2019m a murderer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Rachel\u2019s mugshot.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Rachel Waters<\/p>\n The morphine had been given to Rachel almost casually.<\/p>\n When Marsha first entered hospice in 2022, she was given a \u201ccomfort-care kit\u201d \u2013 a box of medications to be used in emergencies. It included morphine and lorazepam, a sedative.<\/p>\n Also known as an eKit, it is meant as a stopgap \u2013 something caregivers can use until a nurse arrives. The drugs are typically administered in liquid form, so they can be absorbed even when a patient can no longer swallow.<\/p>\n Rachel kept it in a drawer at her mother\u2019s house. When she later switched hospice providers, she says she was told it was fine to keep it.<\/p>\n After getting the call from the nurse, Rachel raced down to Georgia and set up an inflatable mattress in Marsha\u2019s room. The day of her mother\u2019s passing, Rachel was woken by a sharp clacking sound. Marsha was gasping for air, her jaw snapping open and shut. It looked \u201clike torture\u201d, Rachel recalled later.<\/p>\n She knew that in palliative care, low doses of morphine are often used to ease this kind of respiratory distress. She ran into the hallway and asked the aides on night duty if they had morphine on hand. When they said they didn\u2019t, she announced she was going to use the morphine from Marsha\u2019s old comfort-care kit.<\/p>\n The aides balked.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want any part in this,\u201d Rachel recalls one saying.<\/p>\n Their response was confusing. Rachel had been by the sides of her grandparents and her partner\u2019s father as they passed. All had been given morphine drips to help manage their pain.<\/p>\n double quotation markIt\u2019s not like we gave the patient morphine, so therefore they died. They are dying, so we are giving them morphineAngela Novas<\/p>\n Staff had also refused to administer Marsha morphine the day before, despite Rachel\u2019s assertion that her mother was in pain. According to the Marshall Pines logs from that day: \u201chospice nurse stated at this time she doesn\u2019t see any reason to start resident on morphine.\u201d<\/p>\n The nurse had also contacted Dr Kelli Carter, a family medical doctor in the area who consulted for Marshall Pines.<\/p>\n Per the logs, Carter stated that she \u201cWILL NOT start morphine at this point\u201d \u2013 the refusal recorded emphatically in all caps. The entry did not explain her reasoning.<\/p>\n To experts such as Angela Novas of the Hospice Federation of America, this resistance is baffling. \u201cIt is a critical part of the hospice mission for those [emergency] packs to be in place,\u201d she says. She also pushes back on the idea that morphine hastens the death of hospice patients. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we gave the patient morphine, so therefore they died,\u201d Novas says. \u201cThey are dying, so we are giving them morphine.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Marsha consoling Rachel after a hospice visit in January 2023 <\/span><\/p>\n Desperate to ease Marsha\u2019s suffering, Rachel called the hospice emergency hotline. She described Marsha\u2019s symptoms, and they recommended a 1ml dose of liquid morphine.<\/p>\n Following hospice\u2019s instructions, Rachel used her finger to spread the morphine gently along the inside of her mother\u2019s bottom lip. Marsha\u2019s breathing didn\u2019t improve.<\/p>\n Approximately 10 minutes later, at 6.56am on 12 July, \u201cstaff heard a loud holler and screaming\u201d, according to the Marshall Pines logs. They ran to Marsha\u2019s room and saw Rachel \u201csitting on [the] bed crying hysterically\u201d.<\/p>\n A nurse on duty checked for a pulse and found none. According to the autopsy, Marsha\u2019s cause of death was \u201cacute morphine toxicity\u201d.<\/p>\n Rachel Waters doesn\u2019t fit the mold of a southern belle. A Buddhist science writer with dyed pink hair and a septum ring, she has been in a relationship with two men, David and Chet, for nearly a decade. She calls them her husbands, though she is not legally married to either.<\/p>\n Rachel grew up in Harlem, Georgia, a quaint town outside Augusta \u2013 light-years away from her current home in New York City. Rachel describes it as small and quiet, friendly but conservative. \u201cEveryone tends to know everyone else,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cChange happens very gradually here,\u201d says Allison Stratton, a former hospice nurse and longtime friend of Rachel\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019ve found that people are very quick to pass judgment on anything that doesn\u2019t fit the mold.\u201d But it\u2019s also a close-knit, caring community, she adds.<\/p>\n Rachel has felt like an outsider \u2013 \u201can alien\u201d, as she puts it \u2013 for most of her life. As a child, she was curious, outspoken and defiant in a conservative Christian community that expected girls to be quiet and obedient.<\/p>\n Her development progressed in uneven bursts. She says she scored exceptionally high on IQ tests and, by seven, was reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. But she couldn\u2019t tie her shoes until she was eight. She was shuttled between advanced placement and special education classrooms, and struggled socially. Classmates bullied her relentlessly, but she often didn\u2019t recognize it until much later. \u201cI would think the bullies were my friends,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n After Marsha\u2019s death, Rachel read her mother\u2019s journals and found entries about how Marsha had argued with her own brother and sister because they called Rachel \u201cthe worst child in the world\u201d, saying she was too disobedient.<\/p>\n Rachel describes her mother as her \u201csteadfast defender\u201d. But as close as they were, even Marsha occasionally struggled with Rachel\u2019s intransigence. Once, she told her daughter: \u201cYou were a perfect angel, Rachel \u2013 until you learned to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, she allowed Rachel to pursue her interests. She would bring her on business trips and let her spend her allowance on whimsical clothes, as long as they weren\u2019t too risque. \u201cShe was an artist, so she was very permissive of my creativity,\u201d Rachel says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Rachel, age 15. After the 1999 Columbine shooting, her goth aesthetic was met with scrutiny from teachers and school security.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In high school, things changed. Rachel had emerged on the other side of puberty conventionally attractive, and generally understood how she was expected to look and behave. She still stood out \u2013 she was a goth who brought a Marilyn Manson lunchbox to school \u2013 but her classmates seemed to find this cool and intimidating.<\/p>\n After the 1999 Columbine shooting, however, early reports linking the killers to goth culture changed that. By 10th grade, Rachel found that her aesthetic suddenly frightened people. Teachers grew suspicious, security guards patted her down, and, tired of being treated like a threat, she transferred to an online program and graduated with a full scholarship to college.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until her late 20s that Rachel found her people. At 24, she married her first husband. They soon left Georgia, and Rachel started working as an investigator in Washington DC, doing background checks into federal employees seeking top secret security clearances. On the weekends, she would travel up to New York, where she worked as an alternative model \u2013 gothic beauty, fetish fashion \u2013 and nightlife hostess.<\/p>\n Eventually, she moved to New York full-time. Shortly after, she and her husband divorced. For the first time in her life, people seemed to love the defiance and directness that had bothered her southern family and peers. \u201cRachel, most places are not made for people like us,\u201d a friend told her once. \u201cBut New York is.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markEverything that happened with my mom was my greatest trauma magnifiedRachel Waters<\/p>\n Years later, at her husband David\u2019s urging, Rachel was tested for and diagnosed with autism at the age of 31.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like the heavens had opened up and 1,000lbs of weight had been removed from my shoulders,\u201d she says. \u201cI suddenly understood why people found me off-putting and disconcerting.\u201d<\/p>\n She learned to be open about her diagnosis, and people seemed to accept her more for it. Still, when she would visit her mom in Georgia, she generally tried to \u201cmask\u201d \u2013 hide her autistic tendencies and imitate the behavior of neurotypical people.<\/p>\n But the sicker Marsha got, the harder it became to mask. With her emotions so heightened, she vacillated between being hysterically emotional or cold and clinical.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that contributed almost certainly to me not being very liked [by the Marshall Pines staff],\u201d she says. \u201cEverything that happened with my mom was my greatest trauma magnified.\u201d<\/p>\n Observing her interactions with the Marshall Pines staff, Chet suspected there was a cultural bias working against Rachel. \u201cHere comes this person who thinks she\u2019s better than us, who doesn\u2019t fit the mold, who lives in New York and has two husbands,\u201d he said. \u201cThat became the whole relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Rachel\u2019s partner Chet.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n After Marsha\u2019s death, Rachel\u2019s relationship with her remaining family \u2013 her mother\u2019s brother, Ronnie, and mother\u2019s sister, Gayle \u2013 disintegrated. Her text messages and Christmas cards went unanswered, and she was blocked on social media.<\/p>\n One day, when she was back in Harlem, she drove by her aunt\u2019s house and saw Gayle in the yard. Rachel rolled down her window and said: \u201cHey, Aunt Gayle!\u201d Without a word, her aunt turned her back and walked back into her house.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was clear that these people who had been a part of my life no longer wanted me to be a part of their lives,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it was because of the investigation. Maybe they were only ever close to me for my mom\u2019s benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n Ronnie and Gayle did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Historically, treatment for the seriously ill was largely limited to palliative care, offering sufferers comfort and symptom relief at the end of their lives. But with antibiotics and 19th- and 20th-century advances, illness and injury became easier to manage.<\/p>\n Death began to seem avoidable, or at least delayable.<\/p>\n The modern hospice philosophy was developed by Cicely Saunders, a nurse, physician and social worker who opened St Christopher\u2019s Hospice in London in 1967. She emphasized treating not just physical pain, but also patients\u2019 emotional and spiritual needs, as well as those of their caregivers.<\/p>\n double quotation markThere\u2019s a big stigma around hospice, because people think it\u2019s weird, and they think we kill peopleDr Debra Parker Oliver<\/p>\n The first US hospice opened in 1974, and in 1982 Congress introduced the Medicare hospice benefit. Today, nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries receive hospice care. Still, experts say distrust persists among much of the US public.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a big stigma around hospice, because people think it\u2019s weird, and they think we kill people,\u201d says Stratton. \u201cIt has this stigma of giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n This couldn\u2019t be further from the truth, says Dr Debra Parker Oliver, professor of palliative medicine at Washington University St Louis. \u201cI\u2019ve not seen a hospice patient give up,\u201d she says. \u201cThey may become resigned to the inevitable, or they may choose not to fight for length of life, but they\u2019re going to fight for comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n What that comfort looks like varies, she says. Some patients prioritize complete pain relief, even if it means being unconscious much of the time; others accept some discomfort to remain alert.<\/p>\n But the kits can also be unsettling. Families are often handed powerful medications without fully understanding how or when to use them, which can be distressing. Instructions and training vary widely. Some hospices provide detailed guidance; others leave the kit and tell families to call with questions.<\/p>\n This can create anxiety, as one 2013 paper Oliver co-authored in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management showed. Caregivers reported difficulty in assessing pain and administering medication, and worrying about side effects.<\/p>\n One man told researchers: \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor, and I do not know if I helped her go faster or slower or what, hell I do not know.\u201d<\/p>\n In the collective mind, morphine is often associated with death or addiction. A lethal dose of morphine is usually about 200mg, though this varies depending on a patient\u2019s health and medical history.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re taught morphine is a bad thing, and now you\u2019re giving it to somebody every hour in their final hours,\u201d says Oliver. \u201cYou can see why that would be disturbing, and why someone who doesn\u2019t understand would come in and says: \u2018You killed them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But in hospice, the relationship is often the reverse.<\/p>\n \u201cGiving someone morphine when they have one toe through the veil allows them to relax. It allows them to be out of pain, and then they can go on,\u201d says Stratton. \u201cPain and stimulus keeps them around.\u201d<\/p>\n At Marshall Pines, tensions between Rachel and staff had been building for months.<\/p>\n The conflict was partly structural. Marshall Pines was not a medical facility but an assisted living complex, where residents paid for help with daily tasks: bathing, dressing, managing medications. Most staff were aides, not nurses.<\/p>\n Decisions about treatment did not rest with them. Those belonged to hospice and to Rachel, who held power of attorney.<\/p>\n At first, Marsha thrived. Her room was large and sunlit, scrupulously tidy, with a small crucifix above the bed.<\/p>\n Marsha, a retired satellite communications engineer who rose through the army\u2019s civilian ranks, was a devoted Christian. She liked to watch Jeopardy and NCIS, and had a big crush on the show\u2019s leading man, Mark Harmon. \u201cShe would look at him and say, \u2018Isn\u2019t that a handsome man?\u2019\u201d Chet laughs. \u201cSometimes she referred to him as her husband.\u201d Rachel and her partners decorated the walls with a framed photo of him, as well as Marsha\u2019s own paintings.<\/p>\n But over time, the pain from Marsha\u2019s cancer and bone deterioration wore on her. In April, a certified nursing assistant reported that Marsha had been yelling at residents and staff, \u201csaying she had enough money to have everyone killed\u201d.<\/p>\n As her behavior grew more erratic and aggressive, managers told Rachel she had to intervene. Rachel remembers one nurse yelling over the phone: \u201cWhat are you going to do about your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n Part of the tension stemmed from Rachel\u2019s reluctance to put her mother on the antipsychotic Seroquel, despite staff urging. Marsha had taken it at home before, but instead of calming her, it intensified her delusions. One night, in a frenzy, she woke Rachel\u2019s partner David and insisted she needed to cut off her own leg. She stopped taking it soon after.<\/p>\n In Marsha\u2019s progress notes on 30 May 2023, Marshall Pines\u2019 executive director Kellie Pugh described a strained in-person meeting with Rachel.<\/p>\n \u201cThis writer expressed to Rachel that she needs to stop dictating what medications her mom needs to be on and trust hospice to do what they do,\u201d Pugh wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was advised to pick and choose her battles and asked would she rather her mother have more dementia or be in pain all the time. Rachel agreed and stated she understood.\u201d<\/p>\n Prescribing antipsychotics to dementia patients is not uncommon; they are often used to treat distress and violent outbursts. But the practice is controversial. Until recently, there were no FDA-approved antipsychotics for treating dementia, and studies found that these drugs increased the risk of falls and death in dementia patients.<\/p>\n \u201cFor many behaviors, it\u2019s kind of like killing a fly with a cannon,\u201d psychiatry professor Dr Helen Kales told Michigan Medicine in 2016. \u201cPeople have side effects that worsen behaviors, and you have to give them even more medication.\u201d<\/p>\n In May 2023 however, the FDA approved the antipsychotic Rexulti \u201cfor the treatment of agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer\u2019s disease\u201d. On 10 June, Marsha was put on it.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018My finances have been obliterated, my ability to work has been obliterated, and I have lost my family,\u2019 says Rachel of the aftermath of being charged with murder.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Tensions continued to rise between Rachel and the Marshall Pines staff. Speaking to an investigator after Marsha\u2019s death, Sheppard, the nursing aide, expressed concern over some of Rachel\u2019s behavior and statements.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wants [Marsha] to die. She even told me she had looked into physician-assisted suicide, and they would have to go to Switzerland to do that,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n And later: \u201cShe did not want [Marsha] living any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel first read Sheppard\u2019s words more than two years later, when she and her lawyers finally received the prosecution\u2019s discovery materials. She remembered discussing assisted dying \u2013 but with another nurse, not Sheppard. Also, she had been talking about herself, not Marsha.<\/p>\n If she got Alzheimer\u2019s, Rachel had said, she would go to an assisted-dying clinic in Switzerland. \u201cIt was a half joke,\u201d she says. She says her comment about not fearing death had been a reference to her Buddhism, and the acceptance of life\u2019s impermanence.<\/p>\n Kellie Pugh and Marshall Pines declined to comment on this story. Casey Sheppard did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Rachel was organizing a party for her 42nd birthday when the anonymous comment appeared.<\/p>\n She had just posted a tribute to her mother on Instagram when an anonymous user named wrote under it:<\/p>\n Why have you been indicted for murder in your mother\u2019s death?! That is why your family has disowned you. Shame on you.<\/p>\n It was followed by another comment that included an indictment number, a judge\u2019s name, and the charges of malice murder and felony murder.<\/p>\n Rachel was blindsided. She hadn\u2019t been told a warrant had been issued for her arrest.<\/p>\n In a panic, she called Robert Homlar, the same criminal defense attorney she spoke to on the day her mother died, and who had been reassuring her for the last 18 months that it was unlikely she would be charged with anything.<\/p>\n It was Friday evening, and Homlar was sitting at the bar of the Ritz Carlton in Lake Oconee, Georgia, a couple of drinks deep. He was able to confirm the indictment was real, but wasn\u2019t in a position to deal with the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I know who is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Within the hour, Rachel was on the phone with Brian Steel.<\/p>\n Steel is arguably Georgia\u2019s most famous attorney. He represented rapper Jeffery \u201cYoung Thug\u201d Williams in the much-publicized racketeering trial involving Williams and his associates from YSL records. The rapper Drake has named a 2015 song after him. In April 2025, he was drafted on to Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs\u2019 defense team, and that same month, the New Yorker magazine ran an extensive profile of him.<\/p>\n Despite his glitzy clientele, Steel is not what you might expect from a big name attorney. He was described in the New Yorker as a man \u201cof almost unbelievable purity\u201d.<\/p>\n Steel says he took on Rachel\u2019s case because it would have been \u201ccruel\u201d to not.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Rachel called me, there was a true, undeniable love she had for her mother,\u201d he says. \u201cShe wanted to make it so others would never go through the agony she went through.\u201d<\/p>\n During their first phone call, Steel told Rachel she would have to go down to Georgia to turn herself in so she could hopefully make bond in order to remain free before the trial.<\/p>\n Before hanging up, Rachel recalls Steel saying: \u201cWe are family. Your blood is my blood. We will get through this.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markIt was basically the end of the worldDavid<\/p>\n After Rachel got off the phone, Chet and David asked her if she still wanted to have a party. \u201c\u2018Oh my God, yes!\u201d she replied. \u201cI need to tell everybody what\u2019s about to happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n At the party, she gathered the roughly 45 guests in the living room, stood on a chair and filled her friends in on the charges and the fact that she would be turning herself into the police. She might not be coming back for a while, she said. Some of her closest friends knew what was going on, but many didn\u2019t. People were shocked and angry. Some cried.<\/p>\n Amazingly, it still managed to be a pretty fun night, Rachel says. She told her guests she needed to properly celebrate, because she could be in jail for years.<\/p>\n A week later, when Rachel, Chet and David made the drive from New York to Georgia, the mood was significantly more grim. Or as David put it: \u201cIt was basically the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Rachel\u2019s partner David.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Driving south, Rachel had no idea how long she might be in jail.<\/p>\n As she was facing murder charges, it was very possible the judge would deny her bail. It could mean months, or years behind bars.<\/p>\n She, Chet and David had spent hours combing through case files and court documents, looking for any kind of legal precedent, but they couldn\u2019t find any. \u201cI only found people who had actually killed the person who was in hospice,\u201d Rachel says. In those cases, there was strong evidence of intentional overdose, and none of the victims had been declared actively dying.<\/p>\n At 5am on 5 March 2025, Rachel walked into the Columbia county jail. Officials stripped off her clothes, sprayed disinfectant on her hair, underarms and crotch, and assigned her a number. Other women asked what she was in for, and then scoffed when she told them. \u201cThey were like, \u2018Nah, you\u2019re not a murderer,\u2019\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n At the bond hearing, the courtroom held more than 30 of Rachel\u2019s friends who had come to serve as character witnesses. Her ex-husband was present, as were old college professors, friends from New York, and people who had followed her on social media for years.<\/p>\n <\/span>Friends supporting Rachel at her bond hearing in Georgia <\/span><\/p>\n So many supporters had made the trip that district attorney Natalie Paine eventually asked Steel to stop calling witnesses. She stepped up to the judge and conferred quietly. Bond was granted.<\/p>\n All in all, Rachel was only in jail for 12 hours. She knew she was far luckier than most; her cellmate told Rachel she had spent more of her life in jail than out, even though she had never been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n The next few weeks were a whirl of activity as Rachel, Chet, David and Steel prepared for a possible trial. \u201cIt was like we were in a war,\u201d David recalls. \u201cWe had to strategize.\u201d<\/p>\n With Steel\u2019s help, Rachel, David and Chet brainstormed defenses for anything the prosecution could possibly throw at them. They gathered reams of evidence: documentation Rachel had from Marsha\u2019s last days, interviews with medical examiners, medical journal articles about the effects of morphine on the body.<\/p>\n The Guardian shared copies of the autopsy with two medical examiners unfamiliar with the case. Both said the autopsy was thorough and well done, but that it was almost impossible to determine from the information provided whether morphine toxicity was the cause of death.<\/p>\n double quotation markEven people who are sympathetic to me, they all assume I did itRachel Waters<\/p>\n The amount of morphine in Marsha\u2019s blood \u201ccan\u2019t be taken out of context\u201d, says forensic pathologist Dr Michael Graham. The effect of a drug depends on the person\u2019s tolerance to it (those who have been opioids before for pain management will probably have a higher tolerance), when they received the dose, and what other medications the patient was receiving.<\/p>\n In April, Steel sent their findings to the medical examiner at the Georgia bureau of investigation.<\/p>\n Then, more waiting. Finally, in early August, the examiner revised Marsha\u2019s cause of death from \u201chomicide\u201d to \u201cundetermined\u201d.<\/p>\n Days later, Paine dropped the charges against Rachel.<\/p>\n <\/span>Rachel with her mother, Marsha, 1984.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Rachel was in bed at home in New York when Steel called to tell her that morning. She started to cry.<\/p>\n Chet and David were overwhelmed with relief, but what Rachel felt was more complicated. There was relief, sure, but also a lot of confusion and frustration.<\/p>\n The accusation had taken up years of her life, leaving her exhausted and unable to process her mother\u2019s death. Her reputation, she felt, had also taken a huge hit: when you Google her name, there are still articles branding her a murderer.<\/p>\n \u201cMurder suspect surrenders on charge of killing mom with morphine,\u201d reads one March 2025 headline.<\/p>\n \u201cBond set for woman accused of killing her ailing mother,\u201d reads another.<\/p>\n Not the sort of thing that tends to attract potential employers.<\/p>\n \u201cMy finances have been obliterated, my ability to work has been obliterated, and I have lost my family. I can\u2019t conceive how they would think that I killed my mom. But they clearly feel like they didn\u2019t know me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Rachel has been working to draft and pass what she is calling \u201cMarsha\u2019s Law\u201d. It would require that home hospice providers document what medications are included in each comfort care kit, advised dosing ranges and a list of who is authorized to administer these medications to the patient. The provider would also create a signed and witnessed document showing that approved family and caregivers have been trained and authorized by hospice staff to administer comfort care medications. Hospice companies would also be required to keep a copy of this document and provide it to law enforcement or the coroner in the event of an investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if for some reason there\u2019s a warrant, it is clear and upfront that family members are expected to use these substances,\u201d Rachel says.<\/p>\n In March, Rachel launched a website with information about Marsha\u2019s Law. She knows she still has a tough slog ahead of her. She is still consulting attorneys and hospice workers on a final draft of the law. Once that\u2019s done, she has to convince healthcare companies to take on more liability and paperwork. She\u2019ll also have to build enough public trust to be able to advocate for the law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe funny thing about being charged with murder, is even if you\u2019re never found guilty, there are going to be a lot of people who look for evidence of guilt,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n In 2016, Marsha came to visit Rachel in New York. Before she left, she and Rachel had an argument about faith. Marsha sometimes struggled with the fact that Rachel was not a devout Christian.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was tormented by the idea that she wasn\u2019t sure if I would go to heaven or not,\u201d Rachel says.<\/p>\n Weeks later, Rachel got a letter from Marsha in the mail. It was six pages long, full of additions, subtractions, and crossed out words. In it, Marsha endeavored to lay out what she had struggled to say in person: what she believed and why, what she felt she knew and didn\u2019t know about God.<\/p>\n <\/span>A letter that Marsha gave to Rachel Waters after an argument about faith in 2016. Rachel keeps this letter in a fireproof lock box, a precaution shaped by a house fire she experienced at age 15.<\/span> Photograph: Haruka Sakaguchi\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that God created us and loves us all as His children and that there is a heaven where we will be with Him after we die and with the people and other living creatures that we love and have loved,\u201d she wrote in neat, bubbly handwriting.<\/p>\n In December 2025, four months after the charges against her were dropped, Rachel sits in her apartment in Queens. Her Christmas tree is up, some of Marsha\u2019s old ornaments mixed in with her own, and cats prowl in and out of the living room. She tells her story energetically but carefully, occasionally turning to Chet and David to clarify a detail.<\/p>\n She knows some see her as a villain, but others see her as something of a mercy killer who bravely put her mother out of her misery. \u201cEven people who are sympathetic to me, they all assume I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n In one Reddit thread about her case, for example, users jump to her defense. \u201cIt takes an extraordinary amount of love to make those decisions,\u201d wrote one.<\/p>\n Rachel says she is not the hero they think she is. She reiterates that she didn\u2019t try to hasten Marsha\u2019s death, and says that death from morphine or any other medication overdose \u201cis a genuinely awful way to die\u201d.<\/p>\n Hospice workers to whom Rachel and the Guardian have spoken to are divided on the proposal. Some say it would better protect caregivers and staff. Others argue it addresses a problem that doesn\u2019t truly exist \u2013 that while Rachel\u2019s experience was a nightmare, it\u2019s not a risk most caregivers face.<\/p>\n \u201cIn medical training, we talk about horses and zebras,\u201d says Angela Novas of the Hospice Foundation of America. \u201cWe hear hooves, and we think that\u2019s a horse. We don\u2019t hear hooves and think that\u2019s a zebra.\u201d In other words, consider the simplest, most likely scenario first. \u201cI think Rachel\u2019s case was something of a zebra.\u201d<\/p>\n That zebra case cost Rachel her career, her life savings, her husband\u2019s retirement savings \u2013 and her relationships with her remaining family back home.<\/p>\n Rachel wonders whether the public will accept her as a spokesperson for legislation like this, or whether they, like her high school bullies, extended family members, and assisted living aides, will be put off by her.<\/p>\n But she is determined. She says she feels she is on a mission, one that requires her to share her story so others might avoid a similar nightmare.<\/p>\n \u201cI want people to know my story and know who I am,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is the only way I can achieve justice for my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rachel Waters was in her apartment in Queens, watching food reviews on YouTube, when a nurse called: her mother was dying. She needed to get to the memory care facility in Evans, Georgia, immediately. A physician had said Marsha could pass within hours. The call was devastating, but not unexpected. Marsha Foster, 74, had advanced<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[10075,2173,1519,363,9023],"class_list":{"0":"post-47995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-accuse","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-god","11":"tag-killing","12":"tag-mom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}