On December 2, 2024, little Jamie Drain was found unresponsive in a home off Jack Branch Road, near Lewiston-Woodville, Bertie County, North Carolina. The 2-year-old would later be pronounced dead at a hospital. Her death, investigators now say, was no accident—but homicide.
A grand jury in Bertie County returned an indictment on September 22, 2025, charging Jamie’s mother, Rajasaffiyya “Raja” Drain, 28, with first-degree murder and felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. The autopsy report outlines extensive head trauma, including scalp and face contusions, as well as acute subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhages. The manner of death: blunt-force trauma to the head.
Authorities say Drain, the only adult present in the residence at the time, first told first responders that Jamie had fallen while eating in the kitchen. She claimed she’d heard a “thud,” turned to find her daughter face-first on the floor. She also alleged that Jamie had fallen down some stairs several days earlier. But medical evidence strongly contradicts those accounts: the injuries could not have been caused by a simple fall, nor by another child. Good forensic testimony determined that the trauma was severe, consistent with violent impact.
Prior to her death, Jamie had been in the custody of the Department of Social Services in Bertie County due to earlier concerns of abuse. She was returned to her mother before the fatal incident. Following the child’s death, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services stepped in—taking over child welfare operations in the county on August 15, 2025. This marks the second time in three years the state has assumed oversight.
Rajasaffiyya Drain was arrested on the evening of September 22, 2025, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, after police responded to a domestic incident. Officers at the scene discovered an active warrant for her arrest in connection with Jamie’s death. Drain was charged in Connecticut with being a fugitive from justice, as well as several local charges including third-degree criminal mischief, violation of a protective order, disorderly conduct, assault, and interfering with police.
In court in New Britain, Connecticut, Drain waived her extradition hearing and was held under bond now set at $2 million, following a judge’s ruling that reflected the severity of the allegations. Prosecutors emphasized during the hearing the gravity of the charges: murder and serious bodily harm of a young child.
Jamie’s father, Dante (or Dontay) Valentine, expressed both relief and heartbreak after Drain’s arrest and indictment. “I finally can get some rest now, for my baby to rest in peace,” he said, acknowledging how long the waiting and uncertainty have weighed on him and their family. Community members in Bertie County are similarly shaken, mourning Jamie’s brief life—a life full of promise, extinguished all too early by what officials now say was deliberate violence.
With Drain to be extradited back to North Carolina to face trial, investigators say their work continues—each piece of evidence, every witness, every medical finding will be critical. Meanwhile, the case raises raw questions about how child protection mechanisms failed Jamie, what signs were missed, and how such tragic harm might be prevented for others.