DETROIT (WXYZ) — It's been more than five years since 36-year-old Natalie Ramstrom from Indiana was found murdered in an apartment in River Rouge. Now, the man accused — Efrain Medina — is facing his third trial, set for Jan. 20 in Wayne County's Third Circuit Court.
I spoke with Ramstrom's aunt, who says the family is clinging to hope while bracing for another emotional courtroom battle.
Watch Faraz Javed's video report below:
"He didn't have the right to take her life. Justice needs to be served where he is not a free man again," said Tracy Curtis, Ramstrom's aunt.
Curtis will never forget the morning of Oct. 27, 2020, when a welfare check led police to discover Ramstrom's body inside Medina's River Rouge apartment. Investigators say she'd been shot and killed and that Medina fled to Mexico. Nearly a year later, U.S. Border Patrol detained Medina at the border and returned him to Michigan to face first-degree murder and felony firearm charges.
Watch our mistrial coverage from December 2022 below:
"The truth was that he was not apprehended, he surrendered," said defense attorney Todd Perkins, who is representing Medina for a second time.
Perkins says he plans to challenge the evidence and prove his client's innocence.
When I asked Curtis what justice looks like to her and her family, she expressed frustration with the repeated trials.
"These trials need to stop. It's re-traumatizing the family members. They're in that courtroom and they're seeing pictures. They're hearing about what goes on," Curtis said.
Two previous trials ended in mistrials — the last one resulted in a hung jury, while the first had missing video evidence by police and a discrepancy in fingerprint collection procedures. However, the 46-year-old remains in custody at the Wayne County Jail after a judge denied his bond request.
"I'm thoroughly disappointed with the city of River Rouge. I'm thoroughly disappointed with... there are some good officers there, but there are some officers who just don't know what they are doing or they are cheating or lying," Perkins said.
"I've had experts in the field look at her case and they all are just dumbfounded that it's happened," Curtis said.
Ramstrom, a mother of two daughters, worked as a schoolteacher in Indiana. Curtis claims Ramstrom and Medina's nearly four-month-long relationship was abusive.
"We are holding on that maybe this time is the time that he is convicted," Curtis said.
Perkins said, "Doesn't escape me that a life has been lost. But I do have a client who has a family. And I have a client who has lost essentially sive years of his life."
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