Mother seeks justice for daughter 4 years after dying in custody of Department of Family Protective Services in Killeen

KILLEEN, Texas (KWTX) - A mother is celebrating what would have been her daughter's eighth birthday after her child died in the custody of the Department of Family Protective Services in Killeen in 2020.

Rayvyn Rains Twice Medrano was just 3 1/2 when she died. Her mother, Cassandra Medrano, says she was covered in bruises and malnourished.

Medrano says she was trying to escape an abusive marriage when her ex called California CPS on her, and the state ended up giving him the kids.

That case against Medrano was later dropped after her ex confessed he only did it to hurt her.

Medrano says she immediately packed up her life and babies to go somewhere safe.

"I packed the car and moved the kids all the way to Central Texas," Medrano said.

Unfortunately, Medrano says her past soon caught up with her.

"One of our mutual friends, and (Medrano's ex) tricked him into telling him where I was," Medrano said.

Medrano says her ex called CPS again, and this time her kids ended up in the system in Texas.

From the moment they were taken to the moment Rayvyn died, Medrano says it seemed like almost everyone was against her.

She says she passed every test and evaluation they asked of her, and still for 10 months she was under supervised visitations where she took pictures of her daughter's condition.

Even though Medrano knew something was wrong, she didn't know that eventually one of those visitations would be the last time she ever saw her youngest child.

"From the last time I saw her to the day I got the call that she died, was less than thirty days," Medrano said. "Less than thirty days. That's what it took for them to kill her entirely. It wasn't the foster family that found Rayvyn. It was my oldest child that found her."

Medrano and her other daughters on longer live in the area, but on Thursday Rayvyn's godmother, Lynnette Gravelyn, was outside the department demanding justice, and talked about how they're still fighting for Rayvyn four years later.

"I would like to introduce a new law called Rayvyn's law, making it illegal to remove a child from a home unless it's proven already proven to be an unfit home," Lynnette said. "Now there is a law already that says that but it isn't being enforced."

"I know I'm not going to forget Rayvyn," Medrano said. "And I know her sisters aren't going to forget Rayvyn. But I said, I don't want anyone else to forget Rayvyn."

KWTX reached out to the Texas Department of Family Protective Services regarding Rayvyn's case.

The department sent a document confirming an investigation into the child's death did happen, but no criminal charges were filed against the foster home.