‘Forgiveness.’ Dad invites police who killed 17-year-old daughter to Nebraska funeral

Steven Rauch remembered taking his young daughter to the beach and repeatedly stopping her from crawling to the water.

He compared her to newly hatched sea turtles heading toward the ocean. But sea turtles belong in the sea.

Over and over, young Farrah Rauch kept returning to the water.

“We put her in the sand and she would be crawling right to the water,” Rauch said. “And I swear she would’ve been dead right then at six months if we didn’t stop her from going into the water and drowning.”

In late February, 17-year-old Farrah and her boyfriend, Joey Dugan, ran away from their homes in Blair, Nebraska, a city of about 7,800 north of Omaha. They wouldn’t return alive.

“They weren’t going to be able to see each other for a year,” Farrah’s dad said at her funeral. “That’s one of the things they freaked out about. That was one of the reasons why they ran.”

Farrah faced drug charges and a court order that forbid her from seeing Dugan, KETV reported. Dugan was starting a nine-month probation sentence on a theft charge, according to the news outlet.

Farrah and Joey stole a family member’s car and drove south, where a day later a relative reported that an officer in Florida had stopped them but they escaped, police say.

A day later, they stole a Ford F-250 in Georgia, and a day after that a Dodge pickup in Arkansas, police say. After stealing the pickup, Farrah and Joey arrived in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Feb. 28, police say.

Again they stole a truck and this time a police chase began. Officers pursued the couple through town until they ditched the vehicle and ran into a wooded area, video shows.

“Stop! I’m going to tase you,” an officer chasing Farrah said. “You’re gonna get tased!”

Then gunshots rang out.

Police say Farrah fired several shots and an officer returned fire.

As more officers arrived in the area, they discovered Farrah lying on the ground but stayed at a distance. Body camera video shows them repeatedly order her to display her hands.

“Show me your hands, and we can get you some help!” an officer says.

The video shows Farrah raise a gun toward officers before she was fatally shot.

Dugan fatally shot himself as officers approached him nearby, police say.

In the days following his daughter’s death, Steven Rauch did something unusual. He invited the officers involved in his daughter’s shooting to her funeral.

“Everything about this is about forgiveness,” Rauch told KETV. “It’s all about forgiveness.”

Though the officers declined the invitation, Muskogee Police Chief Johnny Teehee spoke at Farrah’s memorial service on Wednesday.

“Me being here may seem a bit odd,” Teehee said. “That’s because this doesn’t happen.”

Teehee said he felt an obligation to attend for Farrah’s family and share a message.

“What is the message that we can take from this young life — that we can carry on from this point on — and revert back to that?” Teehee said. “To me that message is forgiveness.”

Before Farrah’s funeral, the electricity to the building and much of the city was lost. Her dad thought it was a sign from his daughter.

“I started thinking maybe Farrah’s saying, ‘Dad you still don’t get it. I don’t want you. I don’t want this,’” he said. “So, I accepted that. I didn’t react to it. I just knew it was all going to work out.”

Then he recalled walking to her casket and seeing her body for the first time — the lights still out in the building.

He held her hands and touched her hair. As he stood with her, Rauch said it appeared her chest was breathing again.

“Then I started talking to her and I don’t even know what I was saying — but all a sudden the electricity went on. The light. Everything went on,” Rauch said. “I’m looking around and go, ‘Oh my god, Farrah, I get it. I get it, girl. It’s like everything’s good.’”

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