THE mom of two kids shot dead by Oreanna Myers believes their "selfish, evil" stepmother was of "sound mind" when she murdered her "babies" – before setting fire to their family home and fatally shooting herself, The Sun can exclusively reveal.
Grief-stricken Raven Bumgarner, whose sons Shaun, seven, and Riley, six, were killed in a murder-suicide in West Virginia while staying with her ex Brian's new wife, says she feels her soul has been "ripped out."
Police confirmed Oreanna, 25, shot Raven's boys, along with the her own three children – Kian, 4, Aarikyle, 3, and Haiken, one – before burning down their farmhouse and turning the gun on herself.
Greenbrier County Sheriff, Bruce Sloan, revealed the shocking details of the December 8 tragedy during a press conference in Fairlea last week – saying 'depressed' Oreanna left suicide notes and fully confessed.
In her first interview since the tragedy, heartbroken Raven told The Sun exclusively: "It's like your soul is ripped out of you.
"How could you do that to children? They had full lives ahead of them.
"I feel she was of complete sound mind, she didn't write me a letter, she was selfish and she wanted to hurt people.
"This was planned, and I can't get my boys back, she murdered my babies."
Raven, who also has three-year-old Khari from a previous relationship, branded her "evil" and added: "It's hard. It really is hard, I probably wouldn't be here if I didn't have my daughter.
"I'd always told my kids, 'Mommy's always here, mommy always comes back,' but mommy couldn't stop this."
Text messages released by police show Oreanna was annoyed Brian was staying at his father's house during the working week.
He claimed he needed to be closer to his job at a sauna business after the family car was rendered unusable from a previous accident.
One devastating message read: "You'll have nothing to come back to but to corpse [sic]."
Asked what she feels her motive was, Raven said: "[I believe] she wanted to take everything from Brian.
"But she didn't just hurt Brian when she did this, she didn't just hurt his kids, she hurt everybody."
Discussing the harrowing day she lost her boys, she said she dropped them off to stay with the couple and made small talk with Oreanna, oblivious of her mental state.
She said she later received a photograph and text messages from Brian's cousin who lives near the home, telling her it was on fire and completely engulfed with flames, but begged: "Don't panic."
"I called Brian and he was on his way home, I jumped in my car and left my daughter with a sitter," Raven said.
"The whole way there I was expecting to see all five children and Oreanna outside.
"The farm was packed with people, but nobody could tell me anything.
"It was like, 'Check the barn, check the barn'. And I was waiting for them [the boys] to come out of the woods.
"My brother was telling me, 'Don't do anything stupid' because he knew that I would jump in and try to go get my kids.
"But there was nothing to jump in to, there was a chimney standing and flames."
Raven says she didn't have confirmation her children were dead for hours as firefighters from across the county desperately searched through the monstrous blaze.
She waited "in limbo and denial" for a police update – after the two-storey home was left totally gutted by the fire.
Raven was then told Oreanna had murdered all of the children before taking her own life.
"She shot all five kids in the head and set the house on fire and went outside and shot herself," Raven said.
"They [cops] described she used a single action shotgun. You have to break it down and reload it after every single shot.
"How can you do that five times to five children?
"In these letters she's apologized, making it all about mental illness.
"But she did it five times, wrote four different letters, you set this up, this wasn't just some mental illness, it was planned."
Raven, who had spent years struggling as a single mom and previously lived in a trailer before buying a new house in August, said last year was the first Christmas she'd been able to spoil her children.
But after the tragic day her family was torn apart, she says the boys' presents remain untouched in her attic as she's too overwhelmed with grief to move them.
Talking about her loss, she said: "It's waking up [and thinking] 'I gotta get breakfast ready for the kids', just to realize you only have one.
"It's expecting to find them in their rooms and they're not there.
"It's turning around the corner to see them raiding the fridge. And they're not there.
"I can't even bring myself to go back up there [where they died] because it's expecting them to get in my car."
Raven, who grew up in foster care and rarely speaks to her birth parents, has her brother Tyler supporting her, along with friends and an outpouring of love from thousands of strangers across the world.
"I wanted to give them everything I never had," she said of her children.
"I aged out of state care, those boys saved me, they made me into a better person.
"I've never told someone I loved them with my whole being except for my kids."
She revealed her and daughter Khari are now in therapy and the little girl is struggling to understand why her older brothers never came home.
"The first few days she kept asking where they were at," Raven revealed.
"I kept trying to say with God or in heaven, but she didn't understand that concept yet.
"I have to explain, 'They can't come back but you can talk to them.'
"I said, 'You can't see them, you can't hear them, but they can see and hear you.'
"I got her a locket that has their pictures in it so she can look at it. And she does.
"She takes really good care of it, too. She'll wear it for a little bit, talk to it, kiss it."
Raven, who moved from Ohio to West Virginia as a child and met ex Brian when she was just 13, described him as her "childhood sweetheart" whom she married at 19.
But she claims their relationship failed as he struggled to be the family man she desperately needed, and soon after their split he got together with Oreanna in 2016.
Raven alleges he told her Oreanna would be a "better mom" and they had a strained relationship with 50/50 custody, after he accused her of failing to care for their children, which she denies.
"I busted my butt, I went back to school to do college online, I paid off the trailer, I got my car by myself, I got this house by myself, I did everything I could as a single mother."
The Sun made several attempts to reach Brian Bumgarner, but was unsuccessful.
She said her children did not like Oreanna and Raven had an up and down relationship with her ex's new wife, who was allegedly "jealous" of his past with her.
"She had told me on my birthday last year that she was insecure because I was his first, and I had kids with him," she said.
"She didn't want me involved, but she had to cope with the fact that I had to stay involved, that I wasn't going anywhere.
"There was a lot of acting out over the years, and violating the parenting plan."
She said despite their past, her and Oreanna began to patch things up before the tragedy, and she'd asked Raven to visit the farmhouse, where her children spent their week days.
Oreanna appeared to want company as she was struggling with looking after the children.
"I've been there at one point and I know how stressful it is," Raven said.
"I mean, granted, she wasn't telling me what was really going on with their relationship, but we'd talk.
"I'd heard over the years that she didn't like that he was gone all the time, and she wished he'd spend more time with her, but nothing really past that.
"Even the last day she was like, 'Have a safe trip home in this snow, we'll see you later.' And that was the last I heard from her."
She was then left floored to discover the messages she'd sent Brian after the tragedy, and the contents of the letters she left behind, apologizing for her "evil crime" and blaming her "demons."
But Raven said no apology will bring back her beloved sons, or repair the life-long damage she has done to her family.
She said: "I love them and I miss them, I know they're looking out for me and their sister."
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