As many of you, I just finished watching Death of the Pastor’s Wife on Netflix. It left me feeling sick for Mica’s family and saddened by the lack of help anyone can truly get when they are the victim of stalking. Then I saw the following story, reiterating the feeling of helplessness.
Shalini Thakur met Rohit because he picked up food from the restaurant where she worked.
That’s it.
According to Shalini’s own court filing, Rohit worked as a DoorDash driver and would come into the restaurant to collect orders. Shalini was a waitress at an IHOP in the Sacramento area.
Somewhere along the way, according to court records, his interest in her became something else. Shalini alleged that he followed her, waited outside her home, tampered with her car and tracked her with an AirTag. Authorities also say he obtained a copy of her apartment key and entered while she slept.
Shalini became afraid and eventually told a judge that Rohit’s behavior had been escalating for months. He had threatened to shoot himself, or others if she wouldn’t marry him.
So she started asking for help.
This is the timeline of what happened next.
September 2025
According to Shalini’s application for a civil harassment restraining order, this is when the stalking began.
She later wrote that the behavior became progressively more frequent and severe.
Shalini said Rohit sent unwanted gifts and repeatedly showed up around her.
She said he attempted to prevent her from socializing with other people and tried to pressure her into marrying him.
This doesn’t appear to be an ex-boyfriend.
Authorities say they had no information indicating Shalini and Rohit had ever been romantically involved. Shalini had described them as friends.
She said she knew him because he was a DoorDash driver who picked up orders from the restaurant where she worked.
January–April 2026
Shalini found an Apple AirTage underneath the hood of her car. Investigators say Rohit had placed it there to track her.
According to investigators, Rohit once let the air out of one of Shalini’s tires. Then he followed her to work. So that he could show up and offer to help her.
Authorities also say Rohit obtained a copy of Shalini’s apartment key and entered her home while she was asleep.
Shalini later wrote that Rohit admitted to tampering with her property in an attempt to pressure her into marriage or stop her from socializing with other people.
This is also when she alleged that he threatened to shoot himself or other people if she refused to marry him.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office says deputies remained in contact with Shalini over the following months. According to sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Amar Gandhi, Shalini initially did not want to pursue criminal charges.
Deputies say they continued encouraging her to seek a restraining order and eventually she did so.
May 2026
Shalini went to court. She did everything victims of stalking are encouraged to do.
In her filing, she described the significant emotional distress and anxiety the alleged stalking was doing to her. She warned that Rohit’s behavior was getting worse. She had documented what was happening and contacted law enforcement leading her to the court.
A judge granted Shalini a civil harassment restraining order in late May.
Rohit was legally required to stay away from her.
The order was supposed to remain in effect until May 2027.
As too often is the case, this did not prevent what she feared was coming.
July 29, 2026
Shalini called law enforcement again. She reported that Rohit had violated the restraining order. Shalini received grocery deliveries she believed Rohit had ordered or delivered. This violation seems almost harmless by comparison.
But when someone you’ve gone to court to keep away from you appears at your home again, groceries aren’t just groceries.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, the reported contact was investigated as a violation of Shalini’s restraining order, leading to the development of probable cause to arrest Rohit.
Detectives tried to find him at least twice, they did not succeed.
So Rohit remained free.
The Sheriff's Office says the alleged violation was a misdemeanor. Had investigators located Rohit, he could have been cited or booked into jail; an arrest would not necessarily have meant he remained in custody.
September 8, 2026
Six weeks later, shortly before 3 p.m., Shalini went to work.
Someone was dropping her off at a shopping center near Howe and Northrop avenues in the Sacramento area where her car was already parked.
Investigators say Rohit arrived shortly before Shalini did. He approached her leading to a confrontation.
Shalini ran and Rohit chased her.
According to investigators, he shot her multiple times.
Then, after Shalini fell to the ground, authorities say Rohit walked up to her and fired again at close range.
Shalini Thakur died there.
She was 38 years old.
Witnesses helped deputies identify Rohit’s vehicle. Investigators used license-plate-reading cameras to locate it near Highway 50.
Authorities attempted to stop him. Eventually, the vehicle stopped on the freeway leading to a standoff.
When deputies finally approached, authorities say they found 22-year-old Rohit dead inside the vehicle from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
While all of this was happening, Shalini’s mom, Sudesh Kumari, was in Sacramento.
She had traveled all the way from India because she wanted to spend several months with her daughter. Her only child. Kumari found herself standing beside the flowers and candles left in that parking lot.
Now Kumari is questioning whether more could have been done to save her daughter. Because Shalini knew she was in danger. She documented it. She called law enforcement. She went to court. She got a restraining order. When she believed that order had been violated, she reported that too. Investigators now say they had probable cause to arrest Rohit and tried to find him. Yet they couldn’t.
Six weeks later, he was waiting near her workplace and she was dead.
THE GOOD DEED
There’s a fundraiser helping Shalini’s family with funeral and memorial expenses and the immediate costs created by her sudden death.
The fundraiser describes Shalini as caring, loving, selfless and generous — someone who regularly tried to help other people.
Now strangers have an opportunity to help the people she left behind.