Transcript
Speaker: Sleuthhounds, have you ever considered creating your own podcast? Have you been inspired by listening to some of your favorites and thought, I'd love to try this out on my own. Whether it's a true crime podcast like ours, a motivational podcast, or maybe one filled with tips and strategies for those interested in the same activities you are. When Maggie and I first decided to start our podcast, we knew absolutely nothing about what podcasting would entail.
Speaker: But when we found that the platform Buzzsprout was one for which we didn't need any special equipment, just a computer microphone, some quiet space, and each other, we knew that this was the way to go. It is intuitive to use, fun to play around with, and so helpful in getting analytical data about our number of downloads to track trends and from where listeners hail. Best yet, Buzzsprout is affordable.
Speaker: even by our teacher salary standards. Buzzsprout will get your podcasts listed on every major podcasting platform. So what are you waiting for? Fulfill that dream of yours and start today. If you use our coffee and cases referral code 709 -643 linked on Facebook and in our show notes, not only will you help support our show, but you will receive a $20 Amazon gift card after your second month on a paid plan. It's that easy.
Speaker: Podcasting isn't hard when you have the right partners. Join over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout to get their message out to the world. Now it's time for the world to hear what you have to say. As an English teacher, I often contemplate words. This week I found myself thinking about the term grasp and how we use it.
Speaker: My students can grasp a concept, and I can hold my phone firmly in my grasp. But more often than not, we use the term to imply its opposite, that which we thought we had, but we no longer do, to lose our grasp on something, or something we're striving to attain, but hard as we will it to happen, we just can't quite get there because it's just out of grasp.
Speaker: It's funny how that works. Something we're so sure of, held tightly, we're confident in, to a grip so fragile that we don't know if we'll ever reach it again. In our case this week, the same could be said for a relationship. A young couple were in the beginning stages of planning for a family and beginning their lives together.
Speaker: They were a small town couple, known and well -liked by all. A beautiful future seemed so sure. They and all those who knew them were confident. Until, that is, one of them was abducted on the night of April 4, 1991. This is the story of Angela Hammond.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the case will take those tips to law enforcement so justice and closure can be brought to these families.
Speaker: With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, and to follow us on Instagram at Coffee Cases podcast and on TikTok at Coffee and Cases podcast. Because as these families know, conversation helps to keep their missing family member and the public consciousness helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
Speaker: So to start our show today, Maggie and I would like to thank Beth. We don't know your last name, Beth, but Beth, who donated on Buy Me a Coffee to support our show. Oh, go, Beth! Because she got tickled at our stories and at Maggie calling someone a grade A butthole. So thank you, Beth, for supporting us.
Speaker: You are welcome, Beth, for that comment. We talk about a lot of grade A buttholes. It's true. It's in the job. It is. So a glimpse into the future. Also, Maggie and I have been tossing around the idea of starting a Patreon page by December
Speaker: to help us counter all of the costs of producing the podcast. We were actually just having this conversation because we're poor. We are poor. But don't worry because you will still get, even once we start a Patreon, you'll still get your weekly fix on all of your favorite podcasting apps for free.
Speaker: But we will post bonus episodes, episodes of us telling stories. And listen, we've got some doozies because horrible things happen to us. Yes, they do. And I don't know why, because we're good people. Yeah, I'm a nice person. Like, why does karma do that? But yeah, we've got some stories, people. Bloopers, we've got lots of those, too. Lots of mispronunciation.
Speaker: You're welcome. And we were talking about maybe hosting a monthly Zoom so we could hang out with all of you guys and chat with all of our supporters on there. You would get a discount on merch once we start selling it, which will also hopefully be in the near future. Plus, probably the best gift, you can get a shout out on the show. Just like Beth did.
Speaker: Yeah, Beth. So there could be many Beths in one show. That's right. So we'll keep you updated, but Maggie and I are super excited to start producing some quality bonus content for you. So let's get into this week's episode.
Speaker: Angela Hammond was popular in her small town of Clinton, Missouri. Angela was bubbly. She was witty, smart, kind, just a likable 20 -year -old. She worked at a local bank and she also attended classes at Central Missouri State University. Alison, you worked at a bank during college. I sure did. I sure did. It's a best job.
Speaker: It's really good. Unless people are like, they don't remember spending money and then they think you've somehow stolen it. That happens too. Especially in small towns.
Speaker: And Maggie, Angela would have stood out not because she was tall or loud, but because she was so petite. With her curly brown hair, her bangs teased only the way we could in the 1990s. Well, I was an infant then, so. Oh, Maggie. Oh, it was an art form.
Speaker: The higher you could get it, the better. It's closer to Jesus. That's right. Closer to Jesus. The stiffer you could get it with the hairspray. So it wouldn't move like a windstorm could come through and your bangs would still be picking right up. Wasn't it like aqua net? That was like the go to hairspray. So even with her bangs teased all the way up as we did in the 1990s.
Speaker: She stood at only four foot 11. See, I always wish that I was like petite, maybe not four foot 11, but like a good like five two. But now that I've gained like, you know, my COVID 15 pounds, my quarantine 15, I'm glad that I'm not five two because I would look like an Oompa Loompa. Oh my goodness. You're silly. Yeah. My mom, she's like five one. So.
Speaker: I'm just picturing, you know, my mom's height and my little sleuth hound is like the same height as my mom already. So, and she's 12. So when I think about Angie, because that's what she was called by her friends, I think about that Shakespeare quote from a Midsummer Night's Dream. You see it on a lot of like children's room decor and nursery room decor. And it says, though she be but little, she is fierce.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. And so Andrew was tiny. Yeah, it is. Angie was tiny, but she was so driven. The year before when Angie was 19, she had started dating another popular young local, Rob Shafer. Rob was a year younger than Angie. And as a senior in high school, when they began dating, he was a football star in their little town. So they were like,
Speaker: the couple who seemed to have it all. And by January of 1991, they got the news that their relationship was about to change. They were going to be parents. Oh, wow. So Rob was still in high school, I'm assuming? He was. Well, he had just, I guess, at the point of this story, he was 19. So he had recently graduated. Oh, OK. When Angie told Rob that she was pregnant, he proposed to her.
Speaker: and they quickly started preparing for their new role. So they were both excited about this future together. And the prospect of having a child just helped to solidify that commitment that they felt and their plans for the future. As I mentioned before, Angie was taking college classes during the day, and she was actually working as a processor at a bank in the evenings. And Rob was working odd jobs until he was able to join the military.
Speaker: So they had a plan. Yeah, for young people, that's a pretty good plan. So even though they didn't have a lot of expendable income, they did decide to rent a home and they were just beginning to get it ready to welcome their baby. So they had some of the things in their home already, but then other things were still getting set up. Like they didn't have a home phone set up yet, even though they were staying there.
Speaker: So that was just one of the, another piece that they needed to get in place. Right. Cause you don't think about that. Like when you're a first time home buyer, like that you have to call to get your water turned on and call to get the electricity turned on and like all this other stuff. Like when you're that young, you just think like it's there when you buy the house. Exactly. So on April 4th, 1991, Rob and Angie had gone to a barbecue around 10 PM.
Speaker: One source said that Rob left the barbecue and drove to his mom's house. And another source said that Angie had dropped him off at his mom's house because his vehicle had been left there so that they could ride together to the barbecue.
Speaker: But either way, whether he drove to his mom's house or they had written together to the barbecue and Angie took him back to his mom's house, Rob's vehicle was at his mom's and he did go there after the barbecue because he needed to babysit his younger brother until his mom got home. So they're going to a barbecue at 10 p .m. at night time?
Speaker: That's what time they left the boat. Oh, OK. Yes. Yes. You're like, that's a weird barbecue. Yeah. Yeah. They're smoking something else than meat. Yeah.
Speaker: So in the meantime, after Angie had dropped Rob off or Rob had gone himself to his mom's house, Angie went to go hang out with her friend Kyla just for a little bit. And the plan was that Angie was then going to go meet back up with Rob at his mom's house. But around 11 15, the house phone rang at Rob's mom's and it was Angie on the other end.
Speaker: she was calling Rob to say she was feeling really tired and she was just going to go home instead and take a nice warm bath and go to sleep. Well, you get tired growing a baby. So yeah, she was four months pregnant. That first trimester, the sleepiness, it hit hard, right? So she's like, um, it's 11 15, which is already past my bedtime if we're on it. So
Speaker: So what I'm getting ready to say next is something that some of our listeners might not understand. We old fogeys remember something called pay phones. Yes. Yes, we do. Yeah. They were outside of every like grocery store, gas station, movie theater. Yep. And it was super fun because you could potentially like find hidden treasure.
Speaker: by sticking your hand in to see if anybody had forgotten to get their change. Oh, I never did that. Oh, I did it all the time. Yeah, because see, to you young listeners, you young whippersnappers, in the olden days, no one had cell phones. Right, and we didn't really, and people didn't really have debit cards, so you would have coins to put into the payphone. Yes, yes.
Speaker: And I just had a conversation last night with my friend Marla, who you know, Maggie, who graduated high school in 1991.
Speaker: And we were reminiscing about having to use home phones, right? If you're home and if you're using a home phone, having to wait until no one else was using it before you made a call and then worrying about somebody else getting on the other phone in the house and listening to your conversation. I begged my mom in like fourth grade.
Speaker: For a private phone line because to uh, so my best friends were twins and they had one And like I remember Begging her for one right because like, you know, if somebody beeped in or before you call waiting Yeah, be like you're ain't supposed to call at 4 30 get off the phone So like I begged for a problem. I never got one
Speaker: Yeah, I never had one either. Or yeah, you could be in the middle of like the most private deepest secret you're telling to your best friend and your your parent would get on the phone. Yep. And then
Speaker: You know, obviously that's how you're making phone calls if you're home. But if you're not home, the only way to get in touch with somebody was to use a payphone, which meant two things. Number one, what we just said, carrying spare change. And number two, memorizing all of your friend's phone numbers. Yep. I still remember some of mine. Oh yeah. But sadly, like right now I know Rodney's phone number and that's it. I know my mom's and I know Anthony's. Yep.
Speaker: Oh, I know my dad's. OK, so we know two people we can ask. That's it. That's all. If they don't answer, we're screwed. Right, yeah. If they can't help me.
Speaker: I'm out of luck. Nobody can, literally. And so because Angie wasn't home, right? She was out. She had gone to her friend Kyla's house. That's what Angie did. She had left her friend Kyla's house, but she didn't want to drive the seven blocks to Rob's mom's house. And I didn't read why Maggie.
Speaker: Like, why she didn't just drive that seven blocks to let Rob know that she was going home, unless maybe she thought, like, you know, if I go over there, then I'm going to feel obligated to wait. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes you just want to go home. You just want to go home. And I also didn't read why Angie hadn't called Rob from her friend Kyla's house before she left. Yeah, that was what I was getting ready to ask you.
Speaker: Before whatever reason, Angie found herself out and needing to call Rob, so she stopped to use a pay phone at the Food Barn grocery store parking lot, which was at the intersection of Jefferson and Second Street.
Speaker: And as Angie was having her conversation with Rob, telling him that she was tired, she noticed that a green Ford pickup was circling the parking lot several times. And then it pulled alongside the payphones. Well, a man got out of the truck and he went over to the other payphone. He picked it up.
Speaker: hung it back up and then got back in his truck. Okay. Um, so two questions and I'm sure, well, I guess a question and a statement and I'm sure you'll answer the question. Did he drive away and if he did not drive away,
Speaker: I don't care how many nickels, dimes, quarters I got to put in that. I'm staying on the phone with somebody until somebody else can come and pick me up from that payphone. Well, so two comments. Okay. He did not drive away. Of course he did not. And number two, your attempt at safety would not have helped.
Speaker: Oh, awesome. So instead of driving away, the man got out a flashlight and he started looking like around his truck, like he's searching for something. Oh, God. What Angie was so creeped out by this guy, by his actions, that she actually started describing him to Rob, which made me think of your mom.
Speaker: Oh yeah, the story with the flat tire. So she starts describing this man. She says he looks dirty. He's this Caucasian male. He's wearing a dark baseball cap. He has glasses. He has a beard. He has a mustache. He's wearing overalls. She's giving Rob all of these details. Then she started describing his truck.
Speaker: She says it's this late 1960s, early 70s, two -tone green Ford F -150 pickup. It has a mural on the back window, like almost covering the whole back window of a fish jumping out of the water. Okay, so super recognizable. Exactly. So she's giving him all these details. So Rob, and I'm guessing like he's probably trying to calm her down, you know, because obviously she's feeling anxious, right?
Speaker: So he suggested, well, maybe the other payphone that this guy tried to use wasn't working. Yeah. Right? And that's why he didn't use it. And maybe he's just sticking around because he needs to get in touch with somebody about something. Maybe it's his truck even. And that's why he's looking around it. Right? So she's like, oh.
Speaker: Okay, maybe. Yeah, of course that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'm sure she started feeling a little bit better. And Rob actually overhears Angie lean out of the booth to ask the man if he needed to use the phone that she's on. And he said no, he would just try the other one in a minute.
Speaker: So Angie started talking to Rob again, just kind of small talk. So it seems like she had calmed down some. She wasn't as nervous about him, right? So they're just kind of chit chatting since the guy said he was just going to try the other phone in a minute. And Angie's about to hang up like they're ending their conversation. She's talking about going home again to get some rest. And then Rob heard something. Oh, God. Chilled him.
Speaker: to the bone. Angie let out a blood curdling scream. And according to a couple of the sources that I read, Rob reportedly believed that he heard a man's voice say, I didn't need to use the phone anyway.
Speaker: Oh my God. So now my mind's going a million places. Like what did this guy do? Did he hit her like over the head? Maybe like what's going on? Yeah. Well, yeah. And Rob's thinking the same thing. Rob's heart immediately starts to race. What is going on? What is happening to Angie? He drops the phone, like doesn't even hang it up. Just drops the phone, leaves his brother there, right? Because you know,
Speaker: his fiance and unborn child are in danger. He runs out to his vehicle. He knows where she's calling from. Because I guess when she called, she said which phone she was using. So he heads immediately toward the grocery store. He was flying, wasted no time. And luckily, remember, he's only seven blocks away.
Speaker: He's not that far away. So as he gets closer, Maggie, a green truck passes him going in the opposite direction and he heard a scream as it passed. Oh my God. So he's like, oh my gosh, is that the green truck that Angie just described? Was that her screaming voice calling out my name?
Speaker: Rob realizes that was the green truck that she had talked about. So he immediately turns around. Yes, Rob. Yes. But he throws his car into reverse because he doesn't have time to wait until the next turnaround. You know what I mean? He throws his car into reverse to turn around. He starts to follow. And when he did, he starts chasing after the truck.
Speaker: Again, then he sees the mural on the back, right? The fish jumping out of water. And he realizes this is the truck. He has to save Angie. But Maggie, when he threw his car into reverse to get caught up, something had happened to his car. I don't want to know.
Speaker: One source that I read seemed to indicate that he had turned around too hard, like that immediate throwing it into reverse. But when he made another sharp turn, his transmission failed. What is it with
Speaker: cases lately and vehicle transmissions. Last week too. Yeah. Listen, keep your transmissions in check. Yeah, check your engines. Yes, exactly. So yeah, his transmission failed. So he started following this truck. He followed it for nearly two miles, Maggie, before his transmission failed. And he was stranded. And I cannot imagine
Speaker: right, his car stranding him as this green truck, again with his future wife and child inside, disappearing into the night, the taillights fading away. So I can't imagine for either one of
Speaker: Angie or Rob, right? Because Rob is trying to save Angie. And if Angie is still conscious, she obviously knows that. That's Rob following them. And her, like, what was she thinking in that time? That's true. Like, why is he no longer following me? Yeah. Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that. That's gut wrenching.
Speaker: So when the transmission failed, Rob immediately jumped out of his vehicle and he started running, which of course is a hopeless attempt. That's so sad. I know. And soon, obviously the chance of saving Angie was just too far out of his grasp.
Speaker: So with no other recourse of action, Rob flagged down a passing motorist, because again, like he's stuck here. And he asked the motorist to be driven straight to the police station. Well, this is a small town. So they hadn't really seen a crime like this before.
Speaker: Law enforcement wrote down every detail as Rob related it. They followed up on some of the details that could be verified. I mean, there was his vehicle right where he said that he had to leave it. The transmission was indeed destroyed.
Speaker: Did he happen to get the license plate number or anything like that? One source, and I only read it in one source, said that he got just a partial two of the letters, but that the rest of it was so rusted. Oh, okay. He couldn't read what it said. Law enforcement went to the food barn store and the parking lot, and there was Angie's car.
Speaker: Right? So again, like right where Rob said she was abducted, there's her car left. Did they dust the payphones for fingerprints? You know what? I'm so glad you said that because that was my first inclination too. Because like, if I were going to do an investigation, and again, I am not a professional, but I am an armchair professional.
Speaker: I would have dusted the payphones for fingerprints, but I didn't read a single source that said that the phones had been dusted for fingerprints. Now, obviously it could have been, and maybe that's a piece of evidence that's just been stored for safekeeping. Or maybe like it hasn't been matched, or maybe they have that information, but they just haven't released it. Because we know that happens a lot in the cases. But you know what the police did have, Maggie? Blood?
Speaker: No, no, they had, they were able probably to make a sketch. Yes, they were. She gave so much information. That's right. They were able to create a sketch of the perpetrator because she gave... And a description of the vehicle. So at least they had a starting point, right? And at least the description of the truck seems pretty accurate, but the sketch, not so much.
Speaker: And I'm really disappointed and kind of like, you know, when you talk to your child and it's worse than saying I'm mad, I'm disappointed. Because here are some of the things that Angie mentioned. She said he was dirty. She said that he had dark hair under a baseball cap. He had glasses. He had a mustache. And a beard. And he had a beard.
Speaker: But Maggie, I'm going to show you the sketch. Okay. And I want you to tell me what you notice about the sketch versus what Rob reported to the police as Angie had relayed to him. What do you notice? Okay. Like first off, I don't know that I would say that he necessarily looks Caucasian. Yeah.
Speaker: I kind of feel like he looks more Native American. He does. And I think it's because the hair. Mm hmm. He also has no mustache. Nope. He also has no beard. Nope. He also has no baseball cap or glasses like this is just this is just I think like the sketch artists.
Speaker: just putting a sketch out there. It's like a kid, you have to turn something in, so you're just gonna turn anything in. You're like, let's draw a country farm scene, and somebody draws a banana. Yeah, that's nothing like anything, what she had said. So I'm disappointed.
Speaker: Yeah. So, but again, at least they still had the description of the truck, which is good. Plus, according to the Charlie Project, which was the only source that I saw this information on, but I trust the Charlie Project as a source.
Speaker: It mentioned that Rob had also noted the truck potentially having a white top, but I'm wondering if like he couldn't really tell because like when the lights are shining, especially on like if it were a light green, maybe it was just shining and it looked white. Yeah. And that there was possible damage to the driver side front fender. So even more specifics.
Speaker: But even though, like when I mentioned that mural on the back and the colors of it and all of this stuff, you were like, oh, that's easily identifiable, right? Well, the Missouri State Police in their database search for similar vehicles in the area turned up more than 1 ,500 hits for green Ford pickup trucks in the area. Okay, so not necessarily including the mural on the back, just green Ford pickup trucks. I was gonna say, you got a lot of like,
Speaker: fishermen? Yeah. That town has a lot of avid fishermen right there because all of them have green Ford F -150s with a fish on the back. That's right. Those bass tournaments, they get crazy. Yeah, they get real. So I don't know if the police
Speaker: searched all of those vehicles, like all 1500 hits. But I do know that several law enforcement agencies from their surrounding area did volunteer time and manpower to aid in the search. And I did read that none of the trucks that they did investigate matched that that, you know, Rob had said the abductors looked like with a mural and all of that.
Speaker: So when they couldn't find any trucks that matched it, then law enforcement began to grow suspicious of Rob. So they're thinking, no, you're not feeling it. I mean, maybe you'll convince me of it in one of your theories, but right now I'm not, I'm not feeling it.
Speaker: I'm not going to convince you. I'll go ahead and tell you that. But they were thinking, could he have harmed Angie? Maybe he didn't want to get married. Maybe he didn't want to have a child so young. Why hadn't Angie come to his mom's house to let him know that she was just going to go home? Oh, so they also think he's making up this description and making up this truck? Right. Okay.
Speaker: Partly because they couldn't find the abductor's truck. Partly because what happened to Angie in such a small town does seem inconceivable. And partly because at first no witnesses came forward. So that's when I started to question his story. But within a week after acknowledging that his transmission did go out, and that's not something that you can just make it happen on command.
Speaker: Yeah, I was going to say that seems very elaborate to, you know, plan or fake. He passed a polygraph test, which I know we say means nothing, but he passed it. And two eyewitnesses eventually came forward to say that they had also seen a suspicious man in a truck
Speaker: in the food barn parking lot near the pay phones between 1130 and 1145 that night. Okay, good. Yes. So Rob was cleared of any involvement. And Angie's mom especially had defended Rob from the beginning. She said of him when this case aired on Unsolved Mysteries. Oh, I love Unsolved Mysteries. That like takes me back to my childhood.
Speaker: staying up late, this on the TV? So 90s, so 90s for me. But she said, quote, I think it was natural that people wondered did the boyfriend do it, but my feeling was I've known the kid all his life and I never doubted for a minute that he had anything to do with it, end quote. So she was very sure of him. But then, you know, if it's not him, then who? And we still don't know.
Speaker: Over the years, there have been several unconfirmed sightings of women who they say looks like Angie, like down to the small scar on her upper lip. And those sightings were like across the United States, even in Canada. But like I said, those were unconfirmed and in some cases, unexplored. But what we have explored are some potential theories. Your favorite part. My fave. So let's dive in. Theory one.
Speaker: Angie's ex -boyfriend. There were rumors in the small town. Shocker. Shocker that there would be rumors spreading in a small town.
Speaker: that her ex -boyfriend was the father of the child and not Rob. But both Rob and the ex -boyfriend denied that rumor. The ex -boyfriend took a polygraph and passed it. And the big factor, there's not a single shred of evidence to link Angie's ex -boyfriend to the crime. Yeah, not that one. Yeah. Theory two, and this is a very vague comment, serial killer.
Speaker: And it's very vague intentionally because there are three potential serial killers. Yeah. Like I would hate to live in this. I don't want to live in an area where there's a possibility of three potential serial killers. I don't want to live where there's one. What am I saying? So here are the three possibilities. The first is Kenneth McDuff.
Speaker: Well, he only has two names. I know. I know. But McDuff had originally acted in a multi -death crime with another perpetrator, during which three people were brutally murdered. And originally, both McDuff and the other perpetrator were sentenced. But then, McDuff hired a new attorney who had his death sentence changed to a life sentence.
Speaker: and was able to gather enough, quote unquote, proof that the other perpetrator was the ringleader in that original murder. So McDuff was deemed to still be able to, quote, contribute to society and was released on parole in 1989. And most people believe that within three days. Y 'all should see my face.
Speaker: You should see my face. Killing again. There were multiple deaths across Texas after the women were abducted where the bodies were found like days or even years later that most people argue are linked to McDuff. He did have a pickup and at least in 1992, which is the year after Angie's abduction, he did fully move to Kansas City, Missouri.
Speaker: and all that before a coworker, after he moved to Kansas City, was watching America's Most Wanted and saw this image. Yeah. And this coworker was like, uh, that looks like this guy I work with. I work with a murderer. Yeah. So this coworker luckily turned him in, but could he have committed a crime in Missouri, you know, just a few short months before he moved there fully?
Speaker: McDuff though has never officially been linked to Angie's case. So I'm assuming that he was arrested and is still behind bars or died. I can't remember if he's still behind bars or if he died in prison, but yeah. The second serial killer
Speaker: Oh, you'll, you're, it's a three -namer. Larry Dwayne Hall. Okay. Three names. Yeah. Police believe that Hall was active in Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Speaker: Well, he's well traveled. Yes, between 1981 and 1994. So for 13 years, abducting, sexually assaulting, and murdering up to 40 different women. No, that's scary. He would stalk them and abduct them from fairly remote areas. And he was known to travel extensively. So he knew the areas well where he committed the crimes.
Speaker: He has been described as dirty. Dirty? I know. He has dark hair, a mustache, and a beard. OK. And he was known to be in the surrounding area, and again, the following year, in the spring of 1992. OK, but he was well -traveled. Yes. And he knew the area, so maybe he visited there before. Right. And that's the big question. Could he have been there before? And I haven't even gotten to the creepy part yet. So this hall. Well, I feel like.
Speaker: Okay. I'll let you go. Then I'll say no. You might answer it. Well, I mean, I just feel like maybe it wasn't someone from the area, but maybe someone who had been there before and knew the area. And that would explain why none of these green pickup trucks really resulted in anything significant for the case because they were searching for trucks in the wrong area. Like they're looking local, but it's not somebody. Yeah. I do agree. I think that
Speaker: Whoever did this had to be an out of town or an outsider. And I'll talk a little bit more about why in a second. But otherwise, that's a fairly recognizable truck. And I feel like if it were somebody from around this town or who were there frequently, people would be like, oh, that's Joe's truck. Because you already know I would be telling on y 'all if I knew. I know. We're snitches. Yes.
Speaker: So Hall was known though to drive a van and not a truck. And that's the only detail that leads some people to question whether he's the perpetrator, but then still others, they believe, you know, well, he could have been using someone else's vehicle. Yeah, exactly. But Hall, when he committed his crimes against these, you know, 40 different women, he was meticulous about getting rid of evidence.
Speaker: He worked as a janitor and so he had access to all kinds of cleaning supplies. So when he was finally arrested and the police searched his van, they only found five fingerprints and they were all his own. And it wasn't until they continued searching that they found super disturbing notes with messages like these. I'm gonna say several of them.
Speaker: Seen joggers and bikers, many alone. Or check colleges and parks, many prospects. What? Yeah. Or buy two more plastic tarps, cover van floor. Eh. Or remove stained carpet. This next one, actually the next few. Buy condoms, no body contact. Eh.
Speaker: Yep. Buy new hacksaw. Oh my. Clean all tools. So it's like he's making like a to -do list. Yeah. So there's the second serial killer. The third are serial killer relatives. Oh.
Speaker: Keep it in the family. Yeah. And there are several similar cases to Angie's that can be linked to them. So there were three cases that I saw mentioned that were that were potentially linked to the serial killer relative pair. One was 30 year old Cheryl Kenny. She worked at a convenience store in Nevada, Missouri, which is a bit confusing because Nevada is a city in this case.
Speaker: Not state. So the town of Nevada in Missouri, which was less than 70 miles away from Clinton, Missouri, where Angie was abducted. Okay. This also happened on February 27th, 1991, only five weeks before Angie's abduction. Okay. Cheryl was locking up the store after her shift. So similar time of night.
Speaker: Her car was found abandoned at the convenience store and Cheryl was kidnapped. She was just abducted from there and we have no further clues as to her whereabouts. Okay, so that's similar. Very similar. Five and a half weeks before Cheryl's disappearance, another convenience store worker was abducted on January 19th, 1991.
Speaker: 42 -year -old Trudy Darby was about to finish her shift at the K &E Country Corner store when she noticed a suspicious man outside. She called her son and described the man to him. Oh, do we know that description? Well, I didn't read anything about it, but we do know who committed her crime, and it's the serial killer relatives.
Speaker: So she describes this man, again, such smart people. I'm so sad that they had tragic ends, but they shared what the person looked like. When they felt a fear, they shared it. And even though her son, who she called, said that she didn't seem particularly frightened, he still decided to drive to the store to check on her. But when he got there, he found her car abandoned and her purse remained behind.
Speaker: I would just like to know if her description was similar to the one that Angie gave. Well, I'm going to say yes because the two relatives are similar to that description. Trudy's body was found two days later, stripped of clothing and a body of water. She had been beaten, raped and shot twice in the head by a shotgun.
Speaker: But in her case, as I said, we do have a perpetrator. Half brothers, Jessie Rush and Marvin Cheney, who were both convicted of her rape and murder.
Speaker: A third case that's potentially linked to them is that of Diana Braungart. Oh, I would never be able to say that one. She was abducted on March 11th, 1987. And so it's a few years earlier. So those who want to link her abduction to the half brothers believe that she could have been the original crime, like the first time that they did it.
Speaker: She was abducted from the Twin Peak Mall parking lot, which is just outside of Crystal City, Missouri. She had just talked to some friends saying that she was going to go home and study for a test, but she didn't make it home. Instead, her Ford Escort was found abandoned in the parking lot. And some eyewitnesses were called seeing Diana in the parking lot talking to a man. And because they saw that conversation happening, they were able to produce a sketch by those memories.
Speaker: Diana's coworkers saw the sketch and they were in shock. It looked just like the last man who had checked out before Diana had finished her shift at work. That's so they were like, I've seen that guy. He was the last person who she checked out before leaving work. And this was a man who looked remarkably like Jesse Rush.
Speaker: who was a person of interest in Diana's case, and one who would later, along with his half -brother, be charged with the abduction, rape, and murder of Trudy Darby. Oh, my Lord. And so even though we don't know the names and the full details of all of the murders that Jesse and Marvin may have been responsible for, Jesse Rush did confess to Selmais and to police that he and his half -brother had committed murders, plural.
Speaker: even though we only know for sure of Trudy Darby, and that they would dump the women's bodies in remote areas.
Speaker: And today, police believe that either Rush or Cheney had acted alone in the abduction of Diana. So could those two have been responsible for all of these murders? Because there does seem to be a pattern. Yeah, definitely. I mean, they're also similar. Tom of night. Yep. Like, I mean, that that's the style of abduction. Yep. All from parking lots.
Speaker: Yeah, their cars abandoned, same time of night, abducted from parking lots. And other than Diana's disappearance, which is the outlier in terms of the date, the other three all happened in a time period of less than three months. So my question, which is what you asked, was wonder if they look anything like the description that Angie gave to Rob. So I pulled up their pictures and they both do.
Speaker: In the mug shots, both men have darker hair, both men have mustaches, both men have beards, and both of them look dirty. The only thing they don't have is glasses, which is something that you could easily take off. Yeah, maybe they just have like readers or something. Right.
Speaker: Theory number three is just a random attack. I have really no description to tell you of this other than just the idea that somebody could have been following Angie, like maybe they had seen her using the phone and saw that she was alone and had abducted her. And this was just a crime of opportunity, right? Somebody passing through. I don't know that I really...
Speaker: I mean, it could have just been someone passing through, but I do think they would have, I don't think that Angie was this person's first crime. Yeah. Cause that's pretty bold. Yeah. And they didn't really like make any mistakes. No, like weapon was left behind. If they use something like that, there wasn't really any DNA like blood or, you know, something falling out of their car or nothing like that. Right.
Speaker: So I'm about to throw a wrench in the spokes with my final theory. Okay. Theory four, a case of mistaken identity. This theory posits that this would have been then a planned attack just carried out on the wrong target. So on the 30th anniversary of Angie's disappearance, which is just this year,
Speaker: the Clinton Police Department made an announcement that could potentially completely alter this investigation if it's true. In April of this year, the Clinton Police Department revealed their new theory that Angie Hammond could have been mistaken for a different Angie, an Angie who, unlike Angie Hammond,
Speaker: was the daughter of an informant for a narcotics operation who was set to testify in court. Do the Angie's look alike? Yes. In fact, when law enforcement was asked that very same question, they said that they looked and I quote, strikingly similar. Hmm. And the reason why they have this theory is because a letter
Speaker: was delivered to the police station, postmarked on the same day as Angie Hammond's abduction. Like it was just recently delivered to the police station? No. It was, yeah, it was postmarked in April of 1991. And it had been in Angie's file this entire time.
Speaker: So this letter, it was created, which is super creepy to me, by magazine cutouts of letters. Yeah, you had to be very dedicated. Yeah, that would take some time. And it read as follows, quote,
Speaker: Hello number blank, which was the number that they mentioned in it, by the way, was the number that was assigned for that witness by the court for the upcoming narcotics hearing. So Angie number two, the court date, she would have been, okay. Yeah, was this number blank. Okay. So hello number blank. We know who you are, number blank.
Speaker: People like you deserve what you get. We know where your foxy daughter is, and she'll see us soon. Tell your wife, and it listed her name in the letter. She has our deepest sympathy and her further loss. Goodbye. Oh, that kind of like made my stomach turn a little. Yeah.
Speaker: So it does make it sound like whoever wrote this letter is trying to get revenge on this other Angie's dad for being an informant. And it makes it sound like they're going to go after his daughter and then says, basically, tell your wife she has our deepest sympathy for her loss.
Speaker: It's that it's creepy. Yes. So you combine that letter, this delil or it's postmarked on the same day as Angie's abduction. The informants wife and daughter also lived in Clinton, Missouri at the time, and the fact that both Angie's look strikingly similar.
Speaker: I can see where they got this theory. Yes. And according to Clinton police captain Paul Abbott, who's been in charge of the investigation since 2006, he said that it wasn't until he had gone through Angie's file for the like third or the fourth time that he came across this letter that was first mentioned in the early investigation of Angie's case. And so I'm sure you're wondering like me, why the heck did they not immediately make the connection?
Speaker: Yeah, I was. But according to all of my research, the best explanation that they gave was that it hadn't been followed up on more because, and this was according to an article by Adam Schrader on May 15th of 2021, quote, police couldn't figure out how to connect it to the 1970s model green Ford truck that Schaefer had tried to chase down, end quote.
Speaker: So that was the only reason why? That's the only, they were like, I don't know how this letter fits with the green Ford. So it must not have any, you know, it must not be important. Yeah. Like that, again, I'm disappointed to give potentially more believability to this theory just a couple of months before publicly releasing the information about the letter. So they had not told the public about the letter yet. In early 2021,
Speaker: law enforcement received a voicemail from an anonymous caller mentioning details involving that letter. So again, like how would this person know about it? They hadn't told the public about it yet. In that voicemail,
Speaker: One of the two people that the caller point out as the perpetrators is someone that police had investigated before. The law enforcement have not officially stated who that person is, right? Mostly because they would like to have a little bit more information.
Speaker: So they're hoping that with a little bit more exposure about the case, maybe that anonymous caller will contact them again. And they've actually made public pleas to that effect. Come on anonymous caller call back. Yeah, Captain Abbott told reporter Francis Watson.
Speaker: of KY3 on April 14th, 2021, quote, I would really, really be interested in having a conversation with that person. It can completely be anonymous. It can be a phone conversation. I can protect their identity. I can guarantee that, end quote. Okay, Maggie, what are your thoughts? Okay, so I feel like it's so hard
Speaker: in these cases with Angie because part of me
Speaker: almost feels bad wanting to say that it was the case of mistaken identity because like any murder or like loss of life is sad but like that to me as an extra level of heartbreak because it wasn't supposed to be her not that it would have been any less sad if it was other Angie. Right. Just you know it's sad in that aspect but that
Speaker: Because at first I was like, it's a serial killer. It definitely has to be a serial killer. But now I kind of really do think that it might be the mistaken identity. I think you could be right. Especially because that caller named two people and one of them was someone who police had already questioned. Yeah. One thing we do know for sure.
Speaker: is that Angie was kidnapped by a stranger. This was a small town in which a truck that distinguishable would have been recognized. And if this were a case of mistaken identity, then that mistake could only happen if the perpetrator were not familiar with either of the two women. With how friendly and popular Angie Hammond was, that's not likely. No one could forget that petite bubbly young woman. And now,
Speaker: Those who love Angie can't forget the night she was robbed from them. Rob stated to Unsolved Mysteries, quote, the beginning is the hardest because you know you were close enough to get him, but you just didn't get the job done. And you still wake up at nights wondering where she's at, wondering what happened, wondering if anyone's still looking. You're just wondering all the time, end quote.
Speaker: They might have lost their grasp on the ability to catch up with the perpetrator that night, but let's not let them loosen their grasp on the one thing keeping them going, hope. Anyone who has heard a story like this one, or with any information concerning the case, is asked to call the Clinton Police Department directly at 660 -885.
Speaker: or send an email anonymously to tips at clintonmopd .com.
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