A
woman, who
became an amateur
sleuth in a bid
to uncover the
mystery of her best
friend’s horrific death, has
told of how her determination
finally cracked the case, 23
years later.
Sheila Wysocki, 55, met
Angela Samota – who went by
the name Angie – at university
in Dallas, Texas in 1982.
The roomates had different
personalities – with Sheila
cautious and ‘stand-offish’ at
times and Angie ‘bubbly and
beautiful’ – but the pair quickly
became friends.
‘It turned out we kind of
complemented each other... our
family dynamics were pretty
much the same. I didn’t have
a father and she didn’t have a
father and so that brought us
together,’ Sheila explains.
But then came the tragedy
that meant the friends would
never see each other again.
Aged, 22, Sheila was about
to head off to a college football
game when she received a phone
call from another student.
Angie was dead.
On October 12, 1984, the
then 20-year-old had been raped
and murdered in the home she
lived in off-campus. The
vivacious young woman had
been brutally stabbed 18 times.
Reports revealed she was
found lying naked and covered in
blood on her bed, next to her
giant stuffed rabbit.
Her legs were dangling over
the side. Her eyes were still open
when she was found.
An officer at the scene later
said she was haunted by the
memory of those blue eyes.
‘From that day to this one,
I could close my eyes and see
Angela,’ the officer said.
Sheila was devastated by the
death, dropping out of college,
retreating to the safety of her
family home.
‘The murder happened and
my entire life and security
crumbled,’ she recalls.
Bubbly and
beautiful Angie
(left) was found
dead on her bed
next to her giant
stuffed rabbit- with her blue
eyes open.
Sheila (pictured
main) was at
college when she
heard about the
shock murder of
her best friend
Angie (inset).SHEILA COULDN’T
REST UNTIL SHE’D GOT
JUSTICE FOR ANGIE
MY BES T FRIEND’S
MA TE TURN ED
D E TE C TI V E
40