Emily Chan
In 1982, Sheila Wysocki and Angela Samota met on their first day of college in Dallas, Texas. They shared a room together and would go on to become best friends.
However, two years later, Angela was brutally murdered, and Sheila’s life was changed forever. The killer was never caught until Sheila got the case reopened decades later.
Angela, also known as Angie, was described as “friendly” and “vivacious.” In addition, she was extremely intelligent and was one of the only girls in the computer science and electrical engineering department. She had a bright future ahead of her. Unfortunately, her life ended far too soon at the age of 20.
One night in 1984, Angela decided to go bar hopping with two friends, Russell Buchanan and Anita Kadala. They left at around one in the morning. After she drove her friends home, she stopped by her boyfriend’s apartment and then headed home.
Shortly after she arrived at her own apartment, a stranger knocked on her door. He claimed that he needed to borrow her phone and use the restroom. She let him in and called her boyfriend. They got disconnected, and she didn’t answer the phone.
So, her boyfriend drove to her place. The door was locked, and when he knocked, no one answered. He used a mobile phone in his truck to contact the police.
When the police entered Angela’s apartment, they found a gruesome and bloody scene laid out in front of them. She had been assaulted and stabbed 18 times. Her heart had basically been cut out of her chest. The traumatic death of her friend led Sheila to drop out of college.
Russell Buchanan became the main suspect in the murder. The police asked Sheila to have dinner with him to see if his story rang true. Russell had told the police that he traveled to Houston to visit his parents later that weekend. He didn’t hear about the murder until he returned to Dallas days later. He told Sheila the same thing.
Even though Russell’s story matched up, police still suspected him of the crime. But they never got the evidence they needed to charge him. Eventually, he left the country to go to graduate school. The investigation hit a wall, and the killer remained free.
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