Was She Mistakenly Abducted? What Happened To Angela Hammond
Was She Mistakenly Abducted? What Happened To Angela Hammond
A new theory suggests her abduction was a case of mistaken identity. Is it true?
The Story
This incredibly eerie case centers around the disappearance of a twenty-year-old woman from Clinton, Missouri. That woman was Angela Hammond. She was a vibrant, popular student of Central Missouri State University who made money working at a bank when she wasn’t in class. Her life continued its upswing in January of 1991 when she got engaged to her boyfriend Rob Shafer. Rob was a former athlete with his eyes set on serving in the military. On April 4th of that same year, the couple attended a barbecue together. Angela wound up dropping her fiance off at home so that he could watch his little brother until his mom got off work.
Since the two had planned to meet up later, Angela killed time with a friend of hers named Kyla. At some point, Angela left her friend’s house and went to a pay phone so that she could speak to Rob. At around 11:15 pm, Angela mentioned being unsettled by a man in a Ford pickup truck circling the area several times. Keeping Rob updated on his actions, she noted that the man parked his car beside her and used the payphone next to hers. He then hung up the phone and searched for something in his truck using his flashlight. Angela then spoke to the man directly. She asked the man if he wanted to use her payphone and the man declined. The couple would then return to their conversation.
Shortly after that, Angela screamed into the phone.
On the other end, Rob was able to hear the man say “I didn’t need to use the phone anyway”. Fearing for the safety of his fiance, Rob immediately jumped into his car and headed toward the payphone (which was just seven blocks away). Crazily enough, the man’s pickup truck sped past Rob with Angela screaming out for his help. Rob then threw his car into reverse — unfortunately damaging his car in the process without knowing it. He was able to follow the truck for about two miles before the transmission gave out. The truck got away and would never be seen since.
The police would soon after being their search for Angela and the man who abducted her. Since Angela was able to describe the truck to Rob, he had a description to pass along to the investigators. While hundreds of leads were pursued, the truck was never found. Unsurprisingly, the investigators began looking into Rob once their leads began dwindling. The reasons for their suspicion were that no one was able to corroborate his story…and that the police do usually question the people closest to the victim (more specifically a significant other in these cases). However, Rob passed a polygraph test and was exonerated by two witnesses who reported seeing the man around those payphones at the time he reported. Rob was cleared of all suspicion within a week of Angela’s disappearance.
A couple of days later, investigators would get a break in the case. Angela’s abduction and disappearance were able to be connected to two other cases that were also unsolved.
The Twist
In one case, forty-two-year-old Trudy Darby was abducted from the store where she was working. Similar to Angela’s case, Trudy was on the phone with her son while a strange man was lurking outside the store. Her abduction occurred on January 19, 1991. Her son rushed to the store within 10 minutes and found a desolate area with no sign of his mother. Two days later, Trudy Darby’s body was found ten miles from the store where she was abducted. She had been shot twice in the head after being raped.
In the other case, thirty-year-old Cheryl Kenney was abducted from yet another store where she worked. This case occurred in Nevada, Missouri — about seventy miles from Macks Creek (where Trudy Darby was murdered). On the night of February 27, Cheryl locked up the store and was never seen again. Unlike the previous case, Cheryl has never been found (alive or dead) and her case has gone cold. Just a month later, Angela Hammond would be abducted in Clinton, Missouri.
The Status
Angela’s abductor was described as “a filthy caucasian man with glasses, a beard, and mustache. He was wearing overalls; he drove an early 70s model two-tone green Ford pickup with the mural of a fish jumping out of water on the back window”. At one point, serial killer Kenneth McDuff was heavily suspected of being her killer — but he was never definitively linked to her case.
In April of 2021, however, a new theory emerged for investigators. At the time of Angela’s abduction, there was a confidential informant working for the narcotics department that received the following letter:
With the letter correctly identifying their court-issued number and wife’s name, it would appear that the letter came from a legitimate source. Coincidentally, the informant's daughter was named Angela and lived in Clinton, Missouri. The letter was also postmarked on the same day as Angela’s disappearance. The police believe that Angela Hammond was mistakenly abducted in the place of the informant's daughter. This was further supported by an anonymous caller who mentioned specific details about the abduction, as well as the letter the informant received.
As the police continue to delve into this theory, more information will be made public.