This is a companion to the video https://youtu.be/cwS-hF3ALyA
This is the case of Angela Hammond. I first heard about this case watching Unsolved Mysteries, way back in the day. And this is a case that really stuck with me for years, and honestly I feel like learning about it was one of those things that helped to shape facets of my personality. I remember just being fascinated and terrified by the retelling and I feel like this really contributed to how uncomfortable unsolved cases make me and how terrified I was to be killed and never found. There were a few details of the case I always remembered that later helped me google and track down the case and put the name and face to the details I remembered. I then searched for everything I could find about the case and came up with very little in the way of details.
Angela Marie Hammond was born on February 9, 1971 and lived in the town of Clinton, Missouri. Clinton is a fairly small town in Missouri. In 2010 the population came in at just under 10,000 and probably a lot fewer in 1991 when this case took place. But a little more about Angela. At the time of her disappearance she was just 20 years old, only 4 foot 11 inches tall, and even more tragically, she was four months pregnant. She was a college student and also worked as a bank teller. She was engaged to a man named Rob Shafer.
On April 4, 1991 Angela had dropped Rob off at home after a barbeque and then went and hung out with a friend for a while. She ended up calling Rob again around 11:15 at night from a pay phone that was about 7 blocks from his house. While she was talking to him she noticed that a green Ford truck was circling suspiciously around her a couple times and eventually pulled up by her, a man got out and tried to use the other phone, then walked around his car a few times shining a flashlight around it. Angela must have been kinda freaked out by this because she described the car and the man to Rob. She offered to let the stranger use the phone and he said he would try the other one in a few minutes.
This is where it gets really scary. A few minutes later Rob heard Angela scream and the man said “I didn’t need to use the phone anyway”. Rob dropped his phone and ran out to his car to rush to the pay phone and try to help her. On the way he passed the truck going in the opposite direction, and miraculously he was alerted by Angela yelling to him from the truck. He immediately put his car into reverse and turned around to follow the truck, but unfortunately he did this in such a hurry that he ended up damaging his transmission. He was able to follow the truck for two miles before his transmission failed and he lost track of the truck. It also seems that he and Angela did not take note of a license plate number or there was no visible license plate.
At that point Rob went to the police and a massive search began for Angela. Hundreds of trucks matching the description were investigated but there were no leads. Because the whole story seemed kind of fantastical, Rob was initially a suspect as well. He was questioned but passed a polygraph test, which I really don’t trust anyway, but two other witnesses came forward and reported seeing a strange man and the truck near the phone booth shortly before the time that Angela was abducted.
Angela was possibly linked to two other suspicious kidnappings or disappearances in the area that happened around the time. One of the women had told her son that a suspicious man was lurking outside and when he came there she was missing. Her body was eventually found. The other woman was a convenience store worker who vanished after locking up the store for the night. It was believed that she was kidnapped as her car was still in the store parking lot. Both of these disappearances happened within a hundred mile radius from where Angela was kidnapped, and Angela’s kidnapping took place a month after the 2nd woman vanished.
According to Rob and the other witnesses, the person who abducted Angela was described as Caucasian, very dirty, with glasses, beard and a mustache. He was wearing overalls and was driving a late 60s to early 70s model two tone green Ford pickup truck with the mural of fish jumping out of the water on the back window. Serial killer Kenneth McDuff has been looked at as a possible suspect but he was never officially linked to this case.
At this time this case is still unsolved, and it has been more than 30 years since Angela was kidnapped.
At the 30th anniversary of her disappearance, police announced that they were investigating another possible lead in the case that came in the form of a ransom note and anonymous informant who suggested that Angela was mistaken for the daughter of a narcotic’s information who was also named Angela and had striking similarities to her. The note was post dated the same day that Angela was taken. However, there has been no news since then so I’m not sure if this is actively being investigated.
Here is a photo of Angela as well as an age progression photo of what she would look like at the age of 43. At this time, no trace of Angela has ever been found. There is still a reward out for leads in this case. I’m sure someone out there does know what happened to her, so if you have any possible information please contact the Clinton Missouri Police Department. Like I said, this case really had a strong impact on me and stayed with me and it’s one that I really hope can eventually be solved and bring some answers to her family.