Sheila Wysocki became a private detective to find her friend's killer a quarter of a century later
The body of student Angie Samota was found stabbed to death in her apartment in the fall of 1984. The police were unable to find the killer, and the case remained unsolved. But two decades later, Angie's friend Sheila Wysocki became a private detective and solved the crime.
Late in the evening of October 12, 1984, 20-year-old college student Angie Samota returned home from a fair held in Fair Park in Dallas. Her friend Anita Kadala and new acquaintance Russell Buchanan, with whom the girl had been spending time, also went home. On the way, Angie stopped by her boyfriend Ben McCall's house, chatted briefly at his door, and said goodnight.
Ben McCall later told investigators that Angie called him at 2 a.m. She was scared and said there was a strange man in her house who wanted to use the restroom and phone. Angie asked Ben to talk to her, but the line went dead almost immediately. Concerned, Ben drove to her house, but no one answered. He then called 911 and the police.
The call was taken by 20-year-old police officer Janice Crowther, who had just started her service. Together with her partner, they arrived at Angie's house. The girl's car was parked in the yard, but no one answered the knock on the door. The police took a duplicate key from the building manager. Crowther later recalled:
In the house, police found the owner's shoes scattered in the kitchen. Angie Samota's body was lying in the bedroom in a pool of blood. The girl had been stabbed 18 times, and her heart had been almost cut out. It was later discovered that she had been raped before the murder.
The first suspect was the victim's boyfriend, Ben McCall. But an analysis of biological materials found at the crime scene showed his innocence. Suspicion also fell on 23-year-old architect Russell Buchanan, who was with Angie at the fair before the murder. An examination revealed that his blood type matched the killer's.
Russell had no alibi because he lived alone. No one could confirm that the architect actually went to bed and stayed home all night after parting with Angie. The police also found it suspicious that the young man left town on the morning of October 13. Russell went to visit relatives in Houston, which is 400 km from Dallas, and returned two days later. According to him, he did not know about the tragedy that had occurred all this time.
Russell told police that he met Angie and her friend on the day of the murder at Andrew's Restaurant in Dallas. The girls invited him to join them at the fair. Angie gave him a ride home that evening, and they never saw each other again. Although the guy passed a polygraph test, the police didn't believe him. They continued to follow him, visiting his home and work every day.
Russell said he was under constant pressure:
They left him alone only when the boy's parents hired a good lawyer. He demanded that either charges be brought against his protégé or the persecution be stopped. The investigators were forced to change tactics and began to behave more delicately. They turned to Sheila Wysocki, a friend of the deceased, for help.
Sheila roomed with Angie for a while and they became best friends. Sheila was devastated by her death. When the police asked her to help with their investigation, Sheila agreed. She was asked to talk to Buchanan and her phone was bugged.
The girl spoke to Russell on the phone several times. She even met him and had lunch at a restaurant. Vysotsky was very nervous, because she thought she was talking to a killer. But they were unable to prove the young man's involvement in the murder. After some time, Angie Samota's case was closed.
The mysterious death of her friend haunted Sheila Wysocki. Even years later, she continued to keep in touch with the detectives working on the case. She became so close with one of them that she invited him to her wedding in 1988. Even in the 2000s, more than 20 years after Angie's death, Sheila continued to call the police and the city of Dallas, hoping that the case could be reopened.
Sheila demanded that the case be reopened and the killer found. According to her, she made more than 700 calls. Vysotsky persuaded investigators to conduct new analyses of biological materials using modern genetic methods. But she was told that this was impossible because all the evidence had been destroyed by the flood.
In 2004, Sheila Wysocki moved from Dallas to Tennessee. One day, while reading the Bible, Wysocki saw Angie in front of her.
By this time, the Dallas police no longer wanted to talk to Sheila. So she decided to start her own investigation. The persistent woman went to the library and collected all the newspaper clippings with reports of rapes in Dallas in the 80s. The head of security in their neighborhood advised her to get a private investigator's license to make the process easier.
Wysocki settled down to study. Her son read her state laws at lunch and before bed, and she spent weekends at the computer. Sheila studied seriously, as if she were going to Harvard. In the end, she successfully passed the exams and received the coveted license. In 2006, she managed to convince the Dallas police to reopen the case, which was already more than 20 years old.
The materials were handed over to experienced detective Linda Cram. She was able to find samples of Angie's fingernails in the police archives. She was also able to extract DNA samples from the semen and blood found at the crime scene.
In the early 2000s, technology made it possible to learn a lot about the killer through his DNA. Despite this, it took another two years to find the criminal. Sheila Wysocki had long suspected Russell Buchanan, but Detective Linda Crum gave another name. The killer turned out to be a repeat offender, Donald Bess. Before attacking Angie, he had just been released from prison, where he had served time for rape.
A year after Angie's murder, in 1985, Donald Bess was sentenced to life in prison for rape and attempted murder. So by the time the investigation was over, he had already been in prison for a quarter of a century. During his trial, on June 8, 2010, Bess was sentenced to death. But the killer did not live to see the execution. He died in his cell in October 2022 at the age of 74.
Dallas police apologized to Russell Buchanan, who remained a murder suspect for more than 20 years. By the time the crime was solved, he had become a famous architect. Sheila Wysocki also met with him and asked for forgiveness:
Sheila decided that her mission was accomplished and was not going to continue working as a detective. But thanks to journalists, her story became known to the whole world and the woman was literally inundated with letters asking for help. Wysocki continued her work, and to date she has solved more than 100 cases. She was recently recognized as the best private detective in Nashville.
The story of Sheila Wysocki is an example of an indomitable desire for justice. What do you think about this story? Can personal tragedy become an incentive for great deeds? Share your thoughts in the comments!