Caught on Camera Leaving With a Stranger & Never Made It Home |Angie Drake

Angie Drake was the kind of woman that you would want as a friend. She was loyal, trustworthy, and reliable. She was someone parents trusted with her kids, families trusted with their sick loved ones, and friends trusted to always come through. So when she goes out for karaoke on a snowy Wisconsin night in December and then doesn't come back, loved ones don't think that she slept in. It just felt wrong. Her best friend was waiting for her that night. She even left the door unlocked, but Angie never showed up. And her car was still sitting in the bar parking lot, and the only real clue was grainy footage of Angie walking out into the cold with somebody that no one recognized. From that moment on, everything became a race to find her, to figure out who she left with that night and to understand how one normal night out turned into a nightmare. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. And if you've never been here before, I am Kimberlya, and it's nice to finally meet you. I have been so sick for two weeks. So I'm finally here. I'm trying to do my best, but my voice is just coming back, but it's still a little horse. Okay, so now let's get back into this case. First, I want to introduce you to the woman who went from dancing on a stage singing karaoke to being missing by morning. Angela Nicole Drake was born on November 4th of 1980 at St Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. She was the first child of Anne and Larry Drake. And from day one, she was a first born in the truest sense. After Angie, three years later, came her brother Andrew, and then a year after that, her sister Jennifer. And later, after Anne and Larry separated, Anne remarried to Tim Olson and Angie gained a younger brother with the birth of her half-brother Michael. So if you're an older sibling like me, you already know what that role can feel like people look up to you. Your younger siblings follow you around, and usually they want to be just like you. Even when you're just a kid yourself, there's just this unspoken expectation that you're going to be the steady one. And Angie seemed to step into that role naturally. She was the big sister who kept an eye on everyone who made sure the younger siblings were included in everything who quietly acted like a protector without needing applause for it. But I feel like all three siblings needed one another. And they were very close. Angie and her family lived in Oregon, Wisconsin, just outside Madison, a small community where people knew everyone, where you didn't just disappear into a crowd the way that you would in a bigger city. She already had two built-in best friends as well with her siblings so close in age that she was especially close with her sister Jenny who was just four years younger. Now that age difference, it's not as big as you get older. They did everything together. Angie played piano as a child. She had an amazing voice even when she was little. And she absolutely loved to sing. And that didn't change as she got older. Once Angie gone to high school, she competed on the tennis team. That was also where she met her very best friend. And for privacy reasons, I'm going to be referring to her as Tracy Turner. That is not her real name. They were absolutely inseparable. And Tracy said that the reason they clicked was because they both had that blunt, tell it like it is type of personality. I definitely gravitate toward those people as well. And she was funny. She was outgoing. She was caring. She was beautiful. She loved to have fun. And she was the type of person you always saw a big smile on her face. And almost like a skip in their step. We all know one of those people. They can be a little bit annoying, but they're just full of life. And they make you feel good. Her classmates knew her as someone who stood out with not even having to try because she had that much energy, but she was also very kind. And that made her really approachable. Someone who could move between different friend groups and still feel very genuine. Like she was always being herself because she was. And that show up for people part of her. That was actually not just a phase. It became who Angie was. She was always good with children. That was from being an older sister. And she knew she wanted to be a nurse during high school. She even taught children at the Holy Mother of Constellation Church where her family went to worship. They called Angie religious, but not just on paper, not someone who said, you know, I went to church on Easter. She was there. She was volunteering for seven years. She taught religious studies to younger children. And that says a lot about her because that's commitment. That isn't just when it's convenient. It's steady. It's someone who shows up again and again. And as a teenager, that shows a lot of perseverance and responsibility. And she was also very family-oriented and super close with her maternal grandmother that she called granny Anne. She was one of the most important people in Angie's life. Someone she looked up to. The person she would go to for advice and for comforting. And by the time Angie graduated from Oregon High School in 1999, she knew exactly what she wanted to do. She had already received her child care teaching certificate while she was still in high school and had a lot of practice with children. Words spread quickly. And Angie became one of the most sought after babysitters around town because parents completely trusted her. And the kids wanted Angie. As her babysitter, there was no whining. There was no like, oh, do you have to go? It wasn't like that. These children were happy when they found out that Angie was coming over. She wasn't just good with children. She connected with them. Neighbors and family friends noticed she would get down on a kid's level, make them laugh, calm them down when they were upset. And she just had that gift. She knew she wanted to work in pediatrics. So she attended Madison area technical college where she studied to becoming licensed practical nurse. And while doing that, she actually worked for Manona Grove School District where she was an assistant in the special education room. So she was caring for special needs children and honestly, it takes a very special type of person to have the patients, the loving heart, and the want to care for children with special needs. And she was perfect for it. And then something heartbreaking happened in her life. Her granny Anne passed away in 2002. Now that hit Angie really hard. It left a hole in her life. But it also seemed to sharpen something inside of her. It was the sense that you don't waste time when you're spending it with people that you genuinely love. And after that loss, Angie made it a priority to show the people in her life that they truly mattered to spend time with them as much as she could. And that she loved them and that they were important. It also put her goals into focus. When something like that happens in her life, something traumatic, it can kind of bring you to rock bottom. And then you realize, okay, this is the direction I need to go in. Angie was never afraid of hard work. She genuinely cared about people, especially vulnerable people. And she eventually graduated as a licensed practical nurse in 2003. And one of her first jobs was working as an EKG technician at University Hospital. But she ended up transitioning into a role at Rem Home Healthcare in Madison, Wisconsin. And many of her patients were children. That was her goal all along. And she absolutely loved her job. She was actually still best friends with Tracy. And Tracy would joke that Angie was going to be the one raising Tracy's kids when she had them one day. Because Tracy knew that Angie would be way better with them than Tracy would be. It was a lot of work, especially because Angie was so good at what she did. She was given some of the most severe cases, including Marco Manning, who was only two years old. He had serious complications at birth due to a lack of oxygen. And he was suffering with extreme cerebral palsy. Angie would spend about two or three days a week at his family home as part of his complete nursing team. And she would sing to him, read to him, be there for him, almost like she was in extension of his own family. And that is how his family saw Angie. Marco's father said she was exceptional at what she did from a medical standpoint. And she fit in so well. But it was also because he truly felt like she was part of their family. And that's saying a lot. That's why when they had to choose only two nurses to bring Marco to Disney World in January of 2005, this was a trip that was paid for by Make a Wish Foundation. Marco's family chose Angie. And Angie's boss said it was no surprise that it was indicative of the high regard in which her clients held her, the type of person who can care for other people the way that Angie did. They just have a understanding that doesn't come naturally for most of us. And she had big dreams and big goals. She was definitely going places in her future. At least she was planning to until the winter of 2005 came around. She was 25, a pediatric nurse, in a very emotionally draining position. So when Angie wasn't being serious at work, she wanted to let loose, so to speak. And one of her favorite things to do was karaoke nights with her best friend Tracy. And it was really convenient because they found out Tracy lived within walking distance of a bar slash steakhouse restaurant called the dry bean. It was only about a five minute walk located right behind Tracy. Tracy's apartment complex. Now Tracy was also a very busy person. She had a demanding schedule. She was in college at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She was a pre-law student studying to become a lawyer, a goal that she does end up reaching in the future. So long hours studying on top of working. She did catering and she also worked as an executive assistant for a construction agency. So you can probably understand why, whenever they had a break, they wanted to have some fun together. And they made that part of their routine over the last couple of years while Tracy had been living at the fountain's apartment homes. So much so that they became regulars at the driving. They knew the entire staff and Angie would just take over the dance floor. She would sing and her favorite song was Janice Joblin. She had a signature song and that was a piece of my heart. Tracy said that Angie could hit every single note. And everyone in that place would turn and look at Angie when she started singing. And if you haven't heard this song, it is raw. It is powerful. It is a ballad, a rock anthem, if you will. My voice right now being sick, huh? Kind of sounds like what Janice Joblin sound like in that song, really raspy. I mean, that is a song that you have to put on a show to sing. And that's what Angie loved about it. She loved wowing the crowd. And on certain nights, this place was packed, especially in the middle of winter. Now you would think people would stay inside, but to get out of the cold and not be bored while they're just sitting at home, even when there was inches of snow outside, they would venture out into an establishment like the dry bean where the heat was on, the alcohol was flowing and they could socialize. That was another thing about Angie. This woman was very social. She did not have a boyfriend at the time and she was definitely open to mingling and meeting new people as a matter of fact. Her brother and sister, who were very close to her, said that it wouldn't be a surprise if Angie met someone new every time she went out because people gravitated towards her. You have to imagine big green eyes, bright smile, light blonde hair, personality that made her stand out. So I want to paint you a picture of what she was doing in December of 2005. At that point, she was living with her dad Larry and her paternal grandmother Nancy off Ashworth Drive in Oregon, Wisconsin. And yes, Oregon. I listened to an entire video from this community and several residents pronounced it Oregon, so that is what I'm going with. I'm Officer Newberg. I'm out at National Night Out in Oregon. With the Oregon Brooklyn Optimus Club. And in that video that I found online, I got to see just how beautiful this city was from a bird's eye view. All the different shades of green and orange, my favorite color, the trees and their changing colors. It was just beautiful and also it was beautiful because the sense of community, but it is brutal. And I mean the winters are brutal. That was another word used by a resident in this community. But that kind of weather, the snow, the ice, the cold, it didn't bother Angie because she was used to it. If you grew up here, you have thicker skin trust me because I can't be in the cold. I'm a Florida girl and now a California girl. But Christmas, when it was snowing and all this blanket of white was everywhere, that was Angie's favorite time of year. And Christmas was her favorite holiday. Her family said that every season, she would be the very first person to put on a sand hat. I mean, all the way back in Thanksgiving and she would wear it all season long, especially when caring for her patients. And I could imagine that bringing so much joy. But you have to deal with the bitter cold temperatures. I'm talking single digits, significance, snowfall, heavy winds, widespread power outages, icy road conditions, it was treacherous for driving. And this type of weather would shut down schools. It would cause travel to be disrupted. There could be a severe snow storm that would come rolling in and you would get up to seven feet of snow here, making it impossible to get anywhere. Obviously they have snow plows and things like that and residents know what kind of clothing to wear to brave this snowy weather. But it would be a no for me. Tell me if you live in a place like that because it's so interesting to hear from you. So that was what the weather was like in December of 2005. And on Thursday, December 8th, after Angie and Tracy got off work, they met at the dry bean in Fitchburg for some drinks, mingling and karaoke like they had done so many other times. The plan was after they were done hanging out, they would walk to Tracy's apartment and then the next morning when they both had to go to work, they would walk back and make sure they picked up Angie's car or Tracy would give her a ride to her car because she would leave it in the bar parking lot. And that was the routine that they had done time and time again. And the next evening on Friday, Angie had plans with her 21 year old sister, Jenny. Jenny was a junior at Edgewood College. So at this point, I think you have a pretty good understanding of what Angie was doing that week, what her plan was that weekend. So let's get into that night out, that Thursday, December 8th. There were four inches of snow that had fallen earlier that day. And by evening, the sidewalks were icy and slick. The roads were not much better. But once you were inside the driving, it was warm, it was crowded, codes were draped over chairs, holiday decorations were all for the walls, people packed in clothes and the whole place was buzzing. Angie moved through the room like she belonged there because she was so used to being there. She would stop and chat with people she knew. And of course, the highlight of her night, karaoke. It was a normal night except for one detail. Tracy and Angie usually left together and it was getting later and later. Tracy looked over, she saw Angie talking to a really good looking guy at the bar and they looked really deep into conversation. But she went over, she interrupted them for just a minute because she was getting tired. And she wanted to let Angie know she was gonna head back. She needed rest because she had to be up for work early. Angie though, she wasn't ready to leave. And that figured, 'cause Tracy was thinking, the guy that Angie was talking to, the only way that I can describe him was that he looked like an Abercrombie model. He was tall, tan, blue eyes, blonde hair, preppy, totally Angie's type. Angie briefly introduced Tracy and she said, you know, this is Oliver and she said she wasn't ready to leave and that Tracy could just go back and she would follow when she was ready. Now this was not a big deal to them. It didn't cause any concern because they knew so many people who worked at this bar. It was like they were there with friends, even if their friends weren't there with them. So Tracy did not feel uncomfortable whatsoever leaving without Angie knowing that she's only across the street. And also just a note, the guy that she was talking to didn't look like a creep, they were getting along, they were having a good time and Tracy didn't let Angie know that she would leave her apartment door unlocked. Just in case Tracy fell asleep before Angie got back. So if you know me, you know I'm really big on maps and I want to show you exactly where Tracy's building was so you understand what this walk would have been like but remember what the weather was like outside as well. Tracy actually lived in one of the buildings on the backside of this property but there was a cut through directly off the parking lot of the bar so you would pass through one of the main parking lots of the apartment complex. You would go pass the pool and then you would just curve to the right and be right out front of Tracy's building. Each one of these buildings looked the same. There was a glass entry door in the front of all the apartment buildings but the doors teach unit were on the inside of the main building and they were only two floors. That front entry door was always open at the time. I think they might have a key fob now but you needed a key to get into obviously the units. But like I said, Tracy said I'm leaving the door unlocked. So it is 11.30 pm when Tracy begins to leave at which point Angie had been drinking but she wasn't heavily intoxicated and she appeared completely coherent when Tracy left. But the next morning when Tracy wakes up for work on Friday Angie is not in her apartment and Tracy's door is still unlocked which to her meant Angie never came to sleep there that night. So that didn't of itself wasn't really that worrisome because Angie only lived 20 minutes away. So she could have just decided after hanging out with that guy for a while she wanted to go straight home and sleep in her own bed. Or maybe she decided to go home with that guy. Tracy wasn't sure but she did not think it was weird. What she actually did think was weird was that she didn't have any calls or any voice messages from Angie. Letting her know, hey, you know, I'm going home. That wasn't like her. Angie was a type of person who would call you and make sure you knew she was safe. So if Angie wasn't going to spend that I would Tracy, she thought she would have let her know. But things happen and their friends and she figured I'll just catch up with her later. But the other peculiar thing was that when Tracy tried to call Angie's phone about an hour or two after this, It went straight to voicemail and I always say this. But I feel like that's one of the first signs that something could be wrong, not necessarily that it is wrong because people's phones die, especially back then, they had those little flip phones. So they weren't heavily relying on phones like we do now. They're not carrying portable chargers and things like that. Tracy goes off to work, not thinking much of it. And about an hour later, when she still hasn't heard from Angie, she did think it was weird. And at which point she decided to just call Angie's dad, Larry, who Angie lived with, and ask him, "Hey, did Angie come home last night?" Larry goes in checks, Angie's room is empty. So around the same time around nine o'clock that morning, Angie's mom across town is getting a phone call of her own. It's Angie's home health care employer. And they're wondering why Angie hasn't shown up for her shift. Well, you know, Anne's like, "She doesn't live here. I'm her mom. She lives at, you know, my ex-husband's house, but I haven't heard from her." So now she's worried. She's like, "Maybe she overslept. Maybe her phone died." But we are talking about a 25-year-old woman. So her mother was like, "If I hear from her, I'll let you know." But that was extremely out of character for Angie, not to show up for work. I mean, that's a big deal. So Anne was a little concerned, but at the same time, her siblings and family knew this woman was really spontaneous. Her 22-year-old brother, Andrew, called her a free spirit. And that personality trait would take her to many places, meeting many new people, and sometimes she would become unreachable. However, as morning turned into afternoon, and there was still no word for Angie, she had never version of her shift. She never called her family or returned any of Tracy's phone calls. They really started to get worried. They were calling around to other friends, other family, maybe someone had spoken to Angie heard from her, seeing her. Maybe she ran into someone that she knew at the bar that night and slept over their house. But they still thought, no matter what, she would have gone in touch by now. If she even lost herself on because that happens, you could be drinking, you misplace it. But they were like, she would have found another way to call. And by evening, when her sister Jenny doesn't get a call from Angie about their plans for that evening and she doesn't show up, that's when they knew something wasn't right. So the next thing they did was the most obvious thing. They went to check the dry bean parking lot. And there it was. Angie's car sitting exactly where she had left it. The snow had been plowed all around it, and it was packed in tight, making it abundantly clear. The car hadn't moved. I know this might sound weird, but they also looked inside because they figured, okay, and maybe she slept in her car. That would be really odd, but they had to check. She wasn't in there. And at that point, now they needed to open up her trunk. And that was something that they were dreading because they didn't know what they might find. Opening a trunk when someone is missing or not answering is one of those moments where your brain goes there. You know what does. Just in case you find them there, you have to prepare yourself. When they pop the trunk open, it was empty. And that was a sigh of relief, but Tracy said, seeing Angie's car parked in that parking lot made her get a really bad feeling because even if Angie had stayed with Tracy, her routine was she would always go back early, usually by 6 a.m. to get her car and then get ready for work. So why was it still there? To her family, this meant she must have gotten a ride from somebody else or something happened to her when she was walking to Tracy's. And that's why I wanted to show you that path. Angie wasn't dressed to be out and freezing cold weather because girls knew when they're going into the bar where it's warm, they only had to go from their car. I mean, not just girls knew this, but everyone knew they only had to go from their car to the bar. They were wearing sweaters and jeans with a coat on top. So that immediately worried Angie's loved ones. Could she have possibly been intoxicated, fallen down, and now she's laying somewhere covered in snow, dead, or possibly barely hanging on to life. So they are frantically following the path from the dry bean to Tracy's building. They're looking for any sign of Angie and they think about the fact she was wearing a red sweater the last time Tracy saw her and that was bound to stand out against the white snow. Even more had piled up overnight. There was probably about eight or more inches and I've never been in a lot of snow before. I'm sure that you have, but I don't think that you've ever looked for someone underneath a bunch of snow. This is not something you normally do. So I can just imagine how panic they were trying to come together and find Angie to think that your loved one could be out there. In the elements like that was a lot to take in, but unfortunately, and fortunately at the same time, they didn't find her. They still thought she's going to turn up the next day. Maybe she needed a mental break. Who knows? But by the second night, Saturday at 7.30 pm, and there's still no word, her father decided to call the police and report her missing. Now, Fitchburg is an even smaller community than Oregon, and they immediately get to work. Their first stop is a dry bean, where they began asking the staff if they knew anything about where Angie could have gone, who she was talking to, and whether they saw her that night. And even though many of them do remember Angie being there, these nights, they run together. You can't actually remember whether it was yesterday, last weekend, and you're not able to describe all the people that somebody was talking to. There were hundreds of people there. However, the bar tells investigators they do have CCTV footage from all over. They have multiple cameras, multiple angles, and they're going to pull it up for them. But meanwhile, they spoke to Tracy. Who told them the last person she saw her best friend talking to was this guy named Oliver. She never got his last name, but she does give them a description. He's about 5'11, 145 pounds, spiky blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing a blue Oxford denim shirt, and light blue jeans. Now, once the CCTV footage was available, police were scouring it for signs of Angie or this Oliver guy. There were hours and hours of footage. And of course, you could have guessed this. It's grainy as hell. It's bad quality. The faces are really hard to pick out. It's like a blur of black and white. It's not even a color, especially because people are moving the entire time and frame by frame. They're looking for Angie. After all, video is going to be a much better witness than an eyewitness or a friend who could misremember something. So they were hoping that this was going to be a huge lead. I'm showing you some of this footage if you're watching. They had, like I said, multiple cameras with multiple angles of this bar, which seems like a good thing. But that means more clips to tediously look through. But finally, they go back to the time when Tracy said that they arrived and they spot Angie coming through the front doors. She's got honor red sweater. Her hair looks like it's pulled back into a ponytail and she's got on a puffy black vest, a pair of blue jeans and black boots. Now, once they locate Angie on camera, they can trace her throughout the night. Well, sort of. I mean, they do lose her in some areas, but they can see she's dancing. She's doing karaoke on stage. She's walking through the crowd. She's talking to people all normal. Then they spot who they believe is Oliver. But because they only have certain angles, there are complete areas of this bar that are not even captured on camera. So unfortunately, they don't see Oliver and Angie directly interacting with one another. But when Tracy shown the footage, she points out the guy who matches his description. And they have a pretty clear still frame of this man and they believe if they put this out to the public, somebody is going to recognize him. But now they want to see when Angie left. They're trying to locate the moment that she went back out those glass doors to leave. And at 130 in the morning, they believe they've captured Angie kind of skipping towards the front door. Now, she's in the front of three people, two guys and another female. I'm going to show you the CCTV footage. I might try to slow it down. And when I saw it, to me, it appeared that she was happy, that she was in a good mood. Excited. Almost like she was dancing out of the bar in front of these other people that she seemed to be with. Now, it seemed like it was another couple, you know, a guy and a girl and just another guy. Even though these people were a couple feet behind her, as they got closer to the door, the guy, the one that wasn't with the girl, he reaches out and he grabs her hand as they're exiting. So now they're hoping that one of these other people that they were with that night would be able to identify Oliver and come forward with information about what happened Angie after she left the dry bean because they had already shown the footage to Angie's siblings and her family and Tracy and nobody knew who this guy was that she was with. So investigators go public. They do a press release. They ask for help identifying this unknown man and they describe him based on what they can make out from the footage and what Tracy remembered. Meanwhile, they also interviewed her family, her friends and they asked, "Standard, but crucial, questions. Like, is there anyone who would want to hurt Angie? Is there anyone that doesn't like her? And they couldn't think of one person. You're probably wondering about this, so I'm going to briefly tell you, they did contact all the frex boyfriends. She was cordial with all of them. She didn't have any enemies. Nobody in her orbit was questionable at this point. And everyone who wasn't her orbit was fully interviewed and questioned and they had nothing solid to go on. So the weekend passes with no leads and Angie's family is desperate. So they come up with an idea that actually worked. And I was so impressed by this. It reminds me of cases we've covered where a family steps in. They uncover more than the investigators. And I'm actually so close to doing a collab with another creator. I know you're going to love her. We're going to do a deep dive very soon on a case that's so similar. But it always amazes me when families pretty much solve the case and it doesn't surprise me because I feel like I would do the same thing. But they decide this is back in 2005. They decide to create an email chain. Now I don't know if you remember these. I know I do. Now that's how we all used to connect. We weren't texting. We were checking our email regularly. We were getting you've got mail on AOL and things like that. And it started with one email written from Angie's mom and her stepfather Tim. And the subject line was missing in all caps, which I am sure got everybody's attention. The email read, hi everyone, I can't believe that I have to do this. But I have attached a picture of Angie. And I'm asking you to forward it to as many people as you know, to keep an eye out for her. She has been missing. And last seen Thursday night, leaving a local bar with a person by the name of Oliver and three others. Please if you know an Oliver that is approximately 20 to 25 years old, white, good looking male, have him get in touch with someone. He is not being implicated just that he is the last person that Angie was seen with. Her car was left at the bar. And her cell phone was either turned off or dead since early Friday morning. She hasn't had contact with anyone. This is totally not Angie's behavior as she's always calling someone making plans, etc. This is supposed to hit the media tonight on the news. At least I'm hoping so. And we're praying that everything is okay. Thanks so much. Tim and Anne Olson. And the picture they attached was of Angie and a tie-died pink shirt. And the idea was this, every person who received this email from them, it could have been five people. But they were hoping those five people would forward it to people on their email list. Everyone they knew. And imagine how far that could go. Because everyone has at least, I don't know, 10 or 20 people. I think now we have hundreds. But back then you probably had a good, I don't know, 20 people in your email contacts. And essentially it went viral within just a few days. This email was sent to thousands of people. And while they're waiting for a lead from that, Angie's family is driving. They're going through back roads. They're scanning open fields. They're looking for anything that might show Angie's path. It's not just searching. It's a specific kind of searching where your heart is pounding. Your mind keeps going to all the possibilities. The ones that you definitely don't want to imagine. But most of you who watch a lot of true crime know that every day, every minute that goes by, the likelihood of finding someone alive who's missing diminishes. And that is so heartbreaking. For family, at some point to realize that the truth is probably going to be really bad because she's nowhere. You can't think of one person she would be with. You're driving aimlessly around in the snow. And you don't even know what you're looking for. But part of your brain is looking for what makes sense. Her body. Your mind goes there. And in this case, the reason it went there, because you could not survive in the cold with what Angie was last seen wearing on that CZTV footage. She didn't even have her coat on. She and left that bar with just her sweater and her puffy vest. So her family was really having to go with the worst case scenario. One that the police had already put forward because if she went out in that cold, especially while being intoxicated, her body would have been more susceptible to that atmosphere. Alcohol dulls your senses as well. So you might not realize that you're getting as cold as you really are. And you could pass out, be buried in the snow. And our family is panicking again. They knew that somebody had to know something because she left with multiple people. Where did she go after she left? I know for a fact, wearing cameras, they weren't invented at the time. So you could not rely on normal people like we do now, having like an outdoor camera. No. And many businesses, if they did have cameras of her very grainy, and they would usually point to their own parking lot. I don't know if you've ever looked at a camera in the middle of a snow storm, but a lot of times all you're going to see is a bunch of ice and snow across that lens, especially with cameras in 2005. So as it is goodbye, Oregon and the surrounding communities are rallying together. More than 700 people gathered for a candlelight vigil. And they stood in that bitter cold with candles flickering, bringing together for Angie's safe return. And then nearly 500 people packed into Holy Mother of Consolation Church. And this is the same church where Angie had once taught Sunday school for years, the same church her parents attended every Sunday. And it's one of those moments where you can almost feel the community saying we're not going to let her disappear. Angie's stepfather actually spoke, and he told the congregation that he believed Angie was still alive, and she was coming home. He even had visions of her walking through their front door. And he said that their family was still planning on holding a Christmas celebration. They were going to try to be as normal as possible under the circumstances. They were going to go to work. They were going to go to school. They were going to try to sleep and eat. But their minds were racing. And Angie's sister admitted she had broken down more than once under all this weight, because this isn't just fear. You have a total disbelief. It's the feeling of thinking, how can my sister be gone? But she was just here. And just when they thought they were really losing hope, that guy Oliver from the bar, he saw the news. He recognized Angie as the girl he'd been talking to at the dry being on Thursday. And luckily he came forward, which was the right thing to do, but probably scary. Because even when the police say, oh, they're not in any trouble, I'm pretty sure most people still feel like they're going to be scrutinized. And he would be he had to be. He comes down to Fitchburg, PD. He sits down with detectives and he says, I'm the guy. I'm the guy in the screenshot. I'm Oliver. I met Angie. We talked, but I left with my friends before she did. So they play a portion of the video that shows Angie walking out with that group of people, including the two men. And they point to the one that's holding her hand and right away. Oliver tries to create distance. He insists, I'm not that man in the footage, leaving with her. He said he talked to Angie for probably over an hour until his attention shifted to another group of his friends. And when he turned away for just a moment, another guy started to talk to her. She then left the bar and went with him to a pool table. And he swore that was the last time he ever saw her. His friends were contacted. They vouched for him. Angie did not leave with Oliver and their group. That's when the detectives take another look more closely at the CCTV footage frame by frame. And they do notice, Angie is talking to someone else that night. It's hard to tell who these people are. Remember, but she is seen with Oliver, but that she's seen with a second guy. He's taller. He has darker hair. And he has a very distinctive jacket on that has some sort of emblem or label. It's like a white patch located on his left chest area. So they flip back to Angie leaving. And they realize the man holding her hand is wearing clothing more in line with what the second guy she was talking to look like that night, not Oliver. So this is that very grainy footage. You really did have to take a really good hard look. And after talking to Oliver, they finally make that second connection to another guy. And because they realized the jacket stuck out to them, they decide instead of putting out yet another still shot of a generic description of a man, instead, why not release new footage that focused specifically on this one detail, the jacket, that this unknown male was wearing, that distinct emblem across the side of his chest. This was important because they figured someone might not recognize this man's face in this really grainy footage, but they may recognize this jacket. Maybe the logo, maybe it's a uniform, a brand. And I thought that was really smart, you know, they're hoping that one person says, wait, that looks like, you know, my coworker's jacket, or that's the logo for my friend's job. And remember, I told you, her family was relying on that email. that email train that was going on, chain train, the forwarded viral email. Well, guess what? It's forwarded to somebody who looks at the picture of Angie and remembers not only seeing her at the driving on Thursday night, but he recalls that she left with his group. Yeah, so he comes forward to investigators as well. He's 23-year-old Tom Allen. And like I said, I was so impressed with Angie's family and their email thread because that led to the biggest lead in this entire case. Sure, could this guy have seen it on the news at some point? Yes, and you could have come forward on his own. Sure, but it happened so much faster with the help from Angie's family. It was only December 12th. I mean, that's a lot of time to go by when your family or your friend is missing. But at this point, this man comes in. He recounts that night when he initially met Angie. And he explained. He had visited the drive being several times in the past, but this was the first time that he ever saw her. Tom said he was there with his friend Peter who was from out of town and his roommates, including a female named Marcy and two males, Shane Scar and Michael DeSalvo. Tom said, Marcy was actually the first one who initially met Angie while she was singing karaoke. The very first thing Tom noticed was that Angie was already intoxicated when she first came over to talk to their group. And soon after that, Angie and Marcy made their way to the bar and had at least one drink and a couple of shots of alcohol. Tom made it a point to say to him it looked like Angie was not there with anyone. So investigators assumed this was after Tracy had already left and possibly in between the time that all of her remember talking Angie and her then leaving to go to the pool tables. Because Tom said him and his friends were playing pool. Now Tom said he was not interacting with Angie himself. He was kind of on the fringe of everything that was going on that night. But by one 30 that morning, their group was leaving to go to yet another bar. It was called monkey shines, which was just self of the dry bean. Tom said that they didn't think that Angie had a car or a way home and at that point in the night, she was now heavily intoxicated, slurring her words, dumbling. The common signs that someone needs assistance. Tom told the detectives that they had driven to the dry bean in two different cars. His and one of their other roommate, Mike's car. So Tom said him and his friend Peter was from out of town. They left together in his car and they drove straight to monkey shines. But when they got there, Shane and Marcy showed up inside, but they told Tom they were dropped off by Mike and Angie and that was it. There was no reason to go into detail at that time. This was just a small chat like, oh, where did everyone go? Oh, we got dropped off great. And that was it. Tom said he never saw Angie again. However, Tom tells detectives, he gets home a little after 2 a.m. and he sees his roommate, Mike, sitting on the couch in the living room, bedroom door is completely closed. And after a little while, Tom left the room and then he returns and Mike is gone and his bedroom door is still closed. So what is Tom assume that his roommate had gone too bad? There were no signs of Angie. Now he tells detectives, you should go talk to my other roommate, Shane, because Shane got home even later around like 232.45. And he goes and talks to Tom. He says, I saw Angie passed out on Mike's bed. It seems like everything was pointing toward this Mike guy kind of being like sketchy, right? So they bring Shane in. The first thing they do is they show him the CCTV footage of the jacket, the emblem. He immediately says, that is my roommate, Mike Desalvo's plumbing outfit. He is a plumber that's his uniform. Mike is employed with a local company that cleans septic systems. He says that Mike is their newest roommate. He doesn't know him very well. They met in the summer while they were both part of a go cart league. And Mike had eventually mentioned he came from Minnesota to Wisconsin because his old neighborhood was like kind of getting bad. He said he watched one of his neighbors threaten another one with a shotgun. And he just wanted to start fresh and ultimately go to technical college. And ironically, that is the same place where Angie had graduated from. Shane was currently sharing a duplex with his other roommates and they had a spare bedroom. So they ended up inviting Mike to come live with them that summer. So now detectors are asking Shane if he would recount the night at the dry bean. Now, he doesn't have much detail about Angie hanging out with them because he was mingling with other people and other groups. And he was the one in the car with Angie, Mike, and Marcy. And they got dropped off by Mike at the monkey shines. And he said he could tell Angie was a very drunk. And when he realized that Mike was not going to go hang out with them at the next bar, his first thought was he was concerned for Angie. Because he felt like she could easily be taken advantage of because of the state that she was in, but he didn't say anything at the time. Later, when he comes back home, that's when he sees Angie kind of passed out on Mike's bed. And Mike is removing her boots while she looks incapacitated. And again, he's worried. And the thoughts going through his head, like, wait a minute, she could be taken advantage of. But he tells detectives he didn't see Mike do anything else because he went back into his room. However, he and Tom did have a short exchange before they went to bed. And they both voiced their concerns over Angie being in the state she was in behind closed door with Mike. Tom even considered going and knocking on Mike's door and suggesting that Angie could sleep in either Shane's room or Tom's room. And one of the guys could just sleep on the couch. Tom mentioned that that is what he would want someone to do if it was his own sister so that she would be protected. His exact words were, if it was my sister and she was that intoxicated, that's what I would want someone to do. But neither Tom or Shane saw Angie the next morning. They never knocked on the door. They just went to bed. And I think part of this is that they don't know each other that well. And it's kind of like brocoed. I hate to put it that way. But it's like, oh, you know, he brought a girl home. But did he? 'Cause to them, it seems like this is not her consenting to even be there. Neither one of them see Angie the next morning. But it was Tom that actually inquired to Mike about where Angie was. It was around nine o'clock that morning while Mike was getting ready for work. And even though Tom cannot remember Mike's exact words, he recalled being under the impression that Mike was able to get Angie wherever she needed to go with the night before or the early morning hours, I should say, whether that meant taking her home, taking her to her friend's house, her car, or somewhere else. Tom wasn't sure exactly where that somewhere else was, but Mike let him know she was taking care of. And that was it. None of the roommates thought anything of it until Tom saw the picture circulating in his email. So of course, everyone has been pointing fingers at Mike. And rightfully so, this woman was intoxicated, goes home with this stranger and people are concerned because he's allegedly the last person that she was with before turning up missing. So before they even go find Mike and talk to him, they wanna do a little searching in his background, check it out. They do this on all the guys background checks and they come back clear. But Michael DeCelvo was the one with a record. So this is just another red flag, like another check. Like okay, acting weird because he's taking a girl home, taking off her shoes incapacitated. He also has a criminal record, not looking good for him. So they wanted to explore it a little further. Now this wasn't for anything violent. It was petty theft, stolen checks, breaking into a store that he was working at, even had an narcotics offense and stealing a vehicle. Now I'm not saying that any of this is small stuff. And most of these charges appear to have happened back in 2002 and 2003. However, there was a recent traffic stop that year in February of 2005. And a small amount of marijuana was found on him, which was a misdemeanor. That ended up getting dismissed. It was actually a different traffic stop a couple months before in September, the lead to the narcotics charge. He was caught with oxycontin pills on him. He didn't have a prescription, so they were confiscated and he was charged. Now investigators were able to determine the Mike had violated his probation for earlier charges back in 2004 out of Minnesota. So technically, there was a warrant out for his arrest for that violation, which meant they could bring him in and put him behind bars and then question him about Angie Drake and see if he had anything to do with her disappearance. That way, they already have him where they want him just in case he's implicated. So what they do know is he's currently working for a plumbing company. He's servicing septic tanks. He drives a company van and investigators see it parked outside of the duplex he lives in with his roommates on Fitchburg Road. This duplex was only an eight minute drive from the driving and they have a lot of questions and I'm sure you're thinking of some of them right now. Things you want to ask Mike, like where did you drop off Angie? Did something happen to her? So on December 12th, they decide to pretend that a septic tank in the area needs to be serviced. They call the plumbing company. a fabricated service request. And this is perfect because that way, when Mike pulls his van out, leaves the duplex, they can make a traffic stop. Why? They don't know if this guy has weapons. He could be dangerous. And they want to eliminate him being able to flee, right? 'Cause if he's in his own duplex, he runs away on foot. They just don't want to cause a scene. And this was a safer choice. And I think it was pretty slick too. Right when Mike leaves, officers intercept him on the road and they tell him there's a warrant out for your arrest for violating your probation and connection to a felony back in Minnesota. He's fine. He doesn't fight it. He doesn't even give them any issues. He steps out of the van. He cooperates. He gets in the back of a cruiser and they take him straight to Fitzburg PD and they detain him. At this point, of course, Angie's family finds out. They're notified that an arrest has been made in connection, but not directly connected. Just a person of interest in Angie's case. But technically, he was the last person Angie was seen with. And they don't know if he's involved. They haven't even questioned him yet. But they do tell her family. He's 24 years old. His name is Michael DeSalvo and they have never heard about him seen him before. And when pictures circulate from his booking, friends and family of Angie, they're shocked. Why? Well, it's pretty simple. They take a look at him and they're like, that does not look like the type of guy. Angie would ever give a minute of attention to. That sounds harsh, but it's true. Her best friend Tracy was like, she would not have looked twice of that guy if she was not intoxicated. So that right there told investigators something about that night. Of course, they knew she was drinking, but just like the roommates had suspected, she could have been taken advantage of. Just knowing what kind of guy Mike really was, those people that were close to Angie had a really bad feeling. And after Mike was booked, a hearing was set in regard to his past issues. And that is when they finally bring him in for an interview for the real reason that they want to question him. Where's Angie? He's in that interview room for hours. Now, these interviews are so long because they're strategic. You've watched them before. They have to build rapport. They have to ask the right questions. There's a trust that needs to be built between the interviewer and the potential suspect 'cause you're hoping they're not gonna shut down. They're not gonna ask for an attorney because they have the right to remain silent. At the same time, the Mike is being interviewed. Investigators are reaching out to anyone who already knew him. They already heard from his roommates. They didn't know him that well. So they started looking into people from his past back in Minnesota, trying to get a perspective on what this person was like. And right away, there was yet another red flag. When they located a few women who used to date Mike, none of them were willing to talk about the past. Each one of them had the perspective like, oh, I'm putting that time in my life behind me. Not even his former employers, even a company right in Wisconsin that he worked for before the plumbing company were like, oh no, I'm staying away from that. They did not want to go on the record and talk about Mike to sell though. Why? I mean, it wasn't looking good for him. It's like no one really wanted to associate with him and even his roommate, Shane, that allowed him to come live in that duplex, felt bad for Mike. He said while they were hanging out, Mike's like, oh, I have nowhere to stay. And that's how he ended up living there. He was absolutely shocked when he comes to find out that Mike has a criminal past because he specifically made a point to actually do a background check before Mike moved in. Shane checked the Wisconsin court system website and when he found nothing to indicate there was anything to worry about in regard to Mike this although, he went forward and rented him that room. However, if he would have looked in Minnesota, he would have seen that Mike stopped reporting to his probation officer in the summer of 2004. So a whole year before. And even though Shane thought Mike's record was clean, he also point blank bluntly asked Mike, hey, is there anything we should be worried about on your record? And he said, no, there's a couple of small things, but I already took care of them. That wasn't exactly true. I think you know that. So to start, investigators want to go back in time. They asked Mike about his life back in Minnesota. He grew up with his mother Mary Beth, his stepfather surge in Hopkins, which is actually a very affluent suburb in Minnesota. And that was interesting to investigators considering that one of his offenses was theft. So of course, they want to dig a little deeper and they found out that despite being well off, his parents were very, very frugal. That's probably why they could afford to live their right. Kids don't always understand the value of saving money. And Mike certainly didn't. Mostly because he was relentlessly teased and bullied and kids can be so cruel. They'll make fun of you. I remember in Florida, we used to call them bobo's. If you were wearing bobo's, you got made fun of it. If you know, you know, they would taunt them with a song when I was little. Bobo's, they cost $1.99. Finish the song if you know in the comments. It meant you were poor. It meant you can't afford Nike's or brand names. And it's just, it's so meaningless and pointless. But stuff like that as a kid can really affect you. And this shaped Mike into repelling. And that's why he got into a bad crowd after high school. It was worse when he got to high school and all these rich kids were driving nice cars and he didn't have one. He eventually graduates from Hopkins High School. Average grades really didn't apply himself, but he was really good at strategy. He was good at chess and he did play several musical instruments. But none of that made up for the fact. He started hanging out with people who were really bad influence on him. And before long, he was stealing checks at his job. He was taking money from the register. And later, he stole a car right from a dealership by pretending he was taking on a test drive and never bringing it back. But now it was time in the conversation to bring Mike to December 8th of that year. Just a few days before at the dry bean. And I'm sure you know in these interviews, one of the investigators usually plays the good cop and the other one plays the bad one. And that good cop is telling Mike things like, "I am not saying I read this. I'm saying this is the type of question they give these people." They'll say, "Oh, you know, bullying. That could be so bad. I see why you stole that car. Everyone in high school is driving to BMW in a Mercedes and you felt left out. I could see them doing that." That is how they build rapport and trust. So now they start asking him more questions about his current lifestyle. What's been going on lately? Because they're thinking he might open up if they're not judging him on the other things. Mike confirms he was at the dry bean on that night with his roommates. And investigators then show him a picture of Angie Drake. And they say, "Do you recognize her?" And right away, he's like, "Yeah." I saw her there, she was pretty. She was really outgoing and chatty. She was hanging out in my friend group. And he explained that he eventually got to talking to her and she asked for a ride to the next bar with them. But he realized she probably should rest. So he dropped his roommates off at Monkey Shines and took Angie to their duplex so she could sober up and then she could tell him where she lived so that he could take her back to her place. He goes on to explain that Angie was at his place until about five in the morning when he had to wake her up because his work day started soon and he did good up, get showered, get ready to go and bring her wherever she needed to be. He explained Angie told him where her house was that it was about 15 minutes south of where they were and he drove her there. He dropped her off, out front, he waved goodbye and he left to go to work. Now they have a record that he did show up at work that day. So that they confirmed. Next they ask him, "Can you give us the address, the specific address where Angie told you to drop her off?" And he's like, "No. I don't remember anything about exactly where it was because she didn't give him an address." She was giving him like, you know, turned by turn directions as they were driving. But he said it was in a neighborhood. She just directed him where to go. He couldn't describe the house either. So they asked him if he waited for her to get inside and he's like, "No." Because at that point she was sober, she was fine. He said, "Goodbye to her." She walked away and he went to work. They asked him if she ever got in contact with him again and he said, "No." They didn't even exchange numbers. So fair enough, that was consistent with what his roommates had said. That one of them saw Angie that night with Mike. She was laying on his bed. He was helping her take off her shoes and by 9 AM, Mike was leaving for work. And he told them he dropped her off where she needed to go. At this point, there's nothing illegal about that. If he was genuinely trying to give her a place to relax and recuperate and then the next morning driver home, they said there was nothing criminal. And at this point, there's nothing really to go on. But what was interesting is that Angie's dad's house where she lived was south of the duplex. That added up and it was 15 or 20 minutes away. But they didn't hear anybody pull up. They didn't see anyone there that morning out front. And they have several windows facing the street. This is a small quiet residential neighborhood. and everyone in that neighborhood was already questioned and they didn't see anything. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. There was an entire snowstorm happening at the same time, but if Mike dropped her off right in front of her home in this neighborhood, just feed away from the front door, that's even less of a threat than walking five minutes to Tracy's from the bar. So what in the world could have happened to her within, I don't know, 50 feet? Investigators had also searched that area just in case, and they found nothing. No sign that she had fallen or dropped anything. So essentially no proof that she had been there. Investigators really had to think about what direction they wanted to go in next. They don't necessarily trust Mike DeSalvo. Somebody who has a past, somebody whose roommate said he was acting sketchy and might have been taking advantage of Angie, the fact that even Angie's friends were like, "No way in hell she would ever be with him." So they decide to press Mike about Angie's level of intoxication, and they do this in a very careful manner. Almost like they were trying to victim blame, like put it on Angie for drinking too much, and that's when he admitted that he actually had to carry her from his car to his bed, like you would carry a bride. You know, like when people on with their wedding night, they scoop up the bride and carry her with their dress you know, dangling down sort of what I would think about carrying a baby. Well that's not a good sign at all. Mike was asked point blank. Did you have sex with Angie? And his answer? He doesn't remember. It was just a few days ago. How do you not remember that? Maybe he was intoxicated to a point where you know, he doesn't, but let me just point out. This was enough probable cause. And why him being the last person seen with her, him not being able to describe where he dropped her off. His roommates being skeptical of his intentions. All of that was enough for police to get a search warrant. And you know, what they probably wouldn't have needed one. Cause I think the landlord or even the roommates would have let them in the duplex. But they officially got one. Cause it's better to have all your ducks in a row. On December 13th, the very next day, it's issued for the duplex for Mike's work van as well as Angie's vehicle, which is towed from the bar. To the crime lab for testing. Now these searches, they can take several days. Because they are being very thorough. But right away, um, Mike's room. I just want to specifically tell you a little bit about it. His bed. It's just a mattress on the floor. No shame in that. You're going to start somewhere, right? But the only other things in this room were like a few boxes, a bunch of dirty clothing piles. All kinds of bills and papers just scattered around. And then a random coffee table. What I'm trying to point out is this is not normally the kind of place you would want to bring a woman to impress her. That's for sure. I don't think it's something you would even call a bachelor pad. He was definitely rough in it. But like his roommates explained, he had no other place to go. So having a roof over his head was good enough. Since his roommates had said that Angie was on Mike's mattress, they start there. They're really checking this bed. They took the pillowcases off. They took the pillows to the lab. They removed all the bedding. They collected all of that for any type of DNA. They're not just going to check the top. They literally ripped this mattress apart to check underneath the top layer. They even took samples of every single layer so they could bring them back to the lab and have them swabbed and tested. They also collected a washcloth and a hair clip. Back at Mike's work van, that is where they make a crucial discovery. Under the passenger seat, they find a silver lip phone. Angie's family confirmed that is her phone. So here's the question. Was this nefarious? Was it shoved under there to hide it? Or did it simply fall when Angie was being brought home by Mike early December 9th morning? They can't be sure. But now they know why she wasn't answering anyone's calls. The phone was dead or lost or misplaced or potentially taken so Angie couldn't call for help. On one hand, this could be completely innocent. It could have simply fallen and gotten left behind and Angie didn't notice. But all the other circumstances combined, that looks highly unlikely. She's responsible. She would have called someone if she could. And now there's a direct connection between Mike and Angie not just an eyewitness account, but her personal belonging. Then they move on to Michael's vehicle. This is his personal vehicle, a GMC Jimmy, and that's where they make another discovery. And this one is a lot more incriminating. The phone, sure, there could be a reasonable explanation for why it was in his van. But there's a plastic back in his truck. And inside is Angie's black boots that she was wearing the night that she went to the tribune. And the night she was last seen, as well as a pair of her underwear and the jeans that she had been wearing in a belt. So now Mike would have some explaining to do. Did he take her home barely clothed? I mean, there is a world in which she could have changed into something a lot more comfortable while she was at his place. She could have packed her stuff in this bag, left it behind, sure. And I'm sure that's what a defense attorney would argue in a case like this. It doesn't prove Mike did something harmful to her just because articles of her clothing are left behind. But it is another red flag. One that really disturbed her family and the investigators. Because can you imagine if she didn't change in anything else that meant she was only wearing her sweater and her puffy vest and possibly a brawl in the middle of winter? That's not good. It's looking bad. And Mike's not talking anymore either. Of course not. He retained an attorney and he is remaining silent. Her belongings, pieces of what she was wearing, being found like this, could mean Mike was hiding them. And that she didn't wander off or get lost in the cold but that he did something to her. So they keep going because they need more. They need something that can't be explained away as easily. Because there's a lot of stories that could be made from those items. A lost phone, she changed into comfortable clothing. It was his shirt and shorts. So that's why they keep searching. And they locate a garbage bag on the back porch on the balcony. They empty its contents and that is where they find Angie's ID. It's not just cut in half. It's not just thrown away. It was burned. Why? Now that's someone trying to destroy something that identifies Angie. And at this point, detectives don't need to guess where Mike DeSalvo's story is falling apart because it is in pieces by this point. Scattered from his bedroom, to his work band, to his truck and now back to the patio, all things belonging to a woman that has been missing for days. You don't burn someone's license unless you have a reason because you don't want to be connected with them. If he has nothing to hide, why would he do that? Why would he do any of this? Some may argue, well, he could have been scared. He was the last one seen with her. He's got a record. Maybe he wanted to distance himself. Well, they find one of his shoes inside the duplex and it has stood on it. So there's no question about who was near a fire recently. Everything points to Mike. It's more likely that he's involved with why she just appeared. It's kind of like Occam's razor, as they say, you've heard it before. The simplest explanation is usually the one that's true. So they start to put together a potential timeline. If Mike left the duplex around 430 or 5 in the morning and he talked with roommates at 9, that's about four hours that are unaccounted for. Where Angie could have been taken somewhere. So the investigators get together and they try to think of what could have happened. The most likely scenario that they come up with is that Mike hurt or even killed Angie inside the duplex in his room and then dumped her body somewhere. As terrible as that is to say, that's what they thought the truth was. And to think, days have gone by. This was the conclusion they were working with. So at this point, they're thinking hiding places that are within just a few miles. Places that were concealed. Because they didn't think in the middle of winter, Mike would have spent a lot of time outside digging a grave. Especially since the ground was full of ice, there were several feet of snow. It would have taken a lot of time for him. He would need to bring a shovel, which they didn't find anywhere. They weren't sure he had access to a shovel at the duplex. To dig through several feet of snow, to dig through ice and dirt and place the body inside and cover it up. All the while not being detected, I would look pretty obvious. So these investigators are so much smarter than I am, as I didn't even know anything about the winter, but just the fact that they said to themselves, we think she's going to be concealed by something. And what I mean by that is something that's already there. It could be an abandoned shed, a bridge, an outhouse of some kind. A place that Mike could also easily access, possibly from just driving down the road. So they spread out and each investigator has a certain section of this town and they're going to scour and they're also above in helicopters. They know she was wearing a red sweater. They didn't find a red sweater within the plastic bag or anywhere in the house. So that is what they are specifically looking for. And that would stand out against the whites now. Some investigators are in cargo. others are in ATVs. A lot of them are on foot scouring tree lines looking under bridges near the shorelines frozen lakes. This whole town is covered in snow which makes this very difficult. It made it almost impossible. Days are going by. Christmas is getting closer. Angie's family want answers. Mike is still in jail awaiting his next hearing on his narcotics charge and its December 22nd around 11 a.m. when one detected Wayne Honer from the Dean County Sheriff's Office is on a route that self of the duplex in the direction of where Angie's dad's house was located and he was scouring every road that ran in that direction looking for any sign of Angie or a clothing. Now there are many roads between the duplex and Angie's dad's house and they have to look down every single one and there was one called Storytown Road. Now this is not one you would normally take because there is a much easier route South Fish Hatchery Road which was just east of Storytown but the point was this investigator wanted to take roads. There were close enough to the route that Mike could have potentially been going but if he went off course he's driving slow in this semi farmland semi residential area and he comes to a very small bridge. It's not a lake. It's not even really a creek. There was just a tiny bit of running water and there's a culvert underneath. It had two guardrails on either side of the road preventing anyone from falling into that area. I was screenshot of this area from Google Maps but this is not during the winter so you have to kind of imagine this all covered in snow and there's a tiny bit of water that's just trickling through this culvert and during the winter that would have been practically frozen. There wouldn't be much down there. He drives past and he doesn't even stop the first time but then he gets to the end of the road which isn't very long and he makes the decision to turn back. He just wants to check everywhere and because a culvert is something where you could hide something potentially hiding a body he cannot leave without going down there and making sure that Angie isn't there. If you're not familiar with what a culvert is it's a tunnel it's like a pipe and in this case it was more of a steel pipe about a few feet wide running underneath the road to allow water to flow from one side to the other. So this time he stops he barks his car. He looks down on both side of the embankment. It's just a few feet. He doesn't see anything but he decides with his flashlight to jump over one of the railings look on the other side so he's looking down into the cylinder shining as flashlight down there. When he was interviewed about this he said that he went down there expecting to find her. There was just something that kept him looking but he wasn't seeing anything. He was shining his flashlight back and forth even further down the culvert looking for her red sweater and he thought he saw something but he also thought his eyes could be playing tricks on him it does happen. He felt like you could see just a couple little inches of red but it was on the other side where the other opening was across the road. It was so tiny that he felt like he could be wasting his time and he was in the freezing cold so he really didn't want to spend too much time looking but he said something about the way he felt in that moment. He knew he couldn't leave unless you went to the other side to the other opening and looked in. It gave me the chills when I heard him talking about this and when I was reading the report because when he went down to the other side of the embankment he said to himself she's here. Call it what you want. I do think people have special gifts whether that's just him having gravitated towards wanting to be a investigator because he was compassionate or because he's like someone who perseveres and doesn't give up or because he's been doing this so long he had a hunch or it could be something spiritual I don't know. But he's shining his flashlight down. He's still not seeing anything. He's squinting. He's moving closer into the culvert and that is when he sees something that looks like a lock of blond hair peeking out of debris in the darkness. And in that moment he said that he felt a shockwave go through him because even though he was expecting to find Angie actually thinking he might have found her he couldn't believe it. There were so many thoughts going through his head like could she still be alive. Maybe she's sleeping. But in his heart he knew that wasn't true. It was more like she had been preserved and all I could think about was her poor family. They were truly holding out hope that she was going to come home alive and she was going to be found. It was just days before Christmas. Detective Honour immediately calls the station and they send an entire team down there to extract this body and obviously they need to make an identification but she's wearing a red sweater and nothing else but socks. She has blonde hair and she matches Angie's description and when they're scouring the area they find a puffy black vest which she was also wearing that night that she went missing. It's unbelievable. All I could think about was this poor girl. It's absolutely heartbreaking. She's only 25. She has so much to live for. So what happened? Another thing that was very interesting is they carefully photographed the entire scene exactly how they found it without moving a single thing. And there were some very interesting and noteworthy aspects of the way that she was found. And I'm gonna go into this later but it truly did look like she had just fallen asleep. There were no obvious wounds on her body. Nothing like in cases where we see a bunch of blood or stab wounds or gunshot wounds. Just a sleeping beauty curled up in this culvert in the middle of winter. Well they did not want her family to hear about this on the news because they knew it was going to be huge in such a small town. Her mom said she would never forget that call. They told her we found a body and we're pretty sure it's Angie's. Of course this was not the news anyone wanted to hear but there was one positive if you can even call that aspect of this for her family. They said at least we know where she is. And it's hard not to get tearied or choked up thinking about that because you're looking for your child. Even if it's your adult child it doesn't matter. You're looking for them and you won't stop until you know where they are. But they had so many questions. How did she end up there? It wasn't an accident. It couldn't be. And I told you I wanted to go into more detail about the way she was found and what was no worthy. She was facedown. Her arms were underneath her, pulled up to her chest. Her legs were outstretched. Her fists were clenched underneath her body. And there was melted snow around her and leaves stuck to her skin. But most notably was the dirt clenched in her palms. Now this might not stand out the way that I'm explaining it to you. But to a medical examiner who came down there before she was transported for an autopsy, this was very important because you can't clench your fists and bring them up under your chest and have dirt inside of them if you had not been moving. And not just moving but trying to keep warm. And it's really really hard to think about this. But typically people who are suffering from hypothermia, they pull their arms to their chest and they stretch their legs out. That is a tell-tale sign. So I think you can probably guess what I'm trying to say here. Their theory was that Angie was still alive when she was put in that culvert. And yes, they thought she was put in that culvert. And I was so shocked. And I'm sure everyone else was when they heard that I could not believe that she had been alive. But I want to tell you more about her autopsy. And she was identified. It was Angie Drake. Jane County Coroners, John Stanley and Deputy Coroner Jeff Schultz conducted the exam alongside a forensic pathologist. This was one of the harder cases for these men. Not just because of the circumstances and how young Angie was, but because both of the coroners knew Angie's mother, her father, and her stepdad. They knew them for years. They met them through apparent services with the local EMS and fire department where you take classes like CPR, you get your children's fingerprints taken. And since this is such a small community, they stayed in touch. They wanted to be part of this autopsy. They wanted to be there for this family. And one of the first things when they did this exam is to determine whether or not she had intercourse. And they do determine she did before she died. Now, in the reports I read, there was no specific details about what they did. I assume they swabbed that area and found male DNA or there could have been physical signs as well. When his roommates were interviewed, they asked Mike if he had sex with her. And one of them said he said yes, the other one said he said no. And remember what he told the police that he doesn't remember. So three different stories about one night. Next they checked her blood alcohol level and it was a 0.18 to a 0.20. That's significantly higher than the legal driving limit in all US states. And for someone like Angie with her stature, that's a very high level of intoxication. It can result in severe physical and mental impairment. Usually this would be from having about six standards drink. possibly more over a longer period of time. And they don't even know when Angie died. However, if she was placed there sometime after three o'clock in the morning, because that's the last time one of the roommates saw her, she could have been even more intoxicated, since hours could have gone by before she actually was deceased. Now, what was very frustrating is that there were inconsistencies in the way she was found and the evidence of trauma during the autopsy. And when I say trauma, there were signs that she suffered from expixiation. And that could be anything from strangulation to having something put over your face to cause you to not be able to breathe and to pass out. But the thing is that doesn't line up with her still being able to move once she was in the culvert. So that wasn't her cause of death. They couldn't mark it as strangulation, expixiation. So at that moment in time, her cause of death was undetermined until they could do further testing. And that's even more frustrating because you can't bring charges against someone for something like murder. If you can't even come up with a cause in manner of death, specifically homicide, so that this can be turned into a homicide investigation. So this was a waiting game. And while they were waiting, the test results did come back from the items found in Mike's bedroom. And there was blood consistent with Angie's DNA found on that mattress. Now the medical examiner explained that this could be from aspiration. She had evidence from being possibly expixiated because the autopsy showed aspiration in her lungs. It suggested that she might have vomited and inhaled her vomit, which could have compromised her breathing. So now you can kind of see why her cause of death was pending. There were a lot of roads this could go down. Could she have accidentally died because she was so intoxicated, she threw up, choked on her throat and couldn't breathe? Well, she expixiated with an item. A lot of questions. And meanwhile, her body was released to her family. And her funeral was held on December 30th. The Reverend that was in charge of the arrangements Reverend Bill Connell, he told the media how incredibly sad and difficult it was for him to be planning a funeral for such a young woman right around Christmas time. Her family, her friends, her loved ones gathered together at Holy Mary of Consolation Church where Angie used to teach. Her brother and sister said it was the worst moment of their lives knowing that their sister was really gone forever. There were so many things they wanted to do in their future that they wanted to do with their sister and she wouldn't be there. She wouldn't be there to make memories. She wouldn't be there to get married. She wouldn't have children and she wouldn't see them grow up and have children of their own. This was almost too much for them to bear. And Angie's grandma Nancy, she shared that she had prayed. She had prayed for two things in the weeks after Angie went missing that God would guide police to her granddaughter and that when found she would rise up and meet them. After Angie's body was discovered and that's no equalvert, Nancy told the reporters that God answered the first part of her prayer and at least they knew where she was. And that's so sad because you are holding onto that hope. Larry, Angie's father, he was trying to stay strong and to ground himself, he held on to one of Angie's favorite mottos, Jesus say, the happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the most of everything that comes their way. Now it's hard to make the most out of something so heartbreaking, but I am going to talk to you about how this family did that at the end of this video. They had a message through all of this, something to take away from what happened Angie. And it started with many of Angie's friends who were her same age that went through the church and walked to her mother to say goodbye to Angie, obviously, and also to give their condolences. And many of them stopped to tell her mom that they do the same thing all the time that they go out, they drink possibly too much and they go home with someone they just met and her message was simple. Don't. And like I said, I'll get into more of that in a moment. But on Monday, January 30th of 2006, more than a month later, there were no formal charges filed against Mike DeSalvo. They were still waiting on forensic test results. And there was cons and state crime lab cautioned that these results could take weeks, even months or longer. And the forensic pathologist cannot complete his final autopsy report until all the testing was done in Angie's case. They were really backlogged at the state crime lab. And this delay gave Mike DeSalvo and his attorney ammunition that they needed. They were accusing detectives of scrambling to build a case against Mike and insisting that Mike was innocent. And then investigators were stretching to try to connect him to Angie's death. And I kept thinking, uh, okay, but what's the excuse? How did she end up all the way on Storytown Road when he said he dropped off in front of her dad's house? And what about the rest of her clothing that's found in his truck? Months later, on March 24th, Mike DeSalvo was convicted of those unrelated drug charges after pleading no contest. The judge then revoked his bail and that guaranteed he would remain in Dean County jail, basing up to three and a half years in prison on that conviction. And finally, a month later, on April 10th, the report that everyone was waiting for finally came out, the pathologist, along with the two corners, they were reviewing it. And by April 14th, just a few days later, the state brought charges against Michael DeSalvo for first degree intentional homicide. And that report concluded Angie was alive when she was left partially clothed in a roll culvert. She ultimately died from exposure due to hypothermia at temperatures that dropped below 15 degrees. What was in that report was that any person would have known that leaving someone in that condition intoxicated outside alone on the ground. And those weather conditions practically was certain to result in causing death. And that was exactly what was in charging documents. All she had on was a sweater and socks. And the state's theory about what happened was that Mike took Angie back to the duplex. She was highly intoxicated, could not consent to intercourse. He took advantage of her against her will. And at some point, either she realized what was going on and she tried to get away or fight back, or she had gotten sick and thrown up on his bed. And either one of those things led Michael to attack her, possibly putting a pillow over her face until she was unconscious. But she was not dead. And he loaded her into his truck, drove her to an area where he could dispose of her, and left her to freeze to death. Why? Only Mike knows that. But maybe it's as simple as if she was aware of what he had done before he expixated her. He probably thought she was going to report him. And he already had charges and he didn't want more plain and simple. Or he got set off for some reason and that led to him hurting her. It's just so senseless. He's a monster. I mean, who does something like this? I just couldn't stop thinking about the fact that this woman was alive, that she could have possibly been saved if someone knew she was down there. And she was trying to keep warm. And they determined she was probably left there when she was still unconscious. And at some point she came to and she tried to put her arms together, trying to conserve her body heat. But by the time she even regained consciousness, she would have already been going into hypothermia. She she would not have been able to move. Can you imagine that? It's suffering. It's unreal. How we simple night out could end up like that. There was no trial. The man decided to take a plea deal of no contest to a lesser charge of first degree reckless homicide for leaving Angie in that culvert. He originally faced the first re intentional homicide, but that requires proof that the defendant not only caused the death, but did it with the intent to kill and that carried a mandatory life sentence. Reckless homicide. It acknowledges a different kind of culpability. It doesn't require intent to kill. But instead that the defendant's actions created an unreasonable and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm and that he was aware of that risk when he acted. In Michael Desalvo's case, this plea meant he admitted to abandoning Angie in the conditions where death was practically certain, even if he denied setting out to kill her on purpose. People were still trying to figure out and comprehend what exactly happened. Why did she have to die that night? His prison records indicate he was receiving psychiatric treatment. He was taking lithium and pro-zac for bipolar disorder and depression. That's really not saying much. So I kept digging. And according to a State Department of Corrections pre-sentence report, what comes out before the judge hands down how much time he was going to serve, Michael Desalvo made a statement about his version of exactly what he said happened that night. Mike said he woke up in his room on the morning of December 9th to find Angie's lifeless body. Next to him. He said it didn't look like she was breathing. So I started to panic. He said he smoked a few cigarettes. and tried to calm down and decided at that point she was dead and he needed to hide her body. So he drove to the drainage ditch and left her there. And that was it. But I'm thinking, how does that explain the evidence of expixiation? We know there's got to be more to the story, but I could just imagine the theory that the defense attorney could come up with for this. I think any reasonable person who thinks normally and not like a criminal or a monster would have just called 911 if she had truly been drinking and she woke up and she was unresponsive, you would get her medical care. At least if you weren't the one who did that to her, I had to hold back sarcastic laughter when I heard what this man said to the court before he was sentenced. He said all I can say is sorry. I know that doesn't hold much water. I'm really sorry. I'm a good person when I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, taking my medication and not running for my responsibilities. And quote, and I was like, okay, is that what you're calling like responsibilities attempting to kill someone and leaving them for dead? Is that running from your responsibilities? The judge received one letter on his behalf. It was from his sister Margaret. And as you can probably guess, it was positive. She called her brother a beautiful man with a heart of gold and compassion, but mixed with a mind of questions and false realities. It was almost like saying he lived in his own world in his head. Michael had grown up with four sisters and she said they all loved him so dearly and his family had tried to understand him. They had to learn how to live with his easier synchrosies and how to decipher his realities. Those were her words. And in closing, Margaret wrote, all we hope is that this man that we love and need in our lives does not die through the sentence he's responsible for. End quote. And I was like, why do you need him in your life? I know he's not my family. I don't know how I would feel if one of my family members did something like this. But just the fact that they said they needed to decipher his realities is a little bit scary. To me, that's a sign that he was very unstable even before all this happened. And his father on the other hand said, I have no mercy or anything for a narcissistic sociopath that took my daughter's life. And her sister said something that was really impactful. She said it hurt her when she learned the way that this monster carried Angie that night, like you would abide on their wedding night. The fact that Angie would never have that opportunity because Michael took her life away was sick and he was so selfish. Michael DeSalvo was sentenced in 2007 and the judge handed down 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of extended supervision to be served in Minnesota. A condition of his release would be that he could never return to Wisconsin again. Good riddance. But I did want to note, Angie's mother Anne said, she hoped something positive would come from her daughter's death. She thought about a possibility that a photo of Angie with her bright green eyes and her pretty blonde hair could be put up in women's restrooms all of her Wisconsin bars with a summary of what happened to her that night. And it would serve as a message for women who could relate to a fun night out of drinking and leaving friends behind or going home with a stranger. I do think that that would be really powerful with just the word that Anne used when Angie's friends saw her at the funeral. Don't. So that's the message here. We all know the saying friends go together friends leave together. Don't leave anyone behind too into out always travel in pairs. And I think that applies here not to place blame on Angie's best friend. I know that she said that they knew everyone at the bar. She felt comfortable leaving Angie there. I get that. But the staff is busy. They're working. It's not their job to babysit a patron. And I feel like no one should leave their friend alone. I've been guilty of it sure. But I've learned so much. I couldn't do that now. So think of Angie. Don't forget her. Don't forget her story. She did not deserve this ending. But her legacy and her memory can go on. I thank you so very much for being here today. Thank you for bearing with me with this frog voice. I will see you in my very next video. Bye.