Overview of Angela Hammond
Angela was a popular and outgoing 20-year-old looking forward to her unfolding life. Could her last phone call to her fiance hold clues to her disappearance?
Going by “Angie” instead of Angela, Angie Hammond was just beginning some of the most significant milestones in her life. She was a college freshman taking classes at Central Missouri State University and also working as a bank clerk. In November 1990, she began dating Rob Shafner, the high school senior star athlete who was preparing for a career in the military. By all accounts, the two were absolutely smitten with each other.
By January of 1991, Angie shares with Rob that she’s pregnant — and Rob couldn’t be more excited. Soon after, Rob gets down on one knee, and the pair are engaged.
Four months later, on April 4, Angie and Rob attended a family barbeque hosted at Angie’s mother’s house. The pair left around 9:00 pm and Angie drove Rob over to his family’s house so Rob could babysit his younger brother. Angie spent part of the night driving around town talking with a friend, and after she dropped her friend off at her house, Angie stopped at a payphone in the middle of town to call Rob at 11:15pm.
While on the phone with Rob, Angie says that she sees a green truck that kept circling the block.
The truck eventually pulled into the parking lot, and parked right next to Angie and the payphones. The driver got out, and Angie told Rob that the male driver was “dirty-looking” and that he had a full mustache and beard. She also told Rob that the man had glasses on and was wearing overalls. Angie could also make out a decal that covered the back window of the truck, which depicted a scene of a fish jumping out of water.
Not long after, Rob hears Angie scream into the phone. Terrified, Rob gets in his car and speeds over to the center of town to the payphone where Angie called from. While on his way there, Rob saw a green truck speeding past him going the other direction, and he heard a female voice scream “Rob!” from inside the truck.
Rob instantly spun his car around to chase after the truck, but in completing an intense reverse-turn around, he inadvertently damaged his transmission. Rob could only chase after the truck for 2 miles before a sharp right turn on W Calvird Drive stalled his car.
Angie was never seen again. Police believe Angie was most likely murdered.
In the week of Angie’s abduction, Rob was cleared of any suspicion by law enforcement, and a few local witnesses came forward saying they saw the green truck lurking around the town in the days leading up to April 4. The subsequent investigation took detectives in many directions.
Some speculate that Angie’s abduction is related to two other young women who vanished in less than a 100-mile radius in the early months of 1991: Trudy Darby and Cheryl Kenney.
In 2021, the police held a press conference and unveiled another theory — the abductor from 1991 took the wrong Angela.
It was revealed that in the town of Clinton, a man was working undercover for the narcotics team of the police department, and the man’s cover was seemingly blown. A ransom note postmarked for the morning of April 4, 1991 — the day Angie was taken — details another family's intentions to abduct their daughter, Angela.
Now, police are looking for the public’s help to hopefully identify the suspect from 1991. They’re also asking for whoever submitted an anonymous tip in early 2021 regarding the ransom note to come forward so the conversation can be furthered.
