August 25, 2022 • 38 mins
This week, Facing Evil is in Dallas, Texas for Podcast Movement. And we discuss the case of Angela Samota, who was killed in Dallas in 1984.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of iHeartRadio and
Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast
are solely those of the individuals participating in the show
and do not represent those of iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV.
This podcast contains subject matter which may not be suitable
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Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We are your hosts. I'm Roscha Peccareiro and I am
evet Genteelay and always with our Texan producer, Trevor Young.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How do how do? Howdy?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Howdy? Howdy?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
How do how do?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Y'all? Oh my god, this is going to be such
a special episode because as we speak, we are at
Podcast Movement in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Y'all welcome to Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yes, thank you, Thank you, Trevor. This is our very
first time at Podcast Movement, and we are so excited
and honored to be here, and we're actually going to
be speaking on a panel about Facing Evil, and we're
going to be interviewing a few big names in the
podcast community. All of that, of course, will be published
(01:17):
right here on the Facing evil feed, so look out
for that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's right, and we wanted to do something special this
week while we're in Dallas, so as it happens, there
is one case we've been talking about for a very
long time, a case that takes place right here in Dallas.
It's a very important one. So Trevor, I would be
honored if you'd get us started.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What's the problems?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
My girlfriend called me that there was a man in
Reportmentes in the.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Bathroom, in the phone and now I cannot get hurt
into the phone or car there hands on Invador and.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
I mean this man stabbed her eighteen times, broke bones everything.
When they went in and found Angie, there was so
much blood it looked like her heart had been cut out.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Angela Simoda was a twenty year old woman from Dallas, Texas.
On the evening of October twelfth, nineteen eighty four, Angela
went out with some college friends. Late that night, after
she returned home, Angela found a man in her apartment. Distressed,
she called her boyfriend Ben, but then abruptly hung up.
(02:32):
Around two am, police arrived on the scene and discovered
Angela's body. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
Police looked at multiple suspects, including her boyfriend, an ex boyfriend,
and one of the men she went out with that night,
but police weren't able to convict anyone in Angela's murder.
They said they lacked sufficient evidence, and so Angela's case
(02:55):
went cold, and it remained cold for years. But one
of Angela's friends, Shila Waisaki, was determined to find the killer,
and she did her own investigation and presented her findings
to the Dallas police, and as a result, police eventually
reopened the case and arrested the culprit in two thousand
and eight. And so what happened to Angela Simoda? Why
(03:20):
weren't the police initially able to solve the murder? And
what does this tell us about how law enforcement investigates
rape cases.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's to me, it's such a horrific crime. I mean,
of course, every crime that we talk about here on
Facing Evil is a horrific crime. But she was brutally
murdered and it became a cold case. But the light
in the darkness for me, of course, is Angela's friend, Sheila,
(03:53):
and how she did not give up.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And so many of these cases, like back then, right,
they didn't have cold case squads that could, you know,
like go after all of these rapists. So all of
these cases right, just sat. I mean, this is just
so horrible. And what really gets to me about this
case that Angela, I mean, she was attacked in her
(04:17):
own home in a place where like, after you've partied
all night and had a good time, you want to
go home and just enjoy you know, your space and
feel safe, right, especially when you're tired. You know, like,
this is just so horrifying that this happened in her home.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, I think home invasion stories are always particularly unsettling.
I think there's a reason why we have so many
horror movies, you know that have a whole genre around
home invasions. Yes, just like, yeah, one of the worst
things you can experience.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
All of that is absolutely true, But this case should
have been investigated so much better. I and I feel
like this is a recurring thing that keeps happening in
all the cases that we're talking about, you know, like
something should have been done from the beginning. This should
not have become a cold case. It was almost as
if the police just gave up.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I think it was really sad how this case
just sat alone for twenty years with no one touching it,
you know, the way that the evidence was just kind
of stored and never really looked into. And I think
the really kind of even more sad thing is that
this sort of thing is really common. This happens all
the time.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I know, I mean exactly if we think about the
Black Dahlia case, right, Elizabeth Short, like that was seventy
five years ago and it's still still to this day
technically unsolved.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yep, it's true, and the sort of thing hasn't really
gotten any better since the Black Dahlia case, which was
back in the forties.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Here's just a little bit of statistics you can look at. So,
just looking at general Hamas cases, between nineteen eighty and
twenty nineteen, there were nearly one hundred and eighty five
thousand homicide and non negligent manslaughter cases that went unsolved.
And then in cases of rape specifically, the solve rate
is even lower. It's even worse. So for every one
(06:18):
hundred cases of rape, only twelve of them lead to
an arrest, only nine on average of prosecuted, and then
only five of them actually lead to any sort of
felony conviction. So that's super abysmal.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Abysmal, yes, abysmal, and not okay in any way, shape
or form. That's injustice and that's exactly why we wanted
to talk about this case. And I mean, I can
only speak for myself, right, but I think being a woman,
a cisgendered woman at that, Like, I think that's one
(06:52):
of your biggest fears, right, is being raped or feeling vulnerable.
And you know, I don't believe in hope being lost.
But when Angela's murder went unsolved for so many years
after being raped and brutally stabbed to death, like all
it took was that one person who believed in finding
her killer, and that to me is hope. There's hope
(07:17):
in every single case. So like when anyone ever says,
oh no, you can't solve it, it can't be done, I
don't believe that, right, And I don't believe that because
of the Shiahs of the world, right.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I mean, and if anything like what you just said,
I mean, that's the light in this story. It's certainly
the kind of thing that police should be doing this, like,
not ordinary citizens or friends of the family should be
doing this. But if you have a calling to do
it and you feel that passionate about it, do it.
(07:50):
That's how change happens.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
H Thank goodness we have motivated people, because yeah, typically
the people whose job it is like just they're not
as motivated. They don't have the personal connection into it
the way somebody like Shila does, right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And like maybe they become too desensitized to it, like
you said, Trevor, because they don't have a connection like
to the victim. But yeah, I could not be a
police officer because I'm way too empathetic. I put myself
in every victim's shoes, and I think that's why, you know,
my stomach's always a knots. But I have to find
that light in the darkness. So all right, Trevor, let's
get into it. Can you tell us more about Angela
(08:26):
Simota So.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Angela Simota was born on October thirteenth in nineteen sixty four.
She moved to Dallas at age eighteen to enroll at
Southern Methodist University SMU, where she studied electrical engineering. She
was also a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
I hope I'm saying that right.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I'm sure they'll correct you if you're not.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Oh my goodness. So I remember this in nineteen eighty four,
like there was not a ton of women doing what
Angela was doing. Yeah, I mean she was clearly very bold,
very smart, and very very independent.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yes, especially in nineteen eighty four. And according to one friend,
Angela was quote unquote a triple threat, which I like
to think I am sometimes. I think we all would
love to be triple threats. Oh yeah, And she was
absolutely beautiful. She was gorgeous, and she had this thousand
watt smile. You know, if you look her up, you
can see how beautiful she was, and her smile could
(09:29):
light up her room. She was also incredibly vivacious, her
friends would say, and of course incredibly intelligent. There's actually
a photo, you know, from that time of Angela that
I've seen online, and I think it's like a yearbook
photo or something, but it's Angela like sitting in a
classroom full of men and they are just, you know,
(09:50):
looking at her, and she's just the badass that she was.
She was just sitting there looking super cool and confident.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Have you guys seen that picture? Because I have, and
she is just like she is right in her element.
She's just calm, and you can tell that she is
in control of the whole.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Situation, unbothered by the mail gaze.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah right, And I really think that that is an
important backdrop for what happens the night of October twelfth,
So Trevor, can you tell us what happened?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Right? So October twelfth, she invites her neighbor and a
friend to join her at the State Fair of Texas.
And the neighbor is a very shy older man named
Russell Buchanan. So that night, Angela, Russell Buchanan, and her
friend Anita Klatta go to the fair. And the fair
that night coincided with the annual football game between UT
(10:44):
University of Texas and OU, which is University of Oklahoma.
And that's a huge rivalry for anybody who doesn't know.
This means that there were up to seventy five thousand
people or so roaming the streets of Dallas that evening
near the State Fair. So, after the fair, Angela and
her two friends ended up at a club in Dallas
called the Rio Room, where Angela was supposedly just you know,
(11:09):
she owned the room. She was like the most popular person.
It was her place.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, and I think I've heard that, you know, her
her friends have been quoted as saying that she was
always the person like bouncing from table to table and like, yeah,
one of the friends said that she knew everyone. And
so around one am that night, you know, they end
up leaving and she dropped her two friends off at
their places, and then she actually stopped by her boyfriend's place.
(11:36):
And her boyfriend was named Ben McCall, and she just
dropped by to say good night. Because remember, you know,
Ben didn't go with them that night. Do we know
why he didn't go to the fair?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
He said he didn't go to the fair because he
had to get up early. And from what I understand,
he worked in construction, so you know, normally they're up
at the crack of dawn. But what we do know
is that she did see him that night, she goes
to visit him, and then that's when she goes back
to her place.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Right. So then at about one forty five am in
the morning, Ben, her boyfriend, gets a phone call and
it's Angela back at home telling him that there is
a man in her condo. He was apparently asking to
use the phone and bathroom, and she let him in,
and then there's this very chilling detail she says to
(12:26):
him on the phone, quote talk to me, but then
the line goes dead.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
That's just that's so frightening.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Talk to me. And those are the last words that
anyone who loved or cared for Angela Simota would ever
hear her speak.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We do need to take a quick break, though, so
we'll pick it right up after we get back.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So, after Ben gets that incredibly disturbing phone call from Angela,
he the police, as absolutely he should, So at roughly
two seventeen am, the police show up and find the
door locked, so they actually have to end up breaking
the door down in order to get inside, and inside
they find Angela's body.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, and just to disclaimer, it does get a little
grizzly here, as some of these cases do, but they
find her on her bed, completely naked, but she was
also covered in blood. She had been brutally stabbed to
death in the chest area up to eighteen times. One
of the investigators said it looked like she had had
her heart cut out, and she had also been sexually assaulted.
(13:39):
So immediately the police identify three suspects. They look at
her boyfriend, Ben McCall. There's an unnamed ex boyfriend that
they also suspect, and then Russell Buchanan, the neighbor who
had gone out with Angela that night along with her friend.
And the only really strong evidence police could find at
(14:00):
this crime scene were secretions from the killer, secretions being
semen or saliva. So soon thereafter, antigen testing ruled out
both Ben the boyfriend and the unnamed ex That just
left Russell Buchanan, the shy neighbor that Angela had invited
to join her at the estate fair. And so that's
really the kind of prime suspect at this point. That's
(14:21):
who they're really looking at, right.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I mean, he wasn't ruled out from the testing, and
he lived within walking distance of Angela's apartment.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, he was a neighbor.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, he was very close neighbor, and he was with
her that night. So he seems to be the most
likely suspect at this point, but he does have an alibi.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, And this is where I think we should bring
up a very important character in this story, and that's
Angela's friend, Sheila Gibbons, who is actually now known as
Shila Weisaki. So Shila was a fellow SMU student and
Angela's roommate at one point. So she ended up finding
out about Angela on the morning of October thirteenth, and
(15:05):
understandably was completely devastated.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Right, I mean, that's just towars Sheila's world apart. She
even said it destroyed her innocence and she ended up
dropping out of SMU because she said she just couldn't function,
she couldn't deal with it, like her whole worldview was
just shattered. And around this time she even said, quote
I just kept thinking, these things just don't happen. They
(15:30):
didn't happen in my world. End quote.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I can't even imagine, you know what she was
feeling at that time. I mean, losing her friend in
such a brutal way, like right when you're in the
prime of your lives and then something so horrific it
literally changes the course of your life. And that's what
happened to Sheila.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I think that loss of innocence bit is you know,
the most telling, you know, I think she probably had
a worldview that was very much about school, about hope,
about you know, growing up, about careers and success, and
then all of a sudden, all of that was just
taken away. It was no longer about progress or living
(16:14):
your life in a fruitful way, but the harsh reality
that life is dangerous, you know, the second you walk
out onto the street, like nothing is certain, or.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You're in your own home, like Angela was.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Right, you're in your own the fear, you know, the
fear of that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I can only imagine, you know. I mean, yes,
we're sitting here talking about you know, horrific crimes that
happen every week, but you don't think about it happening
to you or to someone you love, and that can
definitely change the course of your life. Like Yvette said,
getting back to the suspects, right, So, after Russell Buchanan
gave his alibi, police actually went to Sheila for help.
(16:56):
So this was very interesting to me. So the police
asked Sheila to actually have dinner with Russell Buchanan just
to see if his alibi and his story matched up
with what he'd told the police.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Can you even imagine that, like, I mean, going to
have dinner with the potential killer of your friend. Like,
first of all, she's a badass for doing this, but
at the same time, can you imagine being her mother, Like,
I mean, her family doesn't want her to go, Like,
there's no way, but she she did it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm surprised the police even asked her to do it,
to be honest.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I know I think about that too. You know, again,
we're talking about, like, you know, sending a like civilian
in to go and sit with a potential killer, Like
wouldn't it be an undercover cop or some ry?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, But anyway, I mean, she ends up going. You know,
I'm sure she wanted answers and she wanted justice for Angela,
And you know, I think it was incredibly brave of
her to do that, despite her grief and despite all
the emotions that we've talked about about what she might
have been thinking and feeling at that time. There's several
interviews out there with her, and she was quoted as saying,
(18:10):
I'm sitting here having dinner with a murderer, Angie's murderer.
End quote that said.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
She also said that Buchanan's story seemed pretty solid. He
said he had traveled to Houston that same weekend that
Angela was killed to visit his parents and had not
actually heard about the murder until days later when he
returned to Dallas, and that apparently lined up with what
the police had. He also goes on to pass a
(18:38):
lie detector test and therefore the police really have nothing
on him, and he is officially ruled out. And thus
the case of Angela Simoda does indeed go cold, and.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That could have been the end of the story, right,
But no, no, no, no, no, no no no. Sheila
could not let it go, and she didn't give up.
I mean, in the following months, she kept meeting with
the investigator who was working on the case. But you know,
there was still no movement on this case, which had
(19:10):
to have been so frustrating for her, But again she stayed.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Going going, Yeah. And then you know, fast forward twenty years.
Sheila's married, has two kids, and has moved to Tennessee.
But in the back of her mind, her friend's murder
is always there and it still haunts her. I mean,
how could it not, right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, So that's when the next wild thing happened. In
two thousand and four, she said that while she was
sitting at home, she looked over and saw her friend.
She said she saw a vision of Angela Simota like
a ghost vision like she appeared to her, you know.
And I don't know if you guys have ever witnessed
(19:58):
anything like that ever first hand, had it happened to me,
But I have been in the presence. I have a
really good friend and I was sitting with her one
day at brunch and she said, your grandmother, Jimmy Lee
is here. And for those who don't know, Jimmy Lee
was my mother's adopted black mother who she was raised
(20:18):
by in Reno, Nevada. And she said to me, your
grandmother's here, and I was like, what are you talking about?
And she said, she just wants to apologize to you.
And I knew instantly what she meant, because when I
was five years old, my grandmother had thrown me out
of the house on a snowy day because I was
whining and wanted to go play with my friends. And
(20:40):
she was like and she was drunk, and she was drunk, yes,
and she was drunk. And I was in my little
red coat and my friend Shayla like described what I
was wearing. I had not told her anything, she knew nothing,
and the inside of my grandmother's you know, little apartment
described everything. And she said, I just she's here and
she just wants you to know that she is sorry
(21:03):
for what she did. And I was like, holy shit,
But you know, there was no way she could have
known that because I didn't tell her. Like, have you
guys ever had an experience like that?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No? Not really. I mean it's a hard thing to
talk about because it feels like so personal to people.
And I think it's a very like spiritual experience that
I fully think is valid, that you know, people do
in fact see these things.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
For me, I guess I'm a bit of a like
cold heart existentialist when it comes to like spirituality, like
very much of the belief that you know, we are
little organisms on a floating rock hurtling through space and
that you know, when we die, we just go back
into the soil and then like create new plant life.
And I don't know, I take more of a scientific
(21:50):
approach to these sorts of things, So it's hard for
me to like fully understand stuff like this. But again,
I don't discount it, you know, I don't think that
it doesn't happen to people. I just wonder if like
maybe I'm a little bit too closed off to really
allow those sorts of visions to kind of channel through
me properly. But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I every day wish that I saw vision of or
an operation of, like mom or different things. But for me,
you know, I haven't ever seen you know, ghost or
spirits like in person, I felt things. But our mom
very much saw things all the time. She would share
that with us. But for me, it's been coming in
my in my like people who have died have been
(22:31):
coming in my dreams a lot, like just over the
last few months. And it's probably because we're doing this podcast.
But I don't, like you said, I don't discredit you know,
I truly believe Sheila saw her friend Angela that day,
and that's what I think pivoted her entire life after that,
right yeah, I think that that vision made Sheila want
(22:53):
to get back on the horse and do something because
now we're, you know, twenty years after Angela was murdered,
and so right then and there after seeing that vision
of Angela, Sheila picks up the phone and calls the
Dallas Police Department and she asks if there's a cold
cases division, which they tell her no, there's not. So
then she asked for the detective that she knew from
(23:14):
before twenty years ago, and she leaves a message.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well, she keeps calling because obviously the guy is not
calling her back. And I have to say, like I've
listened to interviews with her, and she called at least
seven hundred times without getting a call back, right, she
just kept calling and this goes on and on, you know,
(23:42):
and it's just so cool that nobody returned her call.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I think about it just
from this perspective. For a moment, someone is calling you
because she saw a vision of her friend who died
twenty years ago, right, and she keeps like leaving all
of these messages, like hundreds of messages. And I don't know,
like you're a busy police officer, like maybe this just
strikes he as like a you know, like a crazy,
(24:07):
unhinged person, Right, I guess I can kind of see
why he maybe wouldn't take too much stock in it. Sure,
But like that said, I agree, I do think it
is like super cold not to at least like call
them back, like have a couple of conversations with them,
just like, yeah, I mean, even for your own purposes,
I feel like she'd probably stop calling if you just
like picked up the phone and had like ten minutes
(24:29):
of discussion with her, you.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Know, for sure, So right, even if you said, well,
I can't really help you with that, like even if
stop balance right exactly, But all I can say is
one person's crazy is another's determination, and Sheila is as
determined as they come. So what does she do? She
(24:50):
gets licensed as a private investigator. Pe, guy, I love
this so much. She becomes a p police won't answer
your calls. Well they will, now, I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I love it. Yeah. But despite Shela getting her PI license,
the police still don't call her back, which is sad.
But you know, Sheila just keeps moving forward and moving
onward and upward. Right, So she sets up this entire
like war room in her house where she basically organizes
all of the facts from the case and she prints
(25:30):
reports about all the rapes that actually happened during that time,
where they happened, who was arrested, and she, you know,
has this war room in her home and goes full
speed ahead for two years.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
And finally though there is a break in the case,
thank goodness. So thanks to Sheila. In two thousand and six,
the Dallas Police Department officially reopened the case, which is great,
and when they did that, they found something that was
absolutely crucial to solving the murder. And that is what
we'll talk about after we take another quick break.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Finally there's a break in the case. And this is
after years of hard work from Sheila, I mean basically
by herself, with no guarantee of a breakthrough, she persevered
and was determined to make this happen to find out
(26:31):
who killed her friend.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Right. So here's what happened. In two thousand and six.
Police opened the case again and they assigned it to
Detective Linda Crumb.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And not only does this detective not blow Sheila off
again like all the other police officers, she tells Sheila
that they have evidence to finally find out who the
killer is.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Right, And this is super meaningful because the police, as
we know, had previously told Sheila that Angela Simota's rape
kit had been lost in a flood, and yet here
it was completely untouched, unharmed, which is wild.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Is that normal? I mean, how could the Dallas Police
Department lose this evidence? First of all, let's just say that,
But then it turns out that they had it the
whole time. Like what the fuck, Like, excuse my French,
but like what.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this is something that unfortunately, we
do hear about a lot, and it is really a
major problem all across the country. So we know that
in recent years the media has been paying more attention
to what's basically an epidemic in lost or discarded rape kits.
It's been found that as many as two hundred thousand
(27:45):
rape kits sit unopened in police storage units all across
the country. And meanwhile, assailants go free and oftentimes, you know,
they strike again because it's usually repeat offenders, right, Like
a lot of those rape kits probably all tie back
to the same person. And so what happens in a
case like this is that the rape evidence is never
(28:06):
sent to a crime lab, or in some cases it is,
but it's just never tested. So when Angela Simota was killed,
obviously DNA analysis wasn't really a thing. In fact, the
first DNA based conviction took place three years after Angela's
Simota in nineteen eighty seven. Gosh, So in the rape kit,
they had Angela's fingernails, which provided DNA evidence because she
(28:28):
had fought back against her attacker, like digging her nails
into that person's skin. They also had DNA evidence from
semen that was found on the scene, so they had
a lot of stuff to work with now in two
thousand and six.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Right, and then, oh my goodness, lo and behold, they
tested it and they found a match. In the words
of Detective Crumb, we've got them. And in my words
from Hawaii five ozho book them.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Down right, Rachel, Oh yes, I love it. So when
Sheila was told that they got a match, she initially
assumed that it was Angela's neighbor, Russell Buchanan, right, And
she even told the press in an interview I think
before the results came back, that she thought it was Russell,
poor Russell, because he had been the most promising suspect
(29:18):
twenty years prior. But the name of the accused killer
was Donald Bess, a man she'd soon come to call
the beast.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah. So, I mean, by all accounts, this was not
a good person. At the time of Angela Simota's murder,
Best had already been out on parole following a sentence
of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, and then a
year later, in nineteen eighty five, he was convicted of
aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, and sexual assault in a completely
(29:49):
different case. So in the two thousands, when he was
connected to Angela Simota, he was already serving a life
sentence for all of those previous convictions.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, and can I just say, I mean I looked
up this person's photo and when I say scary, I
mean truly truly scary, like it spooped me. Anyhow. So
in twenty ten, Sheila drove from Tennessee to Texas for
the trial, and during the trial, a number of women
(30:23):
testified that Bess had sexually assaulted them, and this included
Bess's ex wife, and she said Bess had abused both
her and their children before they divorced in the early seventies.
I mean, this guy was just I don't even have
a word you guys.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, And what's even more disturbing is when Bess walked
into the courtroom, Sheila said, quote, the door opened, and
the only way I can describe it is the room
lost all oxygen. So, just to give you a little
bit of his physical stature, Bess was six feet tall,
(30:59):
about three hundred and fifty pounds, and Sheila said that
he had an empty look in his eyes, and Sheila
also said that she was thinking, this is the last
person who saw Angela alive.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And then it all kind of comes to a head
on June eighth of twenty ten, when Donald Best was
found guilty based on the DNA evidence, which was very conclusive,
and he was then sentenced.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
To death, and Sheila understandably had a horrible and emotional
reaction to all of this, as of course you can imagine,
but she told something to The Washington Post that I
felt was incredibly heartbreaking and super real. She was quoted
as saying, nothing changes. You still have someone who's dead,
(31:49):
You still have someone who murdered her. You still have
a world that's changed. End quote.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I agree with that sentiment. You know. I think like,
if you've ever lost body in a tragic way, I
think there's this kind of feeling of, you know, resignation
that maybe comes over you. Yeah, it feels like maybe
you're the only person who cares as much about this,
And I'm sure Sheila felt that tenfold. Well. Bess remains
(32:17):
on death row today in Texas, and interestingly, the DNA
evidence used to convict Donald Bess is very similar to
that which was used to convict the Golden State Killer.
This was back in twenty eighteen, I suppose, if you remember,
Joseph James de Angelo killed thirteen people. He was also
(32:38):
convicted of fifty rapes and about one hundred and twenty
burglaries in California, and that was between the mid seventies
through the mid eighties or so, and so just to
quickly refresh, y'all, they used an ancestry database, so they
were able to link together his DNA and other DNA
of like family members and using this kind of like tree,
(33:01):
this like web, they're able to kind of pinpoint one
person who kind of fits. So that's the exact same
thing that they did with best here. But this is
like obviously, you know, essentially ten years prior to the
Golden State Killer. So, hey, cheers to DNA testing.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I guess, yeah, yeah, yes, you know, we've done it.
We had we had some done before our mom passed away. Like,
we have a lot of unanswered questions that we want
to find out more about DNA. But yeah, I think
you can do good things.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
I do too.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I do too.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, So there's one other thing that I actually want
to bring up that number that Trevor said earlier, about
two hundred thousand, you know, backlogged rape kits, you know,
just sitting out there. It's just mind boggling to me
that this is still a huge problem. Ye, so there
is some good news. So I think some improvements have
(33:52):
started to happen in recent years. States like Washington, Illinois,
and Texas where this crime took place made concentrated efforts
to improve their backlogs. But sadly, there are still thousands
of untested rape kits just sitting on shelves all across
the nation, and along with them, unsolved cases of rape
(34:16):
and murder. So here's to hoping more states take legislative
action in the coming years to address those cases and
finally analyze those kits and get some victims.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Some answers, I couldn't agree with you more. Well, it's
time for our emua, our final message of hope and healing,
and we want to dedicate this emua to the people
out there who are working with steadfast determination against injustice
(34:53):
in their lives.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Shilo Isaki didn't work in law enforcement, but she dedicated
herself to years of hard work and years of constantly
being told no, But in the end, she finally found
justice for her friend.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
And she's still out there today. I mean, apparently she
found her calling as a PI, as a private investigator,
and she's continuing to do the work. You know, she
thought it was going to be a one time thing
to find the killer of her friend, right for Angela.
So bravo to Sheila.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And so if you're working at eradicating in justice somewhere,
this goes out to you. We believe that justice comes
through action, and that action can begin with the efforts
of just one single human being.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And it is our hope that one day those efforts
pay off and you see justice too. Onward and upward, Emua, emua.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, that's our show for today. We'd love to hear
what you thought about today's discussion and if there's a
case that you'd like for us to cover, find us
on social media at Facing Evil Pod or email us
at Facingevil Pod at tenderfoot dot tv until next time.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Aloha.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia Pacquerero in a Vet Schintile,
Matt Frederick and Alex williams Our executive producers on behalf
of iHeartRadio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Donald
Albright in Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
(37:05):
Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
social media or email us at facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(37:29):
favorite shows
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of iHeartRadio and
Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast
are solely those of the individuals participating in the show
and do not represent those of iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV.
This podcast contains subject matter which may not be suitable
for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
We are your hosts. I'm Roscha Peccareiro and I am
evet Genteelay and always with our Texan producer, Trevor Young.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How do how do? Howdy?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Howdy? Howdy?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
How do how do?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Y'all? Oh my god, this is going to be such
a special episode because as we speak, we are at
Podcast Movement in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Y'all welcome to Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yes, thank you, Thank you, Trevor. This is our very
first time at Podcast Movement, and we are so excited
and honored to be here, and we're actually going to
be speaking on a panel about Facing Evil, and we're
going to be interviewing a few big names in the
podcast community. All of that, of course, will be published
(01:17):
right here on the Facing evil feed, so look out
for that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's right, and we wanted to do something special this
week while we're in Dallas, so as it happens, there
is one case we've been talking about for a very
long time, a case that takes place right here in Dallas.
It's a very important one. So Trevor, I would be
honored if you'd get us started.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
What's the problems?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
My girlfriend called me that there was a man in
Reportmentes in the.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Bathroom, in the phone and now I cannot get hurt
into the phone or car there hands on Invador and.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
I mean this man stabbed her eighteen times, broke bones everything.
When they went in and found Angie, there was so
much blood it looked like her heart had been cut out.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Angela Simoda was a twenty year old woman from Dallas, Texas.
On the evening of October twelfth, nineteen eighty four, Angela
went out with some college friends. Late that night, after
she returned home, Angela found a man in her apartment. Distressed,
she called her boyfriend Ben, but then abruptly hung up.
(02:32):
Around two am, police arrived on the scene and discovered
Angela's body. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
Police looked at multiple suspects, including her boyfriend, an ex boyfriend,
and one of the men she went out with that night,
but police weren't able to convict anyone in Angela's murder.
They said they lacked sufficient evidence, and so Angela's case
(02:55):
went cold, and it remained cold for years. But one
of Angela's friends, Shila Waisaki, was determined to find the killer,
and she did her own investigation and presented her findings
to the Dallas police, and as a result, police eventually
reopened the case and arrested the culprit in two thousand
and eight. And so what happened to Angela Simoda? Why
(03:20):
weren't the police initially able to solve the murder? And
what does this tell us about how law enforcement investigates
rape cases.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It's to me, it's such a horrific crime. I mean,
of course, every crime that we talk about here on
Facing Evil is a horrific crime. But she was brutally
murdered and it became a cold case. But the light
in the darkness for me, of course, is Angela's friend, Sheila,
(03:53):
and how she did not give up.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And so many of these cases, like back then, right,
they didn't have cold case squads that could, you know,
like go after all of these rapists. So all of
these cases right, just sat. I mean, this is just
so horrible. And what really gets to me about this
case that Angela, I mean, she was attacked in her
(04:17):
own home in a place where like, after you've partied
all night and had a good time, you want to
go home and just enjoy you know, your space and
feel safe, right, especially when you're tired. You know, like,
this is just so horrifying that this happened in her home.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah, I think home invasion stories are always particularly unsettling.
I think there's a reason why we have so many
horror movies, you know that have a whole genre around
home invasions. Yes, just like, yeah, one of the worst
things you can experience.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
All of that is absolutely true, But this case should
have been investigated so much better. I and I feel
like this is a recurring thing that keeps happening in
all the cases that we're talking about, you know, like
something should have been done from the beginning. This should
not have become a cold case. It was almost as
if the police just gave up.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I think it was really sad how this case
just sat alone for twenty years with no one touching it,
you know, the way that the evidence was just kind
of stored and never really looked into. And I think
the really kind of even more sad thing is that
this sort of thing is really common. This happens all
the time.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I know, I mean exactly if we think about the
Black Dahlia case, right, Elizabeth Short, like that was seventy
five years ago and it's still still to this day
technically unsolved.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yep, it's true, and the sort of thing hasn't really
gotten any better since the Black Dahlia case, which was
back in the forties.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Here's just a little bit of statistics you can look at. So,
just looking at general Hamas cases, between nineteen eighty and
twenty nineteen, there were nearly one hundred and eighty five
thousand homicide and non negligent manslaughter cases that went unsolved.
And then in cases of rape specifically, the solve rate
is even lower. It's even worse. So for every one
(06:18):
hundred cases of rape, only twelve of them lead to
an arrest, only nine on average of prosecuted, and then
only five of them actually lead to any sort of
felony conviction. So that's super abysmal.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Abysmal, yes, abysmal, and not okay in any way, shape
or form. That's injustice and that's exactly why we wanted
to talk about this case. And I mean, I can
only speak for myself, right, but I think being a woman,
a cisgendered woman at that, Like, I think that's one
(06:52):
of your biggest fears, right, is being raped or feeling vulnerable.
And you know, I don't believe in hope being lost.
But when Angela's murder went unsolved for so many years
after being raped and brutally stabbed to death, like all
it took was that one person who believed in finding
her killer, and that to me is hope. There's hope
(07:17):
in every single case. So like when anyone ever says,
oh no, you can't solve it, it can't be done, I
don't believe that, right, And I don't believe that because
of the Shiahs of the world, right.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I mean, and if anything like what you just said,
I mean, that's the light in this story. It's certainly
the kind of thing that police should be doing this, like,
not ordinary citizens or friends of the family should be
doing this. But if you have a calling to do
it and you feel that passionate about it, do it.
(07:50):
That's how change happens.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
H Thank goodness we have motivated people, because yeah, typically
the people whose job it is like just they're not
as motivated. They don't have the personal connection into it
the way somebody like Shila does, right.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And like maybe they become too desensitized to it, like
you said, Trevor, because they don't have a connection like
to the victim. But yeah, I could not be a
police officer because I'm way too empathetic. I put myself
in every victim's shoes, and I think that's why, you know,
my stomach's always a knots. But I have to find
that light in the darkness. So all right, Trevor, let's
get into it. Can you tell us more about Angela
(08:26):
Simota So.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Angela Simota was born on October thirteenth in nineteen sixty four.
She moved to Dallas at age eighteen to enroll at
Southern Methodist University SMU, where she studied electrical engineering. She
was also a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority.
I hope I'm saying that right.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I'm sure they'll correct you if you're not.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Oh my goodness. So I remember this in nineteen eighty four,
like there was not a ton of women doing what
Angela was doing. Yeah, I mean she was clearly very bold,
very smart, and very very independent.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yes, especially in nineteen eighty four. And according to one friend,
Angela was quote unquote a triple threat, which I like
to think I am sometimes. I think we all would
love to be triple threats. Oh yeah, And she was
absolutely beautiful. She was gorgeous, and she had this thousand
watt smile. You know, if you look her up, you
can see how beautiful she was, and her smile could
(09:29):
light up her room. She was also incredibly vivacious, her
friends would say, and of course incredibly intelligent. There's actually
a photo, you know, from that time of Angela that
I've seen online, and I think it's like a yearbook
photo or something, but it's Angela like sitting in a
classroom full of men and they are just, you know,
(09:50):
looking at her, and she's just the badass that she was.
She was just sitting there looking super cool and confident.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Have you guys seen that picture? Because I have, and
she is just like she is right in her element.
She's just calm, and you can tell that she is
in control of the whole.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Situation, unbothered by the mail gaze.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah right, And I really think that that is an
important backdrop for what happens the night of October twelfth,
So Trevor, can you tell us what happened?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Right? So October twelfth, she invites her neighbor and a
friend to join her at the State Fair of Texas.
And the neighbor is a very shy older man named
Russell Buchanan. So that night, Angela, Russell Buchanan, and her
friend Anita Klatta go to the fair. And the fair
that night coincided with the annual football game between UT
(10:44):
University of Texas and OU, which is University of Oklahoma.
And that's a huge rivalry for anybody who doesn't know.
This means that there were up to seventy five thousand
people or so roaming the streets of Dallas that evening
near the State Fair. So, after the fair, Angela and
her two friends ended up at a club in Dallas
called the Rio Room, where Angela was supposedly just you know,
(11:09):
she owned the room. She was like the most popular person.
It was her place.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, and I think I've heard that, you know, her
her friends have been quoted as saying that she was
always the person like bouncing from table to table and like, yeah,
one of the friends said that she knew everyone. And
so around one am that night, you know, they end
up leaving and she dropped her two friends off at
their places, and then she actually stopped by her boyfriend's place.
(11:36):
And her boyfriend was named Ben McCall, and she just
dropped by to say good night. Because remember, you know,
Ben didn't go with them that night. Do we know
why he didn't go to the fair?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
He said he didn't go to the fair because he
had to get up early. And from what I understand,
he worked in construction, so you know, normally they're up
at the crack of dawn. But what we do know
is that she did see him that night, she goes
to visit him, and then that's when she goes back
to her place.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Right. So then at about one forty five am in
the morning, Ben, her boyfriend, gets a phone call and
it's Angela back at home telling him that there is
a man in her condo. He was apparently asking to
use the phone and bathroom, and she let him in,
and then there's this very chilling detail she says to
(12:26):
him on the phone, quote talk to me, but then
the line goes dead.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
That's just that's so frightening.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Talk to me. And those are the last words that
anyone who loved or cared for Angela Simota would ever
hear her speak.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We do need to take a quick break, though, so
we'll pick it right up after we get back.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
So, after Ben gets that incredibly disturbing phone call from Angela,
he the police, as absolutely he should, So at roughly
two seventeen am, the police show up and find the
door locked, so they actually have to end up breaking
the door down in order to get inside, and inside
they find Angela's body.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, and just to disclaimer, it does get a little
grizzly here, as some of these cases do, but they
find her on her bed, completely naked, but she was
also covered in blood. She had been brutally stabbed to
death in the chest area up to eighteen times. One
of the investigators said it looked like she had had
her heart cut out, and she had also been sexually assaulted.
(13:39):
So immediately the police identify three suspects. They look at
her boyfriend, Ben McCall. There's an unnamed ex boyfriend that
they also suspect, and then Russell Buchanan, the neighbor who
had gone out with Angela that night along with her friend.
And the only really strong evidence police could find at
(14:00):
this crime scene were secretions from the killer, secretions being
semen or saliva. So soon thereafter, antigen testing ruled out
both Ben the boyfriend and the unnamed ex That just
left Russell Buchanan, the shy neighbor that Angela had invited
to join her at the estate fair. And so that's
really the kind of prime suspect at this point. That's
(14:21):
who they're really looking at, right.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
I mean, he wasn't ruled out from the testing, and
he lived within walking distance of Angela's apartment.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah, he was a neighbor.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, he was very close neighbor, and he was with
her that night. So he seems to be the most
likely suspect at this point, but he does have an alibi.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yes, And this is where I think we should bring
up a very important character in this story, and that's
Angela's friend, Sheila Gibbons, who is actually now known as
Shila Weisaki. So Shila was a fellow SMU student and
Angela's roommate at one point. So she ended up finding
out about Angela on the morning of October thirteenth, and
(15:05):
understandably was completely devastated.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Right, I mean, that's just towars Sheila's world apart. She
even said it destroyed her innocence and she ended up
dropping out of SMU because she said she just couldn't function,
she couldn't deal with it, like her whole worldview was
just shattered. And around this time she even said, quote
I just kept thinking, these things just don't happen. They
(15:30):
didn't happen in my world. End quote.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I can't even imagine, you know what she was
feeling at that time. I mean, losing her friend in
such a brutal way, like right when you're in the
prime of your lives and then something so horrific it
literally changes the course of your life. And that's what
happened to Sheila.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I think that loss of innocence bit is you know,
the most telling, you know, I think she probably had
a worldview that was very much about school, about hope,
about you know, growing up, about careers and success, and
then all of a sudden, all of that was just
taken away. It was no longer about progress or living
(16:14):
your life in a fruitful way, but the harsh reality
that life is dangerous, you know, the second you walk
out onto the street, like nothing is certain, or.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You're in your own home, like Angela was.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Right, you're in your own the fear, you know, the
fear of that.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I can only imagine, you know. I mean, yes,
we're sitting here talking about you know, horrific crimes that
happen every week, but you don't think about it happening
to you or to someone you love, and that can
definitely change the course of your life. Like Yvette said,
getting back to the suspects, right, So, after Russell Buchanan
gave his alibi, police actually went to Sheila for help.
(16:56):
So this was very interesting to me. So the police
asked Sheila to actually have dinner with Russell Buchanan just
to see if his alibi and his story matched up
with what he'd told the police.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Can you even imagine that, like, I mean, going to
have dinner with the potential killer of your friend. Like,
first of all, she's a badass for doing this, but
at the same time, can you imagine being her mother, Like,
I mean, her family doesn't want her to go, Like,
there's no way, but she she did it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm surprised the police even asked her to do it,
to be honest.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I know I think about that too. You know, again,
we're talking about, like, you know, sending a like civilian
in to go and sit with a potential killer, Like
wouldn't it be an undercover cop or some ry?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, But anyway, I mean, she ends up going. You know,
I'm sure she wanted answers and she wanted justice for Angela,
And you know, I think it was incredibly brave of
her to do that, despite her grief and despite all
the emotions that we've talked about about what she might
have been thinking and feeling at that time. There's several
interviews out there with her, and she was quoted as saying,
(18:10):
I'm sitting here having dinner with a murderer, Angie's murderer.
End quote that said.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
She also said that Buchanan's story seemed pretty solid. He
said he had traveled to Houston that same weekend that
Angela was killed to visit his parents and had not
actually heard about the murder until days later when he
returned to Dallas, and that apparently lined up with what
the police had. He also goes on to pass a
(18:38):
lie detector test and therefore the police really have nothing
on him, and he is officially ruled out. And thus
the case of Angela Simoda does indeed go cold, and.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That could have been the end of the story, right,
But no, no, no, no, no, no no no. Sheila
could not let it go, and she didn't give up.
I mean, in the following months, she kept meeting with
the investigator who was working on the case. But you know,
there was still no movement on this case, which had
(19:10):
to have been so frustrating for her, But again she stayed.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Going going, Yeah. And then you know, fast forward twenty years.
Sheila's married, has two kids, and has moved to Tennessee.
But in the back of her mind, her friend's murder
is always there and it still haunts her. I mean,
how could it not, right.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Yeah, So that's when the next wild thing happened. In
two thousand and four, she said that while she was
sitting at home, she looked over and saw her friend.
She said she saw a vision of Angela Simota like
a ghost vision like she appeared to her, you know.
And I don't know if you guys have ever witnessed
(19:58):
anything like that ever first hand, had it happened to me,
But I have been in the presence. I have a
really good friend and I was sitting with her one
day at brunch and she said, your grandmother, Jimmy Lee
is here. And for those who don't know, Jimmy Lee
was my mother's adopted black mother who she was raised
(20:18):
by in Reno, Nevada. And she said to me, your
grandmother's here, and I was like, what are you talking about?
And she said, she just wants to apologize to you.
And I knew instantly what she meant, because when I
was five years old, my grandmother had thrown me out
of the house on a snowy day because I was
whining and wanted to go play with my friends. And
(20:40):
she was like and she was drunk, and she was drunk, yes,
and she was drunk. And I was in my little
red coat and my friend Shayla like described what I
was wearing. I had not told her anything, she knew nothing,
and the inside of my grandmother's you know, little apartment
described everything. And she said, I just she's here and
she just wants you to know that she is sorry
(21:03):
for what she did. And I was like, holy shit,
But you know, there was no way she could have
known that because I didn't tell her. Like, have you
guys ever had an experience like that?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No? Not really. I mean it's a hard thing to
talk about because it feels like so personal to people.
And I think it's a very like spiritual experience that
I fully think is valid, that you know, people do
in fact see these things.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
For me, I guess I'm a bit of a like
cold heart existentialist when it comes to like spirituality, like
very much of the belief that you know, we are
little organisms on a floating rock hurtling through space and
that you know, when we die, we just go back
into the soil and then like create new plant life.
And I don't know, I take more of a scientific
(21:50):
approach to these sorts of things, So it's hard for
me to like fully understand stuff like this. But again,
I don't discount it, you know, I don't think that
it doesn't happen to people. I just wonder if like
maybe I'm a little bit too closed off to really
allow those sorts of visions to kind of channel through
me properly. But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I every day wish that I saw vision of or
an operation of, like mom or different things. But for me,
you know, I haven't ever seen you know, ghost or
spirits like in person, I felt things. But our mom
very much saw things all the time. She would share
that with us. But for me, it's been coming in
my in my like people who have died have been
(22:31):
coming in my dreams a lot, like just over the
last few months. And it's probably because we're doing this podcast.
But I don't, like you said, I don't discredit you know,
I truly believe Sheila saw her friend Angela that day,
and that's what I think pivoted her entire life after that,
right yeah, I think that that vision made Sheila want
(22:53):
to get back on the horse and do something because
now we're, you know, twenty years after Angela was murdered,
and so right then and there after seeing that vision
of Angela, Sheila picks up the phone and calls the
Dallas Police Department and she asks if there's a cold
cases division, which they tell her no, there's not. So
then she asked for the detective that she knew from
(23:14):
before twenty years ago, and she leaves a message.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Well, she keeps calling because obviously the guy is not
calling her back. And I have to say, like I've
listened to interviews with her, and she called at least
seven hundred times without getting a call back, right, she
just kept calling and this goes on and on, you know,
(23:42):
and it's just so cool that nobody returned her call.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I think about it just
from this perspective. For a moment, someone is calling you
because she saw a vision of her friend who died
twenty years ago, right, and she keeps like leaving all
of these messages, like hundreds of messages. And I don't know,
like you're a busy police officer, like maybe this just
strikes he as like a you know, like a crazy,
(24:07):
unhinged person, Right, I guess I can kind of see
why he maybe wouldn't take too much stock in it. Sure,
But like that said, I agree, I do think it
is like super cold not to at least like call
them back, like have a couple of conversations with them,
just like, yeah, I mean, even for your own purposes,
I feel like she'd probably stop calling if you just
like picked up the phone and had like ten minutes
(24:29):
of discussion with her, you.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Know, for sure, So right, even if you said, well,
I can't really help you with that, like even if
stop balance right exactly, But all I can say is
one person's crazy is another's determination, and Sheila is as
determined as they come. So what does she do? She
(24:50):
gets licensed as a private investigator. Pe, guy, I love
this so much. She becomes a p police won't answer
your calls. Well they will, now, I love it.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I love it. Yeah. But despite Shela getting her PI license,
the police still don't call her back, which is sad.
But you know, Sheila just keeps moving forward and moving
onward and upward. Right, So she sets up this entire
like war room in her house where she basically organizes
all of the facts from the case and she prints
(25:30):
reports about all the rapes that actually happened during that time,
where they happened, who was arrested, and she, you know,
has this war room in her home and goes full
speed ahead for two years.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
And finally though there is a break in the case,
thank goodness. So thanks to Sheila. In two thousand and six,
the Dallas Police Department officially reopened the case, which is great,
and when they did that, they found something that was
absolutely crucial to solving the murder. And that is what
we'll talk about after we take another quick break.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Finally there's a break in the case. And this is
after years of hard work from Sheila, I mean basically
by herself, with no guarantee of a breakthrough, she persevered
and was determined to make this happen to find out
(26:31):
who killed her friend.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Right. So here's what happened. In two thousand and six.
Police opened the case again and they assigned it to
Detective Linda Crumb.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
And not only does this detective not blow Sheila off
again like all the other police officers, she tells Sheila
that they have evidence to finally find out who the
killer is.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Right, And this is super meaningful because the police, as
we know, had previously told Sheila that Angela Simota's rape
kit had been lost in a flood, and yet here
it was completely untouched, unharmed, which is wild.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Is that normal? I mean, how could the Dallas Police
Department lose this evidence? First of all, let's just say that,
But then it turns out that they had it the
whole time. Like what the fuck, Like, excuse my French,
but like what.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean this is something that unfortunately, we
do hear about a lot, and it is really a
major problem all across the country. So we know that
in recent years the media has been paying more attention
to what's basically an epidemic in lost or discarded rape kits.
It's been found that as many as two hundred thousand
(27:45):
rape kits sit unopened in police storage units all across
the country. And meanwhile, assailants go free and oftentimes, you know,
they strike again because it's usually repeat offenders, right, Like
a lot of those rape kits probably all tie back
to the same person. And so what happens in a
case like this is that the rape evidence is never
(28:06):
sent to a crime lab, or in some cases it is,
but it's just never tested. So when Angela Simota was killed,
obviously DNA analysis wasn't really a thing. In fact, the
first DNA based conviction took place three years after Angela's
Simota in nineteen eighty seven. Gosh, So in the rape kit,
they had Angela's fingernails, which provided DNA evidence because she
(28:28):
had fought back against her attacker, like digging her nails
into that person's skin. They also had DNA evidence from
semen that was found on the scene, so they had
a lot of stuff to work with now in two
thousand and six.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Right, and then, oh my goodness, lo and behold, they
tested it and they found a match. In the words
of Detective Crumb, we've got them. And in my words
from Hawaii five ozho book them.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Down right, Rachel, Oh yes, I love it. So when
Sheila was told that they got a match, she initially
assumed that it was Angela's neighbor, Russell Buchanan, right, And
she even told the press in an interview I think
before the results came back, that she thought it was Russell,
poor Russell, because he had been the most promising suspect
(29:18):
twenty years prior. But the name of the accused killer
was Donald Bess, a man she'd soon come to call
the beast.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah. So, I mean, by all accounts, this was not
a good person. At the time of Angela Simota's murder,
Best had already been out on parole following a sentence
of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, and then a
year later, in nineteen eighty five, he was convicted of
aggravated rape, aggravated kidnapping, and sexual assault in a completely
(29:49):
different case. So in the two thousands, when he was
connected to Angela Simota, he was already serving a life
sentence for all of those previous convictions.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, and can I just say, I mean I looked
up this person's photo and when I say scary, I
mean truly truly scary, like it spooped me. Anyhow. So
in twenty ten, Sheila drove from Tennessee to Texas for
the trial, and during the trial, a number of women
(30:23):
testified that Bess had sexually assaulted them, and this included
Bess's ex wife, and she said Bess had abused both
her and their children before they divorced in the early seventies.
I mean, this guy was just I don't even have
a word you guys.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, And what's even more disturbing is when Bess walked
into the courtroom, Sheila said, quote, the door opened, and
the only way I can describe it is the room
lost all oxygen. So, just to give you a little
bit of his physical stature, Bess was six feet tall,
(30:59):
about three hundred and fifty pounds, and Sheila said that
he had an empty look in his eyes, and Sheila
also said that she was thinking, this is the last
person who saw Angela alive.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And then it all kind of comes to a head
on June eighth of twenty ten, when Donald Best was
found guilty based on the DNA evidence, which was very conclusive,
and he was then sentenced.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
To death, and Sheila understandably had a horrible and emotional
reaction to all of this, as of course you can imagine,
but she told something to The Washington Post that I
felt was incredibly heartbreaking and super real. She was quoted
as saying, nothing changes. You still have someone who's dead,
(31:49):
You still have someone who murdered her. You still have
a world that's changed. End quote.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, I agree with that sentiment. You know. I think like,
if you've ever lost body in a tragic way, I
think there's this kind of feeling of, you know, resignation
that maybe comes over you. Yeah, it feels like maybe
you're the only person who cares as much about this,
And I'm sure Sheila felt that tenfold. Well. Bess remains
(32:17):
on death row today in Texas, and interestingly, the DNA
evidence used to convict Donald Bess is very similar to
that which was used to convict the Golden State Killer.
This was back in twenty eighteen, I suppose, if you remember,
Joseph James de Angelo killed thirteen people. He was also
(32:38):
convicted of fifty rapes and about one hundred and twenty
burglaries in California, and that was between the mid seventies
through the mid eighties or so, and so just to
quickly refresh, y'all, they used an ancestry database, so they
were able to link together his DNA and other DNA
of like family members and using this kind of like tree,
(33:01):
this like web, they're able to kind of pinpoint one
person who kind of fits. So that's the exact same
thing that they did with best here. But this is
like obviously, you know, essentially ten years prior to the
Golden State Killer. So, hey, cheers to DNA testing.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I guess, yeah, yeah, yes, you know, we've done it.
We had we had some done before our mom passed away. Like,
we have a lot of unanswered questions that we want
to find out more about DNA. But yeah, I think
you can do good things.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
I do too.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
I do too.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, So there's one other thing that I actually want
to bring up that number that Trevor said earlier, about
two hundred thousand, you know, backlogged rape kits, you know,
just sitting out there. It's just mind boggling to me
that this is still a huge problem. Ye, so there
is some good news. So I think some improvements have
(33:52):
started to happen in recent years. States like Washington, Illinois,
and Texas where this crime took place made concentrated efforts
to improve their backlogs. But sadly, there are still thousands
of untested rape kits just sitting on shelves all across
the nation, and along with them, unsolved cases of rape
(34:16):
and murder. So here's to hoping more states take legislative
action in the coming years to address those cases and
finally analyze those kits and get some victims.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Some answers, I couldn't agree with you more. Well, it's
time for our emua, our final message of hope and healing,
and we want to dedicate this emua to the people
out there who are working with steadfast determination against injustice
(34:53):
in their lives.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Shilo Isaki didn't work in law enforcement, but she dedicated
herself to years of hard work and years of constantly
being told no, But in the end, she finally found
justice for her friend.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
And she's still out there today. I mean, apparently she
found her calling as a PI, as a private investigator,
and she's continuing to do the work. You know, she
thought it was going to be a one time thing
to find the killer of her friend, right for Angela.
So bravo to Sheila.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And so if you're working at eradicating in justice somewhere,
this goes out to you. We believe that justice comes
through action, and that action can begin with the efforts
of just one single human being.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And it is our hope that one day those efforts
pay off and you see justice too. Onward and upward, Emua, emua.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, that's our show for today. We'd love to hear
what you thought about today's discussion and if there's a
case that you'd like for us to cover, find us
on social media at Facing Evil Pod or email us
at Facingevil Pod at tenderfoot dot tv until next time.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Aloha.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia Pacquerero in a Vet Schintile,
Matt Frederick and Alex williams Our executive producers on behalf
of iHeartRadio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Donald
Albright in Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
(37:05):
Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
social media or email us at facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV, visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(37:29):
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