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this episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and may not be suitable for everyone please use discretion
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one of the things that makes me laugh all the time and this tells you how old I am
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um we used to back in Dallas there was the street called Forest Lane and you would drive up and down Forest Lane and
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that's when you met boys now can you imagine that today however you stick your head out the
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window I know does it sound ridiculous now I mean I'm sure people are rolling their eyes
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Sheila waisaki was a student at Southern Methodist University SMU in the 80s sometimes for fun she and her friend
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Angela simota would drive around Dallas she had the coolest car it was a Toyota Supra and of course she was adorable and
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so it was great fun being with her because we would meet a lot of people and so we would go the up and down
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Forest Lane how did you meet Angela simota I was just put with her as my freshman roommate I remember I remember
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my freshman roommate um how was yours I mean did you did you well you and Angela no this was totally
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the right match right away it was not the right match right away so um I had to get used to her and she had
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to get used to me and when Angie and I I call her Angie um when she and I were put together she
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came from a very wealthy family I obviously didn't um so we we came from a different
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background Angie had a boyfriend who was always hanging around Sheila couldn't stand him
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she thought he was controlling and so things got off to a pretty Rocky start between the roommates but then after the
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holidays Angie broke up with the boyfriend we just started hanging out and you know it's back in the era of
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disco that was the greatest thing going out and dancing and that was fun and then we
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used to go to a place called the Rio room and the Rio room was a private club that you had to have a membership in
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Angie was very friendly with the gosh I guess they're called bouncers now but he
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would always let us in and we'd hang out and dance and she drank I didn't I still
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don't and so I was the designated driver by the end of their first year they did
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everything together I think back to those days and it was such a short period of my life but it changed it
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completely at the beginning of their sophomore year in the fall of 1984 Angie decided to join a sorority but instead
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of moving into a sorority house she got a condo off campus she'd begun dating an
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older guy his name was Ben and she wanted to be able to see him whenever she wanted
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Sheila kept living in the dorm and on the second weekend of October 1984 she was home visiting her mother in north
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Texas so I was home just got in from a haircut and of course back then we didn't have cell phones and
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the phone was rings I ran in went into my bedroom picked up the phone and on the other line was a sorority sister of
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Angie's and a friend of mine who was crying her words were there's been an accident
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and I immediately thought Angie had a car accident and I said to her where is she what
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hospital is she and my friend kept crying so I knew you know obviously I knew something was wrong because I the next
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question I asked was is she dead and my friend was crying harder so I knew that she was dead
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and one of the things that um Barbara said is that the police needed to talk to me
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I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal tell me about the weekend in October um of 1984.
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that was Texas Oklahoma weekend and what that means is um the football season they have a big in
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Dallas they have this big football game every year it's a huge deal in Texas and
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all the people from Oklahoma come in and all the people from University of Texas
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come in so it was a busy weekend and Angie decided to go out that night and invited one of her friends from
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class and a guy named Russell and Russell was he was older than we were he was more established he was an
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architect he was very soft-spoken guy so they decided to go to the real room they stayed out late and then Angie took
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everyone home first she drove Russell to his apartment next she dropped off her friend at the
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dorm and then she drove over to her boyfriend Ben's house now Ben was supervisor of construction
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company so he was older and when I say older I only mean like two or three years it's not like 50 you know year old
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with a 20 year old so he was probably 28 at that time and he was in charge of a construction
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site and so he didn't go out that night with her because the um you know he had an early morning
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at the construction site so Angie went by his house it was about I would say 30 minutes from
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her apartment and her personality was really kind of funny and teasing and so Ben
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opened the door and she was kind of teasing him about having to stay in and they only talked for a few minutes
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she left he went back to bed she left and then when she came to her apartment she goes upstairs and then there was a
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knock at the door and so she opened the door and um there was a guy at the door who
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um said he needed to use the restroom and um the phone Angie was smart enough to go to her
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telephone and dial Ben and when she dialed Ben he answered the phone he's groggy and he
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wasn't really following I believe she was giving him Clues saying certain things and finally he goes I hear a
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voice who is that and she said some strange man well the phone call between Angie and
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Ben was cut off it it was cut off Ben because the phone because it ended you know and he didn't know what was
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happening he got into his truck and back then we did not have cell phones however
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he had a cell phone because the construction site his literally that phone was as big as a dashboard and so
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he kept dialing the number over and over and of course she never answered [Music]
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on October 13 1984 police found 20 year old Angie samoda dead in her bedroom she'd been fatally stabbed and sexually
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assaulted officers interviewed SMU students who'd been close to Angie trying to piece
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together the events of that night and also to try to get a sense of her life in general students were terrified they
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didn't have a suspect and that's when the rumor started it could be this person or that person and all
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these guys were under suspicion and you wonder is it somebody I know is it somebody I've been with is it somebody
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that you know is a friend of Angie's of mine and who could it be and that gives you a lot of anxiety
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how did you feel about her boyfriend Ben I liked them he was good for her her first boyfriend when we were freshmen
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couldn't stand him he probably is not a fan of mine um but yeah I couldn't stand him Ben was
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respectful um kind of funny so when his name came up as a suspect I was pretty surprised but there's part of
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you that wonders well could it be you went to the police station I did that for being looking back
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and being 21 years old and going into that environment never dealt with the police before
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um it was it's it was a really gross um place to me and I remember going to meet the
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detective in charge and to this day [Applause] still remember the pictures on his desk
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those pictures were of the crime scene I understand that was just an everyday event for the
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police but they were there and there's this one picture that still harms me they showed it in
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the trial too and it's Angie on the bed with her eyes open and there's blood everywhere
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and it was just a picture on the desk to somebody what did you think had happened to her I
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mean when you were what did you think about I certainly had an opinion I thought the
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freshman boyfriend killed her he had pulled a knife on her prior to this he had shredded her clothes I was 100
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convinced that he killed her did the cops suspect the first boyfriend um they did an investigation on them so
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there were four guys that were primary suspects he was one but his alibi uh he was in Amarillo his Alibi
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evidently checked out um and of course Ben was a suspect then Russell Buchanan who had been with Angie
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that night dancing and a fourth guide he had a crush on Angie and he'd leave her
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notes on her car and she was so nice and you have to understand she was in the engineering and computer science
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classes and you didn't have a lot of girls back then in in that field and so she was beautiful she was nice and these
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guys loved her I mean she was such a nice girl so she would get flowers and notes and things and he was a suspect
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just because he left her some love notes how did you first get involved helping the police
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I think because I knew everybody I knew all the players and you know I could ask questions and talk
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to people and I remember when it really started was I was on the phone with the detective
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and I said I just have an uneasy feeling when I talked to this person and he goes
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well let's explore that so we did and I would meet the lead Detective at bars which is hilarious since I don't
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drink but I don't know if he's just you know said I need your help because I don't really think
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they needed it well they did need it I think that he just used me as a resource so how it worked is
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um he had me ask questions so I would go to dinner with Russell asked him questions about you know that night and
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compare it to what he told the police now the police were convinced that Russell
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did it and I was told that you know a semen matched his he failed the lie detector test they
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believe they have their guy and when I had dinner with them at August Moon thinking I'm sitting with a murderer his
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story matched what he said before but let me just wait a second you're 21 and you're sit I mean I would be terrified
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to have dinner with this guy I would say my mother has never been was never madder than that moment and I just
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thought somebody's got to do it did the police tell you what to ask yes I'm not smart I was definitely not smart
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enough to know what to ask um and so I asked what they wanted to know I mean were you I
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know after me if he if he said I'm snooping around here we went to a public area
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the only mistake I made is he drove that was probably not the wisest thing thinking back but yeah I the whole time
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I didn't eat I sort of ate and just watching him everything that it was doing is
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body language if he's the bad guy and you know I'm I really thought he was the murderer
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the Dallas Police it's just you I mean it's in the 80s well but it's not 1880 you know I mean I
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never questioned I had such a high regard for the police that I would never question anything they asked or did
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the police questioned Russell repeatedly but they never charged him they just didn't have enough eventually the
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investigation seemed to fizzle out and then Russell started graduate school in London so you know I'm being told he
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fled the country I also was told that he lawyered up and in Texas back in the 80s
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the uh famous attorney was racehorse Haynes they told me that he has racehorse Haynes as the attorney
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which meant he was guilty you only get racehorse hands if you're guilty evidently
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why did they stop investigating I have no idea well actually I do I think they felt like Russell did it
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and they were going to go after him and if he didn't do something um they didn't have a case
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leaving school she just couldn't handle being on campus she stayed close with her friends and
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with Angie's sorority sisters and she'd meet up with Ben from time to time and then she started dating the man who
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would become her husband my husband fit into the group he was he's a solid grounded
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guy he's an accountant so um probably boring to a lot of people but everything to me
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they got married they moved to Tennessee and had two boys and Sheila decided she
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wanted to stay home to raise them when the boys got old enough to both be in school during the day
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she suddenly had a lot of time to herself so I decided in the South what do you do
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when you have extra time you start you go to a Bible study and that's what I did I went to a Beth Moore Bible study
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at a church with some friends of mine and we were studying Daniel so I was at in my bed
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trying to get through the homework and I was laying back oh gosh I was laying back and
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I looked to the right and understand when I was laying back it could be and been the you know dream
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state or it could have been whatever I just know what I saw I saw Angie next to my bed
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and that was it it was probably a second or it could have been five seconds but it was a moment
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and it was gone and I leaned over picked up the phone because I knew it I knew she wanted me to call the Dallas Police
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and I did I knew it was time I knew it was time and it was [Music] [Music] 20 years had passed since Angie's murder
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and Sheila decided she wanted some answers what did you say to the Dallas Police
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when I started calling they did not have a cold case division at all and they were working the current cases
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they had no desire to talk to me at all and I was like I'm just gonna keep calling until I get somebody who will at
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least do something pull the record look at it so yes I had the Personnel I have the personality of I'm
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gonna keep trying so how often how frequently would you call the Dallas Police you know I know
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um how often over a period of time it wasn't it was like 700 and maybe 750 800 phone calls it wasn't you know it was
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over a Year's period of time so it wasn't every single day it's just whenever I felt like it now we had cell
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phones it was really easy to pick up the kids and get on the phone and when you would call would you say hey wait a
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second you guys dropped the ball what are you gonna do what are you gonna do about this no I would never say that
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um no I I think it was more of a begging I I just wanted someone to do something
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right for her [Music] I was told that not one person had called to 20 years [Music]
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and I thought gosh you deserved better than that [Music] foreign she kept trying over and over and
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getting nowhere years later one of the homicide detectives told her they'd given her a
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nickname they said we call you Peta pain in the ass and he said probably every time you called they would say who wants
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to take this Pita you know and I I'm sure it's true I'm sure it was kind of who are we gonna
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um get to talk to her today and one day I had a cookie exchange at my house and then we went to the club afterwards and
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I got a call back from this police officer from the Dallas Police Department can't tell you how exciting that was to
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me because that guy was a rookie which is hilarious and he said that oh no they do have some things from that file and
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he I asked him a bunch of questions got the answers and it was one of those great moments I knew
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they had it I asked him one thing he goes oh I have to ask my sergeant hang on and I was
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like no don't go ask anybody just don't even worry about it you know and he goes
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oh I'll call you back never heard from him again and when I was blown off numerous times
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I lived at that point in a gated guarded Community that's one of the byproducts of Angie's death I like living in a
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gated garter community and I was telling the head of security how the it became a joke between us of
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you know how the police were blowing me off and one day he said you know I'll sponsor you if you want to become a
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private investigator you'd be great and that's how it started and I did and he mentored me for a long time
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because you thought that if you were a private investigator that cops the police would have to show you
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all the records I got my PI license in order for them to have to deal with me I mean how does someone become a private
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investigator back then it wasn't like it is today um you had to you know work under
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somebody you had to be sponsored by somebody you had to take a test which I acted like it was a Harvard entrance
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exam and one of the things my oldest son did was he would read me all the laws so
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I could memorize them and take the test we would sit on the couch at night and he would read it to me and my youngest
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to this day still remembers it um and asked me questions and so I took it and passed the test
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and started working with these guys um the security guys so I learned things that weren't necessarily what I wanted
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to do like the cheating spouse thing and the you know just a whole bunch of stuff
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and in the background the whole time were you thinking about Angie's case that's the only case I cared about
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so what did you do on your own to start investigating so I went back to the beginning of what
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we remember and what I remembered my son called did a war room it wasn't a war room it was pictures and you know where
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people were and it was it was very messy and you know I mean is this what we see
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on TV these pictures of people with little pieces of string drawn from pinpoints on a map and
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um yes but no I didn't have the string but I did go back to the rate because we had the internet which is the greatest
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gift um I did go back to figure out the rapes in the area and how many were reported
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and if there was a pattern were you also now calling the Dallas Police and saying
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listen I'm a private investigator I need some information so yes I called him and I thought oh my
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gosh it's the heavens are going to open and they're going to be so excited oh my
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gosh they so weren't by now she's been pressuring the Dallas Police for five years
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and then Sheila finally got a detective to take her seriously and dig up the evidence from Angie's case
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the detective's name was Linda Crum and when she called me and we had her first conversation I knew she was the right
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person and she was so she told me not only did they have the file and the evidence they had the
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semen they had the fingernail scrapings they had it all every freaking bit of it
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Sheila asked about DNA testing something they couldn't have done 20 years before
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you know the OJ case had happened when my youngest was born I remember actually nursing him listening to what
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this thing called DNA was and trying to figure it out thinking oh I can use this
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in our case we've just gotta you know I had no idea what DNA was back then and so with the semen I knew we had DNA
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and it took about a year to get the DNA back and what did the DNA show well I'll tell you that phone call came
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in and she said it said they got him and the next words I was thinking was going to be Russell Buchanan because
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that's who I all these years had had bad feelings towards he was the bad guy and
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it wasn't him she said Donald Bess and I'm like who the heck is Donald bass I had no idea and I'm going through my
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mind going Donald bass was he in a fraternity was he on our you know Sister floor who is he could not place them for
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anything I'll tell you I didn't believe him I was like they screwed up my initial reaction was oh my gosh
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something's wrong here they must have messed up the DNA and I start asking the detective you know
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how she knew it was him and the match was like one to one billion that it was him I don't remember the exact numbers
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but um I did call the DA's office and talked to the assistant ta to ask him are you sure that's the guy
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are you sure that was the right evidence because all these years I was told the evidence was you know not there are you
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sure you got the right guy Donald best was a convicted rapist who was out on parole in 1984 when he
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attacked Angie by the time Sheila and detective crumb figured out it was him he'd been
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convicted of another attack and was serving life in prison he would not talk to the female
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investigator because he quote thinks all women are [ __ ] and so he did talk to the male
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investigator and one of the things that I thought was so ironic you have a female investigator you have this great
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female woman who did the autopsy and myself and these women did it Sheila and her oldest son drove 650
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miles from Nashville to Dallas for the trial and I remember getting there he's my son's sitting next to me
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and Donald best walks into the room Donald Bass was this Beast of human being and
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I remember it was like the oxygen in the entire room was sucked out he um sits down
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and I could not breathe Angie's family and friends were all in the courtroom the lawyers defending Donald Bess
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insinuated that Angie was somehow responsible for what had happened to her and they trashed Angie's character and
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reputation it was disgusting to me she was a tease she was this she was that I mean it was
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you know they brought in what she was wearing that night and it's it was a beautiful outfit
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um but it was revealing I mean back in those days standard is probably something you can wear every day now but
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you know from the 80s it was pretty revealing it was her fault basically the jury deliberated for less than an
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hour Donald Bess was convicted and sentenced to death why did you think that you could do this
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become a private investigator solve the case I didn't but I had to try she deserved it
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you now have your own firm what's it called without warning private investigation
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and how many cases have you done I was retiring my license after Angie's case because I that's the only case I cared
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about and I was approached numerous times from these families who are going through the same thing and I thought oh
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I'll just help this family and then it started to grow from there and as we're speaking right now I'll have a
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call sometime this week from another family I get hundreds sometimes thousands of people contacting me so I
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started working one by one cases I don't have 400 cases I take I used to take one a year I have five
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right now and you only do cold cases I only do cold cases murder cases yes I'm thinking about these women in your
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Bible study group um what do they have to say about your new career um okay so I'm not really invited to a
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lot of the Fufu girl things because I don't have a lot I don't have a lot in common with that anymore
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um I don't even do my cookie exchange anymore she's currently investigating a case
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from 2015. a woman's body was found by fishermen in a Cove in Tennessee it was labeled an accident but Sheila
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doesn't think it was [Music] in our next episode we'll go to Nashville to Shadow Sheila as she
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investigates the case [Music] criminal is produced by Lauren Spore Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Rob
00:32:42
Byers Matilda or fellino is our intern Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of
00:32:49
Criminal you can see them at thisiscriminal.com where on Facebook and Twitter at criminal show Criminal is
00:32:57
recorded in the studios of North Carolina public radio wunc we're a proud member of radiotopia from PRX a
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collection of the best podcasts around shows like Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything The Theory of Everything is a
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00:33:28
the phone goes and I grabbed my phone and see my entire life flash before my eyes
00:33:39
I was amazed with myself that I could believe that it was real for the record you like this guy you like our president
00:33:46
listen I can relate them because I you know as a stripper you know you come into the world of fantasy and I'm like
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oh yes I'm gonna give you this I'm gonna give you that and then you give me money
00:33:55
and I run away and then the alarm started going off on the television like the buzzer this is
00:34:01
not a take immediately go listen special thanks to adzerk for providing their ad serving platform to radiotopia
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I'm Phoebe church this is Grandma foreign [Laughter] [Music]