On the evening of September 20, 2001, the aunt of Angela Whalen Hudson pulled up to her house outside of Ruffin, North Carolina. Angela, who preferred to be called Angie, had invited her for dinner. Strangely, Angie had not answered any of her aunt’s phone calls that day. Ultimately, the aunt just decided to show up at Angie’s house at the arranged time and expected to be greeted by her apologetic niece. She noticed Angie’s car in the driveway and assumed she was home.
The knocks on Angie’s door were answered, but not by Angie. Instead, her two children greeted the aunt at the door. She asked the children if they knew where Angie was–if anyone knew her whereabouts, it would be them. Unfortunately, their answer added to her confusion. They said that when they returned from school hours earlier, the house was empty. The last time they saw their mother was that morning when she dropped them off at their bus stop. This was concerning, considering the aunt had seen Angie’s car in the driveway.
Feeling unnerved, the aunt walked around the house for any sign of Angie. When the aunt entered the kitchen, she noticed something strange–a half-prepared meal sat on the counter. Her niece had started cooking but was interrupted for reasons unknown. The aunt left the kitchen and cautiously combed through the rest of the house. She found Angie’s purse, jewelry, eyeglasses, and medication–all in their usual places. If Angie purposefully left, she planned to make a quick return.
The situation was alarming, especially considering Angie was in the middle of a messy separation from her husband, Robert Hudson. September 20th was the day of her first scheduled meeting with her divorce attorney. Was that the cause of her absence?
Before her disappearance, Angela Whalen Hudson had tackled a sequence of significant events in her life. In an interview with The Vanished, Angie’s sister Melissa Hopkins described Angie as a “loving person” who, despite her best intentions, constantly ended up in “crappy situations.”
Her ultimate priority was her children and there was nothing she would not do for them. Her dedication was put to the ultimate test when she was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. It was overwhelming at first, but Angie knew she had to be there for her children. She took and reacted well to prescribed medication. Whenever her symptoms became too intense, she left her children in the care of a family member until she felt better.
A few years before Angie’s disappearance, she moved back to her hometown of Danville, Virginia, but not everyone had stood by her side. Her first husband–the father of her children–was absent from her family life. His struggle with substance abuse was to blame. Angie did not want her children around him.
Shortly after resettling in Danville, Angie met Robert Hudson. Robert wasan established cabinet maker and single parent. Like Angie, he had an unbreakable devotion to his children. The two developed a connection and began to date. The relationship seemed like a fresh start, but Melissa and the rest of the family were unsure of Robert. While they supported Angie and her choices, she had a history of entering relationships with abusive men. As a result, her family kept tabs on her whenever she entered a new relationship. According to Melissa, Angie seemed to be aware of this because she only told them “the good parts” of her relationships, because she did not want to draw any concern.
The couple continued to date. Robert eventually proposed, and Angie accepted. They got married in an intimate backyard ceremony, where Angie wore a beautiful white gown and a radiant smile. After the wedding, Robert convinced Angie to move with him to Ruffin (a small town across the border of North Carolina). The house they would live in was ideal for raising a family and even had a shed for Robert to assemble cabinets.
Unfortunately, Angie’s life in Ruffin quickly went awry. Two years into her marriage with Robert, Angie told her family she wanted to both divorce him and obtain a restraining order. She claimed he “wasn’t the person she thought he was” and was physically and emotionally abusive. Above all, Robert blamed Angie’s children rather than himself for their marital problems. The family was devastated for Angie because once again she was not appreciated and respected by the man who married her.
Angie told her aunt how she had documented Robert’s abuse in a collection of journals. In one disturbing instance, Robert had confiscated all of the phones from the house to prevent Angie from calling for help. To maintain contact, she hid an extra home phone in her purse to communicate with those close to her. All of this was recorded in her journals, which, to her knowledge, Robert knew nothing about. She then issued an ominous warning to her aunt and sister; if something terrible were to happen to her, they would need to retrieve the journals.
Despite Angie’s fears, she was determined to improve her situation. She needed to do everything she could to keep herself and her children safe from Robert, even if it meant another divorce.
On August 18th, 2001, Angie filed a restraining order against Robert. The court proceedings began perfectly. Angie gained full custody of her children and was allowed to stay in the house until she could afford to move out. Per the restraining order, Robert was exiled to his son’s trailer, about ten minutes away from the house.
Yet, in a bizarre decision, the judge permitted Robert access to the shed behind the house so he could continue his cabinet-making business. He was allowed on the property between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. This confused and horrified Angie. What was the point of granting a restraining order if he was still allowed near the house? As the family left the courthouse, Robert approached Angie with a chilling threat. He told Angie she would “be out [of the house] before the end of the month.”
The only step left was finalizing the divorce. Angie told her aunt she had hired an attorney and planned to meet with them on September 20th. She then asked her aunt if she could join the family for dinner that same day, to which her aunt happily agreed. However, Angie would never follow through, because when September 20th finally arrived, she disappeared. By the time her aunt arrived, she was gone.
Investigators arrived at Angie’s house and her aunt informed them of the situation. As with all missing person cases, the first step was to establish Angie’s last known whereabouts. Her children were with her that morning when she dropped them off at the bus stop. After kissing them goodbye, Angie walked in the direction of her house. Did something happen to her during her short trip? Investigators questioned everyone who lived near Angie’s walking route and two neighbors said they caught a glimpse of Angie returning home that morning. The half-prepared meal in the kitchen supported their account. The couple also saw Robert walk towards the house shortly after Angie arrived and they did not see either of them leave.
Investigators then questioned Angie’s family and friends, particularly Robert. The timeline of Angie’s return overlapped with Robert’s permitted hours in the shed, so they questioned him first. Robert claimed Angie returned home around 10 a.m., and, despite the restraining order, approached him in the shop, told him she needed to “do something” and left the property on foot. Investigators believed “something” referred to her meeting with her divorce lawyer, but she failed to show up for her appointment.
Melissa, however, quickly informed investigators about Robert’s alleged abuse, the divorce meeting, and Robert’s threat to Angie at the courthouse. To her dismay, her concern did not phase the investigators. They asked Melissa if Angie had any physical or mental health conditions. Melissa told them of her sister’s Bipolar disorder, which she now deeply regrets. “..that guilt still crushes me for saying that, because [the investigator] closed his notebook…and he’s like ‘oh, [Angie] probably just ran off,” Melissa told The Vanished.
After questioning everyone, investigators told Angie’s family they would check her social security number for activity every few months. There would be no search, no investigation, and no further examination of Robert. Despite Angie’s character and circumstances, they firmly believed her Bipolar disorder likely caused her disappearance. Her family tried to tell them that Angie regularly took medication and would contact her family if her symptoms flared up–but they still refused to take any action.
Angie’s family was shocked, angry, confused, and grieving. They knew Angie had not disappeared willingly and the task of finding out what happened to her now rested on them. There were no possible reasons for Angie to run away–she was in the middle of changing her family’s life and would never leave her children.
A few days after Angie’s disappearance, Melissa and her younger sister stopped by the house to collect her belongings–including the journals Angie had mentioned. To their surprise, the house was not empty. Robert’s adult son greeted them at the door and let them inside. When the women approached the house’s deep freezer, he halted them and firmly said nothing of Angie’s was inside. They also learned Robert had sold Angie’s car to an ex-girlfriend shortly after she vanished.
The women sorted through Angie’s belongings and found a few of her notebooks. Were they the journals Angie had spoken about? The women flipped through the pages to find any documentation of Robert’s behavior, but they found nothing. However, they noticed one disturbing detail–several pages had been torn out.
One week after Angie vanished, her best friend reached out to her 15-year-old daughter through a strange phone call. Angie’s best friend told her daughter that Angie was not missing. She had just talked to her earlier that day. Angie’s daughter was stunned and informed the rest of the family of the call. Both the exchange and the woman’s identity were reported to the police. But like before, they did not take any action and the lead went nowhere.
As of February of 2022, there have been no coordinated searches, suspects, theories, persons of interest, or warrants filed in the disappearance of Angela Whalen Hudson.
Melissa Hopkins continues to contact the sheriff’s office but rarely receives a response. In 2018, she told The Vanished how since 2010, all of her emails have been continuously ignored. Nevertheless, she stays hopeful she will find the answer to what happened to her sister. She has her theory–Robert and his children were afraid of Angie taking the house in the divorce (although she told Melissa she had no desire to) and did something that made her disappear as a result.
Despite the overwhelming frustration and grief, those close to Angie recognize who they’re fighting for–a loving, lively, nurturing, and ambitious young mother who would do anything for her family. Time has failed to suppress any memory of Angie and it will stay that way until there are answers.
On the 20th anniversary of Angie’s disappearance, Melissa expressed her frustration on Facebook and claimed Robert Hudson, who has since passed away, had close connections with the local sheriff’s department–which was why there was never an adequate investigation. Above all, she emphasized how wonderful Angie was and how much she meant to everyone around her. It has been 20 years since Angela Whalen Hudson vanished, but those who had the privilege of knowing her to will continue to fight for answers and justice.
If you have any information about Angela Whalen Hudson’s disappearance, please contact the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office 336–634–3238.
