The year was 1991. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie, Part II, was playing in the theaters. Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson were topping the music charts.
20-year-old Angela Hammond was 4 months pregnant and engaged. On the night of April 4, 1991, Angela stopped to use a pay phone at 11:45 p.m. Angela called up her fiance, Rob, and let him know she wasn’t going to meet up with him as she was tired. She was going to head home and go to bed instead.
As they were talking, she noticed a truck driving around the empty parking lot and felt unsettled by it. She told Rob this and Rob stayed on the phone with her, until to his horror, he suddenly heard Angela scream, and the phone went dead.
No one would ever see or hear from Angela again.
Where is Angela Hammond?
Angela Hammond was born in Kansas City, Missouri on February 9, 1971. Her parents- Chris and Marsha, soon decided to move 80 miles south to Clinton, Missouri, to be closer to Marsha’s parents. Shortly after moving to Clinton, they would have a little boy, making Angela a big sister.
Angela was smart and witty, according to everyone who knew her. She was likable, and very popular in school. Angela was also very driven, and everyone who knew her knew she was destined for great things.
When she was 19, she started dating 18-year-old Rob Shafer. Rob was a football star at the same school Angela had attended, and the two of them were the perfect couple. Both popular, smart, funny, and very likable, the two got along great.
In January of 1991, when Angela found out she was pregnant, Rob quickly popped the question and Angela said yes.
Rob’s goal was to join the military, but until then, he worked odd jobs. Angela attended Central Missouri State University during the day and worked evenings at a bank as a processor.
They rented a home together, and while money was tight, they were working hard to get themselves situated and ready for the baby.
On April 4, 1991, Angela and Rob went to a BBQ at the home of Angela’s mother, Marsha. Angela’s parents were now divorced, although the divorce had been amicable.
Around 9:00 pm that evening, Rob left the BBQ to head over to his parent’s house for the evening where he had to babysit his little brother.
Angela went and picked up her best friend and the two drove around and just hung out. At 11:15 pm, Angela dropped her friend off at home and went to a pay phone to call Rob. Angela and Rob didn’t have a home phone at that time, so the nearby payphone was Angela’s only option. Angela was supposed to go over to Rob’s parent’s house that night, but she was feeling so tired, she just wanted to go home and go to bed. That was her reason for calling Rob that night.
Rob of course said that was fine, and they chatted for a bit on the phone. While on the phone, a truck pulled into the empty parking lot and was driving around. Angela told Rob about this truck, and as she was describing it to Rob, the truck pulled out of the lot and drove away.
They talked about how weird that was but didn’t think anything of it. Until a few moments later, the truck returned, this time parking in a parking spot. Soon, a man got out of the truck and went to a phone booth next to the one Angela was in. Again, Angela mentioned this to Rob, but in 1991, everyone used Payphones, so it wasn’t too alarming.
After a brief minute, the man returned to his truck, got a flashlight, and seemed to be looking for something. Angela was starting to feel unsettled by all this and said so to Rob. Rob said maybe the phone he had tried to use wasn’t working and he was waiting for Angela to finish up so he could use the phone she was on.
Rob heard Angela lean out of the phone booth and ask this man if he needed to use the phone, to which he answered, ‘No’. Angela and Rob both started to feel uneasy, so Angela started to describe the man to Rob.
She said he was a white man, wearing overalls and a baseball hat. She said he had a beard and he also appeared very dirty. She had also described the truck to Rob.
Suddenly, Rob heard a blood-curdling scream and realized it was Angela. He then heard the man say, “I didn’t need to use the phone anyway.”
The phone went dead, and Rob ran out of his house, into his car, and drove over to where this payphone was, which was only a few minutes from his parent’s house.
On the way there, he saw a truck coming towards him that fit the description that Angela had given him.
He saw a man driving and noticed a woman in the passenger seat, leaning over the driver and screaming. As he passed, he heard Angela screaming ‘Robbie, Robbie…” trying to get his attention.
Rob quickly pulled a U-Turn and started chasing the truck. He chased the truck for a couple of miles, and when the truck pulled down a side road, Rob attempted to follow, but his vehicle then died.
He could only watch the truck drive away.
In a panic, he jumped out of the car and attempted to run after the truck, but of course, that wasn’t going to work. So he then turned around to head back into town and get help. He flagged down a passing car, and they drove Rob directly to the police station.
Now, the town of Clinton, Missouri is a quiet, small town. The police weren’t quite sure what to think of this story from this young man at midnight. They took his statement, however, and did launch a full search for this truck and this man.
They also worked on drawing up a composite sketch. Rob described a white man, with a baseball hat, beard and mustache, and eyeglasses. In the sketch, the man has no baseball hat and no facial hair at all. When asked about this, the police stated they thought the man could have been wearing a fake beard and mustache, but they didn’t release any additional composites either.
He also described the truck as an older model, a green Ford from the 1960s or 1970s, with some rust and a decal of a fish jumping out of the water on the back window. He also noticed two letters on the license plate- an X and a Y, but the rest of the license plate had been rusty and he wasn’t able to get any additional information.
The search continues for Angela, and Rob himself starts to be a target of the investigation. He does take- and pass– a polygraph, but police find his story very unusual. I can’t disagree, it almost sounds like something out of a movie.
The Clinton police department had one detective on staff. But he was adamant he wanted to find Angela.
The Clinton police did notify Angela’s parents, and in doing so, they began to ask questions about Rob. However, both Angela’s mom and dad insisted that Rob adored Angela and didn’t believe for a second that he could have been involved in something like this.
Eventually, Rob is cleared of any involvement. His vehicle was found abandoned and broken down right where he said it was. They also found Angela’s car in the parking lot near the payphone, her purse still inside.
Witnesses also began to come forward saying that they also saw this green truck, and a woman screaming from inside.
Rob during this time, was frantic and desperate. He was without a doubt, a grieving young man.
State police and the FBI were brought in to assist.
Upon investigation, rumors started to swirl that Angela’s ex-boyfriend, Bill Barker, was possibly involved. People also began to say that the baby was indeed Bill’s, not Rob’s. However, both Bill and Rob adamantly deny this.
Bill also complied and took a polygraph, and he allegedly passed. There was also zero evidence that pointed to Bill.
Angela’s disappearance hit the town hard, as it was a small town community. Volunteers came out to search, and hang flyers, and almost everyone was involved in her search in some way or another.
The Missouri State Police tried to locate the green Ford truck and found over 1,500 possible vehicles listed in their database. Other jurisdictions and officers from all over, came out to help in this case. Law Enforcement took this case very seriously, and yet, no clues were found.
Police began to wonder if there was a link between two other abductions in Missouri — in January 1991, Trudy Darby was working in a convenience store in Mack’s Creek Missouri, when she vanished. The store was robbed. However, Trudy’s body was found in a nearby river. She had been shot twice in the head with a shotgun. It would be her half-brothers Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney that would be later convicted of the robbery and Darby’s rape and murder.
In February 1991 another woman was abducted from a convenience store. Cheryl Ann Kenney, vanished and was never found.
Police would wonder if they were connected, but no evidence would ever be found.
Despite leads that would come in here and there, they would have no clues as to Angela’s whereabouts or what happened to her that night.
Eventually, an informant comes to the police and tells them that the case of the Angela Hammond abduction was a case of mistaken identity.
This informant, in the year 1991, was working as a confidential informant in another case. He also had a daughter named Angela, who bore a striking resemblance to Angela Hammond. He thought that someone, out to attack his own family, was going after his daughter for revenge and instead came across Angela Hammond.
Interestingly, when police investigated they did admit that this other Angela looked very much like Angela Hammond. They were able to corroborate this man’s story, so police do feel this is a very likely scenario. Law Enforcement says it would be a pretty incredible event, however, they feel due to the circumstances, the resemblance between the two girls, and the location- that is very much a possibility.
Angela has been missing for 30 years. And there are still no confirmed answers as to Angela Hammond’s whereabouts.
Angela Hammond is described as a caucasian female, 4’11” inches tall and weighing around 120 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She was also 4 months pregnant. She had curly brown hair and brown eyes, with incredibly perfect teeth and a small scar above her lip. She also wore contact lenses.
If you have any information about Angela Hammond’s disappearance, please call the Clinton Police Department at 660–885–5561.
