Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 34-The Unsolved Disappearance of Angela Freeman
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The disappearance of Angela Freeman stops you cold—a pregnant teenager vanishes after a late-night argument, leaving behind nothing but her abandoned car, an uncashed paycheck, and a trail of blood near Monet Bridge. Most disturbing wasn't just her disappearance, but how thoroughly local law enforcement botched the investigation from the start.
When Angela's uncle discovered her prized Honda Accord with doors ajar near the bridge she always feared, Perry County officers dismissed what was clearly blood beside the car as "transmission fluid." They refused search dogs, declined help from neighboring agencies, and told her frantic mother this was simply "a case of a girl who lost her car." Only after media involvement did authorities finally take action, revealing Angela's blood-soaked shoes scattered near the bridge and evidence someone had entered the nearby river.
Three decades later, multiple questions remain. Was it her ex-boyfriend Stephen, last seen arguing with her at 1AM? Her mother's racist boyfriend who'd taken out a life insurance policy on Angela weeks earlier? Or someone connected to the complicated love triangle involving her friend's boyfriend? While jurisdictional failures and evidence mishandling have complicated the case, Angela's family continues fighting for justice, particularly her brother Nicholas who keeps her memory alive through music and advocacy.
This case serves as a haunting reminder of how crucial those initial investigative hours are—and what happens when those tasked with finding justice fail their most vulnerable citizens. If you have information about Angela Freeman's disappearance, please contact the authorities. Some secrets can't remain buried forever, even in the shadows of Monet Bridge.
Source Material:
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/mother-brother-looking-answers-25-years-after-pregnant-mississippi-teen-n912151
NBCUniversal Profile
Sept. 21, 2018, 9:33 PM CDT
By Juliet Muir
By Will Polston
Published: Sep. 11, 2022 at 11:35 PM CDT
https://www.wdam.com/2022/09/12/29-years-later-angela-freeman-case-remains-open/
https://www.wjtv.com/news/in-depth-reports/missing-angela-freeman-last-seen-in-petal-28-years-ago/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Angela_Freeman
Angela Freeman's Disappearance Introduction
Speaker 1A pregnant Mississippi teen vanishes after a late-night meeting, leaving behind a family desperate for answers. A cold case riddled with unanswered questions and a trail of blood. This is Hold my Sweet Tea. Thank you, hey, everybody.
Speaker 2I'm Holly and I'm Pearl and we have the giggles and we're catering to our Mississippi listeners once again. Yes, I told you guys, we keep bouncing around Mississippi, louisiana, mississippi, louisiana, mississippi.
Speaker 1But we find good cases and we need to cover them.
Speaker 2So back in the sip, little sip in the sip, yep, sip and tea in the sip. Oh, there we go. New logo. Look, it's a. What is that? A spinoff. There we go. Sip and tea and the sip.
Speaker 1Alright, so are we? Today's episode's like really really long for me and I say that a lot, but yeah.
Speaker 2We'll see how long it is. Yeah, and I apologize in advance if anyone hears. Did you hear your stomach growling? Yep, it just did it a minute ago while you were talking, so I just don't want it to be. You know, like, what is that noise? I have something growling in the background.
Speaker 1It's just Pearl's stomach, it's fine, I'm just hungry. You should have got a snack. I ate a snack. I brought my snackle box today.
Speaker 2Snack's not enough. I've burned too many calories. The snack's not helping Right.
Speaker 1We've been hitting our step goals here lately.
Speaker 2A lot.
Speaker 1A lot, so I guess we're going to jump into today's story. It's about Angela Freeman out of Petal Mississippi. So have you ever thought about the last time you said goodbye or an out-the-door I love you to someone that was close to you and then you just never seen them again, like you don't remember those things when you you know it's just a happy thing, like hey, okay, bye, or I love you and you're out the door, and then tragedy happens that's the.
Speaker 2That's the reason. Sometimes I go back in the house and go oh, I didn't say it let me go say it real quick.
Speaker 1I will too, because I'm like, just in case I don't live today because I mean, really it's like it's, it's chilling, you never know and you're like, okay, bye, see you later. And then that was like a promise of a return that just never materializes, because something happened and it was tragic like it's crazy. Well, today's cold case involves, like I said, angela Freeman, a 17-year-old with dreams, a job and a baby on the way. So our story starts out in Petal, mississippi, september of 1993. I was just out of high school and like doing my thing.
Speaker 2I was 13. 13?. 13. I was 13. 13?
Speaker 113. So Petal, it's a quiet town. Ordinary Wednesday that quickly, you know, turned into an endearing mystery. Petal itself is considered a friendly city. Like I've been through there before, it's really nice and it's just three miles north of Hattiesburg, so it's just a small community. They pride themselves on being a nice city, which is cool. Everybody there is just like it's a hometown kind of place. They're just very polite and southern hospitality, sure Hospitality.
Speaker 2I always say that's the places where the really nasty crap happens.
Speaker 1Yes, they're lurking in the shadows, that's right.
Speaker 1You guys put on a good front for the bad guys, right, but 17-year-old Angela Freeman was very close with her mother, deborah Freeman, who was young when she had Angela, just 17 herself. Like I said, apple tree, like it kind of happened, just just like that. And I've known people like that. They've had a kid young and then all of a sudden, at the same age, they're having a baby I. Then all of a sudden, at the same age, they're having a baby I was born when my mom was 23 and so was aiden.
Speaker 2Yeah, so you're like oh, I did the same thing. I had a baby same age as my mommy.
Speaker 1Yeah, so, but angela's father. He was not involved in their lives. Deborah was just 16, and still in high school, when she got pregnant with Angela by a significantly older married man. Oh so, deborah being the sweetheart that she was, she didn't want to stir up any trouble or disrupt his family life, so she kept the pregnancy to herself. Girl, this man, you're 16 and he's a married, older man with kids. No, no, no, no, no. Even though she would like see him around town with his family, and he could obviously see that she was pregnant, he still never like approached her and was like is that mine, like of?
Speaker 1course not Right. Why would he? You're not going to say anything. Okay, do a little. Do a little lock lip thing, throw that key away, you know. So, you know, angela was born Deborah, and Angela lived with Deborah's parents and grandparents. There was a lot of them in the house, but she had a good support system and she was able to finish high school, which was great. She always had somebody there to, you know, watch Angela when she needed to study or do something. So that was. That was really awesome. At the age of 21,orah married her first husband and had moved her and angela out. Not long after, deborah became pregnant and she had nicholas, but sadly her husband was a raving abusive alcoholic. Oh no, so you know, a few years later she took her kids and she left, divorcing him, never looking back Like she was gone. She was like I'm out of here, I'm not dealing with this, you're not going to abuse my children. Good job, we're not going to be around here.
Speaker 2Good job.
Speaker 1Debra. Yes, so Angela, her mother Debra and her younger brother Nicholas had a bond like no other. It was, you know, they were ride or die. They were all together, they were family. They didn't need anybody else disrupting their family at all.
Speaker 2It was them Makes sense. Yes, I mean you kind of forge that Trauma bond yeah.
Speaker 1And Angela and Nicholas. Brother and sister. They were best friends. He said of his big sister sister like she was my big sister and she never let anybody mess with me, like she would beat somebody down if they tried to mess with her little brother.
Angela's Challenging Family Background
Speaker 2I was like that with chicken voldemort the voldemort.
Speaker 1I was like that's, that's my.
Speaker 2I get to beat him up, but nobody else can right.
Speaker 1That's my, just me you beat him up, but nobody else can Right, that's mine, just me. You beat him up, I'm going to beat you up, that's right. Don't touch him Right. Angela was very active and a rough and tumble little girl. She was adventurous and not afraid to take on a challenge. On the other hand, she was also a very girly girl. She loved clothes and makeup and shoes and jewelry.
Speaker 2She never left the house unless she was done up to the nines that's funny.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was like a tomboy, but she was like also that and she was also cute, right, she was a cute tomboy and, like everybody said, like she had a heart of gold.
Speaker 1I know a lot of people like will describe people as like, oh, like you know, always smiling da da da, but they were really like this girl had a heart of gold. She would do anything for anyone if they asked her to. So as she approached her teenage years, she, like most teenage girls, took on a bit of an attitude, of course. Of course she got a bit of a chip on her shoulder and started thinking that she was grown and nobody was going to tell her what to do, as most teenage girls do.
Speaker 2Well, I was going to say, as most teenagers in general yeah, teenagers, yeah.
Speaker 1But this didn't fly with Debra and they began to butt heads with Deborah. And they began to butt heads so Angela was sneaking out lying dating boys smoking cigarettes. Her mother would not approve of these boys that she was like seeing at all and Deborah got so desperate she sent Angela to like this two week. They called it a brat camp, where they teach them things on how to cope with things and learn a little respect and everything. So send her away from that. It worked for a short time, but after about a month she was right back to her old self Around. This time Debra began dating a man named Bill. Angela and Bill clashed almost immediately, like he didn't like the way she was acting and she didn't want to be told what to do about some man that was not her father.
Speaker 1Right, you're not my dad, that's exactly what I was going to say you can't tell me what to do You're not my dad.
Speaker 1Exactly so, he, and he was much older than Debra and set in his ways, so she seems to like older men all around, and he was very strict and authoritarian with his expectations of Deborah's children. Angela was not having it. She's like mm-mm, you're not going to do that. I don't care, right, I'll do what I want. Angela seemed to follow her mother's footsteps like, like I said, to a t apple tree. She began seeing a guy named she was 16. She began seeing a guy named steven who was 22 years old I got nothing to say to that.
Speaker 2yeah, yeah, because 17 and 23.
Speaker 1Yeah. So there we go. It was an off and on again relationship, with lots of arguments and drama. During the end of her sophomore year in high school, though, angela was like I'm done with school, I know everything, I'm dropping out, of course, they know everything, right. So she did promise her mother. She was like I'm going to get my GED and I want to go to school for, like, nursing radiology. That's what she wanted to do. She was a headstrong girl and she was a hard worker, though that's good, and I looked up her birthday she's an Aquarius. So there you go. If anybody you know listen, like, follows astrology and everything and relates, yeah, she's going to do her own thing. That's the Aquarius way, and she thinks God, complex, independence, yep, there you go, it is the thing.
Speaker 2Ask my moon.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, your Aquarius moon. There you go. She had a job at Burger King and briefly moved in with a friend named Ruby because she was like I can't take any more of this, I'm, I'm dropping out, I'm gonna go get my GED, I can't live with Bill anymore. So she moved in with Ruby and Ruby's boyfriend, larry. So now their living arrangements went on. Angela, ruby and Ruby's boyfriend Larry found themselves in a sort of entanglement.
Speaker 2Oh.
Speaker 1She was still what? What kind of entanglement do you say? She was still on and off again with steven, the 22 year old. Okay, but when she and larry would find themselves alone sometimes, well, they started messing around. What girl? Girl, this is your friend, ruby's boyfriend, larry. Why are you messing with Larry and you got Steven over here?
Speaker 2I mean, that's just like not cool. Not girl code, that's not cool.
Speaker 1No, no, ruby going to come home and kick your ass, and ass kicking was not there, but Ruby eventually found out and that just immediately ended Angela and and ruby's friendship, of course. So this forced her to move back with her mom and bill and bill's rules for his house she was like yeah, bitch, right, get out, you slap a lorry Lorry.
Speaker 1Oh, no, oh, not my lorry. So when she moved back with Debra and Bill, like this arrangement would not last long because, like she, she couldn't have it. So in May of 1993, angela found out that she was pregnant. Now she was ecstatic. She loved babies. But who's the daddy? But that was my next line. But who was the baby daddy? So there was an overlap at the time of conception, with Stephen and Larry, of course, but this is where you know, and she told her mom and Bill about this. It could be this one or that one, but this is where Bill becomes a huge problem.
Speaker 2He said, let's call Maury.
The Day Angela Vanished
Speaker 1While, angela being a white girl, larry was black bull. Like bill went full-on, racist piece of shit, oh lovely. There were even rumors that he was leading a branch of the kkk. I'm not sure if this was true or not, but he like popped off racist bullshit out of his mouth and he wasn't having it. So this turned the house into a war zone. Like yeah, yeah, world war three.
Speaker 2Like completely sound, yeah yeah, we don't play that game?
Speaker 1no, not at all. So angela wasn't. She was like I done I can't live here. So she had to formulate some kind of plan, you know Right. So she got a better job than Burger King. She started working at a job in Hattiesburg at Crystal's Restaurant, and made friends with a girl named Paula. So they decided to get a place together.
Speaker 2Paula, don't bring your boyfriend home.
Speaker 1Yeah, don't bring your boyfriend home. I mean, she's already pregnant, but still, you see what Lori went through.
Speaker 2Well, she can't get pregnant again, right? So there you go.
Speaker 1So this is a huge weight lifted off her shoulder. She was like, okay, I've got a better job, I have a place to live, paula and I are getting a place to live, I'm going to save my money. And I'm going to save my money and, like, I'm going to prep and get ready to move out and then we'll deal with everything that comes my way. So her life was started moving in a good direction. So this was in May, about five months later, september 8th of 1993.
Speaker 1It started out like any other day, just an ordinary blah, an eventful day. She was like packing some stuff still, because she had moved some stuff over to their place, but she was still living with her mom and Bill, so they were trying to—she was trying to get things together. Paula was like, hey, do you want to come over to the new place and we can go do some shopping and and stuff and then we'll just sleep here for the night. And you, because she had like an appointment the next day. Angela did so. She's like, yeah, absolutely so. She gathered up some more of her things and on the way out the door, she like was going out and she like came back in and she's like told her mom, she's like bye, and she's like I love you, and then ran out the door. This would be the last time Deborah would see her daughter alive.
Speaker 1So Paula. On the other hand, she last saw Angela the following afternoon, on Tuesday or Thursday, I'm sorry, august 9th when she invited her to run some other errands and then go visit her family. But Angela was like hey, I've got this OBGYN appointment because I'm five months along. When she invited her to run some other errands and then go visit her family, but Angela was like hey, I've got this OBGYN appointment because I'm five months along, I have to go to this. She's like oh, yeah, okay, that's fine. She's like I'll see you this evening at home, because they were planning on spending the night again. And then when Paula returned that evening, angela was nowhere to be found. She did leave a note, though. She was like hey, can you leave the latch lock undone? I guess it was one of those ones that swing shut, so if you try to open the door, it catches.
Speaker 2Yeah, kind of like they have in hotel rooms.
Speaker 1So she's like, hey, can you leave that undone? And she's like I'll be back tonight. So Paula was like cool done, and Paula went to bed. The Paula went to bed. The last sighting of Angela alive took place outside of a pizza hut around 1 am on August 10th. She was seen speaking to her ex Stephen Lindy, but they weren't just speaking, they were arguing. So one o'clock in the morning in a pizza hut parking lot arguing.
Speaker 2I'm sure all the yucky body language.
Speaker 1Yeah, ugh, that, like somebody had I guess had drove by and they were like no, I seen her out here. It was like 1 am and she was out there arguing and stuff. Mm-hmm, it took almost 12 hours after that for someone to notice that she was missing. Yeah, but also this was like the early 90s there were pagers but not cell phones and things like. I mean, there were cell phones but like they weren't, everybody didn't have them. Yeah no, they didn't fit in your pocket.
Speaker 1There was no Life 360, you know, right so people, just kind of, and she was the type of person that she was just in and out of places all the time, here and there popping up.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I mean I the time here and there popping up, yeah, and I mean I would yeah assume paula's like, oh well, maybe she just went back to her mom's or and her mom's like thinking she's supposed to be over there, she's over there so I mean nobody knows until you talk to each other right somewhere and she's like, oh hey, I've been over here or something you know, and they're
Speaker 1like oh, we haven't heard from you in like 12 hours. Okay, angela's uncle randy was going to see his girlfriend and this was deborah's brother randy. He passed by the monet bridge area and he noticed angela's car parked out there. It was a 1984 gray honda accord. You know, he knew what it was, it was a hatchback and everything and he's like that's angela's car and this car was like her pride and joy, as most first cars are, I'm sure, because mine was. It was a pos, but it's important. It's my pride and joy.
Speaker 2I loved it until it's your escape from everywhere.
Speaker 1Exactly, exactly. So he really like he saw it, but he's like he really didn't give the situation too much thought because the bridge and the area around it was a frequent place for making out. While seeing the car, randy just kind of chuckled to himself, shook his head and went on. Car Randy just kind of chuckled to himself, shook his head and went on. So later that day he drove back past the same area coming home and, much to his surprise, angela's car hadn't moved. It was still sitting in the same spot. So at this point he was like, um, something's not right, what the hell?
Speaker 2What the hell, randy, hail Randy. He needs to get out and check it. He did, he checked it.
Speaker 1Check it, randy. He pulled over, got out, put his hand on the hood to see whether it was warm or had been driven recently Ice cold. It's been sitting there all day, yeah, all day, yeah. And not only that, all the doors were open, except for the back passenger door was shut, but it was parked where there was some tall grass, so grass was like shut in the door. Oh, so whoever shut that door shut grass in the door? Kind of weird. Hmm, yeah, he's like A little odd. Okay, grass in the door kind of weird. Yeah, he's like a little odd. Okay, at this point he was like all right, I need to call deborah and find out where angela's at. This is weird again.
Speaker 2No, cell phones have to go to a pay phone, I'm sure my first thought would have been like okay, this is so odd, I'm gonna call the cops, yeah.
Speaker 1But okay, back. You know, it was a nice city, a nice town, but this was in, not in Petal, so this was about 30 minutes away. So he immediately began trying to contact Debra to see if, by chance, she had any kind of earthly idea what was going on. Frustrated though, Debra was at work and this was early 90s, like I said, and cell phones weren't readily available. So he had to wait till Nicholas to get home from school. And you know, he finally walked in and then the phone's like ringing off the hook and he answers it and he was like no, mom's not here, she's at work, and Angela's I don't know wherever.
Speaker 2She hasn't been here in days His mom got home.
Speaker 1He told her he was like hey, Uncle Randy called Angela's car's parked over by the Monette Bridge, Whatever. So mom, Mama Bear, sprang into action. She was like boom, where's my daughter? She immediately started calling anyone and everyone that she could possibly think of, hoping that by some miracle she would be able to do it quickly and track down Angela. She called Angela's friends, members of their family, Angela's grandparents. She even called Stephen, Even Stephen.
Speaker 2Even Stephen even steven.
Speaker 1Even steven hoping that maybe angela as much as she didn't want to be with, but hoping that he was. She was with him, you know. But no matter who she called where she looked, nothing, no clues, nothing. Deborah was frantic and as she should have been, and feeling as though she had exhausted all other options. And I guess this was like you, think back, like you didn't immediately call the police when, something like that, you had to track down your kid well, that and because of the whole, oh, they have to be missing this long right right she's this age and she was a butthole yeah, she's just an angsty teen.
Speaker 1She'll come back, blah, blah, blah, she'll come back blah, blah, blah, you know whatever.
Police Mishandling the Investigation
Speaker 1She finally was like, okay, I need to call the police. So, because Angela's car was found in a different jurisdiction than the one she lived, eventually, like this case became like the biggest cluster beep that were like city, state, county, like like everybody ended up having their hands in this mix Perry County, forest County, petal, hattiesburg, all of them. We're going back up though where Deborah like initially called the Perry County Police I think they were the biggest issue, the Perry County Police. So she explained the situation and asked them to meet her out by Angela's car. Now Perry County office is located five miles from the bridge, like 10 minute car ride. Deborah, on the other hand, is coming from Petal, half hour away. So Deborah gets there no police, nobody at all. She beat gets there no police, nobody At all. She beat the police to the bridge, she wins the race. So she sat there an additional 30 minutes waiting, oh my God. So then she had to leave, go find a pay phone and call the police again.
Speaker 2Be like why hasn't anybody come out here?
Speaker 1To actually get them out there right, and they still took their sweet ass time. So we're really like already not off to a good start with this case. Like that's a damn shame. It's very clear here that throughout the rest of this story that this investigation was not considered a priority by any of the agencies involved until Until it was too late. And sadly, once they did finally show up to the scene, they were about as nonchalant as one could possibly be. They didn't mark off the crime scene, they didn't secure Angela's vehicle, nothing.
Speaker 2Lord, yeah, lord.
Speaker 1Yeah, there was not a single member of law enforcement on that scene that day. That felt as though this missing pregnant teenage girl was a matter of importance at all. That's really sad, yeah, and it's 1993. It's not like it's, you know, back in the 40s or something Right.
Speaker 2I was going to say or even the 80s at that point, yeah, even the 80s, Like 1993.
Speaker 1They clearly did not view this scene as a crime scene Like at all, Because they basically refused to believe that a crime of any sort had taken place there and wrote Angela's disappearance off immediately as a A runaway, run away. Yeah, she's not a missing person, she's a runaway. Yeah, she's not a missing person, she's a runaway. She's a teenage angsty girl who ran away.
Speaker 2She part of the Soul Asylum's runaway train video.
Speaker 1Run away, there we go. That song used to get stuck in your head Like they, you know they put it out like twice with different ones, yeah, which is awesome.
Speaker 2There was a lot of found children from that actually.
Speaker 1Maybe they should do a remake.
Speaker 2Maybe they should. That would be awesome, like help out, find some of these missing kids again.
Speaker 1Put them out there. So let's let's start with Angela's car. This was very likely one of the last places that she was ever alive, of course, because she drove there in it, so she was in there. Something happened. So I already mentioned that, like the police didn't initially make it a point to secure it, which I mean it's like bad enough, but they also didn't even bother to check the inside or outside for evidence Nothing, they just shut the doors and they told Debra that she could drive it home whenever she wanted to, where the keys were in it Mm-hmm, oh.
Speaker 1So what about potential evidence?
Speaker 2Yeah, don't worry though also not suspicious at all that the keys are in the car, but she's still nowhere to be found exactly because they didn't process any of, they didn't even look at it.
Speaker 1Nothing, gee. But don't worry about the evidence, because the sheriff gave her a handkerchief to cover the manual shifter while she drove it home to prevent her from disturbing anything too much well, that handkerchief's gonna smudge wipe off whatever right also whoever drove its fingerprints, because that would have been one of the steering wheel, and that yeah what, and if you think that's bad, just wait. Like how did you?
Speaker 2get your job, sir.
Speaker 1I was like you know what I want to do? I want to be a sheriff one day. All right, come on, we got you, do I need to go to class? No?
Speaker 2No, you're Joe Bob's cousin. Right, you're fine, you're family, you don't need to learn anything.
Speaker 1Learning is for dummies.
Speaker 2Oh my God, I mean they're really like, all jokes aside, there really has to be some good old boy bullshit happening.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, that's what I said. It gets even worse. So word started spreading while they were there, you know, trying to get the car, trying to get the cops to like do something. So you know, people started hearing about Angela's disappearance, how her car had been found abandoned. People started coming out to support Debra and see if there was anything they could do to help. Near the bridge. Don't touch anything Like very nice of them, but in this instant instant it wasn't great, considering that the police had decided not to block off any sort of area for evidence, for investigation at all. Nevertheless, though, one of the people who came out to see deborah and to see if, potentially, there was anything they could do to help, like while they were there, if she needed it, was her other brother, roger Randy, and Roger Roger he worked by at the nearby airport. So he heard and he's like I'm getting off, I'm coming, I'll be there, okay.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1But he had also recently wrapped up his own time in the police academy.
Speaker 2So does Roger have some sense?
Speaker 1Yes, Roger has sense, thank the Lord. So while he hadn't got a job in the field yet, one could say that procedures and protocol and by-the-book stuff were fresh in his mind, indeed, and not just like she's a runawayaway, we don't want to deal with this, that costs money, whatever. He wasn't getting in the way or he wasn't trying to act like he had authority. He was just like looking through things, like looking he's like to a different lens. I'm gonna, I'm gonna peek over here and look over here and all that stuff. And he was there to support Debra. So when he saw a large puddle of what appeared to be blood, not being supervised or protected in any way, beside the car, it rubbed him the wrong way. For starters, it was sloppy, like irresponsible police work. So he calls one of the cops over and he's like hey, what's up with this obvious puddle of blood?
Speaker 1to which the cop responded well, that's not blood, that's transmission fluid next to the car next to the car, not under, not under the car next to one of the open doors there's no puddle underneath the car.
Speaker 2Yeah, just next to the car, right, okay, that transmission fell out.
Speaker 1It fell out and jumped to the side and squirted the transmission.
Speaker 2I mean a front-wheel drive car yeah, sideways transmission. It'd be by the tire yeah, on one of the sides, Right, but not by the tire on one of the sides but not by the door, not beside the door.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was like the back door. Okay, then get down on your hands and knees and smell it. Does it smell like transmission fluid? No, then it's probably blood.
Speaker 2Also, I want to point out that it's gear oil in manual transmissions and not red transmission fluid.
"Transmission Fluid" and Cadaver Dogs
Speaker 1Oh my God, that is true. I didn't even think about that because I had a manual and I was like, wait a minute no.
Speaker 2Binged in my head when you said I was like wait a minute. She said manuals yes. After I said the front wheel drive thing, I went wait, hold my sweet tea. Never mind, my brain, just caught up with every detail. You have said no, no, no, no, no, no, no, there's no red transmission fluid in a manual transmission.
Speaker 1Yes, coming from.
Speaker 2Your dad was a mechanic and it's also common fucking sense this is like me taking my car to the dealership to be serviced and that man came and told me I needed my transmission fluid flushed. And I said, sir, weren't you the one who took my car to the back? Yes, ma'am, you had to put it in first gear and shift while you were driving back there, because it's a manual. Oh yeah, yeah, like, thank you for trying to rip me off today, but I'm not an idiot, so yeah, so now these police are even more dumb.
Speaker 1Yeah, perry County, all right so.
Speaker 2I feel like I just had a my cousin Vinny moment. There you go. I know I was thinking of that too.
Speaker 1I was like in court. I'm like you go, you couldn't have got a burn oh my god okay, yeah.
Speaker 1So then you know, while all this is going on and and there's police presence in perry county's like she just ran away, whatever. So Forest County reaches out and like their search and rescue and they offer to send out their resources to perform an extensive ground search within like hours of Deborah's initial report. But Perry County was like decline. The Mississippi State Crime Lab also offered up their assistance as well. Perry County decline. Deborah asked well, what about, can we get about like some search dogs out here or anything? Perry County said it's not necessary. They refused to bring out divers to search the nearby river. Like when I tell you, these good old boys were very much under the impression that there was nothing to see here. I could not mean it more.
Speaker 2Oh, my God yeah.
Speaker 1This poor girl. And then this is my favorite quote from them. And then this is my favorite quote from them they literally said this is just a case of a girl who lost her car and told Deborah to let them know when Angela turned back up. I would have punched them in the face and went to jail that day because, oh my God, like literally, she lost her car. No, the car she's. She's missing. She is missing like what? And then just let us know when she turns back up. So, oh my god, like I said earlier, angela's car was her pride and joy. She never missed a payment. She worked her full-time job, she was about to be a mom, she had went and put baby stuff on layaway, just for an fyi real quick because I wanted to look it up.
Speaker 2Yeah, manual transmission fluid would be the same color as your engine oil.
Speaker 1Carry on, shook, it shooketh so you know, like I said, she went and put baby stuff on layaway. She was like a very responsible girl, even though she was like a wild child she was responsible, at least trying to be responsible for her child's sake also inside her car they found her 200 and something dollar uncashed paycheck.
Speaker 2So she was running away. She lost her car. It ran found her $200 and something uncashed paycheck. So she was running away, she lost her car.
Speaker 1It ran away from her. It ran away from her. It was like bye, See you later I'm taking your paycheck.
Speaker 2There you go.
Speaker 1Like it just makes me so angry, like tell us when she turns back up, like what, no, what, what? Tell us when she turns back up Like what?
Speaker 2No, what, what? Tell us when she turns back up yeah, not, oh, wow, okay, yeah. Why would we tell you? You obviously don't believe she's missing, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1So Debra was like at her wit's end. She did not know what to do. She had a cop in her face telling her that her pregnant teenage daughter ran away and to drive her car home and she will just show up. On September 11th, Angela's boss called and said that she didn't show up for her shift. So Debra was like I'm calling the Petal Police Department and doing an official missing persons report, so got that formal report done. They actually came out, took the report and then crickets Nothing, no word, no updates, nothing Like this case makes me so mad. Yeah, Like this must have been so nerve-wracking for Deborah.
Speaker 2They just wrote it down on a piece of paper and then went about their life, right.
Speaker 1They were like missing girl, mm-hmm, yeah, okay, didn't show up for work, all right, Thanks Bye. So Deborah knew someone who worked for the local media and reached out to them to find out. She was only trying to reach out about to find out about police protocol. She was like is this like something that they would do? Like just dismiss this, like this, right? So this person was like oh no, we're putting her on the news Unfiltered, I know.
Speaker 2That would have been great.
Speaker 1But you know, because she had needed some kind of guidance and there was nothing. So after her call to the media, guess what?
Speaker 2Now the police want to do something.
Speaker 1That's when the police busted out the cadaver dogs at the Monad Bridge. They were like oh wait, wait, wait, we have dogs.
Speaker 2Hold on, let me get those dogs you requested right, right sorry ma'am, it took us a while and guess where?
Speaker 1the first place they made a beeline to the transmission fluid yes yes, the transmission fluid, like dna stuff, wasn't available right at that moment, but it was on the on the cusp because asshole it's not transmission right but later, when they did do the dna stuff, it it was angela's blood, of course definitely not.
Speaker 2Transmission, transmission blood.
Potential Suspects and Ongoing Search
Speaker 1The dogs also helped police discover Angela's scattered shoes that were also covered in blood, as well as a napkin that appeared to be stained with makeup, later determined by DNA that it belonged to Angela. I was thinking she was probably crying, yeah, and was like wiping her face with it and had makeup on it. That probably happened before the blood, yeah. The dogs also alerted by the edge of the river, indicating that someone had entered the water at that spot. So yay for the dogs. They're the real heroes here, Not the freaking police department.
Speaker 2At least the dogs are doing their job. Freaking police department.
Speaker 1At least the dogs are doing their job. So now the police started leaning toward probable homicide rather than a runaway. Wow. But even after all of that, they never thought. You know what?
Speaker 2maybe we should go look at that car. Still didn't look at the car. Still didn't look at the car, still didn't look at the car.
Speaker 1So Deborah and Bill phoned the police again and said hey, we started looking at the car, since nobody seems to be interested. There's blood, like when it was a hatchback. So, like you have the taillights there, there was blood that had like run down into the taillight, like maybe she was Still on the taillights there. There was blood that had like run down into the taillight, like maybe she was so on the exterior of the car.
Speaker 1Yeah, so like maybe he, like somebody, had slammed her against the car or something and it, like maybe, cracked a little bit and ran down in there. The police came out five days later. After all the other stuff, they came out, they popped the taillight, took it as evidence. They found an unspent bullet in the cup holder. Could have found this at the crime scene. Yeah, if you bothered to look Two unidentified fingerprints as well as some unidentified hair, it was probably the Sugar Flats beast, it probably so he came down from Tennessee.
Speaker 2It was probably the sugar flats beads, probably so. He came down from Tennessee and was like hey girl, these assholes hit me over there in Tennessee. So like I'm thinking about, moving to Mississippi.
Speaker 1I like furry blankets.
Speaker 2I prefer them to be brown, not white. When I hang out in the sun, they turn white.
Speaker 1They turn white. So they did search the river near the bridge and came up with nothing. But this case was so mishandled that the family called the Mississippi Attorney General and asked them to take the case over. But they rejected.
Speaker 2Which is stupid. Yeah, there's obviously good reason Plenty.
Speaker 1Right Of good reason. There were like procedural errors, like inadequate training, like heavy, like multi-jurisdictional mishandling all over the place with this case. So sad Because it started out as Perry County wanted to be lazy and not do their job. So everybody else got involved. So it was just a bunch of blah, blah, blah, blah. You know everybody else got involved. So it was just a bunch of blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. So, like just small-town cops, good old boys who are ill-equipped to handle a case like this.
Speaker 1It's also said by locals even to this day if you want to kill someone, do it in Perry County. Yeah, obviously, yeah, apparently, of course, the police they deny it stand by, stand by their actions, like we did all we could. You know, you, you can speculate how the case would have turned out because two years later, same bridge, the monad bridge, murders of william hatchett and robbie bond took place in 1995, and because police actually handled the case and it was something from the like the get-go, wouldn't you know they were able to solve it and bring the perpetrators to justice within a week. Oh, a week. Like, can you imagine? Like this is like a huge slap in the face to Angela's family. Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 1But it did bring Angela's case back to the front page news for at least a while, and some even wondered if the boys responsible for the bridge murders were responsible for what happened to Angela. After numerous interviews, interrogation, those boys maintained they had nothing to do with Angela's disappearance. Who was responsible and what was their motive? Let's start with racist Bill. He and Angela clashed from day one. I like his new name, I know racist Bill, you know racist. They clashed. He had taken out a life insurance policy just a few weeks earlier before she disappeared.
Speaker 2On a girl who's not even his daughter. Yeah, what the hell.
Speaker 1Neither Bill nor Deborah pushed to have Angela declared dead, so the money couldn't be accessed because they never declared them dead. Right, maybe it was because she was pregnant and the insurance was to help the baby if something ever happened to her.
Speaker 2But also, why would he give a shit Exactly? Because he was already up her butt about the fact that this might be a mixed baby.
Speaker 1He also told Debra that she just needs to get over Angela's disappearance and move on with her life. She divorced him in 2024. Or 2000, 2004.
Speaker 2I'm sorry, I was about to say why in the hell would you say that I?
Speaker 1mean that was still too long, Right? No-transcript sat with it and he just sat there and berated her and said all this stuff to her like like didn't you learn from the first nasty relationship you had?
Speaker 1and the baby. Daddy and boyfriend of her former friend Ruby. He helped in the search. He was like Mr Helpy. He went out of his way to be kind and helpful to Deborah and assured her that he had nothing to do with whatever happened, but he was still with Ruby. Did he do this to remove her and the baby from the equation? So Ruby would trust him. Did Ruby do it? Did Ruby do it? Maybe Ruby doobie doo Ruby, doobie doo. No, ruby, doobie doo Ruby.
Speaker 2And then there's Stephen, stephen, the guy who was arguing with her.
Speaker 1Yeah, her ex and also potential baby daddy, Like you said. Arguing the night before her disappearance he was said to have told her he could care less if she was pregnant and he had moved on and was dating a nice new girl and that he worked with and he was trying to distance himself from Angela.
Speaker 2And what if the baby comes out and it is Stevens Right and he's got a new girl? And we know what dudes who have kids with other women and then have a new relationship do with those uh women and children. Chris watts, there you go. They make it on uh. Advertisements for blankets right?
Speaker 1oh my god, that was so crazy. Like don't buy the Chris Watts blanket, no.
Speaker 2Like that's a surefire way to lose business. Yes, like really research the images you steal off the internet. Yes, please do.
The Family's Continued Hope for Justice
Speaker 1But Stephen also maintained that he's completely innocent, had no hand in her disappearance. Even after working all day and getting off and being in a parking lot at 1 am arguing with Angela, he was up early like the butt crack of dawn early the next morning. The morning she went missing, making sure to stop by and talk to Angela's Aunt, vicki, at the diner she worked at. Vicki said he was desperately trying to carry on a conversation with her while she was like swamped with customers from the breakfast rush. Vicki later said maybe he was trying to use me to manufacture an alibi of sorts.
Speaker 2That's what I was about to say. Like that's a little bit weird behavior.
Speaker 1But it's still speculation. We don't know.
Speaker 2Speculative, speculative.
Speaker 1I think it was for sure someone she knew Absolutely. Oh yeah, she wouldn't have went out there in the dark alone. She had told many friends that she hated that bridge. Like it was something out of a horror movie. It kind of reminded me of the Delphi Bridge. I'll put a picture up. It was just an old, rickety bridge and people actually like it didn't have railroad tracks but people would drive over it sometimes just to cut off like five, ten minutes to get to the other side real quick. But like she would never, she was like terrified of that bridge so like she wouldn't have went out there by herself.
Speaker 1They did turn the case over to District Attorney Lynn Carter back in 2019 with hopes of bringing a case against one particular suspect, still unnamed at this point. I don't know who it is Angela's brother, nicholas, who has written songs about his sister. He runs the Facebook page to help you know, keep her name relevant. Continues to search for answers. He said in the back of my mind I'm always wondering where's Angela. Nicholas told Dateline in an interview that he did. He said I keep hoping that one day they will know what happened. My family just wants closure. We just want to give her that proper burial. It's like a part of our lives that's stuck on repeat.
Speaker 1Debra told Dateline also in the interview that she wishes she could have shared a better life with Angela, but I think she was doing okay. She obviously noticed some crap going on and she, you know, got her kids out of that situation and she and Angela used to talk about having a bigger house with a dog and all that stuff. She said I wish she could see me. Now, now I have a home, I have two dogs and she continues to fight for her daughter with hope that one day Angela will get the justice she deserves.
Speaker 1Angela Freeman is described as being 5'3 tall, weighing 108 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes. She was like tiny. If you have any information, if you've seen anything you know, somebody's uncle's, brother's, grandpa mentioned something about it like contact Deputy Rusty Keys at 601-266-4946 or the Petal City Police Department at 601-544-5331. I hope her family just I know they'll never give up hope, they'll never give up searching for her and, like I said, I have several pictures. I have age progression pictures and pictures of the bridge, the car, all the fun stuff, all that stuff. So I will make sure to post all of that on our Facebook page, so everybody can see it.
Speaker 2Yeah, that on our Facebook page so everybody can see it. Yeah, and you guys give us some grace because I know we've like been a little more absent on the social media and stuff like that right now. We do our best, yeah.
Speaker 1We're tired, yeah, and that's doing two episodes a week, and we're not like complaining no, no, no, we're just saying two episodes a week plus this full-time job that we work at, and this is Until.
Speaker 2August. It's going to be a little rough, so we'll be on it as much as possible.
Speaker 1But Most people's busy season is the holidays. Ours is summer, ours is summer, so it's rough on us, but we, you know I'm going to try to get videos out as much as possible. We'll get some stuff out. We're going to keep on keeping on, keep listening, and all of our Mississippi people, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your listens, because y'all have, like, boosted us up a lot.
Speaker 2Yeah, we appreciate it. For sure, we see you everywhere. That listens Like, so we know where the vast majority are coming from. Yes, absolutely so. Our theme music was by Patti Salzetta.
Speaker 1Was is always will be by Patti Salzetta.
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Speaker 1Right, put it on your dog's like collar tag. Anybody finds it and they'll be like hold my sweet tea, hold on, let me go listen, that's right.
Speaker 2And let me scan this chip, and I'm working on business cards, so we have something to hand out. Nice, that was going to be great, yeah. So as soon as I have like a little mock-up thing of that, I'll share it and we'll be flinging them out everywhere Be like here listen Yep. Like here listen yep, yep, and we, we are always on the social medias.
Speaker 1If you need to message us there, you can. Yeah, yeah and hold my sweet. Tea is a drunken bee production. Are you gonna say something?
Speaker 2okay, you went I have, like she hissed, it's a hunger hiss okayack time.
Speaker 1Y'all stay safe out there. And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep sipping, and Pearl needs to go have a snack.
Speaker 2Bye, thank you. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.