'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Angela Samota's mysterious murder in 1984 is set to be the focus of Murdered by Morning's upcoming episode, which will air on Saturday, July 16, 2022. Titled Game Over, the episode will chronicle how Angela met an untimely and gruesome death at the hands of a serial r*pist one fateful night.
Angela Samota was a 20-year-old computer science and electrical engineering student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. One evening in October 1984, Samota went out with her friends to a state fair. When she returned home later that night, she was paid a visit by a stranger who r*ped and murdered her, leaving her bloody body on the bed to be discovered by her worried boyfriend.
5 facts about the Angela Samota murder case you should know ahead of the episode
Angela Samota is remembered as a sincere and beautiful young girl by her friends and family. It is tragic how an innocent soul like her met with such a spine-chilling death. Here are five quick facts to know about Samota's murder before the Murdered by Morning episode airs.
1) Samota's boyfriend was a suspect in her murder
Angela's boyfriend Ben McCall was one of the prime suspects in the murder of Angela. He was supposedly the last person she talked to before everything went silent from her side. It was Ben who notified the authorities after he discovered her brutally-murdered body in her off-campus residence. She had suffered 18 stab wounds to her chest.
During Angela's autopsy, however, the medical personnel concluded that her attacker was a “non-secretor.” This cleared Ben from the list of suspects.
2) Angela Samota's murder compelled her best friend to become a private investigator
Sheila Wysocki was Angela's best friend from college and it was she who instigated the authorities to reopen the case again after 20 years. She did her research and printed out reports about all the r*pe incidents at the time and who were convicted for the same. Sadly, the police refused to cooperate. So, she decided to become a private investigator herself. She learned about Tennessee laws as well as cyber bullying and copyright laws. She even gave an exam to become a private investigator.
However, despite her investigator's license, the police refused to cooperate with her regarding Angela's murder, which had become a cold case by then.
3) Sheila forced the police to reopen Angela's case once again in 2008
Due to Sheila's constant pestering, the Dallas Homicide Division reopened the Angela Samota case and assigned it to a female detective who was willing to cooperate with Sheila.
It was only then that DNA evidence from Angela's murder scene was revealed. Sheila was previously told that the evidence was lost in a flood, so the new revelation blew her mind. The DNA evidence revealed a match which could potentially lead to Angela's killer.
4) The DNA match was with a serial r*pist
When Angela's case was reopened and the DNA evidence run against existing criminal records, a match was found. Donald Andrew Bess Jr. was the man whose DNA records matched the murderer's.
At the time of Angela's death, Donald was on parole associated with a 25-year sentence for s*xual assault and kidnapping. In 2008, when the match was found, Donald Bess was once again in prison, serving a life sentence for another unrelated assault case.
5. Donald Bess, Angela's murderer, was sentenced to die
It was revealed that Bess was a serial r*pist who went to prison a number of times on account of having assaulted multiple women. When he was convicted in Angela's murder case, a number of women including his ex-wife testified against him. The overwhelming evidence against him led the jury to declare him guilty and they sentenced him to die. Bess put forth a number of appeals on the grounds of his ill health, alcoholism, and troubled childhood, but the pleas were rejected.
He remains in Hospital Galveston Unit in Texas, still on death row. No execution date has been set.
Catch more about Angela Samota's murder on Oxygen's Murdered by Morning.
