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Angela Samota was a college student whose brutally murdered body was found inside her off-campus apartment in 1984. The 20-year-old was studying computer science and electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She was also a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority in her college.
On July 16, 2022 Oxygen's Murdered by Morning is set to take a look at the brutal rape and murder of Samota.
Oxygen's true-crime series, Murdered by Morning, brings to its viewers gruesome murder cases that will send send chills down their spines. From girls' night-out taking dangerous turns to seemingly innocent encounter turning deadly, the series has it all and each episode follows a new story. The series combs through numerous suspects until the killer is revealed and caught.
What happened to Angela Samota?
Angela Samota was described as a cheerful and sincere young girl who is remembered by her best friends as someone with the brightest smile. Tragedy struck Samota and her family on the evening of October 12, 1984 when she went to the State Fair with two of her friends, Russell Buchanan and Anita Kadala.
The trio returned home at around 1 am and Angela dropped the others before stopping by her boyfriend Ben's place to say goodnight. According to Ben, he got a call from Angela at around 1:45 am where she told him that a man had asked to use her phone and bathroom. Angela told him that the man was inside her Amesbury Drive apartment.
Ben said that spoke to the 20-year-old for a little while longer before hanging up on the promise that she would call him again. A call that never came and when Ben called her back, she didn't answer the phone either.
A worried Ben drove to her house and got no response when he knocked on the front door, which was locked. He called the police who arrived at the scene shortly after 2:15 am and kicked down the door.
Police found the bloody and naked dead body of Angela Samota on her bed. Her autopsy revealed that she had been raped and stabbed a total of 18 times. She died from injuries to her chest, which directly hit her heart.
Who killed Angela Samota?
The prime suspects in Angela's murder and rape were her boyfriend Ben McCall, her friend Russell Buchanan and one of the ex-boyfriends. However, no concrete evidence was found related to any of them, making it impossible to tie them directly to the murder.
During the investigation, a medical personnel concluded that Angela's attacker was a “non-secretor,” which cleared both Ben and the ex-boyfriend. Russell, a 23-year-old architect living near Angela's place, became the only suspect in the case. However, he was given a polygraph test, which he passed, ruling him out as the murderer too.
The case went cold before Detective Linda Crum used DNA evidence from the crime scene to try and find a match in the pre-existing criminal records. In 2008, a match was found under the name of Donald Andrew Bess Jr.
At the time of Angela's murder, he was on parole while serving a 25-year sentence for sexual assault and kidnapping. By the time the match was found, Donald Bess was already in jail again, serving a life sentence for another unrelated sexual assault case.
Bess was tried and convicted of Angela's sexual assault and murder in 2010 and is currently on the death row at Texas' Hospital Galveston Unit. However, the date of his execution has yet to be set.
Catch Angela Somata's brutal murder mystery this July 16, 2022 on Murdered by Morning streaming on Oxygen.
