Shelia Wysocki was a typical stay-at-home mom. She focused on maintaining her household, taking care of her children and keeping things orderly for her family. Never would she have guessed that she’d end up investigating a murder – that is, until she realized her college best friend’s death was unsolved and not much was being done about it.
People magazine has an exclusive profile of Wysocki and how she’s helping other families solve the cold case murders of their loved ones.
In 1984, Wysocki’s roommate at Southern Methodist University, 20-year-old Angie Samota, was raped and murdered, having been stabbed 18 times. Two decades later, her murder was still unsolved, and Wysocki knew it was time for her to do something about it.
Wysocki said it took 750 phone calls and four years, but she uncovered and provided detectives with “lost” crime scene evidence which contained DNA from her friend’s killer, People reports.
It really wasn’t as easy as it sounds. According to WSMV, although Wysocki was pouring over evidence and meeting with possible suspects, she didn’t have the formal credentials to be taken seriously by police. That changed when she decided to license up and get certified to be a Private Investigator.
Wysocki told WSMV that when she finally scored a meeting with a police investigator, they still refused to reopen the case. “I will never forget what he said to me,” she recounted. He said, ‘some cases are not meant to be solved and this is one of them. You need to back off.’ And I thought at that moment I am not backing off.”
Wysocki claims she kept pushing and pushing and eventually got authorities to re-test the DNA. Those results matched a serial predator named Donald Bess. At the time of the murder, Bess was on parole for aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping.
In 2010, according to the Dallas News, a jury took less than hour to convict Bess for Samota’s murder and sentenced him to death. At that point, Bess was already serving a life sentence for a 1985 Harris County rape conviction.
Bess, 67, is currently on death row; just this year, Texas’s Court of Criminal Appeals refused his request for a new trial. Bess’s execution date has not been set, and it’s possible more appeals are coming.
You can read all about Wysocki’s journey to get justice for her best friend in this week’s People magazine.
And here’s a look at the episode of Investigation Discovery’s “Suspicion” about Wysocki’s investigation:
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Photo: Investigation Discovery