When It Looks Simple: The Unsolved Murder Of Angela Barlow, USA, 2016.

This 23 year old lady was a dancer living in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was not just that of course. She was a loyal friend, a loving daughter and a young lady with all her life left to live. She went out to do a private dance at a party on 26th October 2016. No-one who cared about her saw her until her body was recovered from a back yard grave.

It is a strange tale in many respects. She text her room mate with a prophetic message. She included the address of the apartment she was to dance at and said the message was just in case she went missing. At the end she included ‘lol’ and laughing emoji.

Cell phone data later showed that a Snapchat image she sent had been taken at the apartment. She seemed happy and all, apparently, was going well.

When she did not return home her mother was informed and she made a 60 mile trip to look for her daughter. Because Ms Barlow had given an address in her safety message that was the first port of call. The apartment had been cleared out. Cops looked at CCTV of the gated community. At 3.30am Ms Barlow’s car could be seen driving out. Behind her vehicle was another car. None of the occupants could be seen, but the licence plate of the second vehicle was visible.

This vehicle belonged to an acquaintance of Ms Barlow called Raven Miller.

When it was traced it showed that the situation was more than a stranger abduction type case. The dance that Ms Barlow had been engaged to perform was in part to do with people she knew. In one report a male who was present had been a brief boyfriend. A female was known to the victim. She was called Raven Miller. In an account below it says the two young women did not get on well. People who knew Ms Barlow said she was unlikely to have taken the assignment if she had know Miller was to be there. They also point out that the text messages that arranged the dance had no name attached.

The cops pulled the couple in and they said that Ms Barlow had been at the party, she had danced and then driven off. That was all they knew. Since that time Ms Barlow’s Pontiac G6 has been recovered. It was basically trashed. The car had been driven through something like a fence, the exterior was scratched and lights were damaged. Inside the vehicle it was a chaos of clothing and rubbish. That was not the normal state of Ms Barlow’s vehicle.

The victim’s body was found after the police got a tip via Crimestoppers eight months later. As the crow flies Ms Barlow was buried seven miles from where her car had been caught on camera.

Where the line starts on the left is where Ms Barlow’s car was caught on camera. The red marker is where her body was found.

It should have been a simple matter to solve this murder. The issue is you have to have evidence and that evidence has to be beyond reasonable doubt. Arrests have been made yet no-one has pointed the finger or broken the original, if vague, account.

Sure, Ms Barlow was at the apartment and dancing. She left and she was in good health. Apart from that those at the apartment have nothing more to say. It must be intensely frustrating for the family and the cops when this happens. It is rare that people stick to a story especially when the story has logical holes in it.

The owner of the car that followed Ms Barlow’s Pontiac had previously been a tenant at the apartment. Her boyfriend had been involved with Ms Barlow in the past. The distance between the two cars was almost bumper to bumper. Yet that is nothing until the case cracks.

It is like an extreme case of what occurred in the murder of Ken McElroy in 1981. In that killing there were 20 plus people right there. They surrounded the victim. They all saw who did what, but unless one for them said something to cops there was no case to go to court. Not that I am in any way suggesting Ms Barlow shared McElroy’s character. If you read his story you will see what I mean.

I don’t have that much faith in those that killed Ms Barlow. They will have mouthed off and told people. They might yet get paranoid and one of them runs for immunity. That is my bet. Justice is slow for this young woman, but it will come.

This is the True Crime Daily video where they do a full take on the story though it is a bit dated. Since this was aired very little has happened in the case. See what you think.