Despite knowing her decades ago, Angela Ewert’s classmates from Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas remember her vividly.
“She was a very, very sweet girl from a nice family,” Mindy Schumann told Dateline. Mindy was director of the drill team Angela was on during her four years of high school.
Robert Jacobs, a classmate of Angela’s, agrees.
“We sat next to each other in business class and just became great friends,” Robert said. “She was very outgoing, always smiling -- a lot of fun to be around. She was one of the nicest people I ever met.”
Angela’s friends told Dateline they mostly lost touch after graduating from high school, but Robert says he occasionally saw Angela when he was home from college.
During one of those encounters, Robert learned Angela was working at the local radio station KEGL. She later got engaged to a man she met after high school. Robert says he never met Angela’s fiancé, and doesn’t believe any of Angela’s high school friends knew him either.
A few years after high school graduation, Angela, then 21, was living with her parents. Her fiancé lived across town in the Wedgewood neighborhood of Fort Worth. On the night of December 10, 1984, Angela left her fiancé’s house to drive home, according to the Fort Worth Police Department website.
“She stopped for gas at a convenience store before getting on the highway,” Mindy would later learn.
But Angela never arrived back at her parents’ home. She was never seen alive again.
“What haunts me is that store is at the end of my street,” Mindy added.
The next morning, Angela’s 1984 Mercury Topaz was found abandoned about six miles away from the gas station, according to the Fort Worth Police Department.
“I remember being in college studying for final exams when I saw [Angela’s disappearance] on the news the next night,” high school friend Robert Jacobs remembered. “I was just stunned.”
It would take nine years for any answers to come in Angela’s disappearance. On August 11, 1993, police say Angela’s remains were found “in a rural area south of Fort Worth.” The case was then reclassified as a murder investigation.
The Fort Worth Police Department confirmed to Dateline that Angela’s homicide investigation is open and active, but declined to comment further to protect the integrity of the case.
A quarter of a century after Angela’s body was recovered, those who knew her at Eastern Hills High still hope for closure in her mysterious murder.
“It just really gets to me that something like that could have happened her,” Robert told Dateline. “I just don't want her to be forgotten. I would like for people to be aware and get some sort of information.”
Robert told Dateline Angela’s death has been especially hard on her parents, who declined to speak with Dateline.
“It just really gets to me that something like this could happen to someone like her,” Robert said. “She was always just such a happy person, and such a nice person. It stunned all of us that something like this could happen to her.”
If you have any information about Angela’s case, please contact the Fort Worth Police Department (817) 392-4300.
