I hope that I am wrong, but I always felt that Angie's boyfriend Rob Shafer was involved. But I could be wrong. It's difficult to believe that he didn't get a liscense plate# after chasing the old pick up truck. Rob claimed that angie called from a pay phone stating an old dirty man was following her. If the criminal did the crime he must have been very daring. Most criminals won't abduct someone on the phone or continue with the victim after getting chased. Was angie's body ever found? Was it linked to the other missouri murders?

Well her name is actually Angela Hammond and I too was wondering about this aspect of the case while I was watching the segment.

For awhile it was thought that the serial killer Ken McDuff was involved in Angie's disappearance but that theory has somewhat fell out of favor on this board.

So that either leaves a multitude of strangers who could've abducted Angie or her boyfriend Rob Shafer. The only problem I think in arguing that Shafer abducted/killed Angie is he apparently was on the phone with Angie while she was being abducted. I wonder if there were any witnesses to that phone conversation on Rob's end. Of course he could've staged a phone conversation but that seems like an awful lot of pre-medidation for a young kid.

Either way Rob was investigated and cleared of any wrongdoing in this case so the police don't view him as a suspect. Does anyone else have any thoughts as to Mr. Shafer as a possible suspect?

Well I think that if they wanted to see if Schaffer was telling the truth they could have just taken the phone company records to see if a phone call was made from the phone booths, to his house as he claimed. Wasnt there witnesses as well that saw Angie at the phone booths shortly before she disappeared? I thought the last time she was seen before she was abducted she was seen at the phone booths? I mean it is certainly possible Schaffer did it but I just dont know what motive he would have had. They seemed to get along quite well and seemed to be in love and all that. I mean while anything is possible, I think Schaffer was probably the first person they looked at when they couldnt find the truck and he was cleared. I still think it was a serial killer that abducted and probably murdered Hammond although I dont know who that could have been. I still think McDuff could have been involved, as a matter of fact I always thought the physical description Angie gave matched that of McDuff's accomplice in the Colleen Reed abduction, Alva Hank Worley.

Plus, I'm sure the phone company has records of him talking with her when she was abducted (although there's still a possibility that he staged all of this -- doubtful though considering his young age and lack of motive). It's still an interesting possibility, especially as to why he didn't get a license plate #. That's usually the first thing to look for. Maybe he was distracted by that fish jumping out of the water, and moreover, maybe that's why the killer painted it on there -- to distract.

Well, I think the mural could have been installed in the back window on purpose by the killer to distract. I do think that is an interesting theory and I thank you for bringing that up because I would have never thought of that. As for the license plate I think that Schaffer was probably just thinking of other things, of chasing the guy down and getting Angie out of there. Something that surprises me though is why the cops didnt put Rob under hypnosis to see if they could get a plate or even partial plate out of him.

Well, I think the mural could have been installed in the back window on purpose by the killer to distract. I do think that is an interesting theory and I thank you for bringing that up because I would have never thought of that. As for the license plate I think that Schaffer was probably just thinking of other things, of chasing the guy down and getting Angie out of there. Something that surprises me though is why the cops didnt put Rob under hypnosis to see if they could get a plate or even partial plate out of him.

Interesting point, though I think hypnosis is an unsolved mystery in and of itself. I think there may be something to the fact that he didn't get the license plate #, especially if he thought at all that the abductor was going to get away. Apparently, he thought that it was a forgone conculsion that he would catch him. Did they ever polygraph him?

We don't know how close Rob got to the fishy car during the pursuit. The UM re-enactiments naturally err toward dramatic, and in this case display a close pursuit.

If the guy was grungy his car could have been similarly unkept with a dirty plate, and/or a plate that was not lit. Obviously a criminal would be more likely than most to have a bogus plate.

Most criminals won't abduct someone on the phone or continue with the victim after getting chased. Was angie's body ever found? Was it linked to the other missouri murders?

No she hasn't been found to this point. It stated on the segment that it is believed to be connected to two other females that disappeared (one of which was found murdered) around the same area at the same time, all of which were adbucted at night. But there is no proof that they are connected at this point. The chase didn't occur until after the phone call.

It is unsure whether or not the adbuctor thought that Angie was describing his car/appearance to who she was talking on the phone with. He might have figured she was too busy talking to even notice him.

I remember an episode of Oprah Winfrey that ran when I was in high school that had Angela Hammond's mother as a guest. I believe this episode aired really close to Thanksgiving 1992. The show was about unsolved crimes. I don't normally watch Oprah, but I watched this episode.

I could swear that I remember Angela's mother's saying that Angela was pregnant when she was abducted. Has anyone else heard this? I was surprised to hear that since UM didn't mention that fact in its segment about her. Does anyone else remember this or am I dreaming? Another crime profiled was the disappearance of three women from the Springfield, MO, area about the same time that Angela disappeared.

I tend to believe that Rob was NOT involved in the disappearance of Angela Hammond. For one, there seems to be an apparent lack of motive. Angela and Rob were engaged and seemed to be very much in love. I know that according to the movie Scream, "There's always some stupid bull**** reason to kill your girlfriend," but it didn't seem to be in this case... unless Rob pulled off the perfect murder.

Secondly, Rob came off as one of the most sincere interviewees on UM. Perhaps I have just fallen for bad acting, but it seems as if it really pained him to talk about the incident. He makes a comment about being so close and "not getting the job done," which has always stuck out in my mind as being sincere.

Finally, I'm sure the police DID investigate Rob as a suspect. Didn't he take a polygraph test and pass it? I haven't seen the segment lately, but it wouldn't make sense that he wouldn't have been investigated. I'm sure they looked at his car engine and proved that he really blew his transmission in pursuit of getting Angela.

As I said, I'm not ruling out that Rob may have committed the perfect murder, but I really tend to think against it. He seemed too broken up over it and appeared in the segment that he was still very much in love with Angela (in comparison to some of the other "concerned" significant others that have appeared on UM, like Chad Noe, Paul Pollis, and Stephen Marfeo, just to name a few.)

In my humble opinion, there are 3 things that can prove Rob's innocence...none of which were mentioned on the Unsolved Mysteries segment.

1.) Rob's station wagon. According to the segment, Rob damaged the transmission of the vehichle when he slammed it into reverse while going forward. If he was in fact the killer, than he would have purposely ruined his own car.

2.) Telephone records. All the police would have to do is check the telephone records to see if Rob's house did in fact get a phone call from that pay phone several blocks away on the night in question.

3.) Rob's little brother. When Angela was abducted, Rob was babysitting his little brother. I'm sure his little brother can verify that the two were alone all evening, Rob got the phone call than dropped the receiver and ran out of the house when he heard Angela scream.

It's also important to note that that evening, Rob and Angela were at a barbecue together before she dropped him off to babysit....their friends could most likely verify that they were there and what time they left. This would leave him no time to actually kill her and dispose of her body after babysitting and then purposely wrecking his car to make it look real. Also, Clinton is a small "blink and you'll miss it" town. Where would he have hidden the body never to be found in such a short amount of time?

I never gave much thought to the licence plate issue. But I guess you have to picture yourself in Rob's shoes...God forbid. You're significant other has been kidnapped by some psycho and you're hot on his trail. You're most likely in a panic and not thinking straight. All of your concentration is focused on catching the idiot that has kidnapped her. It's possible that the thought never entered his head. Who knows what's going through your head in a situation like that? It's really tragic.

Interesting theories- I must say I found the reconstruction bemusing, why if you had somebody who keeps driving around acting suspicious at that time of night would you not just hang up the phone and head out of there? why if he abducted her and as the reconstruction showed he was driving at fairly high speed while she was in the passenger seat did she not grab the wheel as his hands or at least one of them was busy steering and were the streets totally deserted? was he the only witness to the abduction? of course as somebody said television often overdoes it on the reconstructions and maybe the guy drugged her or cuffed her, sadly I think in this case we will probably never know

Well I know people forget this, but it was 1991 in small town America. People just didnt think "gee, maybe I will get kidnapped and raped and murdered if I dont hang up the phone and get out of here." It is still like that in a lot of smaller towns where people go out walking alone late at night and stuff and are generally pretty safe. Yes Angie did apperantly express concerns about the guy driving around but I still dont think she thought he would seriously try to do anything. I think she would have left or asked Rob to come down had she really thought this guy was seriously going to do something to her. I think he made her feel uncomfortable more than anything else but I dont think he scared her enough to make her leave. Also one must remember that Angie was small and that this guy that kidnapped her I am sure was much larger and much stronger. I am sure he could have kept her from grabbing the wheel, she probably was just trying to get out of the truck.