On the afternoon of March 27, 1979, Angela Kelley bid farewell to her closest friend at the Montrose apartment, assuring her that she would return shortly. Angela intended to purchase a Coke from a nearby convenience store before proceeding to a pawn shop located less than a mile away to sell some jewelry. She had expressed a need for money to buy a bus ticket, as she planned to visit her boyfriend in Arkansas the following week.

However, Angela never reached the store or the pawn shop.

At 2:30 a.m. the following day, Angela's lifeless body was discovered slumped against the curb of Red Bluff Road in Pasadena, nearly 20 miles from her apartment. A driver, returning home from work, noticed the teenager and promptly alerted the authorities.

Angela's hands were bound behind her back with thick gray electrical wire, and a rope was found tightly secured around her neck. The legs of her blue jeans were stained with dirt, and her sheer white shirt was pushed up around her waist.

The medical examiner would later confirm that Angela had been strangled.