Key facts
- Name: Angela Marie “Angie” Hammond
- Age at disappearance: 20
- Last seen: April 4, 1991, late evening
- Location: Payphone outside the Food Barn grocery store, Clinton, Missouri
- Height / build: 5’4″, slender build, long dark hair
- Status: Still missing — abduction investigation, Clinton Police Department
- Investigating agency: Clinton Police Department; Missouri State Highway Patrol
The scream on the phone
Rob Shafer heard his fiancée get taken.
It was the night of April 4, 1991. Angela Hammond — twenty years old, four months pregnant, weeks from marrying the man on the other end of the line — had stopped at a payphone outside the Food Barn grocery store in Clinton, Missouri, to call him. Mid-conversation, she told Rob something was wrong: a strange pickup truck had been circling the block.
Then she described the man. Then she screamed. Then the line went dead.
Rob was seven blocks away. He ran for his car and gave chase — and came close enough, by his account, to hear Angela call his name from inside the truck. Then his transmission failed in the middle of the pursuit, and the truck pulled away into the dark. Angela Hammond has never been seen or heard from since.
It is one of the most chilling details in American true crime: an abduction with a live witness on the telephone, a chase that almost worked, and a truck that was never found.
Who Angela was
Angela Marie Hammond was 20, engaged to Rob Shafer, and four months pregnant with their child. She lived in Clinton, a small town in west-central Missouri, and by all accounts was looking forward — to the wedding, to the baby, to the ordinary life taking shape around her. Nothing about that night suggested she was in danger until the truck started circling.
Her disappearance is one of three linked Missouri cases from early 1991 that investigators have examined together for decades: convenience-store clerk Trudy Darby, abducted from her workplace in Macks Creek on January 19 and found murdered two days later; Cheryl Kenney, who vanished from her convenience-store job in Nevada, Missouri, on February 27; and Angela, taken April 4. Two of the three women are still missing. Darby’s killers — half-brothers Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney — were arrested in May 1995: Rush was convicted in March 1996 of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, and Chaney pleaded guilty in April 1997. Police have long wondered whether they were involved in the other two cases. Rush once wrote to another inmate claiming he and Chaney had buried two other bodies. No remains have ever been found.
The truck and the man
Angela’s description, relayed to Rob in the last moments of the call, is the backbone of the case:
- A green Ford pickup truck, two-tone, with a distinctive fish or water-scene decal stretched across the rear window.
- A bearded man in overalls driving it.
The decal should have made the truck findable. It never was. In more than three decades, no confirmed sighting of that truck has ever been established, and the bearded man in overalls has never been identified.
What investigators do know is how fast it all happened. The call, the scream, Rob’s sprint to his car, the chase — minutes, maybe less. Clinton is a small town; seven blocks is nothing. And yet the truck vanished completely, which has led investigators to believe the driver knew the area, or had a place to go, or both.
The investigation
Clinton police treated the case as an abduction from the start — there was a witness on the phone, after all. The search for the green truck went regional, then national. Angela’s case was profiled on Unsolved Mysteries (Season 4, Episode 16, “Dial A for Abduction”), alongside the cases of Cheryl Kenney and Trudy Darby, bringing the fish-decal truck to a national audience. It didn’t produce the truck.
Over the years, the case has drawn sustained true-crime attention — podcasts, documentaries, and anniversary coverage — but no arrest has ever been made. The Clinton Police Department has kept the case open. In 2026, more than 35 years after that night, Angela Hammond remains missing.
One thread investigators have raised publicly: the possibility that the abductors took the wrong woman — that Angela was not the intended target at all. It is a theory, not a conclusion, and it underscores how little is actually known about who was in that truck and why it circled that parking lot.
Theories: what might have happened
Thirty-five years of theorizing, and the honest answer is that the core facts have never changed: a pregnant 20-year-old was taken from a payphone while her fiancé listened, and the truck was never found.
A random predator. The simplest reading of the evidence: a stranger saw an opportunity — a young woman alone at a payphone late at night — and took it. The circling truck suggests he was hunting, not passing through. Against this: the fish-decal truck was distinctive enough that someone should have seen it before or after. Nobody did.
A targeted abduction — possibly of the wrong woman. Police have raised the possibility that Angela was not the intended victim. The theory is unproven, but it attempts to explain the randomness of the location and the speed of the taking.
A serial offender. Given the cluster of three 1991 Missouri abductions within weeks and miles of each other, investigators have long considered whether one person or pair was responsible for all three. The convicted killers in the Darby case have been examined as suspects in Angela’s and Cheryl’s disappearances; no charges have ever resulted, and the presumption of innocence stands for everyone named but never charged.
Have information?
Contact the Clinton Police Department: 1-660-885-2679. You can also contact the Missouri State Highway Patrol. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- 1991 (early) — Angela Hammond, 20, is engaged to Rob Shafer and four months pregnant.
- January 19, 1991 — Trudy Darby is abducted from a convenience store in Macks Creek, Missouri; her body is found two days later.
- February 27, 1991 — Cheryl Kenney vanishes from her convenience-store job in Nevada, Missouri.
- April 4, 1991, late evening — Angela calls Rob from the Food Barn payphone in Clinton; she describes a circling green pickup, screams, and the line goes dead. Rob chases the truck; his transmission fails.
- 1992 — Unsolved Mysteries profiles Angela’s case with Kenney’s and Darby’s (“Dial A for Abduction”).
- 1995 — Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney are arrested (May 1995) in Trudy Darby’s murder; 1996 — Rush is convicted (March 1996, kidnapping and first-degree murder, life without parole), and 1997 — Chaney pleads guilty (April 1997); police examine possible links to Angela’s and Cheryl’s cases.
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2026 — More than 35 years later, Angela Hammond remains missing. No arrest has ever been made.
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Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Angela Hammond still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Angela Hammond has been missing for more than 35 years. The Clinton Police Department’s investigation remains open.
What happened to Angela Hammond?
On the night of April 4, 1991, Angela was abducted from a payphone outside a grocery store in Clinton, Missouri, while speaking to her fiancé. He heard her scream, chased the suspect’s green pickup truck, but his car’s transmission failed. She was never seen again.
Was Angela Hammond pregnant when she disappeared?
Yes. She was four months pregnant at the time of her abduction.
Was the green pickup truck ever found?
No. The distinctive two-tone green Ford pickup with a fish or water-scene decal across the rear window has never produced a confirmed sighting, and the driver has never been identified.
Is Angela Hammond’s case connected to Cheryl Kenney’s disappearance?
Possibly. Investigators have long examined links between Angela’s abduction, Cheryl Kenney’s February 1991 disappearance, and the January 1991 abduction-murder of Trudy Darby — all in Missouri within weeks of each other. No definitive connection has been proven.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information about Angela Hammond or the green pickup truck, contact the Clinton Police Department at 1-660-885-2679.
Sources
- Official / law enforcement: Clinton Police Department; Missouri State Highway Patrol Missing Persons Bulletin; National Center for Missing & Exploited Children poster.
- News: The Clinton Daily Democrat (archival coverage).
- Reference: The Charley Project, “Angela Marie Hammond”; Wikipedia, “Larry Dewayne Hall” (background on persons of interest examined in regional cases).
- Media: Unsolved Mysteries, Season 4, Episode 16 — “Dial A for Abduction”; Detective Perspective podcast, Episode 119: “MISSING: Angela Hammond”; Darkness Debaters, “The Scream on the Phone: Our Second Look at the Disappearance of Angela Hammond” (2026).
Correction (Oct 2026 verification): “Darby’s killers — half-brothers Jesse Rush and Marvin Chaney — were convicted” → “were arrested in May 1995: Rush was convicted in March 1996 of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, and Chaney pleaded guilty in April 1997” (Unsolved Mysteries Wiki / Trudy Darby coverage; thecinemaholic.com). Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.