How a SMU student's murder inspired Sheila Wysocki to become a private investigator - Axios DallasLog InLog InAxios Dallas is an Axios company.

SMU student' s murder inspired friend to become a private investigator

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios Sheila Wysocki's private investigations business in Nashville has Dallas roots — she was a student at SMU when her friend's murder went unsolved. Flashback: Angela Samota was found sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed inside her apartment after a night out in October 1984.The case went cold. Twenty years later, Wysocki decided to look into it herself while living in Nashville with her husband and two children.Wysocki turned her family's study into a "war room" and called Dallas police hundreds of times to beg them to reopen the case. She became licensed as a private investigator to keep pushing for answers. The turning point: Dallas police eventually tested DNA from the scene and, in 2008, linked it to a man out on parole for a prior rape conviction at the time of Samota's murder, .Donald Bess was at age 62 and remains on death row. The intrigue: Wysocki decided to keep her PI license after seeing how many other families need help. She's appeared in , the and the podcast ".""These families at least deserve a phone call, something I did not have," she tells Axios. What's next: Wysocki plans to resume her other cases after the , but she says she will always be a fierce ally of the Crews family. They've shared countless phone calls and meals, even driving to the Coppell police department to pray for its officers together.She hopes the upcoming trial will put the Crews family's questions to rest and give them the closure they're seeking."I feel these families' pain like you would not believe, and it's heartbreaking. We shouldn't do that to people, and these are good people — good human beings," she says. Get more local stories in your inbox with .Subscribe Support local journalism by becoming a member.

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