3. The Secrets We Keep

Angela's childhood friend Holley shares about their friendship, growing up in Princeton, and how she wished she could have saved Angela from Lee.
Host Julie Dove and Holley share their own high school traumas.

Actress Julie Dove, also from Princeton, Texas, shares this very personal story of how Angela's murder changed the lives of Angela’s family and the small town forever.

Transcript

 This program contains descriptions of violence, drug use, and sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. 

Previously, on True Texas Crime. Angela was about 13, I think, when she was in my class. I have never forgotten Angela. I thought she was as cute as she could be. I, I wished a million times that I, had reached out more to her family  because I just want them to know that she has not been forgotten by me. 

Then my aunt calls me back and she says, call Lee. See if he's seen her. He won't answer. He won't talk to me. He won't answer my calls. So she gave me Lee's number and I called him. I remember hanging up that call and I said, I don't know what happened or what has happened. But he knows. And my mom kind of got on to me and she said,  you can't accuse somebody. You know, we don't know what's going on yet. You know, we just, we just don't, we don't know where she is right now. And I said, but he does. 

Holley Southard considered Angela one of her closest friends and remembers knowing Angela since third grade. I don't remember meeting her. She just was always there. I don't know how to, like, she was. I don't remember if she was there before me or after me, it was third grade, so it was kind of a blur.

Holley immediately said yes when I asked her to come and share about Angela and all things Princeton. Holley is the middle daughter of James and Deborah Southard. The Southard family moved to Princeton from Farmersville in 1980  when James got a job to be the president at the local bank. Farmersville was a tiny town eight miles east of Princeton. 

Deborah had already been the one and only 8th grade English teacher at Princeton Middle School since 1978, so it was an easy move for the family. In1978, Princeton only had one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. Today, Princeton has eight elementary schools. Three middle schools and two high schools. 

Deborah was probably the most popular middle school teacher in the history of Princeton. In fact, one of Princeton's three current middle schools is named Southard Middle School. Holley and I were in a drama together. Holley's older sister, Kelly, was my classmate. And I'm happy to say we're still very close friends today.

And the youngest of the Southard gals was Kari. Kari was my student in 1993, during my brief time as the high school drama teacher in Princeton following my college graduation.Kari, now Kari Southard Hargrave, Is the executive producer of this podcast. 

This is True Texas Crime, the Significant Life of Angela Stevens. Episode Three, The Secrets We Keep. 

My Family and I moved to Princeton in 1980. I was in the third grade. We moved to Princeton actually just eight miles down the road from Farmersville 'cause my dad, uh, was named Vice President of the bank there in Princeton. And so we, we moved in and actually bought our cousin's house, which was right across the street from the high school.

The only school besides elementary, middle school, um, high school was all together in one building. So we moved right across the street there.

What's your first, you know, solid memories of Angie? Her laugh. She had the best laugh. And she was so tiny. She was this tiny person, five foot nothing, maybe, maybe a hundred pounds. I mean, at her biggest. That's what I'm talking about. So back then it was even smaller, right? But she had the biggest smile on her face always. And just this giggle and laugh that was so much bigger than she was. That just drew, it drew me to her. Because she just was always just looked like she had sunshine coming out of her. 

Princeton Elementary, I think like most schools, had the students stay in one class with one teacher for the entire day. You only got to see friends not in your class at recess or group assemblies. 

Do you remember, were you in a class with her after third grade? I think I was in fifth grade with her. I think we were in Ms. Spires class together, actually. 

Did you guys, like, sit with each other at lunch or anything like that? Yeah, we did. We, uh, we'd talk and we'd write notes. It was very exciting to move up to sixth grade. Because that's when you had a different teacher for each subject. And because the town was so small, odds were you had at least one class with every single student in your grade. 

Holley says she remembers really starting to spend more time with Angela. Once they started sixth grade year.

You know, back then you wrote on your notebook who you liked or wrote letters back and forth and you signed it with the person's name. You like, I mean, that's from, you know, from fifth grade on through eighth grade. When I, when I really knew Angela, that's when we, you know, we would do stuff like that and, uh, got to know each other because my mom was a teacher too. And so she was in my mom's class.

And I mean, we just, uh, and it's such a small school. You just kind of know everybody. When do you remember, uh, when you became boy crazy in school? I remember it was after my dad died in 1983. I was obsessed with daytime soap operas. And the plot line was always about the couple getting together and making love for the first time.

And so I was just like, Oh my God, I have to have a boyfriend. I have to find someone to like kiss me and have sex with eventually when I'm old enough. And you know, it's probably going to be the person I marry. All this crazy stuff. When do you remember kind of being boy crazy yourself? Or were you not?

Were you something else? I really wasn't. I looked like, I pretty much looked like a boy until I was a sophomore in high school. And I, I didn't tip puberty until then. So I was a tomboy until then. So I didn't, I had a bunch of  guy friends. Um, and I think the first time I ever kissed somebody was. And Angela was there.

Um, it was, uh, that, so I remember her being there. Cause it's your first kiss. You remember that stuff. We were playing, I think, Spin the Bottle or  Truth or Dare. There was a bunch of us there. Was it like a party or was it just like, let's all meet after school and play Spin the Bottle, Truth or Dare? It was just like a summer thing where you just kind of hung out because we walked everywhere in Princeton.

So that's interesting that Angie was there. What do you remember about, uh, Angie and boys? Very boy crazy since I, since I ever met her. She always like, there was some,  there was always somebody she liked. Like there was always somebody. And if  that didn't work out, like, then there was another, there's always somebody on the bench.You know what I'm saying? 

I do. Now, were you involved in that? Because what I remember was that the whole thing was like, you found a friend that would be,  Hey, will you find out at lunch, I was the person in the group that the girls would come to and say, see if so and so likes me. See if Tracy or, or Scott, whoever likes me, because I was, I was friends with the guys, that's was. That was just, it was just easy for me to talk to them. And there was no  like attraction in that way, on either side between the guys and myself. So it was just easy for me to talk to and I'd be like, yeah, sure. So it was never, I was always the person that was. In charge of that. 

What do you first remember about Lee Henson? I remember, I remember him mainly because Angel, Angie liked him. I remember that's when I first, he first like got on my radar. Like as like a long time, she liked him. I wouldn't say sixth grade, seventh grade, maybe like she was liked him for a very long time. I kept notes and all kinds of stuff from back then.

And I have in my year, one of my yearbooks too, Angie wrote,  Um, Angie loves Lee, and then she wrote like, Angela Henson, when you sign your name, you know, with your person you want to marry and use their last name. At the time, I think I liked  maybe Ross or somebody. I took Ross to my, one of my proms by the way, his name has come up more than once. Very, very wonderful person. 

And so, I’m sure I put, Um, Holley and Ross forever and Angie and Lee forever. I mean, that went back to like, I'm gonna say six, maybe sixth or seventh grade. And I knew Lee cause he played football too. He was a football player. And, um,  And then also the skating rink is where everybody in Princeton, that's the only thing to do in Princeton.

It's my understanding that Angie and Lee met mainly because Lee was spending a lot of time at the Chandler's, who lived in the pasture behind her house, and they would play together basketball and things like that. Do you have any remembrance of her sharing the first time that she spent time with him? 

I just remember that she was, for just such, such a long time, like he was always on her radar. You know, for, since I can remember. Do you remember when it turned, uh, turned into like a physical relationship? Oh, very early. I mean, she would tell me stories, um, about that. I'm like, you said she was boy crazy and she was, um.

What was the conversation like? It was more of a first base, second base type, third base conversation. Um, cause I, you know, I was definitely way, way behind the eight ball and I was never anywhere near that, like nothing. Yeah. And so, I was like, what do you do? How do you, like, she was like, tell me what, what, what happened and stuff.

So she was, uh, um, probably more mature in that way, I guess I would say, than, um, than anybody I knew. She matured earlier than I did, physically, even though she was smaller. Holley and I talked about boys and all the normal sexual feelings we were having as teens. But I think it's important to say we were made to feel shame about these feelings.

We were taught by some of our churches, our moms, even by her friends, that sex before marriage was what bad girls did. I think the conversation is that she was a normal girl with exploring normal hormones. Yes! Uh, seemingly without shame, because what I remember about Angie is that she was younger than me, and I remember always seeing her in the hallway. She was so tiny that she like really stood out in that way, but always just this super bright smile, like, hi, how are you, just to like everyone. 

But I do remember, because I was going through this phase of like, Oh my God, I've got to lose my virginity. I remember thinking, wow, that girl, like she's, she's having sex and she's enjoying it. And I'm very into her sexual freedom, her ability to just walk around school and not worry if someone thinks she's a slut.

Yeah, she was, she was, and it did hurt her feelings. She heard those. Those people say stuff about her and whisper behind her back and it did hurt her feelings. There was this automatic judgment of, well, you know,  she's doing it too early and do they really love each other?  It was just crazy. And now I feel like, oh my god, I was so harsh about this person who was just kind of living the life I wanted to be living, fearlessly.

I'm not saying that every guy she was with that she was in love with, but I, I know she was in love with Lee. Like, I know, and I know that she thought he loved her. Now, Lee had a girlfriend, who, we're not going to mention her by name. I'm confused about reading through the trial, and just to the best of my memory, he had this cheerleader girlfriend, who, who is a lovely person, by the way, and that Angie was the side piece. Exactly. Can you kinda comment on that?

So Angie dropped out of school, I think right after eighth grade, his girlfriend, she didn't know obviously anything about what was going on there.

I think Angie's thought process during that time, cause she still saw Lee all the time, even though she wasn't at school, they saw each other anyway, she still lived at home and they saw each other. So I think that she just was like, well, when the school's out, that's going to be over and done with. You know, he and I are going to end up together anyway, because they, they were together a lot of the weekends, you know, they hung out together all the time when, I mean, he would probably drop his girlfriend off and then go pick up Angela, you know, that was kind of the, the deal, I know she knew he had a girlfriend, but I mean, you, you're, you're 15, 16 years old and the guy.

You're completely in love with telling you this is not, you know, I'm just doing this because I'm in football. She's a cheerleader. Like this is what we do and that's, you know, swindled her into thinking she was more important. Do you remember going to any kind of like parties, she was with Lee, or was Lee possibly at the party with the girlfriend and Angie was there too?

I'm sure that happened, probably happened multiple times. I don't have a single memory of it. Or that she would need to get back. It seems like I remember she needed to get home or she was going to meet Lee later that night, several times that, you know, that we would be at parties and stuff that she would have to leave.

Or  sometimes, yeah, I, I just,  I just remember that. That there, I mean, there were times that they were in the same place together where Lee and his girlfriend and she was there with a group, with a bunch of people, there were, there were definitely times that had happened. Do you know if he was ever abusive to her in any way, like physically grabbing her?

I mean, she never mentioned that. If he was physically abusive towards her, um, he definitely  psychologically abused her. Being someone's second choice and having another person is very psychologically abusive. Oh yeah. And making you think that your worth is just only because you're with him. So, I mean that, so he, he definitely had a hold on her.

As adults, it's easy to think back on these things and have like a different perspective, but. As a young teenager then, do you remember her  talking about, well, he's confusing me, he's sending me mixed signals, you know? I'm sure I said it, like, what are you doing? Like, he obviously is into her and, and, you know, um, but there was always, she always had an excuse.

I didn't see her that much after probably sophomore year. Cause, um, I just didn't, you know. It was just, you know, she wasn't around as much. I was just super busy and had a license at that point. And I didn't, unfortunately didn't, we didn't keep in touch as much back when she was going to school,if she missed the bus or didn't have a ride, she would come over our house because we lived right across the street and she would just come over,  come over and watch MTV.

With me and Dave Williams, Headbangersball, um,  we would do stuff, she would do stuff like that. So,  whenever she first went, whenever I heard she was first missing, because this was before the internet, cell phones, pagers, anything, it was just landline stuff. Um, that I, you know, immediately people thought, well, she's at somebody, some friend's house, like she's just at some friend's house and she's going to show up because that's not, that wasn't that unusual that her, for her to do that. 

And you, again, landlines and some people didn't have phones, believe it or not. You're not even landlines back then, uh, especially out in the country. And,  So, I think initially that's what I thought and kind of what everybody thought for the first day or two. And then after that, it was pretty clear there was something wrong. 

Did you have any thoughts when it came to the time of something's wrong? What were your initial thoughts? I never in a million years thought  that, that, that Lee had anything to do, that never crossed my mind. I never in a million years thought that, that Lee had anything to do, that never crossed my mind. 

I mean, I thought this kid looking back now, I would have never thought him because he was our quarterback of our football team. He had seemed like he had a good life. I know he was living. He wasn't living with us. He was living with the Chandler's at the time, but they, they did that so he could finish school out in Princeton.

And I mean, he's. Besides the fact that I didn't like how you treated Angela, Angie, I didn't think he was a,  I didn't think he had anything like that in him. Let's talk about the Chandler's for a minute in that the Chandler's were kind of revered as these are good people. If someone was invited to live at the Chandler's house, that was an endorsement of character. 

Yeah. I mean, and that family, and to this day, I mean, they did a lot of stuff for Lee. And you never would have thought that, I mean, sometimes, you know, he was, I thought he was a jerk because like I said, his treatment of Angie, but that, that was the only thing I had against him. He was never like, never ever thought anything.

And I didn't know the other two guys. They were older. I did not know Rodney and John either. 

As Holley and I got deeper into conversation, we discussed how unfair we think Angela was treated. And I, I hate not trying to pull her out of  the relationship with him. I mean, I don't know that anybody could have at that point. And I think that, I mean, stop glorifying these men, boys. And that, like you said, the first thing that, that people were saying, well, they just threw their lives away. That was the first thing people were worried about.

Then I decided to share with Holley my traumatic high school experience. My own trip to an empty field outside of Princeton. One of the reasons that I want to do this podcast, and one of the reasons I feel this connection to Angie and what happened to her, even though I didn't hang out with her, is that I was sexually assaulted  in high school. 

In my obsession of, I need to be loved and have, you know, one thing about the soap operas was there was a super, it was always the super couple. Like Bo and Hope, Luke and Laura, whatever. I was like looking for my Bo Brady, we'll say. And I  got really drunk a couple of times in high school. Each one were very bad incidents.

I remember everything that happened on those nights. Except for the blackout parts. I just remember them all being very bad times. And one time it was my friend's birthday, surprise birthday party. We went to Melissa, a group of us, in the car. And we were drinking on the way back to the friend's house. We were supposed to deliver her for the surprise. 

And I drank four Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers between Melissa and Princeton. Is that maybe a 15-20 minute drive?  I don't know. And I remember in the car going to the party being like, I'm gonna lose my virginity tonight. Like, this is it. This is the night. And I remember, like, in the party, like, making this announcement to many people. 

And I also remember couples were there. And Kelly and Randy were there. You're, you're older. sister, and now brother in law. And I remember going up to them, just talking about this obsession with judgment and what we are and aren't supposed to be doing. I remember drunk as a skunk being, I want you to know it's okay that you're having sex with each other. 

But I needed to like, give them a free, like, I am so worried about, I mean, I still, you know, struggle with judgment, moral compass, God, what's gonna happen after we're gone. I was just so obsessed with the idea of I would have sex, but also that it might be bad. And then, you know, it's, it's a lot. So  the next thing I remember is being taken to the back room by, uh, my friend Chris, who was trying to take care of me, I remember.

Then I woke up in the middle of a field, I think it was Tickeyi Creek Park, and I was in the back of my car when this guy was trying to have sex with me. And I think I gave him a blowjob. I remember getting out of the car and vomiting, and that being something I was like, Oh my God. And then I remember being back in the car, and I remember I was wearing a miniskirt, and he was just like trying so hard to have sex with me.

And I remember saying, No, I don't want to do that. No, I don't want to do that. And just kind of, you know, twisting and turning. And it didn't, he, you know, he did not penetrate me. The next thing I remember, I woke up  in the back of my car again with a different guy. And I remember  he was having oral sex with me. 

I will say I remember enjoying the feeling of the oral sex then. I do remember that and having all these conflicting thoughts years later of well, I must have enjoyed it or liked it. So I really believe in that your body reacts the way the body would react. And when I say enjoy it, I don't remember being like, Oh my God, this is fun.

I just remember my body positively responding the way it would with sexual activity happening. My sister showed up at the party. She, I guess she had been at the E-Z Mart and someone said, your sister's at a party telling everyone she wants to lose her virginity tonight. You need to go get her. I remember my sister yanking me out of my car and putting me in her car.

And I remember hitting my head on her car and being locked in my room that, uh, going to my room that night. And my mom just really devastated that I was drunk. And I remember not wanting to come out of my room the next day. And then I had to go to work at the Shell station on the corner there, you know what I'm talking about? 

And I remember saying to my boss, I, I don't know if I had sex last night. And this haunted me for years, years, years, years, years. I mean, it was really damaging. And I don't know who gave those guys my keys, you know? I don't know how the first guy got the keys to my car?I don't know, like, where the handoff was?

Uh, the one guy, the first guy, the one that actually tried to penetrate me as someone I would never in a million years. He was not on my radar. He was not on my, I like you boys. The second guy was someone that I knew and I mean, I, I didn't want to get in the back of my car with him and do any of that. I remember we used to have this fair and in school, like, um, where you would go up to the elementary schools, a Halloween fair or, or Fall festival.

And one of the things you could do at the Fall festival was, um, you know, get married to someone. Small town, Texas, life - a thing for kids to play, play married. And I remember this guy, the second part of the night, I had married him when we were like little kids at the school and I had a little marriage certificate and they gave you these rings.

So traumatic thinking about that was an activity at a, for kids to do at a carnival, so I knew him in that way. But I consider myself a girl that got out of the field. You know, I survived my field in that I, you know, I wasn't murdered. I didn't survive it emotionally. I mean, I would say until my 40s, it, it ruined the intimacy in my life. 

And then, when things happened with, uh, the Supreme Court hearings and Christine Blasey Ford um, that kind of brought it all up again. And her testifying, I remember exactly what happened, because it sticks in your brain. Like, it's science that it sticks in your brain. So that's one of the reasons I want to do this, is because, I think there are other people out there that didn't get out of their field, and there are other people, like, like Angie, you know, there are more girls that were just murdered in a field and written off, and then there are girls that got out and still. And I've been asking this of all of the guests that I've talked to, if you're comfortable sharing, did you have any close calls with any boys in school, uh, any scary, scary nights that you feel comfortable talking about? 

So, yeah, same thing. I mean, I was also assaulted, um, since you're asking me, I wasn't going to say anything, but, um, by a boy I liked. And it was my  junior year  and I was not drunk. I remember every single thing  and he was not drunk. Um, and he knew I liked him. We were at a party and then I got in and he said, you want to come back to my house?

And I did. And  actually I drove to his house and, um, you know, we were talking and then started making out and things, one thing led to another, and then I was like, well, you know, I'm ready to go. And then I wasn't allowed to go. And I remember cause I had so silly. I'd gone to see Def Leppard in concert at the Hysteria, their Hysteria tour.

And I had the Def Leppard Hysteria shirt on it's Friday night. Yeah, and no, it was Saturday night. And, um, I just remember trying to fight and it didn't work out and he ripped my shirt and so the whole time this is happening, I just remember, I just was concentrating on the fact that I was pissed off and he ripped my shirt.

That's all I was just thinking the whole time. Just not trying to think about what was happening,  but I, like, I was bruised. My lower part of my body was bruised badly. And I, I didn't, I never told anybody I went home. I got up the next morning and had to go, had to go fucking build a parade float for homecoming at my friend Jamie's house. And he was older than me.

He was a year older than me. And so we had a junior float we were making, and there was like ton of us there. And I was just a zombie, like. What just happened? Like,I just remember thinking, and I never told a soul about it until after, I think I was in my 30s. You were raped. Like, you were actually raped.

Oh, it was bad. Violently raped. And, by someone that you had known. How long did you know him? I remember him in junior high, and he, he, um, he had a long term girlfriend that he had just, they had just broken up. And, um, and I remember I was just, I was so devastated because I liked him. And, um, I remember like a couple of days later, his girl, his girlfriend  came by my house and wanted to talk to me.

And she said, Hey, I know you were at his house the other night. You know, what, what went on? Like, uh, did he like, and I was like, Oh, nothing, nothing. We just talked. Like, I totally lied. A hundred percent lied. And didn't say, didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell anybody for a long time. And then when I ended up, I  ended up telling  Tracy, my friend, Tracy, my first kiss, Tracy, one night.

Um, he and I were still really close. In your thirties, in your thirties? It was late twenties, early thirties. It was, it was years, years later. And he was like, Oh my God, Holley, you realize that somebody has filed charges against him for that. Like somebody else brought charges like years after, like a couple years after it happened to me and I felt  Like a piece of shit for not saying anything because it had happened to somebody else And if I but I didn't I was like, no, what am I supposed to like?

I didn't know I and it bothers me so that bothers me more than anything is I didn't say anything  until later in life  and then it happened after it happened to me. It happened to somebody else. Maybe I could it could have stopped, stopped there I don't know, but I’ll never know, but he never got convicted of it.

He ended up being a cop. He tried to friend me on Facebook a couple of times  And I was like and he tried to talk to me after that and I was like, I just I can't even look at you  Like I can't like he didn't like, I don't think he thought I think he was used to doing that I don't know, but I same with you.

It's very triggering. I'm so sorry, what you went through, um,  it's hard to say, Oh, that's worse than what happened to me. Cause, but you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm sorry that I'm sorry that yours was even more, more traumatic and intense. I was so hurt more than anything. Um, that I was mad and now, now as I'm older, I was mad at myself for going over to his house  because you know, as girls, what would you expect?

What do you think was going to happen? You went over his house, you know? I wasn't forced to go to his house. Well, exactly, and what do you, I never told anyone until I was in graduate school. I told a therapist, I told a male therapist what happened, and he, I said, I've never told anyone this, it's like, destroying me, I have to share it, and his response was, okay. 

And then I never told anyone again for a long, long time, because I was like, oh, I've, I've made this into something that it's not. Imagine, Being me, I was announcing I want to lose my virginity. So of course I got what I deserved, you know? No, that's not how that works, Julie. I know that now, but I didn't know it for a very, very long time.

And the girls whose party it was, who is just a wonderful, dear, dear person, friend in my life. I kind of cut her out of my life after that, uh, got back in touch with her around 2017. Took her to Cracker Barrel in McKinney and said, I really love you, you have, uh, such a place in my heart from when we were in school.

I want to tell you why I kind of never talked to you again after high school. And then I told her what happened and she was just like floored. She was like, I had no idea. I'm like, yeah, it's okay. I didn't talk about it. I didn't tell anyone. Did you see her, the guy that assaulted you afterwards?  Oh, yeah, and I had a similar incident in that the, uh, the guy who actually tried to, like, penetrate me, he was dating a girl that was in drama with us.

We were all in a play together, uh, you, me, and her. And she was like, oh, I, I heard what you did with my boyfriend. You know, and so she was mad at me thinking, you know, that I was hooking up, wanting to screw her boyfriend. When the real story was, someone gave her boyfriend my car keys. And, and I will say, I've recently come to the revelation, I could have given him those car keys.

I don't know. I can't imagine anyone was letting me walk around with my car keys at this party. I really want to know who gave me those keys. The keys, who gave, who gave my keys to this person? Because the fact is they took advantage of you when you were completely drunk. It doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter if you walked up to them and handed them the keys and said, you know, let's go for a drive.

Whatever that does, that doesn't matter, right? I wasn't, I was not in a position to give consent. Yes, exactly. And that's taken me till my late 40s to be able to say that and realize that and actually believe it. Talk about how Angela was taken advantage of, probably, or obviously, like you're right. What happened to her could have happened to any of us. 

And it's probably why we relate to that and it hits us so hard and you want to tell a story. Yeah, I mean, they met up and said, you know, Hey, we're going to go, we're going to go to this field. We think there's actual marijuana growing out there. That's why they went to the field. So she went to see marijuana growing in the wild and she was beaten and murdered. 

I don't know, which breaks my heart even more, you know, to have somebody get shot, have to be shot. Yeah, is one thing, but to have somebody physically put their hands on you and beat you is so personal. Like it, I, why, why did he? They hit her with the gun, with like the bottom of the gun. They hit her with that in the face multiple times, is what the coroner believes. A 100 pound, 5 foot tall girl. 

What do you hope people will get out of hearing Angela's story? I hope they remember her specifically, and how fleeting life is sometimes. And if you're a friend of somebody's, or you perpetu- -, say you are, um, maybe, and I didn't do this, maybe check in on them. More than you are. 

You might be thinking, how does this have anything to do with Angela? Angela wasn't raped, but she was emotionally abused. Well, the point is, it's about all the women and girls you know in your life. Here is a sample of statistics that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to the organization RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. 

Younger people are at the highest risk of sexual violence. Ages 12 to 34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault. 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. And it's honestly, about anyone you know, it's not just happening to women. About 3 percent of American men, or 1 in 33, have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.

Transgender college students are at higher risk for sexual violence. 21 percent of transgender, genderqueer,  nonconforming college students, TGQN, have been sexually assaulted compared to 18 percent non TGQN females and 4 percent of non TGQN males. American Indians are twice as likely to experience a rape or sexual assault compared to all other races. 

One of the original reasons I wanted to do this podcast is because I thought Angela was also a sexual assault victim, and that made me feel closely connected to her. During the research process, Deputy Sheriff Investigator Larry Denison said, there wasn't enough of Angela's body recovered to even know if she was sexually assaulted. 

Emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, and violence is happening right now to women and girls we all know. As we end this episode, I hope if you see something,  you'll say something. And if you need help,  please visit rainn.org. R-A-I-N-N dot O-R-G. Or call 1-800-656 4673. Let's not leave any more girls in empty fields.

True Texas Crime, The Significant Life of Angela Stevens, is a North End Burgers production. 

Recorded, hosted, and written by me, Julie Dove.

Kari Southard Hargrave is the executive producer. 

Studio recording by Mike DeLay.

Real Voice LA. Sound design and mixing by Real Voice LA. 

Additional recording by JBM Studios.

Opening music, “The Colonel,” courtesy of Zachariah Hickman. 

Closing music, “Night in the Prairie,” courtesy of Derek and Brandon Feichter. 

Special thanks to Jackie Stevens Tower. Amy Harper Fritz, Deanna McDonald, and Jennifer Rich. 

The views expressed by this podcast host and participants are solely that of the person speaking and do not necessarily reflect the views of any employer, company, institution, or other associated parties.