When Angela Russo agreed to a date with an online match, she was hopeful for love. But the 24-year-old vanished, and weeks later, her body was found buried in a shallow grave in the Arizona desert.
“Angela was going to meet up with who she thought was this perfect man,” Maricopa County Prosecutor Joseph Hinrichsen said during the Nov. 8 episode of Catfish Murders. “But what she was walking into was a trap.”
Angela’s mom Diana Schalow had last heard from her April 18, 2016, when her daughter texted plans to bowl with coworkers, then sleep at a friend’s house. Afterward, Angela ceased all communication, despite Diana’s repeated attempts to reach her.
“That was so unlike her,” Diana recalled. “Angela always responded to text messages.”
Diana’s fears grew when she learned that her daughter had failed to show up for work on April 19—and coworkers said she had skipped out on bowling, too.
Angela’s family filed a missing person report, but because Angela was an adult, police said it was possible she had left on her own. Unconvinced, Diana provided photos of Angela, hoping she could be identified by her tattoos: a songbird on her foot, a ladybug behind her ear and a Tigger and Eeyore design.
Who Was Angela Russo?
“Angela was a fun-loving little whippersnapper,” Diana told Catfish Murders. “She wanted to make everybody happy.”
Angela was studying to be a medical assistant with hopes of becoming a pediatric nurse, but it was her romantic life that became the focus of the investigation.
“She was looking for Prince Charming,” Angela’s brother Ryan Schalow said. “That person that was great with family, was great with kids, believed in God…everything you could look for in a guy.”
When police ruled out Angela’s ex-boyfriends, the investigation stalled, until phone records revealed two clues: Angela had recently been in a rough Phoenix neighborhood and had communicated with a 520 area code linked to a prepaid phone.
“For police, that complicates things,” Jeff Roseberry, Deputy County Attorney at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said. “This number may have been utilized for different people.”
But Angela’s old phone in her bedroom revealed her activity on the dating app Plenty of Fish.
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Angela had been flirting with a man who called himself Jodeci—and his texts came from that 520 area code. Photos of him in a military uniform and references to his faith suggested he had qualities Angela valued in a partner.
The pair had arranged a date for April 19, and Angela’s Google Maps history bore searches for a Phoenix address.
When police visited the apartment, it was registered to Claudia Martinez—whose boyfriend had a mysterious connection to Angela.
LaShawn Johnson Investigated for Angela Russo’s Disappearance
Claudia had little to say when questioned by police, claiming she didn’t know Angela or anyone named Jodeci and that she had been at work on April 19.
But her boyfriend LaShawn Johnson caught investigators’ attention. The 25-year-old, who had a felony criminal history, was already in custody for an unrelated offense.
Police obtained the prepaid phone records. LaShawn was associated with the number—and used the online alias Jodeci. They also executed a search warrant on the home.
“They realized that he was catfishing Angela,” Hinrichsen said. “Basically, pretending to be somebody in order to lure them in, make them feel comfortable to get what they want.”
LaShawn told police he had matched with Angela online but denied ever meeting her or speaking to her by phone. Police suspected he was lying, especially after learning he had called his cell phone provider to change his number one day after Angela went missing.
“Why would someone want to do that?” Hinrichsen said. “It’s the desperation to change the phone number that becomes very apparent and indicative of foul play.”
Investigators then listened in on two jailhouse calls between Claudia and LaShawn. In one, Claudia shared that police had searched their apartment and removed some of LaShawn’s belongings. In the other, he instructed Claudia to remove other items from a safe.
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Claudia then shared more information.
She recalled picking up LaShawn on April 20 from a landscaping job in Tonopah, a remote location where such gigs aren’t typical. She also said she hiked with LaShawn on May 12, when he stumbled across a burned car that he was eager to show her.
When Claudia led police to the car, they were met with the unmistakable stench of decomposition. Nearby, a pile of rocks appeared to outline the shape of a body.
As police removed the rocks, strands of red hair—the same color as Angela’s—protruded from the ground. Underneath was a body that bore a familiar tattoo of Eeyore and Tigger.
“I broke down crying,” her brother recalled upon hearing the news. “The worst day of my life.”
What Happened to Angela Russo?
Angela’s disappearance was now a homicide investigation. A second search of the apartment also uncovered blood evidence, which DNA testing later linked to Angela.
When police questioned LaShawn again, this time he claimed that Angela had come over, along with one of his friends whose identity authorities could not verify.
Detectives then asked LaShawn if he wanted to write a letter to Angela’s family.
“He writes an apology to them and basically says, ‘I’m sorry for what I’ve done, and I hope you can forgive me,’” Hinrichsen said. “He then crumples it up and then tries to hide it in his sock.”
In July 2018, more than two years after Angela vanished, LaShawn went on trial for her murder.
Authorities believe that Angela had met LaShawn at the apartment for what she assumed was a first date.
“It seems most likely that Angela would have been murdered in the apartment,” Roseberry noted. “But her body was likely removed in those early morning hours…and placed into the trunk, where LaShawn could then drive her out to the Tonopah area and then bury her in that shallow grave, setting the vehicle on fire.”
But when LaShawn took the stand, he painted Claudia as the killer.
“He did witness the murder, but the murder happened when Claudia got home that morning,” Hinrichsen recounted. “She saw them together, threw herself into a rage, went and got a knife from the kitchen and then chased Angela around the dining room and then stabbed Angela multiple times with a knife.”
Claudia, who was not charged with a crime, denied the allegations. In October 2018, LaShawn was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced to natural life in prison.
Source: www.oxygen.com
