Authorities await autopsy results in death of Angela L. Statzer

BRISTOL, Va. – Chad Camper said he last saw his sister Monday. She was walking around the Lee Garden apartment complex, where he lives now and she used to. She was listening to hip hop music, as she often did, and stopped in to say hello.

The body of his sister, Angela L. Statzer, was found two days later, on her 22nd birthday, less than a mile away, deep in the woods off East Valley Drive.

Police are calling her death a homicide, but investigators declined to release details about why or say whether they have suspects.

Statzer was found about 5 p.m. Wednesday by a man walking his dog on an overgrown hill across the street from Aerus Electrolux. Police said she was lying on her back, fully clothed in pants, a shirt and shoes. Bristol Virginia Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliff said she’d been there “no more than a few days.”

Her body was taken to Roanoke for an autopsy Wednesday night, and police announced her identity Thursday afternoon. They declined to release specifics on the cause of death, citing pending autopsy results and a continuing investigation.

Camper said police arrived at the apartment he shares with their brother Wednesday afternoon.

“It hit us hard,” Camper said. “We were just kind of silent, we cried for a second. Then we were just silent.”

Camper, 26, said Statzer was the youngest of four children – Statzer, Camper, an older brother and an older sister he never met. He described their upbringing as “rough, tragic life” and referred to himself and his siblings as wards of the state.

He went into foster care at 14 years old. Statzer followed a few years later, when she was 13. Camper said they were all separated, but kept in touch. Statzer lived with a family in Chilhowie until she was an adult, then she moved in with him at the Lee Garden Apartments. Some time later, she got her own apartment in the same building. Recently, she moved out of that apartment and stayed with friends, whom Camper declined to identify. He said they lived nearby and he would sometimes run into his sister just walking around. She usually visited on Mondays. He described her as a drifter. He wasn’t worried that he hadn’t heard from her for days. He said sometimes he wouldn’t see her for a week, then she’d reappear. She was never reported missing.

Camper said Statzer was “innocent, laid back, mousy.” She kept to herself and, despite having gone to Virginia Highlands Community College for several years, she did not work.

Bristol Police Sgt. Steve Crawford said Statzer was found about 200 yards down a dirt access road, and somewhere between 50 and 100 yards up the side of the hill.

The access road begins near a little pull-off near a creek just south of East Valley Drive and winds into a wooded hillside, thick with brush and without trails.

Camper said he’s familiar with those woods; he used to go for walks there.

“She was just a child, innocent onto his planet, just like any of us ever are,” he said. “She was a sweet person, never did anybody any harm.”

Statzer was short, with long, sandy-blond hair. She was pretty, but everyone thinks their sisters are pretty, he said. Everybody called her Angie.

“She’ll be at rest,” Camper said. “Whatever comes about, comes about.”

His older brother shouted at him from their second-story apartment window. “Chad, what are you doing? Come inside. Now.”

Camper declined: “I want people to know my sister. That she was a good person, a sweet girl.”

Statzer is the fourth young woman found dead in the woods in the area in recent years. First, in February 2007, the remains of 20-year-old Leah Feltner were found in the brush off Blackley Road in Bristol, Tenn. She had been missing since 2005. Then, 10 months later and just 100 yards away, a grandfather playing with his grandkids came upon the remains of 21-year-old Jill Cunningham Pope. She had been missing since April 2007.

In October 2008, the body of a woman missing more than two years turned up in an abandoned house in Washington County, Va. Dental records confirmed it was that of Meranda Faith Hayden, who was 26 when she was reported missing in April 2006.

Police long ago linked those three woman through associates and geography, but all of the cases remain unsolved.

Capt. Maynard Ratcliff declined to comment Thursday on whether Statzer’s death could be related to that string of unsolved and suspicious deaths. But, he said, Bristol residents should not be alarmed.

Camper, with his hands deep in his pockets, said he knew at least one of those women but he wasn’t sure if his sister did.

“It hurts,” he said. “I’m not gonna show it, I’m a strong person. But tonight, when I’m going to sleep, I might break down.”

cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531