Police call woman's death a homicide, but remain tight-lipped

BRISTOL, Va. – Angela Statzer wrote her foster father a note last year for Father’s Day.

“Dear Dad,” it began in a childish script.

“She always called me dad,” said Bobby, who declined to give his last name because he said he signed a confidentiality agreement when he became a foster parent. “I took her practically everywhere I went.”

Statzer’s body was found last week, on her 22nd birthday, deep in the woods off East Valley Drive. Police are calling her death a homicide, but have released few details, including how she died.

Her funeral is planned for this afternoon.

“Please let everyone know I am doing OK,” she wrote her foster father last year. “I have been trying to get back in school. They may let me come back in the fall. I love you and I will call you as soon as I get minutes on my phone or get someone else to let me use their phone.”

Statzer was found dead at 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.”

The Bristol Virginia Police Department refused Monday to provide further details about the ongoing homicide investigation. They also said the incident report from last Wednesday when the body was discovered is not yet available.

The body was sent to the state medical examiner’s office in Roanoke. The cause of death was still pending Monday.

Statzer was one of four children. She went into foster care before she was in high school. First, she lived in Chilhowie, Va., but only for a few months. She moved in with an Abingdon family, where she lived from the eighth grade until she was 20 years old.

“The biggest problem we had out of her was deciding what we were going to cook for dinner that night,” Bobby said. “She was always helpful, just nice, just a plain old country girl. I never knew anyone who didn’t like Angie.”

About two years ago, Bobby said she left for Bristol abruptly, but kept in touch. She called several times a month, sometimes several times a week. Last summer, she cut off contact. She skipped the family’s Fourth of July party.

“My wife kept telling me, there’s something wrong here,” Bobby said.

Statzer skipped Thanksgiving and then Christmas with her family.

“Will you tell mom and the whole family that I am doing good and tell them I love them,” she wrote to her foster father last year. “I got mom something I know she will like. I will try to bring it to her as soon as I can.”

Her brother, Chad Camper, said she moved in with him at first. Then she got her own apartment for a while. Camper said recently, she’d been drifting – staying here and there with friends. She had a boyfriend, he said, but declined to name him.

Bobby said there were a hundred reasons why she’d never, on her own, be out in the woods where they found her. She didn’t like scratches, never learned to drive, preferred malls to woods, he said.

“If there was one thing I taught her in life, it was never trust anyone,” Bobby said. “Always have an out – if you’re going somewhere or doing something, make sure you don’t get yourself caught in a situation you can’t get out of. And she was good at that, she was very safety-conscious.”

Since her body was discovered, Bobby said there’s one thing that everyone who’s called has said: “Why would anyone in the world want to hurt Angie?”

Statzer is survived by her father, Charles Statzer, and his wife, Stephanie, of Bristol, Tenn.; her mother, Pamela Renee Camper, of Bristol, Tenn.; two brothers, Charles and Chad Camper, both of Bristol, Va.; stepbrothers, Cody and Zach Statzer, of Bristol, Tenn.; and stepsisters, Ashley and Britney Statzer, of Bristol, Tenn.

Statzer’s family will receive friends at Blevins Funeral Services from 1-2 p.m. today. The funeral will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Ordway Cemetery in Bristol, Tenn.

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