Saturday, April 27, 2002
A caller telephoned 911 twice -- first reporting illegal dumping and then, 20 minutes later, saying a body was in a ditch.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Hours before police identified a brutalized body in a creek a few yards east of North Road, Denise Angelo's mother came to the scene with a desperate worry.
Her daughter, who was involved in drugs and trouble on the streets of Warren, had been missing since Monday.
Myrtle Sisler of Warren heard the report of a body on her police scanner and worried that the police had found her child.
"Why can't they do something about the drugs?" Sisler said, crying in a driveway across North Road from where police were still examining the body.
Later Friday morning she learned that her intuition was right: It was her 35-year-old daughter.
"I just had a feeling," Sisler said. "I just knew it."
Police said Angelo was stabbed several times -- they won't say how many -- and her shirt was nearly ripped off.
No suspects have been arrested, and police do not have a motive.
Police records show that Angelo had been arrested numerous times, mainly on misdemeanor crimes such as possessing drug paraphernalia. She was released from the county jail March 26 after she had been arrested for driving under suspension, county jail records show.
The investigation
Police are not sure how long her body was in the area but believe it was there at least 24 hours.
An autopsy is scheduled today by Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk of the county corner's office. "We should have more answers at that time," Police Chief John Mandopoulos said.
He noted that police are not sure if Angelo died where she was found, or if her body was moved there after the crime.
Residents of the area said they hadn't noticed anything unusual.
What happened
According to Trumbull County 911 records, at 8:22 a.m. Friday, a man called from a pay telephone at a Youngstown Road S.E. store, stating that he witnessed someone dumping something on the east side of North Road, just past the first entrance of Candlelight Estates.
The call was first received by Warren police, who transferred it to the county dispatch because the dispatcher thought that part of North Road was in Howland Township, 911 officials said.
"That area is difficult because part is in the city and part is in the township," Mandopoulos said.
The caller, whom police believe gave 911 dispatchers a false name, said he could not tell what was dumped. He also gave 911 officials the number of a license plate of the car he said was involved, but the number proved to be false.
At 8:44 a.m. he again called 911 from a pay telephone in the parking lot of Rally's near the Eastwood Mall. The caller said he called before about something being dumped in the wooded area, and then said he believed someone was in the ditch. When the dispatcher asked for his name, he hung up the phone.
sinkovich@vindy.com