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Chapter 1: What were the signs of Angela's escalating domestic violence situation?
My mom was calling the cops almost on a regular basis. Nothing. Nothing was done. She was terrified. He's calling her every vile name he can think of. Sitting outside of her house. Stalking her. She had found something in her Jeep, a tracking device. She had found cameras inside the house.
He has no idea what I go through every single day with him. No idea.
I remember her saying, I don't know what else to do. I don't know where else to turn.
It's been getting worse, and it's been getting worse. I don't want him anywhere near me.
You're describing a life lived in fear. Yeah. Every time she was out of my sight, I was so scared for her. I know this is going to be difficult for you. Take me back to October 8th. When did you realize something wasn't right? She left the house that day at 20 after 7. Ange was working at the kennels. I texted Ange a quick note. I didn't get a response. Then the sirens went off in town.
Law 7-21.
21, go ahead. I'm approaching the kennel now. I do see one vehicle out front, one vehicle. And living in a small town, you're always kind of nosy and you want to know what's going on. How far out is my assistance? I got on my phone. I don't like this. And I looked and it said Mississippi Ridge Boarding Kennels. Shots fired. Hello! And I immediately was hysterical.
because Angela Pritchard was my sister. We actually got behind an ambulance on the way up there.
Law Center 21, we are going to enter the building.
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Chapter 2: How did Angela's family react to her husband's threats?
News of an apparent homicide, the first in nearly a decade.
Why don't you secure that outbuilding?
Dozens of investigators from six different law enforcement agencies were combing the crime scene at the Mississippi Ridge boarding kennels with body cameras rolling. The woman who ran the kennels, Angela Pritchard, 55, had been gunned down. He knew how to get in the front door. Her sister, Wendy Buddy, believed she knew who was responsible. Angela's husband, Chris Pritchard.
In that moment, did you know it was Chris? 100%. 100% I knew it was him. Wendy says Angela had been trying to leave him for months and lived in fear he would kill her. This appeared to be an assailant that knew her very well. Ryan Kedley and Dustin Henningsen are special agents with Iowa's DCI, the Department of Criminal Investigation.
Bellevue's small police force with just several officers invited the state police to lead the investigation. While Angela's family was convinced Chris Pritchard was the killer, the special agents had to connect all the dots.
We had received word that there was a 911 call in the morning. Tell me about that 911 call.
911, where's your emergency?
It's essentially that you're listening to the end of her life on the 911 call.
Please, get out of here. I have customers coming in. 911?
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Chapter 3: What events led to Angela's tragic death?
You can hear dogs start to bark. We had determined that was most likely the point when he arrived at the kennels.
Henningsen believes Chris Pritchard entered the kennels and lay in wait for nearly four hours.
The first video that they really got was Angela coming down to work in the morning. And right up here, you're going to see Angela start to pull down to the entrance at the Mississippi Ridge boarding kennels. pulling up to the kennel at 7.34. You can see her get out of her vehicle and she's gathering her belongings and then walking into the kennel itself.
Angela Pritchard had less than six minutes to live.
At 7.39 and 43 seconds, we hear a gunshot go off in the video.
At any point, do you clearly see Chris on any of the surveillance cameras? Yes. We believe we see him leaving. About two minutes after the gunshot, at 7.41, the man they now suspected to be her killer, Chris Pritchard, appeared.
Actually walking from the kennel area down to the fence area here behind me. That makes us believe that this is the first area that we need to check.
Outside the kennels, miles of thick woods stretch to the horizon, an area the northeastern Iowa locals call the wilderness. It was rugged terrain. Chris Pritchard knew well, says Wendy. He knows the outdoors. I knew that he could probably survive out there for quite a while in hiding.
We have every resource at our disposal to try and do this manhunt. We have canines, we have airplanes, we have drones.
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Chapter 4: What evidence did investigators find at the crime scene?
The newlyweds were over the moon for about eight months. When did things change? I truly think that things started to change when he lost his job. He got fired. Fired and charged with first-degree theft, a felony, after he allegedly stole $36,000 worth of supplies from the electric company where he worked. She was just beside herself. What are we going to do now? We need that income back.
Awaiting trial, Pritchard was out on bail and out of work, says Wendy. He wasn't looking for work. He was definitely drinking more. As the months went on, it just was like, wow, he's really kind of changing. Pritchard finally took some odd jobs and helped Angela at the kennels. But in the summer of 2021, Wendy says Angela discovered her husband was using methamphetamine.
And then I knew that things are really getting bad. The simmering tension reached a boiling point on April 18th, 2022. She said, Chris hit me. She said, he's drunk, he's on drugs. So I told her, we're going to call the cops. Bellevue police responded. The call recorded on police body cam.
He hit me and then I just, I came to the hospital.
She was crying. She was visibly shaking. She had a mark on her face, and she said, I'm so scared. Police didn't have to go far to find Pritchard. He was in the garage. The state of Iowa law requires that somebody go to jail on a critical domestic. I can't believe I'm going to jail. Well, she's got a mark on her face. Chris Pritchard was arrested and charged with domestic assault.
He's very, very, very messed up. Yeah. We've seen him change right in front of our eyes, haven't we? Chris spent the night in jail and was released awaiting trial, staying with family. Angela sought and received a temporary no-contact order.
So he can't come back here?
No. The no-contact order now exists, protecting your sister. But a few weeks later, it's lifted. even after it happened. She said, I don't want this. I want our marriage to work. Each had been married before, but had hoped this would be their last marriage, says Wendy. Angela withdrew the no contact order. I believe he said everything that needed to be said for her to drop that order.
The drinking will stop. He will be home more. Promises he failed to keep, says Wendy. She said, I'm scared of him, especially if he's been drinking. Wendy says Angela was furious when she found a tracking device in her car and two hidden cameras in the house. I told her, you need to get a divorce. You need to be done with this, Angela.
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Chapter 5: How did law enforcement respond to the domestic violence reports?
Where are his friends at? It's a small town. Everybody talks.
Cattle farmer Jeff Junk and girlfriend Kim Klein were once close friends with Chris Pritchard. Neighbors called them about the rumor racing through town. Pritchard had shot his wife, Angela.
Get out of here. I didn't believe it.
A Jackson County chief deputy stopped by Junk's house to warn them. Pritchard was on the run and might be looking for help from his friends. Then there was a knock on the door. The knock on the front door, the one they'll always remember, came around 8.15 that October night, Kim Cline says. She and boyfriend Jeff Junk were not expecting company.
When the second knock happened, I says, I believe it's Chris, and you need to answer the door.
So you open the door, and what is it that you see on the other side? I see Chris. Chris Pritchard, their old friend, now a hunted fugitive suspected of murder, was standing in the dim light, holding a shotgun.
Jeff goes, you need to hand that gun to me. And he did, no problem.
Jeff and Kim knew they had to call the police, but until they could do that safely, Kim says they were playing along. Chris told them he'd been running all day from the cops and their dogs.
Jeff said, hey, dude, you shot your wife. Oh, yeah, how's she doing?
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Chapter 6: What role did the 911 call play in the investigation?
I think Chris is capable of anything. Booze and drugs every day. Said he doesn't give a if he goes to jail. Always looking over my shoulder to see if he's around. Her words to me are, I'm done. This is it. We're not living in the same house. Wendy invited her sister to move in with her. Angela gratefully agreed. I was like, you have a shadow now because I'm not leaving. You're stuck with me.
The next day, Angela requested a second temporary no contact order, granted September 1st, 2022. A no contact order means just that, no contact of any kind with the protected person. In the state of Iowa, a single violation requires a mandatory arrest. but that doesn't stop Chris. Once that second no contact order got put in place, I would say that's when things went really downhill.
And it was in place when Angela went back to the home she once shared with Chris Pritchard to pick up a few things, says Wendy. I was with her. You were with her along with police. The Bellevue police were there just in case Pritchard showed up. The court had ordered him to move out temporarily. We walked in the front door. The house was destroyed. There was ink and paint thrown everywhere.
Picture frames broken. Furniture was destroyed. He had actually taken the mattress off her bed and rubbed it in dog feces. Guns. And he placed them all over the house to intimidate her. I mean, we both just started crying. This is in clear violation of the restraining order. What did the police do? The police said, there's nothing we can do. This is his house.
There's nothing we can do is what they say to you. This is his house as well. Under Iowa law, with a no-contact order in place, Bellevue police should have taken Pritchard's guns. But for reasons unknown, he was allowed to keep them. Wendy and Angela's sons say throughout September, the frightening violations continued. Not physical assault, but psychological terror.
Sitting outside of her house, following her, texting her, stalking her, going and cutting the grass at the kennels. while she wasn't there. Bellevue police arrested Pritchard just once on September 15th for sending Angela a text message, another violation of the no-contact order. He spent one night behind bars before posting bail. The next day, says Wendy, he resumed his flurry of offenses.
He had been driving by her house multiple times. One night, says Wendy, Pritchard drove by six times in one hour. I don't feel safe anymore anywhere. My sisters, my house, my sons, stores in town. You have a ticking time bomb on your hands. Yeah, pretty much, and that's what it felt like. But instead of making arrests, the Bellevue police were making excuses, St.
Angela's sons, for not enforcing the law. They said that they'd tell him to knock it off or have a talk with him. Nothing, nothing was done, and she was terrified. You're reaching out to police. They're not doing anything. Are you running out of hope here? Yes. What do you do when nobody's willing to help you?
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Chapter 7: What were the outcomes of the trial against Chris Pritchard?
I fear for my safety, fear for my life. He has guns. The fear, it consumed our life. It was 5 a.m. at the Jackson County Jail. 21 hours after Angela was found dead, Chris Pritchard waved his Miranda rights and talked about the encounter at the dog kennels with Special Agents Dustin Henningsen and Ryan Kedley.
She said, you've got to leave. You've got to leave now or I'm going to call the police. I said, I just want to talk. And she shoved me. And I hit the cabinet. The gun, I don't know what the gun hit, but it went off.
So in so many words, he says, I shot Angela. It was an accident. Essentially, yes. Are you believing any of this? No. I'm only believing the fact that he shot Angela. Pritchard pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and robbery charges. His trial began February 7, 2024.
We believed that Mr. Pritchard planned this all out, and very meticulously, for that matter.
To prove premeditated murder, prosecutors Nicole Leonard and John Keyes told jurors Pritchard put his plan in motion on October 7th, 2022, the day before he shot his wife, the same day Angela's temporary restraining order became permanent.
We believe that that was sort of the snapping point for the defendant. He became more and more obsessed with the situation and not letting her go.
She wanted to drag me through the mud and make me a monster. Before taking Angela's life, Chris Pritchard took steps to cover his tracks, say the prosecutors. He borrowed this white pickup truck to avoid using his own vehicle. So what we think was he was setting up an alibi.
Prosecutors say Pritchard secretly parked the borrowed truck inside a barn belonging to Lori and Mike Blazer, just a few miles from the Mississippi Ridge boarding kennels. We walk in, notice this white pickup truck. With a note from Chris Pritchard saying he had gone hunting. Keys are in the truck if you need to move it. I'll be back. Chris. We knew Chris.
He would tell us how much he loved Angela, how devastated he was that there was a restraining order. The Blazers would soon become crucial witnesses for the prosecution. Shortly after finding the truck and note, they heard the news about a shooting at the dog kennels. We knew the minute that there was a shooting at the kennel, something had happened with Chris.
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Chapter 8: What can be done to prevent similar tragedies in the future?
You've got a gun with her. You know you've got a no contact order. An argument breaks out. She calls 911. She winds up dead. This wasn't just some accident.
If this was an accident, why are you taking her cell phone, which is her only means of survival? Why aren't you calling for help yourself? Why aren't you rendering any type of aid for your wife?
And Pritchard kept adding details to the story of the accidental shooting, say the special agents.
The gun was leaning up against the cupboards. He went to retrieve a backpack and it fell. And then that went off and shot her.
But at trial, an Iowa State medical examiner testified the gunshot had a downward trajectory, meaning Pritchard had the weapon in his hands and was standing when he fired, say prosecutors.
It looked like a hitter in the arm. How would you die from that?
Angela was shot dead center in the chest, testified the medical examiner, and died in seconds.
I would have loved to have stuck around with Angie and her temper. I thought maybe he didn't even really hit her that bad because she was yelling at me like she wasn't even hurt.
The fact that he's saying that after the gun went off and it struck her that she's yelling profanities back at him. Well, we have a 911 recording of that conversation that did not take place. Prosecutors say Chris Pritchard's last words on the 911 call prove his actions were premeditated, a final explosion of violence.
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