Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back to another episode of Postmortem.
Chapter 2: What led to Angela Prichard's tragic murder?
I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green, and today we are discussing the case of Angela Pritchard, who was shot dead by her estranged husband in 2022 following weeks of stalking and harassment, all of which she reported to the local police in Bellevue, Iowa.
After the murder trial, Angela's family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Bellevue, as well as three police officers for what they say was inaction and indifference by not arresting Christopher Pritchard sooner. So joining me today to talk about this, to dig in a little bit more, is CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti and 48 Hours producer Meade Stone. Welcome, guys.
Thanks for having us. Good to be here. Thank you.
Chapter 3: How did Angela attempt to protect herself from her estranged husband?
So a reminder to everyone, as usual, if you haven't already listened to the 48 Hours episode, the audio version of it, you can find it in your podcast feed right above this one. So go listen and then come on back so we can talk about it. All right. So I think what is particularly tragic about this case, guys, is that it really, really seemed preventable.
It seemed like Angela really did all the things that you're supposed to do.
Chapter 4: What were the police's actions regarding the no-contact orders?
She endured months of domestic violence. And then Angela Pritchard obtained a no contact order against Chris Pritchard, meaning that if there was any contact that he made with her, It could result in a mandatory arrest. Here's the question. If Angela's no contact order had been enforced in a better way, What should have happened with this case?
Great question, Anne-Marie. I've covered a number of 48 Hours cases.
Chapter 5: How did Angela's family respond to her murder?
Usually the whodunit of these cases is the mystery. As it pertains to this story, the mystery was why was it more done in time? Everyone we spoke with, from prosecutors to David O'Brien, he's the civil rights attorney representing Angela's family in that lawsuit against Bellevue Police, investigators They all said more could have been done. There were two no contact orders that were issued.
The first one, Angela actually lifted herself because she wanted to give her marriage a second chance. But then it became very clear that the violence was only escalating. And so she successfully requested a second no contact order. As you mentioned, a no contact order means exactly that no contact of any kind. That means no text messages, no phone calls, no emails.
And yet David O'Brien says in a 37-day window, in that period of time, Chris Pritchard made 12 violations.
Chapter 6: What evidence was presented during the murder trial?
Now, he was arrested once. He spent a day in jail for that. He was released. He was supposed to appear in court, failed to do so twice. There was then an arrest warrant issued for him. Seven days went by. No arrest was made.
in time angela was then killed and it would take 24 hours after that to finally arrest chris pritchard and that that final week of angela's life the the police apparently didn't do anything to to try to find chris pritchard according to their own police records they were doing other things in in the town uh like chaperoning uh A prom and, you know, providing an escort for a funeral procession.
There was a loud barking dog, apparently, in the neighborhood.
Chapter 7: How did the police's inaction contribute to Angela's death?
The Bellevue police made notes about these incidents, but nowhere in their records is there any mention of trying to find and arrest Chris Pritchard.
Anne-Marie, to give you some context, because this is what struck me when Mead and I were in Bellevue. You drive down that main street. We're talking about a population of 2,500 people. There was not a single traffic light. Mead points out the police were responding to loud barking from dogs. They had time to respond to these calls.
Indeed. Absolutely. You know, I wanted to try to understand this case sort of in a greater context. And so I kind of dug into the statistics about these these types of protective orders, these orders to stay away from the victim. And one of the things that I found. It's really hard to get solid information. A lot of the information about domestic violence is old.
Chapter 8: What was the outcome of the federal lawsuit against the Bellevue police?
I think the kind of overwhelming conclusion, though, about these types of orders is that they can be very effective if they're enforced. I'm sure this came up in your reporting as you were talking to people. How did they feel about the weight of these types of protective orders?
Yeah. And David Bryan put it very well. It still sticks with me. He said a lot of people often look at these no contact orders as not being worth the paper they're written on. But in his view, they are very valuable as long as they are enforced, as you so accurately mentioned, Anne-Marie. And unfortunately, in this case, it just seemed like a lot of these violations were not enforced.
I mean, I know that you were really looking into this, too, because there are ramifications with each violation comes more time spent in jail. Is that correct? Yes, yes.
I think that's one of the tragedies in Iowa for the first offense. It's one night in jail, a second offense. It goes to seven days in jail and it goes up from there. And, you know, had Pritchard been arrested, each time he violated the no contact order, you know, he would have eventually been spending a good amount of time behind bars. And, you know, one would think that would be a deterrent
You know, sometimes victims of domestic violence, they have been alienated from their support system or they are embarrassed to share what they're going through. This is not the case with Angela. Her family is very supportive. You know, they basically become like protective detail. Her sister, Wendy, is her shadow. This must have had a tremendous impact on the family.
I mean, you've got to think about it, and it's something I've been thinking about too, and it's a really good point. Victims of domestic violence, oftentimes the hardest first step is even recognizing you're a victim and then trying to figure out what steps to take. Very early on, Angela, with the support of her family, identified Chris Pritchard as a problem, and they took the right steps.
They went immediately to law enforcement thinking that they would be protected. It wasn't enough. They were living in fear. And you mentioned it. Wendy, buddy, who is Angela's sister, was her shadow. Even having Angela at one point live with her. Unfortunately, the one time she wasn't by Angela's side is when Angela was attacked and killed.
And on top of all that, you also had Angela's sons who live in the area who also were dealing with their own issues with Chris Pritchard. One son saying that Chris Pritchard would drive by the house in one case in just one hour six times. How he knew this, Chris Pritchard drove a very specific truck, a Jeep with specific wheels that made a sound that was very easy to identify.
Police were being called and included in all of this, but the family still had this real sense of helplessness.
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