GUILTY WI - Angela Drake, 25, Fitchburg, 9 Dec 2005

[PrayersForMaura]

Drake Case: Search Warrant Reveals Details

OREGON, Wis. -- A search warrant obtained by WISC-TV details what investigators believe led to the death of missing Oregon woman Angela Drake.

The warrant implies that Michael Desalvo, 25, asphyxiated Drake after a night of drinking at the Dry Bean Saloon in Fitchburg on Dec. 9 and then left her in a town of Oregon culvert wearing only a sweater and possibly still alive.

Angela Drake

More: http://www.channel3000.com/news/5824629/detail.html?rss=c3k&psp=news

 

[PrayersForMaura]

The investigation into the slaying of a young Oregon woman has led police back to the duplex where she apparently spent some of her last hours.

Fitchburg Detective Michael Bartosch recently searched the Fitchburg Road home and took pillows, a mattress, a hair clip and a wash cloth so that they can be checked for DNA, blood, tissue, hair or other possible biological evidence.

More: http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=67465&ntpid=2

 

[mssheila]

Not sure if this was posted or not, but I thought it was good to read.

From the time Angela Drake disappeared, her grandmother prayed for two things: that God would lead police officers to her granddaughter and that, once found, she would rise up to greet them.



"He answered the first part," Nancy Drake said. "At least we know where she is."

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=66347&ntpid=2

 

[Ang50]

Looks like the autopsy has been completed and Desalvo's been charged with 1st Degree murder. Since its 1st Degree, its unlikely that its a drug-in-drink gone awry, since 1st Degree requires premeditiation.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/5667809/detail.html

In WI, 1st requires Intent to Kill - which can be formed anytime - even a few instants before you kill someone. But regardless, it's likely b/c of the charge that the prosecution figures he did something active and purposeful to kill her.

2nd degree is w/o mitigating circumstances like self defense, etc.

There's also reckless homicide, which we might have expected if prosecutors thought he had left her alive, but in the cold. Or if the drug-in-drink thing was plausible.

 

[gamegirl]

Looks like the autopsy has been completed and Desalvo's been charged with 1st Degree murder. Since its 1st Degree, its unlikely that its a drug-in-drink gone awry, since 1st Degree requires premeditiation.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/5667809/detail.html

Actually, according to today's news "Desalvo is being held in the Dane County Jail on unrelated charges. He has not been charged in Drake's death, but Fitchburg police have recommended that he be charged with first-degree intentional homicide, felony murder and concealing a corpse."

There have been NO arrests made in Angela's murder yet.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=67465&ntpid=2

 

[aussiegran]

The man police say probably killed a young Oregon woman still isn't facing formal charges more than a month after she was found dead because officials are waiting for forensic test results.



Fitchburg police filed a court document Dec. 26 alleging it's likely Michael Desalvo is responsible for Angela Drake's death.

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said a formal complaint has not been filed because Dr. Robert Huntington, Dane County's forensic pathologist, can't complete his final autopsy report until all the testing in the case comes back from the backlogged State Crime Lab. Jeff Sholts, the deputy coroner on the case, said these reports usually take weeks and even months to receive, even in instances where a homicide may be involved.

But Desalvo's attorney, Craig Cascarano, said he believes officials are scrambling to find a cause of death and, thus, can't pin Drake's death on his client.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=70714&ntpid=4
.................
:doh: Its so frustrating waiting for forensic test results .
It must be terrible for the family.

 

[mssheila]

I was listening to AM 1670 Radio, out of Madison Friday, and I heard a quick update from the Cheif of police in Fitchburg. I dont have a link, and it wasn't much info, so I'll paraphrase.

He said that they are still going forward, full speed ahead, but the crime lab in Madison is really backlogged, and they are still waiting on much of the evidence to come back from there. That's the hold up. Desalvo is still in jail on unrelated charges...

I just thought it was good to hear that they are still working on it, not just sitting on their hands... (not that I thought they were sitting on their hands, but such a long silence makes you wonder...)

ETA: The Madison crime lab is the place they send ANY major crimes things. I think (not sure) that they have the evidence of Christine Rudy's murder, and I know they have the Theresa Halbach evidence. Those are major crimes that don't happen too often in this state. I can understand the backlog.

 

[aussiegran]

Desalvo Convicted In Drug Case The Man Police Have Accused In The Death Of Angela Drake Pleaded No Contest To Possessing Oxycontin.
Michael DeSalvo, whom police have accused of murder in the death last year of Angela Drake, was convicted Friday on an unrelated drug possession charge.
DeSalvo, 25, of Fitchburg, pleaded no contest to possessing OxyContin, a powerful and highly addictive pain medication, use of which has been on the rise among young people. Under a plea agreement with the Dane County district attorney's office, a penalty enhancer that could have added up to four years in prison for DeSalvo was dismissed




http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2006:03:25:548661:LOCAL

 

[OkieGranny]

From May 2007:

http://host.madison.com/news/desalv...cle_58a074e8-0550-503a-b0e8-cdeeb198eb48.html

Michael Desalvo was sentenced Wednesday to spend the next 25 years in prison for causing the death of Angela Drake, whom he had met just hours before her death at a Fitchburg tavern... DeChambeau also sentenced Desalvo, 26, to 10 years of extended supervision, which he said Desalvo could serve in his home state of Minnesota, with a caveat that he not return to Wisconsin. Desalvo avoided a first-degree murder conviction in December by pleading no contest to first-degree reckless homicide...

Desalvo said that he woke up in his apartment the morning of Dec. 9, 2005, to find Drake, whom he had met hours earlier at the Dry Bean Saloon, already lifeless beside him. He said she wasn't breathing, so he panicked... then decided to hide her body, so he drove her to the drainage ditch along Storytown Road and left her there.

DeChambeau said the explanation did not square with an autopsy report that found that Drake had frozen to death in the drainage ditch.