48 Hours - Angela Prichard's Fight for Her Life

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

A woman repeatedly called police for help when she was attacked, stalked, and intimidated by her husband. It didn’t stop him from killing her. This episode last aired on 3/15/25.

My mom was calling the cops almost on a regular basis. Nothing, nothing was done, and 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 721. 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 want to know. and 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. And I immediately was hysterical. Angie! Because Angela Pritchard was my sister. I don't know what we got here. There's a possible shots fired. We actually got behind an ambulance on the way up there. Law Center 21, we are going to enter the building.

Law Center 21, we got lady down, lady down. And I got out of the car. Scene clear, scene clear. I went running. Down the hill. There was police officers there. And I remember walking up to him. And I said, is she alive?

And they said, no. I immediately fell to the ground, and I remember saying something like, I knew something like this was going to happen. I knew it was. I knew it was. Lawson, make sure you get it now. Point down for a suspect. You leave no rock unturned.

You leave no building unchecked. Obviously, we're going to throw every resource that we have at our disposal to apprehending him. There was a knock on the door. I said, I'm not answering the door. He has a gun. Jonathan Vigliotti reports. Could Angela be saved?

On the morning of October 8, 2022, the Serene Mississippi River town of Bellevue, Iowa, population about 2,500, woke up to a calamity. News of an apparent homicide, the first in nearly a decade. 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 Henningson 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 come in here. 911.

Those were the last words spoken by Angela, and the first clue investigators had to identify her killer. She says the name Chris on this call. Who is Chris? Chris Pritchard, her estranged husband. Ma'am, where are you at? As the dispatcher continues to ask, what's your emergency? You can faintly hear somebody say, When you listen to this 911 call, how do you process what you were hearing?

On a personal level, it's a very difficult thing to listen to someone's end-of-life moments. On an investigative level, that was a pivotal piece of evidence in the opening stages of the investigation. You guys train it out? It was a very violent scene. Passing by the kennel door in the right, and this is the area where we initially get a firsthand glimpse of Angela's deceased body here on the floor. Pools of morning light illuminated pools of blood surrounding her body. Angela was lying face down in the kennel's washroom where she bathed the dogs. Ryan Kelly photographed the scene.

She has a very large, significant gunshot wound to the chest. At close range. At, I would say, very close range. There has to have been some very, very high emotions involved in that. You have Angela Pritchard deceased here. You have Chris Pritchard, a person of interest, nowhere to be found. How do you track him down? The special agents spotted a barely visible blood trail.

Leading out of this room and then into the dog kennel area, through this door. We believe our assailant traveled from that area through here, left some blood evidence, and then likely went out this door directly in front of us. We're certainly trying to keep an open mind and determine that, okay, if Chris didn't do this, well, then who did? Digging into Chris Pritchard's life, the special agents soon learned about his volatile history with Angela, which included violence and violations of a restraining order.

But at this point, all of the information seems to be consistent with Chris being the guy that we need to locate. As we continue to work the investigation, we began to establish our timeline. Some of the first video that places him on this property comes from this home over here. That's correct. Investigators reviewed the footage, starting at midnight, the day of the shooting. For hours, there was nothing to see. But just after 4 a.m., there was something to hear. You can hear dogs start to bark.

We had determined that was most likely the point when he arrived at the kennels. Penningson 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 down. to the entrance at the Mississippi Ridge boarding kennels. Pulling up to the kennel at 734, 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 739 and 43 seconds, we heard 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 741, 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 stretched to the horizon. an area of 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. This is your worst night, Yeah, yeah. Everything you've been trying to prevent come true.

Everything I've been trying so hard to protect her and to keep her safe. And he got her. He got to her. You've got a fugitive out there on the run, potentially armed. The manhunt for Chris Pritchard was widening. There's hundreds of acres here, with farmland and woods, and we have the Mississippi River not far away. So knowing that he could have went any direction really makes the search difference.

really makes the search difficult. Fanning out from the kennels, heavily armed officers, searched nearby neighborhoods, house to house. You guys know Chris Pritchard, barn to barn. Is that the guy they're looking for? You're right there, Chris Pritchell? Has he been known to come out here every once in a while? Yeah, I haven't seen him, though, today.

Angela was a mother and a grandmother. She was. What kind of mother and grandmother was she? I don't know that you would find somebody better than her. You hear a lot of people say, people put their kids in front of themselves, that was truly her. Angela Pritchard's world revolved around family, especially her two sons and six grandchildren. They were the loves of her life, her kids and her grandkids. And with almost equal billing, Angela's five huskies.

She always was an animal lover. Angela's sons, Josh Close, and C.J. Hancock. She was beautiful inside and out. She liked to make everybody happy, especially her family. She loved you so much, yeah. She loved to spoil the grandkids rotten. They could do no wrong in her eyes. She loved doing arts and crafts.

She still decorated her tree with the ones we made when we were kids. And making memories with their mom later in life was Chris Pritchard, the very man in her. Investigators were now chasing. Wendy Buddy and her husband, Jim, had known Pritchard for years. I would have trusted him with our children. He was nice, friendly, sincere, a hard worker, fun to be around. Pritchard, a longtime Bellevue resident, was an established electrician in town.

Soon, Angela found her calling. To be a kennel. owner to do something with animals. I was thrilled for her. It really seemed like everything was falling into place. After dating for nearly two years, they moved into this Bellevue home and even got married here in March 2019. 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. 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. 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 18, 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 camp. He hit me and I just, I came in the house. 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 goes to jail and is 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 when he was. 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. Nope. 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 it 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, Chris Pritchard seemed to have vanished in the vast wilderness. Even the police dogs had lost his scent, says Dustin Henningson. How do you find somebody that doesn't want to be caught?

This is where our local resources really help us. Right from the start, Henningson had corralled state and local law enforcement agencies, even farmers and hunters, to help determine where he might be. I'll let you know if I see anything or hear anything. If we thought that Chris was going to make his way, say back to Bellevue, What's the most likely path?

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 on October night, Kim Klein says.

She and boyfriend Jeff Junk were not expecting company. When the second knock happened, and it 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, you know, you shot your wife. Oh, yeah, how's she doing? The couple told him, Angela was dead.

Did he express any remorse? No. Nothing. Nothing. He was sitting here laughing and drinking, and they were talking about old times. The moment felt so surreal, Kim says. She snapped a photo. Just to show that, no, he wasn't having any.

remorse. He never talked about her the rest of the night. And then I took the one when he was passed out. And the time was finally right, says Jeff, to text the chief deputy who had stopped by earlier. I said, he's up here and he has passed out. Come, come get him. When police arrived around midnight, Chris was still in the lazy boy chair, out cold. He didn't know what was coming. What's wrong what you got? He says, Why, I'm sleeping? He's verbally belligerent to officers that have arrested him.

Looks like he's got cut to his left thumb. Special Agent Hennington collected the evidence Chris Pritchard had left behind, a 20-gauge shotgun and his torn clothes. He took Angela's possessions money, a cell phone with him. Special agent Kedley escorted Pritchard to the Jackson County Jail. Do you want your seatbelt? Chris?

I want a bowl in the head. Shortly after 1 a.m. on October 9th, a despondent Chris Pritchard was booked into the county jail, eventually charged with first-degree murder and robbery. After hours on the run through Iowa's wilderness, I'm going to have you look right at me, okay? Pritchard found himself surrounded by concrete and steel, largely put there by the weight of a single word.

Wendy, please get out of here. Wendy says the day Pritchard ended her sister's life, followed months of increasingly erratic behavior, and escalating rage, which Angela had documented. Tell me about this journal and her words that lived on. She was the sticky note queen. Dozens of Angela's brightly colored sticky, notes told a dark story. The scribbled entries became Angela's diary of domestic abuse.

August 23rd text message, calling me names saying it's going to get real ugly. He's been stalking me and watching me. Very scared of him. I think Chris is capable of anything. Booes 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, 2002. 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. No. 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 him all over the house to intimidate her. I mean, we both just started crying. This is in clear violation of the restraining order. What do 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 son 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 house. my sons, stores in town.

You have a ticking time bomb on your hands. Yeah, but pretty much and that's what it felt like. But instead of making arrests, the Bellevue police were making excuses, St. Angeles' sons, for not enforcing the law. They said that they tell him to knock it off or have a talk with him. Nothing, nothing was done when she was terrified. You're reaching out to police.

They're not doing anything. Are you running out of hope here? running out of hope here. Yes. What do you do when nobody's willing to help you? 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 waived his Miranda rights and talked about the encounter at the dog kennels with special agents Dustin Hedonel. Benningson and Ryan Kedley. She said, you've got to leave. You 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, 2004. 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 Blasher, just a few miles from the Mississippi Ridge boarding kennels.

We walk in, you know, notice this white pickup truck. With a note from Chris Pritchard saying he had gone hunting, keys are on the truck if you need to move it. I'll be back. Chris. We knew Chris. He would tell us how much he loved Andrew. how devastated he was that there was a restraining order. The Blasers 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. We were concerned that this was a getaway vehicle for him in here because it was just so odd. It had no reason to be here. I called 911 immediately. I see you guys.

They're looking for Chris Pritchard? Yes. His truck is in our garage. Let's just get this cleared first. It was very intense because at that point, he was still missing. And we were scared to death. Clear in here, Jim. Prosecutors later viewed home surveillance footage from a camera on the Blasers' property,

showing Chris Pritchard entering the barn, where the Blasers kept their horse trailer. The minute we came in the door, I knew that Chris Pritchard had spent some time in here. He certainly made himself at home here. Pritchard left the horse trailer in the middle of the night. Hiking through the dense woods to the kennels, says prosecutor Leonard. We believe his next appearance is around 4 a.m. on October 8th at the dog kennels in which the dogs start to go crazy. And you believe from that point forward, he's inside the kennel.

Correct. I think he always has to be. the plan to murder her. To prove it, the prosecutors played audio clips from Pritchard's police interviews for the jury. You show up at a place where you know she's going to be. 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 gun shop had a downward trajectory, meaning Pritchard had the weapon in his hands and was standing when he fired. say prosecutors. It looked like if you hit her 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 love to have stuck around with Angie and her temper. I thought maybe it 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.

When you hear his statement standing over her dying body on that 911 call using profanity. You definitely don't say what he's saying. that at the end of the phone call after you accidentally shoot someone. Pritchard's defense attorneys, who declined our request for an interview, maintained the shooting was accidental,

and the case against Pritchard was a rush to judgment. After four days of testimony, the case went to the jury. We were outside the courthouse just kind of stretching, and, you know, the jury's back. This man was also waiting for the verdict, and already preparing for another trial, a federal lawsuit against the Bellevue Police Department. It failed Angela, he says, time and time again.

If police took action, would Angela be alive today? Absolutely. In February, 24, 16 months after Angela's death, her family's wait for a measure of justice was over. That's got to be a good sign that they're back in less than an hour. The jury found Chris Pritchard guilty of first-degree murder and robbery. When they said it, it was just a big sigh of relief. In March, Pritchard was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

It will never bring her back, but he's going to spend the rest of his life behind bars. I also gave a victim impact statement, and I said to him, I hope while you're behind bars, you always have to look over your shoulder and be scared for everything you do. How she felt, I hope you just feel a tiny bit of that, the way you tortured her. Civil rights attorney Dave O'Brien represents Angela Pritchard's family. She would be alive today, he says, if the Bellevue Police Department had enforced a judge's order of protection. You filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Bellevue and three officers. Why?

Because they didn't do their job, and it's that simple. That lawsuit lists multiple failures to arrest Chris Pritchard. O'Brien says this led to what's called a state-created danger, meaning the officers alleged inaction and indifference actually increased the threat to Angela Pritchard. Can a police officer decide should I arrest him or not? Is that up to their discretion? Absolutely not.

Here in Iowa, only a judge can show discretion not to enforce this restraining order. Starting September 1st, 2022, when Angela's second no-contact order was issued, until her murder 37 days later, Chris Pritchard violated the restraining order repeatedly, says O'Brien. A dozen times during this relevant. time period, Angela Pritchard called the Bellevue Police Department, and they failed to follow that law that judge's order. That's because O'Brien says the Bellevue police officers showed Pritchard favoritism. We have reason to believe that he was friendly with law enforcement officers. To prove this case, you must prove that the police officers failure to enforce the protection order

was intentional and reckless. How can you do that? Well, just by the sheer number of times that it was not enforced. In October 2004, Chief Federal Judge C.J. Williams dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety. The Bellevue Police Department, he ruled, did not put Angela in a more dangerous situation, and the three officers simply did not commit outrageous conduct. The judge added, there was no evidence of police favoritism. The alleged facts even taken as true are a far cry from establishing that any of the defendants were friends with Christopher. Dave O'Brien was granted a hearing in December 2024. After learning, he says the three Bellevue

officers had withheld evidence and made false statements, allegedly concealing their friendships with Chris Pritchard. Accusations, they denied. O'Brien argued the officers were well aware. Chris Pritchard was a serious threat to his wife. Nine days before her murder, the Jackson County attorney warned the Bellevue Police Department in an email. Chris Pritchard had 24 hours to turn himself in. If he does not report, I will be requesting a warrant. I wanted all of you to be aware, as I'm afraid he might try to do something tonight.

The next day, when Pritchard failed to appear at the county jail, the arrest warrant was issued. Seven days before her murder, O'Brien says this body cam footage of a Bellevue police officer speaking with Wendy and Angela... Because right now, I guarantee he's not thinking straight. No, not at all.

Confirms police knew Angela was in danger. That's my biggest fear, that's my department's biggest fear, is he's going to try to hurt you and then hurt himself. During the final week of Angela's life, My job is to protect you at all costs.

O'Brien says Bellevue Police could have protected her by finding and arresting Chris Pritchard, but they never did. Is it hard to find Chris? Shouldn't be. Everybody knew his Jeep. Had a customized tag that said zero dark 30 on it. So you can't miss it. We have not been provided with any record.

showing there was any effort made to enforce the arrest warrant once it was issued on the 30th of September. Had that arrest warrant been executed, would Angela be here today? Absolutely. He should have been in jail. At the December hearing, defense attorneys insisted the new information presented by O'Brien was improper, should be stricken, and not considered by the court. Our ideal outcome would be just complete reversal of the judge's decision. In January 2025, Judge Williams refused to reverse his dismissal. Bellevue Police Chief Dennis Schroeder issued this statement to a local newspaper, which read in part,

We are pleased with the decision. We continue to strengthen our services and response efforts to prevent domestic violence and provide support to those in need. I've heard people say that no contact orders aren't worth the paper they're written on. And in this case, that was true. But I firmly believe that they are worth something, but they have to be enforced. I still to this day have a lot of, I guess it's guilt, because I think in my mind, what if I would have went with her that day? Maybe I could have saved her.

But part of me was so proud of her for, like, being as, as she was in that time. She named her killer. And so she helped them bring them to justice. Chris Pritchard's life sentence also helped bring her family some comfort and the courage to move forward. They believe Angela would want them to make this public plea. Maybe other police departments that maybe are a little lenient.

on stuff won't be so lenient. Next time. According to the Violence Policy Center, nearly three women in the U.S. are killed by an intimate partner each day. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline

at 1-800-799-7233.