REOPENED: Friend of the Family

Summary

Cold Case Files: REOPENED – "Friend of the Family"

Host: Paula Barros
Release Date: December 19, 2024
Produced by: A&E / PodcastOne

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Introduction to Angela Wong's Tragic Story

In the December 19, 2024 episode of Cold Case Files, host Paula Barros delves into the heartbreaking and perplexing case of Angela Wong, an 11-year-old girl whose murder in 1984 remained unsolved for decades. Angela's death in Long Island became a symbol of the countless unsolved cases that plague America's justice system, highlighting the challenges investigators face in bringing closure to such families.

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The Day Angela Disappeared

The episode begins by setting the scene on a typical day in 1984, where Angela Wong and her older brother, Angelo Wong Jr., were avid breakdancers in Long Island.

Angelo Wong Jr. [00:19]:
"We lived it and breathed it morning, noon, and night. I probably thought about it and practiced it more than I did my schoolwork at that time."

Angela accompanied her brother and friends to practice for a local breakdancing competition. After practice, Angela decided to walk to the local mall, a journey she never completed. Her disappearance raised immediate alarm among her family and community.

Angelo Wong Jr. [01:10]:
"And then when we got home and my mother started making phone calls and we were looking around the neighborhood... concern really set in."

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Discovery of Angela's Body

Despite extensive searches by police and Angela's family, her body was not found until the next morning.

Officer Linda Curtis [02:09]:
"It was a mannequin."

Officer Curtis initially mistook Angela's body for a mannequin, a moment that underscores the grim reality of discovering such tragedies. The autopsy revealed that Angela died from a homicidal drowning, a particularly challenging type of homicide to prove in court.

Medical Examiner Leslie Lucas [03:03]:
"She was beaten about the face by blunt force, probably by a fist. And she sustained these myriad of contusions and abrasions."

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Initial Investigation and Suspect: Manny Pacheco

Detective Jack Sharkey led the investigation, focusing on constructing a timeline of Angela's last day. Interviews pointed towards Angela's circle of friends, particularly a 15-year-old named Manny Pacheco, who was the only teen unable to account for his whereabouts at the time of the murder.

Leslie Lucas [07:31]:
"We zeroed in on that breakdancing team and also the five youths who really hung out in the Angel Wong household."

Manny's inconsistent alibi and suspicious behavior made him the prime suspect. However, without concrete evidence, the case quickly went cold.

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Reopening the Case: New Eyes and New Evidence

Six years later, Detective Michael Kuhn took a renewed interest in Angela's case. His investigation led him back to Manny Pacheco, who had moved to California and accumulated a history of abusive behavior.

Detective Michael Kuhn [13:37]:
"And I found out that he had two orders of protection against them out in California... he also been accused of abusing his own nine-year-old daughter."

Kuhn's background check revealed alarming parallels between Manny's past and the nature of Angela's murder, reigniting the pursuit of justice for Angela.

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Breakthrough Witness Testimonies

Detectors Mike Burcham and Eric Mosher provided crucial information linking Manny to Angela's murder through additional witness statements.

Maureen Gegen [17:40]:
"He had come to me completely in hysterics and he said that his friend's sister had been killed... he wasn't there for her when she needed him."

Raluca [19:19]:
"This time he was using Angela in a threatening way... You killed my cousin, what makes you think I won't kill you?"

These emotional testimonies painted a damning portrait of Manny, leading to his arrest and subsequent confession.

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Legal Proceedings and Conviction

Prosecutor Bob Hayden had the challenging task of presenting a case built primarily on eyewitness testimony and confessions from Manny's ex-partners.

Officer Linda Curtis [21:17]:
"Manny never set out to rape Angela. He believed that he was going to have consensual sex with Angela... he did lose control of himself... he chose to take her alive rather than expose himself to punishment."

After seven hours of deliberation, Manny Pacheco was found guilty of Angela Wong's murder and sentenced to nine years to life. Angela's family, while hoping for a more substantial sentence, found solace in securing her justice.

Angelo Wong Jr. [22:28]:
"I think he got a maximum sentence which if that's the best we're gonna get, we got it."

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A Twist of Fate and Healing

In a remarkable turn of events, Manny Pacheco's son, Manny Pacheco Jr., was raised by Angela's brother, Angelo Wong Jr., fostering a complex yet healing relationship between the families.

Angelo Wong Jr. [22:40]:
"There is a detective out there. There is evidence out there... to remind them that we're still here without our loved ones."

This act of compassion highlights the enduring human spirit and the possibility of forgiveness, even in the face of unspeakable loss.

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Conclusion: The Importance of Persistence in Justice

The "Friend of the Family" episode underscores the critical role of relentless investigation and the impact of new forensic technologies in solving cold cases. Angela Wong's story is a testament to the resilience of her family and the dedication of investigators who refuse to let such tragedies remain unsolved.

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Produced by:
Brooke Giddings, McKamey Lynn, Steve Delamater
Associate Producer: Julie McGruder
Executive Producer: Ted Butler
Music by Blake Maples

Distribution: Podcast One
Additional Resources: For more information on Cold Case Files, visit aetv.com or explore the AE Real Crime blog at aetv.com/realcrime.

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Note: The episode also included advertisements which have been excluded from this summary to maintain focus on the core content.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Angela Wong was 11 years old in 1984. She lived with her family, including her older brother, in Long Island. Like a lot of kids at the time, Angela and her brother Angelo loved breakdancing.

[Angelo Wong Jr.]

We lived it and breathed it morning, noon and night. I probably thought about it and practiced it more than I did my schoolwork. At that time.

[Narrator]

A local club had scheduled a breakdancing competition and Angelo and his friends got together to practice. Angela tagged along. Around 4pm the practice ended and Angela went home to clean up. Before the competition, Angela said she was going to walk to the local mall. She didn't make it there, though. And she didn't make it to the competition that night. Her body was found the next morning. Angela had been murdered. From A and E. This is Cold Case Files. When Angela didn't make it to the competition, her parents got worried. This is Angela's brother, Angelo Wong Jr.

[Angelo Wong Jr.]

And then when we got home and my mother started making phone calls and we were looking around the neighborhood, not around the neighborhood, but on the block, asking around if anyone had seen her. And the phone calls we were getting nowhere with the phone calls. I guess concern really set in. Then.

[Narrator]

The police were called and they began to search for the missing girl into the night. But they couldn't find her. Early the next morning, the search began again. Angelo's father, Angelo Sr. Joined the police in their search.

[Angelo Wong Sr.]

My gut feeling was there was something seriously wrong. As a morning pressed on, more police officers came and my heart started just getting tighter and tighter and tighter.

[Narrator]

Around 11am, Officer Linda Curtis made a discovery in the woods near Camp Road. It was a body of a girl, half dressed and lying face down near a pond. Here's Officer Curtis. When I first saw it, I thought.

[Officer Linda Curtis]

It was a mannequin.

[Narrator]

And when I took a harder look, I realized it was a body. The body was taken to the morgue where Angela's father was waiting to make an identification. It was Angela.

[Angelo Wong Sr.]

As soon as I walked in, I had that dreaded feeling. And there was an Emmy there with the body of my daughter in front of me.

[Narrator]

The autopsy was performed by Leslie Lucas, the medical examiner. She ruled the cause of death as a homicidal drowning. Homicidal drowning is one of the hardest types of homicide to be proven in court. They have to make it clear that either the victim experienced some kind of violence that caused them to fall into the water and drown or that someone forcibly held them under the water. Here's medical examiner Leslie Lukesh.

[Leslie Lucas]

She was beaten about the face by blunt force, probably by a fist. And she sustained these myriad of contusions and abrasions.

[Narrator]

Angela had been found partially naked. But if there's any kind of comfort to be had in this entire situation, it's that her autopsy showed no signs of sexual assault. When the contents of her stomach were tested, the medical examiner found potatoes and rice, the last meal Angela had eaten at home.

[Leslie Lucas]

So the degree of digestion was to be reasonable was less than an hour. As a matter of fact, it was even less than that. It was recently consumed.

[Narrator]

Angela had been killed only shortly after leaving her house. Detective Jack Sharkey was the investigator assigned to Angela's case. He wanted to put together a timeline of the day she was killed. Here's Detective Sharkey.

[Leslie Lucas]

She had gotten up kind of late that day around 12 noon. And we had her activity right down until 4:30 when she was last seen heading off towards the mall.

[Narrator]

The detective interviewed Angela's friends and family, followed several leads and tips, and they led him back to Angela's circle of friends. He wanted to figure out who was the last person to see Angela alive, hoping that would lead him to the murderer.

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[Leslie Lucas]

We zeroed in on that breakdancing team and also the five youths who really hung out in the Angel Wong household.

[Narrator]

They interviewed the breakdancers who had been practicing with the Wongs that day and asked them to provide alibis for the day and time Angela had likely been murdered. Only one of the teens interviewed couldn't account for his whereabouts during that time. 15 year old Manny Pacheco was a friend of Angela's. The other kid said he saw himself as a ladies man, whatever that means.

[Leslie Lucas]

Manny says that he leaves alone and he started walking north towards his house and at some point, some point he turns and looks back and he says that he sees Angela walking with another young youth who only described as wearing a black cut off T shirt.

[Narrator]

Manny Pacheco said that he went home and spent the next hour getting cleaned up and dressed for the dance contest. No one else could verify his story though. And that didn't sit well with Detective Sharkey.

[Leslie Lucas]

The thing that bothered me was Manny basically was the last one to see her. 2 I also learned that he was the only one who did not participate. The next day coming back to the household to look for her even though it had been raining out six or seven. There was a group of eight kids went into those woods. They split up four and four. Right. But there was no Mandy.

[Narrator]

The location of the crime scene felt a bit suspicious to the investigators. It seemed that the place where Angela's body was found was a common shortcut to the mall. But her friends and family said she would have never taken it by herself. This is Angela's brother, Angela Jr.

[Angelo Wong Jr.]

I knew my sister very well. I knew what she felt about those woods. And going back there by herself never happens. Her going back there with someone we trusted. She trusted especially a male figure. Absolutely.

[Narrator]

That information remained nothing more than a suspicion. And there was no evidence to tie Manny Pacheco or anyone else for that matter to Angela's murder. Her file took its place among the other cold cases. Six years after Angela's case went cold Detective Sharkey decided to give the case a fresh look. While reviewing the file he noticed something that had gone unnoticed during the original investigation. In 1984 a local girl had told the investigators that she saw Manny Pacheco and Angela together near the woods where her body was discovered. Here's Detective sharkey.

[Leslie Lucas]

At approximately 4:20 she positively identifies Manny Pacheco and Angela Wong walking together going into that entrance into the backwoods. No doubt about it.

[Narrator]

In her mind the detective found the witness and questioned her again about what she'd seen that night. She told the detective that she remembered it because it was the day before her 13th birthday and she was sure about the time because she was on her way to see a 4:30pm movie. She also said that she was positive that it was Manny because she had a crush on him at the time. Eyewitness testimony isn't as accurate as we're often led to believe because the human memory is extremely complicated. Some of the things that can make a person misremember an incident include stress or trauma. Bias are frequently being asked to recall the event. The memory is more likely to be accurate when it's associated with a special Event like a birthday. This particular witness didn't seem to experience many of the factors that could distort her memory. I would imagine, as far as eyewitnesses go, she was likely to have shared a credible account of that night. Here's Detective Sharkey again.

[Leslie Lucas]

So I wanted to embrace Manny with all those. Of course, naturally, he just denied she was mistaken. I said, not really mistaken because of the fact that she knew you, even to the point she knew what beautiful brown eyes you had.

[Narrator]

The detective offers Manny Pacheco the opportunity to take a polygraph exam. He tells him if he passes, then he'll end the investigation. Manny agreed to the test. When I'm driving and I see a police car in my rearview mirror, I feel nervous. Even if I'm following all the traffic laws and even if I'm going the speed limit. Sometimes my first response is to brake. Not because I've done something wrong, but because we're conditioned to respond to law enforcement from a young age with respect and concern, maybe even fear. I imagine that whether or not a person was guilty of a crime being questioned in a police station might evoke a similar response. Manny Pacheco was hooked up to the polygraph machine, but seemed less than relaxed.

[Leslie Lucas]

Now he's fidgety. He's constantly moving. After the first test, he's told, please, you have to remain or I cannot get good readings on you. Well, he deliberately does it again. And in the third test, he does the exact same thing.

[Narrator]

The administrator of the test was unable to get reliable results and declared that Manny was unsuitable for the polygraph. Even if Manny had been more cooperative, the results of a polygraph have about the same percentage of accuracy as flipping a coin without the test. But still, armed with eyewitness testimony, Detective Sharkey is convinced Manny Pacheco is the killer.

[Leslie Lucas]

I said, well, the bottom line is really he's lying. He's lying through deception. He's not listening to instructions, and he knows how to beat it only by constant movement.

[Narrator]

Shortly after the polygraph exam, Manny Pacheco leaves New York and starts a new life in California. Angela Wong's murder once again returns to the cold case files. Detective Michael Kuhn had been a patrol officer in another precinct at the time that Angela was killed, so he didn't really know very much about the case. In 1997, while working as a detective in Nassau county, where Angela was murdered, he was drawn into the cold case investigation.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

We received a phone call from a local village police department. They had arrested a pedophile, and they still had the Angela Wong reward poster hanging in their office. And they called us and they asked us if we were interested in interviewing this person, thinking that maybe a connection because he was a pedophile.

[Narrator]

Detective Kuhn pulled Angela's case file out and reviewed it before interviewing the suspect. There was no connection between the suspect and Angela's murder. However, after reviewing Angela's file, Detective Kuhn felt compelled to investigate.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

Well, the worst part of it was it was this 11 year old girl that was murdered. It looked like someone tried to rape her. That was horrific enough. So I became interested in trying to solve that particular case.

[Narrator]

Detective Kuhn found himself following the same investigative path as Detective Sharkey and also formed the opinion that Manny Pacheco was the likely suspect. The next step was for Kuhn to run a background check on Pacheco in California.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

And I found out that he had two orders of protections against them out in California. And those orders of protection involved women that he was living with.

[Narrator]

Two women had restraining orders on Manny Pacheco in California. LAPD detectives Mike Burcham and Eric Mosher were conducting their own investigation of Manny Pacheco on charges of battery and molestation. They shared their information with Detective Kuhn.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

And he told me Manny was living with two women, he abused both of them, according to the women. And that he also been accused of abusing his own nine year old daughter. Now that piqued my interest. You know, we have an 11 year old girl who was apparently abused and murdered. And now he's allegedly abusing his own daughter.

[Narrator]

The three detectives set out to find and question witnesses about Pacheco and his.

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[Narrator]

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[Maureen Gegen]

He was a really attractive guy and very charming. Had all the right words to say.

[Narrator]

Maureen then goes on to tell the detectives about a night early in the relationship when Manny showed up at her parents house in the middle of the night. He was shoeless and only wearing a pair of long johns.

[Maureen Gegen]

He had came to me completely in hysterics and he said that his friend's sister had been killed and that he wasn't there for her when she needed him and that he wished he was there and he'd never be able to forgive himself that he wasn't there to help her.

[Narrator]

Maureen told the detectives that she'd asked some questions but he just clammed up and left. Then about a week later, he brought up the subject again.

[Maureen Gegen]

She had been laying in the water with a log over the back of her head, face down, with her pants pulled down.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

He describes what she's wearing that day. He tells her that the person drowned her because she was screaming too much. These are things that really weren't in the paper and he was bringing up things to her that only the killer would probably know.

[Narrator]

The problem was that Maureen's statement alone wasn't enough for detectives to arrest Manny, but she did have some information on who they should talk with.

[Maureen Gegen]

During one of the arguments where there was the physical Abuse was going on. He told the other girl that he was going to do to her the same thing that he did to his cousin.

[Narrator]

The detectives then met with a woman who went only by Reluca. She'd also been charmed by Manny until he started to abuse her. This is Raluca.

[Raluca]

Every day was just a struggle.

[Narrator]

After Manny would physically assault Raluca, he would apologize. But after one particularly brutal assault, his apology turned into a murder confession.

[Raluca]

That was the first time he mentioned Angela and sort of referenced her and was kind of like, well, you know, it was, you know, I don't know why I do these things. I just. Something comes and it was like when I killed my cousin, you know. And he just began to talk about it like it was what he had for breakfast that morning.

[Narrator]

She told the police that Pacheco had shared a detailed, tearful confession about Angela's murder with her. Eventually, when Reluca tried to leave the abusive relationship, he brought up the murder again.

[Raluca]

This time he was using Angela in a threatening way. You know, I killed my cousin. What makes you think I won't kill you?

[Narrator]

Reluca's statement to the investigators finally gave them enough probable cause to arrest Manny Pacheco. Detective Kuhn interviewed Pacheco armed with a picture of 11 year old Angela.

[Detective Michael Kuhn]

And I showed him that picture of Angela became very belligerent. I know nothing about her. Why are you asking me about her? To the point where he stood up a couple of times. He wasn't cuffed in a room. So we had to tell him, you know, you got to calm down, you have to sit down or you're going to have to be handcuffed, you know.

[Narrator]

At that point, Manny Pacheco asked for an attorney. The prosecutor, Bob Hayden, had his work cut out for him. He had to prove that Manny Pacheco was guilty. Based only on eyewitness testimony and a confession he allegedly made to an ex. The investigation was eventually able to uncover two additional women who claimed to have heard Pacheco confessed. The medical examiner was able to use the autopsy results to set the time of death. And the eyewitness put the victim and suspect together at that time. Here's prosecutor Bob Hayden summing up the case in his closing argument.

[Officer Linda Curtis]

Manny never set out to rape Angela. Manny believed that he was going to have consensual sex with Angela. He considered himself irresistible to young women and he thought this was just going to happen. And instead of going along with it, she was revolted by what was going on. He had lost sight of the Fact that she was a child, she was only 11. And when she resisted, he became infuriated. He did lose control of himself. He did lose his temper. And what he did then is beat her up. And it was then that he made the decision he was going to have to kill her. He was terrified she was going to tell her parents. That's a motive he has to kill her. He chose to take her alive rather than expose himself to punishment. And it takes a very cold hearted person to do that. And that's the kind of person we submit he was.

[Narrator]

After seven hours of deliberation, the jury found Manny Pacheco guilty of the murder of Angela Wong. He was sentenced to nine years to life because he was a juvenile at the time. Angela's brother felt the sentence was a little light, but in the end felt that something was better than nothing.

[Angelo Wong Jr.]

I think he got a maximum sentence which if that's the best we're gonna get, we got it.

[Narrator]

Angela's father has a message for others who might be experiencing a similar situation.

[Angelo Wong Sr.]

There is a detective out there. There is evidence out there. There's clues out there that can put this case together. Call them on a regular basis, not to haunt them, but to call them on a regular basis on anniversary dates, birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and remind them that we're still here without our loved ones. So that these cases will still be not cold anymore, maybe lukewarm.

[Narrator]

On April 25, 2019, Manny Pacheco was denied parole. He'll be eligible again after two years. He's now 49 years old. In researching Manny Pacheco's current status, I found a strange twist of fate. Manny Pacheco is now Manny Pacheco Sr. Because when he was 18, three years after murdering Angela, Manny fathered a son also named Manny. But that's not the twist. Manny Pacheco Jr. S mother didn't stay with Pacheco Sr. She left and eventually got married to Manny Jr. S stepdad, a man named Angela Wong Jr. That's right. Angela's brother married Manny Pacheco's ex and raised the child of his sister's killer as his own. On the day Manny Pacheco Sr. Was sentenced, Manny Jr. Was 15, the same age that his father was when he murdered Angela. I think it's really honorable that Angelo Jr. And the Wong family are able to open up their hearts and home to Manny Jr. As his mother says, Manny Jr. Is more Wong than Pacheco. Cold Case Files the podcast is hosted by Brooke giddings, produced by McKamey Lynn and Steve Delamater. Our associate producer is Julie McGruder. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our music was created by Blake Maples. This podcast is distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series was produced by Curtis Productions and is hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold case [e-mail] or learn more about cases like this one by visiting the AE Real Crime blog at aetv.com realcrime.

[Sarah James McLachlan]

For years, Tim Ballard has been championed as a modern day superhero.

[Narrator]

The first time I saw one of the kids from the video and it like, changed my life.

[Sarah James McLachlan]

He was the face of Operation Underground Railroad, a movement that inspired hope around the world by rescuing children from human traffickers. However, Ballard's crusade to save innocent lives has always hidden a darker secret.

[Narrator]

Oh, I think he's a pathological liar.

[Sarah James McLachlan]

Beneath the accolades and the applause, a dark storm has been brewing.

[Narrator]

I mean, I can't find a time.

[Leslie Lucas]

That he's told truth about anything.

[Sarah James McLachlan]

Shocking allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced, casting a shadow over his once unquestioned reputation. I am host Sarah James McLachlan, and in this new season of the Opportunist, we explore the rise and the fall of Tim Ballard. Join us this October for Tim Ballard Unmasking a Hero. Subscribe to a new season of the Opportunists Now. Wherever you get your podcasts.