#horror – #podcasts – #AnnaTempleton –
17-year-old Missy Avila was murdered by her own friends. Then one of her killers Moved In with Missy’s grieving mother — pretending to help her find whoever had killed her daughter.
She comforted the family. Attended the funeral. Helped search for answers. All while knowing Exactly what had happened to Missy.
In October 1985, Michele “Missy” Avila was a beautiful, outgoing 17-year-old living in Arleta, California. She was popular, had plenty of friends and, according to those who knew her, attracted plenty of attention from boys.
But behind one of Missy’s closest friendships, something ugly had been growing. Jealousy. Karen Severson had known Missy since childhood. The two girls had once been best friends, but as they got older their relationship became increasingly volatile. Karen was described as possessive of Missy, and tensions grew over friendships, popularity and boys.
Then, on October 1, 1985, Missy disappeared. She had gone out with her friends. She never came home.
Days later, hikers discovered Missy’s body in a shallow creek in California’s Angeles National Forest. Her long brown hair had been cut, and investigators determined that the 17-year-old had been forcibly drowned in only inches of water.
Missy’s devastated family wanted to know who could possibly have done something so horrific to their daughter. And Karen Severson was right there beside them. She grieved for Missy. She brought flowers to her grave. She wrote letters to her dead friend and even brought a Christmas tree to the cemetery.
Then, just two weeks after Missy’s murder, Karen moved into the Avila family home. For six weeks, the girl responsible for Missy’s death lived alongside her grieving family and comforted Missy’s mother, Irene. Karen even helped Irene investigate the murder, suggesting names of people who might have been responsible. Except Karen already knew who had killed Missy. Because she was one of them.
And she wasn’t the only friend hiding an unimaginable secret. Laura Doyle attended Missy’s funeral and sent Irene a sympathy card expressing her heartbreak. Karen and Laura cooperated with authorities and appeared to share the family’s desperation to discover what had happened.
For almost three years, Missy’s family had no idea that the women mourning beside them were the very people investigators would eventually accuse of killing her.
This is the disturbing true story of Michele “Missy” Avila — a 17-year-old California teenager betrayed by people she trusted, murdered in the Angeles National Forest and mourned by the very friends responsible for her death. It is a solved true crime case involving teenage jealousy, toxic friendship, betrayal, deception, a shocking murder investigation and one of the most disturbing acts of manipulation imaginable: a killer moving into her victim’s family home and comforting the mother whose daughter she had helped murder.
Podcast: True Crime w/ Anna Templeton