How Iowa lady Angela Prichard helped police remedy her personal homicide

On the morning of Oct. 8, 2022, the serene Mississippi River city of Bellevue, Iowa, inhabitants about 2,500, woke as much as a calamity — information of an obvious murder, the primary in almost a decade.

Dozens of investigators from six completely different regulation enforcement businesses had been combing the crime scene on the Mississippi Ridge Boarding Kennels with physique cameras rolling. The girl who ran the kennels, Angela Prichard, 55, had been gunned down.

Her sister, Wendy Budde, believed she knew who was accountable: Angela’s husband, Chris Prichard.

Wendy Budde (emotional): He knew the way to get within the entrance door.

Jonathan Vigliotti | “48 Hours” contributor: In that second, do you know it was Chris?

Wendy Budde: One hundred percent. 100%, I knew it was him.

Budde says Angela had been making an attempt to depart him for months — and lived in concern he would kill her.

Ryan Kedley: This seemed to be an assailant that knew her very properly.

Ryan Kedley and Dustin Henningsen are particular brokers with Iowa’s Division of Prison Investigation. Bellevue’s small police pressure, with simply a number of officers, invited the state police to guide the investigation. Whereas Angela’s household was satisfied Chris Prichard was the killer, the particular brokers needed to join all of the dots.

ANGELA PRICHARD NAMES HER KILLER IN HER FINAL MOMENTS

Dustin Henningsen: We had acquired a phrase that there was a 911 name within the morning.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Inform me about that 911 name.

Dustin Henningsen: Basically, you are listening to the tip of her life on the 911 name …

911 OPERATOR: 911, the place is your emergency?

ANGELA PRICHARD): Please … get out of right here …  I’ve clients coming in.

911 OPERATOR: 911

ANGELA PRICHARD: Please get out of right here.

911 OPERATOR: OK, the place are you at?

ANGELA PRICHARD: Chris! (gunshot)

These had been the final phrases spoken by Angela – and the primary clue investigators needed to determine her killer.

Jonathan Vigliotti: She says the title Chris on this name. Who’s Chris?

Ryan Kedley: Chris Prichard, her estranged husband.

911 OPERATOR: Ma’am, the place are you at?

Dustin Henningsen: Because the dispatcher continues to ask what’s your emergency …  you possibly can faintly hear someone say…

911 CALL (male voice): F*** you.

Jonathan Vigliotti: While you hearken to this 911 name … how do you course of what you had been listening to?

Ryan Kedley: On a private degree, it is a very troublesome factor to hearken to somebody’s finish of life moments. … On an investigative degree, that was a pivotal piece of proof within the opening levels of the investigation.

Dustin Henningsen: It was a really violent scene. 

Ryan Kedley: Passing by the kennel door on the precise … and that is the world the place we initially get a firsthand glimpse of Angela’s deceased physique right here on the ground.

Swimming pools of morning mild illuminated swimming pools of blood surrounding her physique. Angela was mendacity face down within the kennel’s washroom the place she bathed the canines. Kedley photographed the scene.

Ryan Kedley: She has a really massive important gunshot wound to the chest.

Jonathan Vigliotti: At shut vary.

Ryan Kedley: At, I might say, at very shut vary.

Ryan Kedley: There has to have been some very, very excessive feelings concerned in that …

Jonathan Vigliotti: You could have Angela Prichard deceased right here. You could have Chris Prichard, an individual of curiosity, nowhere to be discovered. How do you monitor him down?

The particular brokers noticed a barely seen blood path.

Ryan Kedley: Main out of this room after which into the canine kennel space via this door …

Ryan Kedley: We imagine our assailant traveled from that space … left some blood proof, after which possible went out this door, straight in entrance of us.

Ryan Kedley: We’re definitely making an attempt to maintain an open thoughts and decide that, OK, if Chris did not do that, properly, then who did?

Digging into Chris Prichard’s life, the particular brokers quickly discovered about his unstable historical past with Angela, which included violence and violations of a restraining order.

Ryan Kedley: However at this level, all the data appears to be per Chris being the man that we have to find.

Dustin Henningsen: As we proceed to work the investigation … We started to ascertain our timeline.

Investigators reviewed the footage beginning at midnight the day of the capturing. For hours, there was nothing to see. However simply after 4 a.m., there was one thing to listen to.

Dustin Henningsen: You’ll be able to hear canines begin to bark. … We had decided that was more than likely the purpose when he arrived on the kennels.

Henningsen believes Chris Prichard entered the kennels and lay in await almost 4 hours.

Dustin Henningsen (with Vigliotti at kennels): The primary video that they actually received was Angela coming right down to work within the morning.

Dustin Henningsen (pointing to watch in his workplace): And proper up right here you are going to see Angela begin to pull down … to the doorway on the … Mississippi Ridge Boarding Kennels.

Dustin Henningsen (at kennels): Pulling as much as the kennel at 7:34. You’ll be able to see her get out of her automobile and she or he’s gathering her belongings, after which strolling into the kennel itself.

Angela Prichard had lower than six minutes to reside.

Dustin Henningsen (taking a look at monitor in workplace) : At 7:39 and 43 seconds, we hear a gunshot go off within the video.

Jonathan Vigliotti (on the kennels): At any level do you clearly see Chris on any of those surveillance cameras?

Dustin Henningsen: Sure. We imagine we see him leaving.

About two minutes after the gunshot, at 7:41 a.m., the person they now suspected to be her killer, Chris Prichard, appeared.

Dustin Henningsen (at kennels with Vigliotti): Truly strolling from the kennel space right down to the fence space …  That makes us imagine that that is the primary space that we have to examine.

Outdoors the kennels, miles of thick woods stretch to the horizon — an space of northeastern Iowa locals name, “The Wilderness.”  It was rugged terrain Chris Prichard knew properly, says Budde.

Wendy Budde: He is aware of the outside. … I knew that he might most likely survive on the market for fairly some time in hiding.

Dustin Henningsen: Now we have each useful resource at our disposal to attempt to do that manhunt. Now we have canines, we now have airplanes, we now have drones …

Jonathan Vigliotti: That is your worst nightmare.

Wendy Budde (crying): Yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Every thing you’ve got been making an attempt to stop come true.

Wendy Budde: Every thing I have been making an attempt so laborious to guard her and to maintain her secure, and he received her. (crying) He received to her.

SEARCHING FOR CHRISTOPHER PRICHARD

The manhunt for Chris Prichard was widening.

Ryan Kedley: You’ve got received a fugitive on the market on the run, probably armed …

TWO HOURS ON THE RUN

Dustin Henningsen: There’s lots of of acres right here of farmland and woods, and we now have the Mississippi River not far-off, so understanding that he might have went any route actually makes the search troublesome …

Fanning out from the kennels, closely armed officers searched close by neighborhoods — home to accommodate, barn to barn.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Angela was a mom and grandmother.

Wendy Budde: She was.

Jonathan Vigliotti: What sort of mom and grandmother was she?

Wendy Budde: I do not know that you’d discover someone higher than her. You hear lots of people say, folks put their youngsters in entrance of themselves. That was actually her.

Angela Prichard’s world revolved round household, particularly her two sons and 6 grandchildren.

Wendy Budde: They had been the loves of her life — her youngsters and her grandkids.

And, with nearly equal billing, Angela’s 5 Huskies.

Wendy Budde: She all the time was an animal lover.

Joshua Shut and CJ Hancock are Angela’s sons.

CJ Hancock  She was lovely in and out. She appreciated to make all people completely satisfied, particularly her household.

Wendy Budde: She cherished you a lot, yeah —

CJ Hancock: She cherished to spoil the grandkids rotten (laughs) they usually might do no improper in her eyes.

Joshua Shut: She cherished doing arts and crafts. … She nonetheless embellished her tree with those we made once we had been youngsters.

And making reminiscences with their mother later in life was Chris Prichard – the very man investigators had been now chasing. Wendy Budde and her husband Jim had identified Prichard for years.

Wendy Budde: I might’ve trusted him with our kids. … He was good, pleasant, honest, a tough employee, enjoyable to be round.

Chris Prichard, a longtime Bellevue resident, was a longtime electrician on the town. Quickly Angela discovered her calling.

Wendy Budde: To be a kennel proprietor, to do one thing with animals. … I used to be thrilled for her. It actually appeared like every thing was falling into place.

After courting for almost two years, they moved into a house in Bellevue, and even received married there in March 2019. The newlyweds had been over the moon for about eight months.

Jonathan Vigliotti: When did issues change?

Wendy Budde: I actually assume that issues began to alter when he misplaced his job. He received fired.

Fired and charged with first-degree theft, a felony, after he allegedly stole $36,000 value of provides from the electrical firm the place he labored.

Wendy Budde:  She was simply beside herself, what are we going to do now? We want that revenue.

Awaiting trial, Prichard was out on bail and out of labor, says Budde.

Wendy Budde: He wasn’t searching for work. He was positively consuming extra.

Wendy Budde: Because the … months went on, it simply was like, wow, he is actually form of altering.

Prichard lastly took some odd job and helped Angela on the kennels, however in the summertime of 2021, Budde says Angela found her husband was utilizing methamphetamine.

Wendy Budde: After which I knew … that issues are actually getting unhealthy.

The simmering rigidity reached a boiling level on April 18, 2022.

Wendy Budde:  She mentioned, “Chris hit me.”

CJ Hancock: She mentioned … “he is drunk. He is on medicine.” … So I informed her, we’re gonna name the cops.

Bellevue Police responded, and the decision recorded on police bodycam:

ANGELA PRICHARD (bodycam): He hit me after which I simply, I got here in the home.

Wendy Budde: She was crying. She was … visibly shaking …  She had a mark on her face. And she or he mentioned,” I am so scared.”

Police did not have far to go to seek out Chris Prichard. He was within the storage.

BELLVUE OFFICER (bodycam): State of Iowa regulation requires that someone goes to jail …

CHRIS PRICHARD: I can not imagine I will jail.

BELLEVUE OFFICER: Properly, she’s received a mark on her face …

Chris Prichard was arrested and charged with home assault.

WENDY BUDDE (bodycam | in kitchen): He is very, very, very tousled on medicine.

WENDY BUDDE: We have seen him change proper in entrance of our eyes. Have not we?

Chris Prichard spent the night time in jail and was launched awaiting trial, staying with household. Angela Prichard sought and acquired a short lived no-contact order.

ANGELA PRICHARD (bodycam): So he cannot come again right here?

OFFICER: Nope.

Jonathan Vigliotti: The no-contact order now exists defending your sister. However a number of weeks later, it is lifted.

Wendy Budde: Even after it occurred … she mentioned, I — I do not need this. I need our marriage to work.

Every had been married earlier than, however had hoped this may be their final marriage, says Budde. Angela withdrew the no-contact order.

Wendy Budde: I imagine he mentioned every thing that wanted to be mentioned for her to drop that order. …The consuming will cease. He shall be residence extra … 

Guarantees he didn’t preserve, says Budde.

Wendy Budde: She mentioned, I am fearful of him … particularly if he is been consuming.

Budde says Angela was livid when she discovered a monitoring gadget in her automobile, and two hidden cameras in the home.

Wendy Budde: I informed her … that you must break up. You want to be carried out with this, Ange.

FOUR HOURS ON THE RUN

Chris Prichard appeared to have vanished within the huge wilderness. Even the police canines had misplaced his scent, says Henningsen.

Jonathan Vigliotti (outdoors on the kennels): How do you discover someone that does not need to be caught?

Dustin Henningsen: That is the place our native assets actually assist us.

Proper from the beginning, Henningsen had corralled state and native regulation enforcement businesses — even farmers and hunters — to assist decide the place he is likely to be.

Dustin Henningsen: If we thought that Chris was going to make his manner, say, again to Bellevue, what is the more than likely path? … The place are his associates at? 

Jeff Junk: It is a small city. Everyone talks.

Cattle farmer Jeff Junk and his girlfriend Kim Klein had been as soon as shut associates with Chris Prichard. Neighbors known as them concerning the rumor racing via city – Prichard had shot his spouse, Angela.

Kim Klein: Get outta right here! I — I did not imagine it.

A Jackson County chief deputy stopped by Junk’s home to warn them Prichard was on the run and is likely to be searching for assist from his associates. Then, there was a knock on the door.

ANGELA PRICHARD’S DIARY OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

The knock on their entrance door — the one they will all the time bear in mind — got here round 8:15 that October night time, Kim Klein says. She and boyfriend Jeff Junk weren’t anticipating firm.

Kim Klein: When the second knock occurred … I says, “I imagine it is Chris and that you must reply the door.” 

Jonathan Vigliotti: So that you open the door and what’s it that you just see on the opposite facet?

Jeff Junk: I see Chris …

12 HOURS ON THE RUN

Chris Prichard, their outdated pal — now a hunted fugitive suspected of homicide — was standing within the dim mild holding a shotgun.

Kim Klein: Jeff goes, that you must hand that gun to me, and he did. No downside.

Junk and Klein knew they needed to name the police, however till they might do this safely, Klein says, they had been enjoying alongside.

Chris Prichard informed them he’d been operating all day from the cops and their canines.

Kim Klein: Jeff mentioned, “Hey dude, you shot your spouse?” “Oh yeah, how’s she doing?”

The couple informed him Angela was lifeless.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Did he … specific any regret?

Kim Klein: No.

Jeff Junk: Nothing.

Kim Klein: Nothing. He was sitting right here laughing and consuming, they usually had been speaking about outdated instances.

The second felt so surreal, Klein says, she snapped a photograph.

Kim Klein: Simply to point out that no, he wasn’t having any regret. He by no means talked about her the remainder of the night time. After which I took the one when he was handed out.

And the time was lastly proper, says Junk, to textual content the chief deputy who had stopped by earlier.

Jeff Junk: I mentioned … “he is up right here and he’s handed out. Come — come get him.”

When police arrived round midnight, Chris was nonetheless within the La-Z-Boy chair, out chilly.  

Dustin Henningsen: He did not know what was coming.

CHRIS PRICHARD (bodycam | handcuffed, swears at officers):  “What the f***  is improper with you guys? Jesus Christ, I used to be sleeping.

Ryan Kedley: He is verbally belligerent to officers which have arrested him.

Particular Agent Henningsen collected the proof Chris Prichard had left behind: a 20-gauge shotgun and his torn garments.

Dustin Henningsen: He … took Angela’s possessions, cash, a cellphone with him.

Particular Agent Kedley escorted Prichard to the Jackson County Jail.

OFFICER (bodycam): Would you like your seatbelt, Chris?

CHRIS PRICHARD: I desire a bullet within the head.

Shortly after 1 a.m. on October 9, a despondent Chris Prichard was booked into the county jail, ultimately charged with first-degree homicide and theft. After hours on the run via Iowa’s wilderness, Prichard discovered himself surrounded by concrete and metal — largely put there by the burden of a single phrase.

ANGELA PRICHARD (911 name): Will you please get out of right here! Chris!”

Wendy Budde says the day Prichard ended her sister’s life adopted months of more and more erratic habits and escalating rage, which Angela had documented.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Inform me about this journal and her phrases that lived on…

Wendy Budde: She was this “sticky notice queen …”

Dozens of Angela’s brightly coloured sticky notes informed a darkish story. The scribbled entries grew to become Angela’s diary of home abuse.

WENDY BUDDE (studying sticky notes):

“August twenty third textual content message. Calling me names. Saying it is gonna get actual f****** ugly.”

“He is been stalking me and watching me. … Very fearful of him …”

“I believe Chris is able to something …”

“Booze and medicines daily …”

“Mentioned he does not give a f*** if he goes to jail.”

“At all times trying over my shoulder to see if he is round.” 

Wendy Budde: Her phrases to me are, “I am carried out. … That is it. We’re not residing in the identical home.”

Budde invited her sister to maneuver in together with her. Angela gratefully agreed.

Wendy Budde: I used to be like, you’ve a shadow now as a result of I am not leaving. … You are caught with me.

The subsequent day, Angela requested a second short-term no-contact order, granted Sept. 1, 2022. A no-contact order means simply that: no contact of any variety with the protected particular person. Within the State of Iowa, even a single violation requires a compulsory arrest. 

Jonathan Vigliotti: However that does not cease Chris.

CJ Hancock: No. … As soon as that second no-contact order received put in place, I might say that is when issues went actually downhill.

And it was in place when Angela went again to the house she as soon as shared with Chris Prichard to select up a number of issues, says Budde.

Wendy Budde: I used to be together with her.

Jonathan Vigliotti: You had been together with her together with police.

The Bellevue police had been there simply in case Prichard confirmed up. The courtroom had ordered him to maneuver out briefly.

Wendy Budde: We walked within the entrance door. … The home was destroyed.

Wendy Budde: There was ink and paint thrown all over the place.

CJ Hancock: Image frames damaged …

Wendy Budde: … furnishings was destroyed. … He had truly taken the mattress off her mattress and rubbed it in canine feces.

Joshua Shut: … weapons he positioned them all around the home … to intimidate her.

Wendy Budde: I imply, we each simply began crying.

Jonathan Vigliotti:  That is in clear violation of the restraining order. What do the police do?

Wendy Budde: The police … mentioned, there’s nothing we are able to do. That is his home …

Jonathan Vigliotti: There’s nothing we are able to do is what they are saying to you?

Wendy Budde: … That is his home as properly.

Underneath Iowa regulation, with a no-contact order in place, Bellevue police ought to have taken Chris Prichard’s weapons. However for causes unknown, he was allowed to maintain them. Angela’s sister and sons say, all through September, the horrifying violations continued — not bodily assaults, however psychological terror.

CJ Hancock: Sitting outdoors of her home, following her, texting her, stalking her, going and chopping the grass on the kennels whereas she wasn’t there.

Bellevue police arrested Chris Prichard simply as soon as, on September 15, for sending Angela a textual content message, one other violation of the no-contact order. He spent one night time behind bars earlier than posting bail. The subsequent day, says Budde, he resumed his flurry of offenses.

Wendy Budde: He had been driving by our home a number of instances.

One night time, says Budde, Chris Prichard drove by six instances in a single hour.

WENDY BUDDE (studying sticky notice): “I do not really feel secure anymore wherever – my sister’s, my home, my sons, shops on the town …”

Jonathan Vigliotti: You could have a ticking time bomb in your palms.

Wendy Budde: Yeah. … just about and that is what it felt like.

However as a substitute of creating arrests. the Bellevue police had been making excuses, say Angela’s sons, for not imposing the regulation.

CJ Hancock: They mentioned that they’d inform him to knock it off or have a chat with him. Nothing, nothing was carried out, and she or he was terrified.

Jonathan Vigliotti: You are reaching out to police … They are not doing something. Are you operating out of hope right here?

Wendy Budde: Sure. … What do you do when no person is prepared that can assist you?

WENDY BUDDE (studying sticky notice): I concern for my security. Worry for my life. He has weapons.

Wendy Budde: The concern… It consumed our life.

THE CASE AGAINST CHRISTOPHER PRICHARD

It was 5 a.m. on the Jackson County Jail. Twenty-one hours after Angela Prichard was discovered lifeless, Chris Prichard waived his Miranda rights and talked concerning the encounter on the canine kennels with particular brokers Dustin Henningsen and Ryan Kedley.

CHRIS PRICHARD (police interview): She mentioned, “you gotta depart … you gotta depart now or I am gonna name the police.” … I mentioned “I simply need to speak”  …and she or he shoved me … and I hit the cupboard. The gun — I do not know what the gun hit, however it went off.

Jonathan Vigliotti: So, in so many phrases, he says, “I shot Angela. It was an accident.” 

Ryan Kedley: Basically, Sure.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Are you believing any of this?

Ryan Kedley: No. … I am solely believing the truth that he shot Angela.

Chris Prichard pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide and theft fees. His trial started on Feb. 7, 2024.

Nicole Leonard: We believed that Mr. Prichard … deliberate this all out and really meticulously for that matter.

To show premeditated homicide, prosecutors Nicole Leonard and John Kies informed jurors Chris Prichard put his plan in movement on Oct. 7, 2022, the day earlier than he shot his spouse – the identical day Angela’s short-term restraining order grew to become everlasting.

Nicole Leonard: We imagine that that was kind of the snapping level for the defendant.

Nicole Leonard: … he grew to become an increasing number of obsessive about the scenario, and never letting her go.

CHRIS PRICHARD (police interview): … she needed to pull me via the mud and make me a monster.

Earlier than taking Angela’s life, Chris Prichard took steps to cowl his tracks, say the prosecutors. He borrowed a white pickup truck, to keep away from utilizing his personal automobile.

John Kies: So what we expect was … he was organising an alibi.

Prosecutors say Chris Prichard secretly parked the borrowed truck inside a barn belonging to Lori and Mike Blaser, just some miles from the Mississippi Ridge Boarding Kennels.

Mike Blaser: We stroll in, , discover this white pickup truck …

With a notice from Chris Prichard saying he had gone looking: “Keys are within the truck if that you must transfer it. I will be again. Chris.”

Lori Blaser: We knew Chris. … He would … inform us how a lot he cherished Angela, how devastated he was that there was a restraining order.

The Blasers would quickly develop into essential witnesses for the prosecution. Shortly after discovering the truck and notice, they heard the information a couple of capturing on the canine kennels.

Lori Blaser: We knew the minute that there was a capturing on the kennel … one thing had occurred with Chris. …

Lori Blaser: We had been involved that this was a getaway automobile for him in right here as a result of it was simply so odd, it had no cause to be right here. I known as 911 instantly …

LORI BLASER (911 name): I see that you just guys are searching for Chris Prichard.

911 OPERATOR: Sure.

LORI BLASER: His truck is in our storage …

Lori Blaser: It was very intense as a result of at that time, he was nonetheless lacking …

Lori Blaser: And we had been scared to demise.

Prosecutors later considered residence surveillance footage from a digicam on the Blasers’ property exhibiting Chris Prichard getting into the barn the place the Blasers saved their horse trailer.

Lori Blaser (contained in the horse trailer): The minute we got here within the door, I knew that Chris Prichard had spent a while in right here.

Lori Blaser: He definitely made himself at residence right here.

Chris Prichard left the horse trailer in the course of the night time, climbing via the dense woods to the kennels, says Leonard.

Nicole Leonard: We imagine his subsequent look is round 4:00 a.m. on October eighth on the canine kennels … through which the canines begin to go loopy.

Jonathan Vigliotti: And also you imagine from that time ahead, he is contained in the kennel?

Nicole Leonard: Right.

John Kies: I believe he all the time had the plan to homicide her.

To show it, the prosecutors performed audio clips from Prichard’s police interviews for the jury.

SPECIAL AGENT KEDLEY (police interview): You present up at a spot the place she’s gonna be. You’ve got received a gun together with her. You understand you’ve got received a no contact order … An argument breaks out. … She calls 911. She winds up lifeless … This wasn’t just a few accident.

Dustin Henningsen: If this was an accident, why are you taking her cellphone, which is her solely technique of survival? … Why aren’t you calling for assist your self? Why aren’t you rendering any kind of help on your spouse?

And Prichard saved including particulars to the story of the unintentional capturing, say the particular brokers.

Dustin Henningsen: The gun was leaning up in opposition to the cabinets. … He went to retrieve a backpack and it fell after which that went off and shot her.

However at trial, an Iowa State medical expert testified the gunshot had a downward trajectory – which means Chris Prichard had the weapon in his palms and was standing when he fired, say prosecutors.

CHRIS PRICHARD (police interview): It seemed prefer it hit her within the arm. … How would you die from that?

Angela was shot lifeless middle within the chest, testified the medical expert, and died in seconds.

CHRIS PRICHARD (police interview): I might’ve cherished to have caught round however Angie and her mood … I assumed possibly it did not even actually hit her that unhealthy ‘trigger … she was yelling at me, like she wasn’t even damage.

Ryan Kedley: And the truth that he is saying that, after the gun went off and it struck her – that she’s yelling profanities again at him. Properly, we now have a 911 recording of that dialog. That didn’t happen.

Prosecutors say Chris Prichard’s final phrases on the 911 name show his actions had been premeditated – a remaining explosion of violence.

Nicole Leonard: While you hear his assertion standing over her dying physique on that 911 name utilizing profanity.

911 CALL: (Chris Prichard’s voice in background): “F*** you.”

Joshua Shut: You positively do not say what he mentioned on the finish of the telephone name, after you unintentionally shoot somebody.

Prichard’s protection attorneys – who declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview – maintained the capturing was unintentional, and the case in opposition to Chris Prichard was a rush to judgement.

After 4 days of testimony, the case went to the jury.

Wendy Budde: We had been outdoors the courthouse, simply form of stretching, and , the jury is again!

Dave O’Brien was additionally ready for the decision and already getting ready for an additional trial – a federal lawsuit in opposition to the Bellevue Police Division. It failed Angela, he says, time and time once more.

Jonathan Vigliotti: If police took motion, would Angela be alive right this moment?

Dave O’Brien: Completely.

COULD ANGELA PRICHARD HAVE BEEN SAVED?

In February 2024 – 16 months after Angela Prichard’s demise – her household’s await a measure of justice was over.

Wendy Budde: That is received to be a superb signal that they’re again in lower than an hour.

The jury discovered Chris Prichard responsible of first-degree homicide and theft.

Wendy Budde: After they mentioned it, it was only a huge sigh of reduction.

In March, Prichard was sentenced to life in jail with out parole.

Wendy Budde: It would by no means deliver her again. … However he’s going to spend the remainder of his life behind bars.

Wendy Budde: I additionally gave a sufferer influence assertion and … I mentioned to him … I hope whilst you’re behind bars … you all the time need to look over your shoulder and be scared for every thing you do. …  How she felt. I hope you simply really feel a tiny little bit of that, the way in which you tortured her.

Civil rights lawyer Dave O’Brien represents Angela Prichard’s household. She could be alive right this moment, he says, if the Bellevue Police Division had enforced a decide’s order of safety.

Jonathan Vigliotti: You filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to town of Bellevue and three officers, why?

Dave O’Brien: As a result of they did not do their job, and it is that easy.

That lawsuit lists a number of failures to arrest Chris Prichard. O’Brien says this led to what’s known as a “state-created hazard,” which means the officers’ alleged inaction and indifference truly elevated the risk to Angela Prichard.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Can a police officer resolve, ought to I arrest him or not? Is that as much as their discretion?

Dave O’Brien: Completely not. … Right here in Iowa … solely a decide can present discretion to not implement this restraining order.

Beginning Sept. 1, 2022, when Angela’s second safety order was issued — till her homicide 37 days later — O’Brien says Chris Prichard continued to violate the no-contact order with no penalties.

Dave O’Brien: A dozen instances throughout this related time interval, Angela Prichard known as the Bellevue Police Division, they usually didn’t observe that regulation, that decide’s order.

That is as a result of, O’Brien says, the Bellevue law enforcement officials confirmed Chris Prichard favoritism.

Dave O’Brien: Now we have cause to imagine that he was pleasant with regulation enforcement officers.

Jonathan Vigliotti: To show this … you have to show that the police officer’s failure to implement the safety order was intentional and reckless. How will you do this?

Dave O’Brien: Properly, simply by the sheer variety of instances that it was not enforced.

In October 2024, Chief Federal Decide C.J. Williams dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety. The Bellevue Police Division, he dominated, “Didn’t put Angela in a extra harmful scenario,” and the three officers, “merely didn’t commit outrageous conduct.” 

The decide added there was no proof of police favoritism: “The alleged details, even taken as true … are a far cry from establishing that any of the defendants had been associates with Christopher.”

O’Brien was granted a listening to in December 2024 after studying, he says, the three Bellevue officers had withheld proof and made false statements, allegedly concealing their friendships with Chris Prichard — accusations they deny.

O’Brien argued the officers had been properly conscious Chris Prichard was a critical risk to his spouse. 9 days earlier than her homicide, the Jackson County lawyer warned the Bellevue Police Division in an electronic mail that Chris Prichard had 24 hours to show himself in:

JACKSON COUNTY ATTORNEY EMAIL: “If he doesn’t report I shall be requesting a warrant. I needed all of you to bear in mind as I am afraid he would possibly attempt to do one thing tonight.”

The subsequent day, when Prichard failed to look on the county jail, the arrest warrant was issued. Seven days earlier than her homicide, O’Brien says  bodycam footage of a Bellevue police officer talking with Wendy and Angela confirms police knew Angela was in peril.

CHIEF SCHROEDER (bodycam | to Angela Prichard and Wendy Budde): “As a result of proper now I assure he is not pondering straight.”

WENDY BUDDE: No, under no circumstances.

CHIEF SCHROEDER: That is my greatest concern. That is my division’s greatest concern is he’ll attempt to damage you after which damage himself.

CHIEF SCHROEDER: My job is to guard you in any respect prices.

Throughout the remaining week of Angela’s life, O’Brien says Bellevue police might have protected her by discovering and arresting Chris Prichard. However they by no means did.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Is it laborious to seek out Chris?

Joshua Shut: Should not be. …Everyone knew his Jeep – had a custom-made tag that claims “0Dark30” on it. … So, you possibly can’t miss it.

Dave O’Brien: Now we have not been supplied with any document exhibiting there was any effort made to implement the arrest warrant as soon as it was issued on the thirtieth of September.

Jonathan Vigliotti: Had that arrest warrant been executed, would Angela be right here right this moment?

Dave O’Brien: Completely. … He ought to have been in jail.

On the December listening to, protection attorneys insisted the brand new data offered by O’Brien was …… “improper, needs to be stricken and never thought of by the Courtroom.”

Dave O’Brien: Our very best final result could be only a full reversal of the decide’s resolution.  

In January 2025, Decide Williams refused to reverse his dismissal. Bellevue Police Chief Dennis Schroeder issued this assertion to a neighborhood newspaper, which learn partly : “We’re happy with the choice … … We proceed to strengthen our companies and response efforts to stop home violence and supply assist to these in want.”

Dave O’Brien: I’ve heard folks say that … no-contact orders aren’t definitely worth the paper they’re written on. And on this case that was true. However I firmly imagine that they’re value one thing, however they need to be enforced.

Wendy Budde: I nonetheless, to today, I’ve quite a lot of, um, I assume it is guilt, as a result of I believe in my thoughts, what if I might’ve went together with her that day? Possibly I might have saved her. …  However a part of me was so pleased with her for like being as sturdy as she was in that point. … She — she named her killer. And so, she helped them deliver him to justice.

Chris Prichard’s life sentence additionally helped deliver her household some consolation, and the braveness to maneuver ahead. They imagine Angela would need them to make this public plea.

Joshua Shut: Possibly different police departments that possibly are somewhat lenient on stuff, will not be so lenient subsequent time.

In keeping with the Violence Coverage Heart almost three girls within the U.S. are killed by an intimate associate every day. 

In case you or somebody is experiencing home violence, the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline might be reached at 1-800-799-7233.

Produced by Mead Stone. Iris Carreras Toneatto is the sector producer. Michelle Fanucci and Tami Weitzman are the event producers. Marcus Balsam, Diana DeCilio, and Mead Stone are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.