2015 MURDER OF ANJELICA

On March 2, 2015, 18 year old Anjelica "AJ Hadsell" (formerly Anjelica Hoffer) went missing.  On April 9, 2015, her body was found covered with plywood, behind an abandoned house, 60 miles away from home.    

Anjelica was home in Norfolk, VA on spring break from her second semester of college at Longwood University, where she was attending on scholarship and was a member of the school's softball and field hockey teams.

She was last seen at home (8421 Millard St. Norfolk, VA) by her mother and sisters just after 7am on March 2nd.  

Around 8am, Hadsell  went to the home to swap out his truck for the work van.  At 12:16pm, his van was captured on video surveillance, going toward the house, by the 7-11 at the entrance of the neighborhood.  Then his van is captured going the other way at 1:27pm.  Anjelica's sister arrived home just after 2pm, finding no sign of Anjelica, but her wallet, ID and winter jacket left behind.

Wes Hadsell told police that he met Anjelica at a gas station across town at about 12:30 that day, but camera footage would later dispute that.  One of many, many lies.

Wes Hadsell led a group of Anjelica's friends and family in a neighborhood search for Anjelica, where one half of her debit card was found by one of her friends.  The second half was found later also.  

Wes Hadsell later broke into that friend's house, and professed to finding Anjelica's jacket behind the boy's couch cushion.  He then told a few of Anjelica's friends about the jacket, and told them to confront the boy at the house about it, which they did.  He was shocked to see the jacket they found.

Wes Hadsell would later take a couple of Anjelica's friends to a location in Chesapeake, some 25 miles south, where somebody supposedly had called in a tip about clothes alongside the road.  It was getting dark when they arrived, but Hadsell was able to spot the clothes right away, according to the boys with him.  They were Anjelica's clothes.  There was never any trace of the caller provided.

The GPS on Wes Hadsell's van is what ultimately led police to Anjelica's body.  They took his van into custody after his arrest for the burglary, on March 20, 2015.  The police were not able to process the GPS until April 9.  It took almost 3 weeks to get the data from that GPS so that they could locate Anjelica's body.

Also:

The coroner, Wendy Gunther, said her cause of death was 'homicidal violence' and 'acute heroin poisoning'.  Definitive bruising on her shoulder and wrists.  Possible bruising on her neck and arm.  Her tongue was bitten.

Wes Hadsell bought heroin the morning Anjelica went missing.  She died from having 3 times the normal amount of heroin in her system, with no history of drug use.

Police found her phone discarded along an overpass off Tidewater Ave. at Thole St. in Norfolk.  They had pinged it in hotel room the night she was missing.

It was clear that Wes Hadsell was pretending to be Anjelica and texting the mother and others through the night.  He had her phone declare that she was addicted to some new drug (heroin) and that Wes was her 'true father'.

On the day she went missing, she apparently left the house suddenly.  Laundry half folded.  Dog still outside.  Door unlocked.  Wallet still there.

There was a note.

"Dear Madre. With everything going on,it's a lot"

Why did she write this?  Why did they throw it away, forcing the police to have the dumpster searched?  Was she forced to write this?  





THE 2005 OHIO CASE


On August 21, 2005, Wesley Hadsell allegedly strangled and raped his estranged wife.  The case was finally tried in 2017, after much evidence was destroyed, and though a grand jury had found a true bill in 2005 for Rape, Strangulation, Assault, and Kidnapping, he was ultimately only found guilty of Misdemeanor Assault in 2018.  The reason given for not continuing with the prosecution in 2005, was because of a federal case against him for bank robbery.

On August 26, 2005, when Hadsell heard he was being served a warrant and protective order, for the assault 5 days prior, he allegedly went to the victim, forced her to go with him, after throwing her phone away.  There was a nationwide manhunt and a $50,000 reward.  During this time they were living in their car and he was robbing places and also raping her and threatening to kill her (court doc 12.5.18 pg 10) and her family, according to what she told police when they were finally caught by police.  They were caught in Illinois, after a high speed chase, ending in wrecking the vehicle.  He hid in a cornfield all night, while multiple law enforcement agencies with major firepower and technology searched for him.  Here are some articles describing the ordeal.
DAILY JOURNAL - Kankakee, IL
FREELANCE STAR - Fredericksburg, VA
VIRGINIAN PILOT - Norfolk, VA
Anyone can search for the court records relating to Hadsell in Delaware County, OHIO by visiting their site HERE:

PROBLEMS WITH HADSELL'S DEFENSE IN OHIO


  1. She (the victim) filed rape charges (page 2) the same day and a protective order on the next day.
  2. On the same day (Aug 21) she had “visible injuries to her face and neck” (Statement of Facts 3.15.17)
  3. He first claims the strangulation marks are self-inflicted, but only did so after discovering the SANE kit and some DNA were lost.  He then (1.3.18 document) claims the strangulation marks are actually “the defendant merely striking the victim”.  How can the sex be consensual then?  He had denied striking her initially.
  4. If the Aug. 21 strangulation marks are self-inflicted, and the rape allegations (and protective order) false, then why would she go with him voluntarily on August 26, 2005? 
  5. She was seeing another man (“K.E.”, who she apparently had sex with earlier that day (or a few days prior? - court doc 1.17.18), as DNA tests and her testimony show, and they (WH and MH) were separated.  Why would she go on a “consensual rendezvous” with WH?
  6. Claims the lost evidence (fingernail scrapings (his and hers would show NO scratching), phone record (would show repeated contact prior to the Aug. 21 rape), recordings of interviews, ‘witnesses’ unable to be contacted (including his deceased grandmother, deceased father, deceased detective, and multiple people who either didn’t want to testify or were in too poor health to testify, the lost transcript of a later (June 21, 2006 - doc 5.31.17) grand jury - all would contribute to proving his innocence.  He claims this in 2018, but not in 2005, where only Frank Andrews and Deanna Harding (aged 56, whom he lived with while separated from WH) were called as witnesses.  It seems convenient (or very misfortunate) that all this ‘lost evidence’ could contribute to proving his innocence, yet the evidence on hand (victim testimony, photographs or bruising, police witnesses, etc) implicates him.
  7. Claims (to me in a recorded jail phone call) that he had no idea Michelle was cheating on him.  But in court documents (1.17.18), he told his mom about “K.E” being the one she was cheating on him with.  
  8. He claims the sex was consensual (on 8.21) and she came with him voluntarily (on 8.26?) but court documents (1.17.18 and 1.17.18) show he knew of her affair and that Michelle claimed he was using cocaine, forged checks of hers, could not hold a steady job, and was jailed for probation violation
  9. Michelle complained that he repeatedly raped her, threatened her and her family, and robbed places after the 8.26 abduction (court docs 1.17.18).  This seems more plausible than his version of ‘getting away together’.
  10. On August 26, 2005, when WH abducted MH, WH had just been or was about to be served a warrant for his arrest and protective order papers.  This would also put him in violation of his North Carolina probation.  Doesn’t seem like the appropriate time for a “consensual rendezvous, especially with the person who is key to putting you behind bars for a very long time.
  11. There was a phone call by MH on the day she was abducted, in which she was screaming, and her phone was thrown away, and “signs of a struggle”, which led to the nationwide manhunt and $50,000 reward.  This doesn’t sound like a “vacation getaway”.
  12. Inexplicably did not get charged with ANY other crimes that occurred during the 14 day ordeal traveling from Ohio, to Florida, to Virginia, and Illinois, where he led police on a chase which ended in him wrecking his car and hiding in a field all night.  None of the robberies or rapes were charged, except one bank robbery.  These crimes also don’t help his defense of a “vacation getaway”.
  13. He wishes to bring up later sexual encounters between him and MH (1.17.18 doc), which he knows are alleged to have been rape also, as evidence of his innocence.  Either he fails to see that threatening a person and their family after forcibly abducting them, negates that following sex to being consensual or he gets off on flaunting as much of his crimes as he can.

SCREEN SHOTS OF ARTICLES