In April of 2013, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office appealed to the public for information about a missing man. 36-year-old James Sheaffer had not been seen since the 2nd of April. He worked for Diamond Limousine in Deltona, Florida, and was last seen climbing into an unknown vehicle at the business.
James and the driver drove off in a black passenger car, leaving James’ car behind. James never returned to work that afternoon, and his girlfriend and family had not heard from him or seen him since.1
Missing person flyers described James as standing at around 5’11” and weighing approximately 275 pounds. He had brown eyes, brown hair and as for identifying features, he had a number of tattoos, including one which said “GRINGO” on his neck, a Metallica skull on his right calf and “NCC” on his right forearm. The last time that he was seen, he was wearing his work clothing which consisted of a black dress shirt, black dress pants and black dress shoes.
James’ live-in girlfriend of 17 years, Candy Medina, said that she had received a text message from him which read that he was “having to hide out from someone and that he was okay.”2
Unfortunately for James, he had been struggling financially. He had confided in loved ones that he owed around $1,100 in rent and wasn’t quite sure how he was going to come up with the money. This led to speculation that James had simply “skipped town.” Those who knew James the most, however, knew that this wasn’t true.
There was no movement in the missing person case until the 21st of April, when police received an early morning phone call from a relative of 40-year-old Angela Stoldt, who was James’ neighbour. The relative said that Stoldt had made suicidal comments and told them that she had killed James. Police were dispatched to Stoldt’s home and they brought her down to the headquarters to be interviewed.
Stoldt refused to talk, and she was taken to a local hospital for a psychiatric examination. Afterwards, she was then brought in for more questioning. She told investigators that she had seen James on the 5th of April, even though his girlfriend and family hadn’t seen him since the 2nd of April. She continued, telling the investigators that she was “the current payee on James’ Social Security disability check” and said that both she and James had access to the account.
According to Stodt, she had received a text message from James on the 3rd of April, asking her to meet up with him. They met behind a Winn-Dixie in Deltona, and James gave her $150 to cover an overdraw that he had made from their shared account. She said that James was with another man, but he didn’t appear to be under duress.
Stoldt eventually said: “I wish you had come to my house the first day.” She broke down and admitted that she had killed James. She claimed that James had asked her to borrow $2,000 to $4,000 from her father. In the early morning hours of the 3rd of April, Stoldt said that she picked James up from his place of employment and told him that her father was considering it. They drove to the Osteen Cemetery and according to Stoldt, when they arrived, James asked again about the money.3
Stoldt said she was annoyed that James constantly overdrew the bank account, and she replied: “How does it feel to be lied to, Jimmy?” James allegedly responded: “How dare you!” She claimed that James began to threaten to kill her and kill her children and went to grab her. Stoldt grabbed an ice pick that was in a box of camping supplies in the back seat and rammed it into James’ eye, before grabbing a cord and wrapping it tightly around James’ neck. The cord had handles on each end, and Stodt put a foot in each handle to pull it tighter until James stopped moving. She then stabbed him once in the other eye.
When James stopped moving, Stoldt enveloped his head in plastic wrap. She drove the body back to her home where she used a hacksaw to dismember it. She put his arms, legs and head in a baby pool in the garage and then his torso in another baby pool, before retreating to bed. The following day, she attempted to cremate the remains in the stove and in the oven. She said during the interrogation: “Thursday is when I was cooking him. Friday is when I was dumping him.”
After the confession, Stoldt took investigators to various places in Volusia County, where she had disposed of James’ cellphone and identification. She then took them to where they could find his remains, but investigators could only ever find a portion of them.
Stoldt was subsequently charged with second-degree murder, abuse of a dead human body and tampering with physical evidence. Her defence team would file a stand-your-ground motion, claiming the murder was self-defence. Florida’s stand-your-ground law states that a person can use deadly force if they reasonably believe that their life is in danger.
Stoldt’s charge was then elevated to first-degree murder and Judge Randell Rowe III rejected the stand-your-ground defence. Investigation had uncovered that after Stoldt picked James up from his work, she had first of all taken him to her home where they drank mixed drinks of vodka and peach schnapps. However, Stoldt had spiked Schaeffer’s drink with Flexeril, a prescription drug which causes drowsiness.
From here, Stodt drove a drunk and drugged James to the cemetery. He believed that they were going to her parents’ house to talk about the money situation.4
Stoldt was ordered to stand trial. Prosecutors would share their belief that she had drugged James and then killed him when he was passed out. Prosecutor Ryan Will stated: “You’ll hear when he stopped moving that she pulled the ice pick out of his eye and she jammed it into the other one just to be sure, her words not mine.”
It was revealed that hours before the killing, Stoldt had purchased the plastic which she wrapped James’ head in as well as rubber gloves, indicating pre-meditation. Prosecutors theorised that Stoldt was so angry that James kept overdrawing their shared account that she concocted a plan to kill him.
Prosecutor Will said: “She took him into the house piece by piece. … The very same house she shares with her two teenage children and she cooked him in her oven and stove. She started with the oven but when the smoke and smell became unbearable she realized that she might get caught.”5
Angela Stoldt would be convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Footnotes:
- The West Volusia Beacon, 11 April, 2013 – “Sheriff’s Office Wants Help Finding Missing Deltona Man”
- The Daytona Beach News-Journal, 23 April, 2013 – “Neighbor Arrested in Killing of Deltona Limo Driver”
- The Daytona Beach News-Journal, 1 September, 2014 – “Self-Defense Document”
- The Daytona Beach News-Journal, 13 November, 2014 – “Deltona Woman Stabbed, Hacked Up, Tried to Cremate Neighbour”
- The Daytona Beach News-Journal, 2 December, 2014 – “Woman Accused of Killing, Cooking Deltona Neighbor on Trial”
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