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CRIME MYSTERY: Twelve years later, a family is still trying to find out...
What happened to Angela? CALL THE SURREY RCMP TIPS LINE
By Tom Zytaruk
A
s crime mysteries go, they don’t get much more puzzling than the one surrounding the death of Angela Hazel Williams. Nearly 12 years have passed since the 31-year-old Vancouver woman’s body was found lying face down in a patch of weeds and gravel on the shoulder of Surrey’s infamous Colebrook Road.
“KILLBROOK” Colebrook Road cuts through the fields below Panorama Ridge from Mud Bay eastward into Cloverdale, where it abruptly ends, only to resume near the Langley border. Homes are few and far between, and deep ditches separate the roadway from farmers’ fields. Traffic on Highway 99, to the south,
Angela Hazel Williams, 31, was found lying face down in a patch of weeds and gravel on the shoulder of Surrey’s infamous Colebrook Road, 12 years ago. Her sisters Karen, left, and Eliza, right, are pictured in the background. (Photo: KEVIN HILL) is within faint earshot, but civilization still seems a world away. It’s a lonely place to die. This past year alone, the bodies of four murder victims have been found either on or beside the road, earning it the indelicate moniker of “Killbrook.” But even before Angela met her end, Colebrook Road had borne witness to several tragic crashes involving trains, cars and bicycles, as well as murders, suicides, sexual assaults and stabbings.
WHO WAS ANGELA? Angela lived in East Vancouver, almost an hour’s drive from Surrey. What was she doing when she disappeared?
“That’s the confusing part,” said her eldest sister, Eliza Williers, 44, “because that’s the side of my sister I didn’t really know.” Eliza said her parents, now deceased, were raised in residential schools and the girls grew up apart, but connected in their teens. Angela was raised in north Vancouver Island, by her father and his family. “I don’t know much about her upbringing, over there,” Eliza said. She wrestles with newspaper reports indicating Angela dabbled in prostitution. “There is speculation that, you know, she was experimenting with that but she was out of place in that,” said Eliza. “I can’t say she was addicted to drugs, because I don’t know. I know my sister had
some issues. I didn’t want that around my family, around my kids, and she respected that. She never brought it around. “She didn’t want to upset me, or she didn’t want me to feel disappointed with her because this was the road she was going down, because it was the same thing my parents went through. We went through this with the alcohol and the drugs, and being apprehended by the ministry. But she never went through any of that, because she was on the Island. She was the lucky one, and didn’t have to go through any of that stuff.” Angela had three daughters. “They’re still very upset and grieving,” Eliza said. see HOW DID ANGELA › page 3
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A father and son driving in the 13200block spotted her, got out to have a look, and called 911. This was at 7:50 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, 2001. Angela’s body was still warm to the touch. According to a police report, a trickle of blood ran from her nose and right eye. Otherwise, there was no visible sign of trauma or sexual assault. It looked like she had simply fallen to the ground. Another witness told police she’d seen her walking down the road, clutching her stomach, shortly before her body was found.