Christina Kramer refuses to let her daughter’s case go cold after a decade of silence from prosecutors.
Angie Barlow, 23, vanished on Oct. 26, 2016, after texting her roommate the address of a private dancing gig at the Landmark Apartment and Townhomes in Indianapolis. “About to work this private party in case I go missing LOL,” the message read, Kramer said.
Nearly eight months later, searchers found Barlow’s remains in a backyard off Harcourt Road in Indianapolis. Kramer said her daughter had been fatally shot. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that no criminal charges have ever been filed in the death, though the investigation remains open with Detective Jose Torres leading it.
Kramer’s frustration has sharpened around the 10-year mark. She estimated it had been roughly two years since she last heard from anyone at the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, a silence that deepened after a special prosecutor assigned to the case departed. “I had been sending a bunch of emails for I don’t even know how long to absolutely nobody,” Kramer said, adding that she no longer has any point of contact there. She said she has tried repeatedly to reach Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Mears without receiving a response.
Surveillance footage from the apartment complex offered one of the few concrete clues. Kramer said two vehicles left at approximately 3:30 a.m. On Oct. 27, 2016. One was Barlow’s blue Pontiac G6. A black sedan followed closely behind, believed to have belonged to a female acquaintance who worked with Barlow at Club Rio in Indianapolis. The footage could not reveal who drove either vehicle because of heavily tinted windows.
Kramer took her own steps to trace her daughter’s movements. She contacted the dealership where Barlow bought the Pontiac and used its GPS tracker to locate the car about eight miles from the apartment complex. The vehicle’s condition alarmed her. While Barlow kept her car meticulously clean, the recovered Pontiac had been completely trashed inside and appeared to have been driven under a fence. “That car had been on some kind of journey,” Kramer added.
Months after the disappearance, Kramer received a phone call from the female acquaintance who had been at the party with her boyfriend. Kramer said Barlow knew the pair but they were not friends. “She needed some quick cash, and this was the way to do it,” Kramer said, adding that she would have never accepted the gig had she known who was there.
During the January 2017 call, Kramer asked what she and Barlow had discussed at the party. “Oh, you want to know what her last words were,” Kramer recalled the woman saying. Kramer said that she interpreted the remark as a taunt. The woman later denied making the call and having that conversation, according to Kramer.
The case has left deep fractures in Barlow’s family. She was the eldest of four sisters and remained close to them after leaving the family’s Muncie home. Despite standing less than 5 feet tall, she excelled as a softball catcher and competed in basketball, shot put, volleyball and bowling. “She was a very gifted athlete. There was not a sport that she did not do,” Kramer said. “Whenever I talk about her, especially the good things, it just, it makes you happy.”
The youngest sister, who was 4 when Barlow disappeared, has struggled particularly hard. Kramer said the child turned to violent video games to learn “how to escape the bad people.”
Kramer continues pressing authorities publicly rather than retreating. “When you remain silent, you’re a victim. When you have a voice, you’re a survivor, and I refuse to be a victim of my circumstances,” she said. “My daughter was the victim. She can’t speak for herself. I’m her survivor. I’m her voice, and I speak for her.”
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department urges anyone with information to contact its homicide office at 317-327-3475, or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS, where callers can remain anonymous.