Naman Shrestha
In April 2013, James Sheaffer appeared to have disappeared into thin air from Deltona, Florida, after which the police began searching for any signs of the 36-year-old man. It took the authorities only a few weeks to solve the mystery and reveal that the limo driver was murdered. Investigation Discovery’s ‘Fear Thy Neighbor: Bones of Contention’ delves deep into the murder case of James, and outlines how the authorities unearthed some gory and unsettling truths that shocked the entire community to its core.
James Sheaffer Was Drugged Before Getting Killed
James Daniel Sheaffer was brought into the world by the loving Thomas J. and Mary K. (Lozinski) Sheaffer on August 3, 1976. Growing up in a seemingly loving household in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he had the constant support and care of his siblings — brother Andrew T. and sister Kristin M. Lovingly referred to as Jimmy, the J. P. McCaskey High School graduate was known for his talent and skills as a baseball player. He met Candy Medina early on in his life, and the two eventually got married and welcomed three children — Tyler N., Christopher R., and Thalia I. Sheaffer. As per reports, he also had a stepson.
At some point in his life, James moved to Osteen, Florida, where he resided with his wife and children. Described as a hands-on father who was involved in his children’s activities, James worked as a limousine driver at the Blue Diamond Limousine Company of Deltona, Florida. In the first week of April 2013, James’ father, Thomas, lodged a complaint about his son’s sudden disappearance. When the detectives took over the case, they asked some of his loved ones about the last time they had seen him. His wife, Candy, told them she saw him leaving for work on April 2.
Upon getting in touch with the limousine service he worked for, the investigators were told by one of his co-workers that he had seen James get into a dark-colored vehicle with another individual at about 4 am on April 3. As they dug deeper into the case, the police learned that James had died of strangulation on April 3 in Osteen, Florida, but his body was dismembered by the perpetrator. Reports suggested that only 56 bones out of the 206 in the driver’s body were recovered.
The Killer Dismembered James Sheaffer’s Body
During their interrogation, the police also reached out to James Sheaffer’s neighbors, one of whom was right across his house — Angela Stoldt. On April 4, she admitted to meeting James the previous day for the reimbursement of the money he had withdrawn from their joint bank account. She was the payee on his Social Security benefit checks, but she was enraged after discovering that he had been overdrawing from the account. Even though they shared a platonic relationship, Angela used to rely on James for money.
Eleven days later, on April 15, Angela was interviewed again by the detectives, and this time, she added that James had dropped by her house on April 5, a day after her first interview with the authorities. Sooner rather than later, the police caught a big break in the case when they were called to a Deltona house on April 21 by Angela’s sister, who told them that her sister had confessed to killing James in her car. Moreover, Angela planned to drop off her two children at her sister’s before resorting to suicide.
After this revelation, the police got a search warrant for Angela’s house, where they came across many pieces of evidence that suggested that a crime had taken place on the property. Alongside taking the authorities to the place where she got rid of James’ body, she also talked about how she committed the crime. She stated that she took a few doses of her father’s muscle relaxant medicine, picked up James from his job, and drove him safely to her house. There, she spiked his alcohol drink with the drug she had brought with her.
Not long after, Angela convinced him to come with her to get the money, but it was part of her elaborate plan as she drove him to the Osteen cemetery in the dead of the night. When he fell asleep, she picked up the ice pick and the cord from the backseat of her car and stabbed him in the eye while strangling him with the cord. As if that was not enough, she stabbed him in the other eye as well. After the sinful deed, Angela drove her car to her garage and began cutting up James’ body with knives and a saw before moving his remains to the kitchen.
Beginning with cooking his dismembered parts in the oven and stove, she put them in pots and boiled them after the smoke and odor became very noticeable. Then, she bagged the remains and disposed of them in different places. When she confessed all this to her family, one of her sisters called the police. In her defense, Angela claimed that when she told James that she was going to close their joint bank account, he was enraged and threatened to kill her.
Angela Stoldt is Serving Her Life Sentence at a Florida Prison
After spending over a year in custody, Angela Stoldt finally stood on trial on December 1. 2014. The prosecution believed that money was the primary motive behind her gruesome and sinful deed. The prosecutor elaborated in the courtroom, “She had her own financial struggles. Every day appeared to be a financial struggle for Angela Stoldt, and I think that James Sheaffer’s banking activities made things worse for her.” Angela’s sister, April Leach, testified against her that she had gathered her family at her parents’ house and admitted to the crimes.
On December 5, 2014, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and convicted her of first-degree murder, abuse of a dead body, and tampering with evidence. The 42-year-old woman received a life imprisonment sentence, followed by 15 plus 5 additional years for the second and third count, respectively. At present, she is being held at Lowell Correctional Institution, a women’s prison at 11120 Northwest Gainesville Road in Ocala, Florida.
