(WI) Missing Woman Case: Man with Long Court Record Arrested

FITCHBURG, WI - Police have arrested the last person known to have been with Angela Drake, an Oregon woman who hasn't been seen since leaving a Fitchburg bar early Friday.

Michael Desalvo, 24, of Fitchburg, was arrested at midnight Monday in connection to drug charges in Dane County Circuit Court as well as a probation violation connected to felony theft charges in Minnesota.

Drake, 25, had met best friend Tonya Turchik, 24, of Fitchburg, at the bar at 10:15 p.m. Thursday. Turchik said she left the bar at 11:30 p.m. when Drake was talking to a man named Oliver. Police said he's no longer a suspect.

"I felt comfortable leaving her there because we go there all the time and she was just going to meet me at my place later," Turchik said.

The two friends were regulars at the Dry Bean, often walking from Turchik's home a block away, Turchik said. Drake was supposed to stay at Turchik's apartment that night.

Though Drake never came to Turchik's home, Turchik didn't think anything was wrong until Saturday evening when she was out with friends and realized that Drake had not returned any calls to friends, including herself, since Thursday. Knowing that it was "highly irregular" for no one to have heard from Drake, Turchik called Drake's father and asked him to call the police.

She grew more concerned when she learned Drake's car had not moved from the Dry Bean since Thursday night.

"Angie always has her car with her," Turchik said. "Even if she left it there that night, she would have been back at 6 a.m. to pick it up. The fact that it was still at the bar was a real red flag to me."

Police identified Monday Desalvo as the last person seen with Drake through tips to the Oregon Police Department.

Desalvo was in court Tuesday for a bail hearing on charges that he failed to appear for a felony charge after he was found with OxyContin in September. Assistant District Attorney Michael Verveer said Desalvo has a court record in Minnesota "several pages long" and was wanted on an absconder warrant for violating his probation there.

Search warrants were executed Tuesday at a duplex on Fitchburg Road and for Desalvo's car, Verveer said.

Desalvo had been living with a couple and a friend at the duplex for the past two months, neighbor Todd Halverson said. He didn't know Desalvo, except in passing, he said. The couple had taken him in when he said he needed a place to stay.

Desalvo's address in court records is listed as Carling Drive, and in late summer, he lived with a former girlfriend in Brodhead.

Desalvo listed on previous court documents Badger Spray Supply and Repair in Madison as his employer and said in court Tuesday that he was a plumber.

Police are not saying what Desalvo has told them about Drake. She remains missing and police say they have not found evidence indicating foul play.

Her mother, Anne Olson of Oregon, remains very worried and said the lack of evidence of any harm to her daughter is no comfort.

Drake lived with her father in Oregon. He reported her missing at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bail for Desalvo was set at $50,000. He'll be in court next for a preliminary hearing Dec. 21.

I've been there a number of times. Since I'm NOT into line-dancing or drug dealing, I ate and left. It started out to be a really fun spot; too bad it's getting a bad rap now. The food is good. I could live without that flea-bitten stuffed bear they have in the entryway, though. ;)

I don't know. Young women who go missing around here this time of year usually aren't found...until spring.

Wonder if anyone thought to look in those ponds along Nesbitt Road? From what I heard on the news this evening, they're searching in the Whalen Road area, which is up behind our place. (About 4 miles from us.) No way could she have hoofed it from there, since she left her car behind in the restaurant parking lot. Not do-able in 20 degree, slushy weather.

Supposedly, we're getting an update on our late local news as to why they're looking on Whalen Road.

Prayers still up, but I just don't think this is going to have a positive outcome. :(

Update. Still missing.

Missing woman's family keeps its hopes high

DANIELLE CORCORAN dcorcoran@madison.com
December 17, 2005
A week after Angela Drake disappeared, her family remains optimistic she is safe, and 500 people turned out for a vigil to pray for her return.

Drake's family on Friday said community support is crucial as they await the return of the 25-year-old Oregon woman, who was last seen at the Dry Bean Saloon on Verona Road early Dec. 9.

A crowd gathered Friday night at the Holy Mother of Consolation Church in Oregon, where Drake taught religious classes as a high school student and where her family still worships.

"We have come together as hopeful people. We hope for a safe return for Angie, our daughter, our sister, our friend," parish nurse Cheryl Munns of Verona told the congregation.

Instead of heading to a friend's apartment as expected, police say, Drake left the bar at about 1:30 a.m. with a man identified as Michael Desalvo, 24, of Fitchburg.

Desalvo was arrested at midnight Monday on drug charges as well as a probation violation connected to felony theft charges in Minnesota. He remains in the Dane County Jail on a Minnesota extradition warrant and on $50,000 cash bail for possession of narcotics, jail staff said.

Drake's stepfather, Tim Olson of Oregon, is confident that she is fine.

"She's coming home," he said after the vigil. "We had visions of her walking through the door here (at the church) and we still have visions of her walking in the door on Sunday," when the family is planning to hold a Christmas celebration.

While they wait, her family is trying to live as normally as possible, going to work and school, according to her sister, Jenny Drake, a 21-year-old junior at Edgewood College.

But there have been "a few breakdowns," she said.

"It's a feeling you can't explain, just emptiness, excruciating disbelief," she said. Drake's mother, Anne Olson, said the outpouring of goodwill from the community is what's helping the family get through each day.

"The support that we're getting from our family and friends is tremendous," she said.

Fitchburg police say they're continuing to track down leads in the search for Drake.

"We're analyzing a number of things as part of the investigation," said Lt. Chad Brecklin of the Fitchburg Police Department. "We've had a number of tips that we're continuing to follow up on."

Brecklin said police have searched yards and other parts of Fitchburg, but wouldn't comment on details of the investigation.

"We're hopeful that people are on the lookout for Angie," Brecklin said. "We're still treating this as a missing person investigation."

Tim Olson said someone must know something about her whereabouts, and he hopes Friday's vigil will prompt someone with who has seen her to contact police.

"Somebody's going to be out there that needs to reconcile with themselves," Olson said. "They'll see all the support for Angie and they'll come forward."

Anyone with information regarding Drake's disappearance is encouraged to call the Fitchburg Police Department at 270-4300 or Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 266-6014.

Update: They found her body. She's so thoroughly frozen that they can't autopsy her until Monday but they don't think she died of natural causes.

Body located in Town of Oregon matches Drake description, police say

By Steven Elbow
December 22, 2005

Fitchburg detectives discovered the body of a young female at 11:35 a.m. today in a culvert on a farm in the Town of Oregon near where authorities have been searching for Angela Drake, a 25-year-old Oregon woman missing since Dec. 9.

Dane County coroner John Stanley said a positive identification will be confirmed following an autopsy to be conducted Monday.

The body was discovered on Story Town Road near Sun Valley Parkway in the town of Oregon during part of the continuing investigation in her disappearance.

The area is about five miles south of the apartment of Michael Desalvo, a person of interest in Drake's disappearance.

During a late afternoon press conference, Fitchburg police chief Thomas Blatter said the female "doesn't appear to have died of natural causes."

When asked whether anything was covering the body when it was located, Blatter reported there was only snow around the site. He said the investigation would continue.

Blatter would not comment whether Michael Desalvo, the last person known to be seen with Drake before her disappearance, had led them to the body. Desalvo is currently being held in jail on an unrelated charge.

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