A Bloomington woman was found dead Friday, lying in the back of a small sporting boat about 100 yards from the mobile home she lived in. Angel Scroggins had been missing for 15 days.
Bloomington Police Department officers began searching near the home at 10 a.m. Friday and found Scroggins, 54, within 30 minutes.
She walked willingly out of her house around 9:30 a.m. Jan. 11, according to police.
Her husband, Terry Scroggins, said she left to get a cigarette from someone that morning. He became alarmed when she wasn’t back by 4 or 5 p.m., and he filed a missing person’s report when she still hadn’t returned by Jan. 12.
Heather Scroggins, Angel Scroggins’ daughter, said her mom did not have an ID, bank card, money, phone or her dentures with her when she left.
It felt like a spring day in Bloomington when Angel Scroggins went missing. The temperature hit 60 degrees on the 11th before a cold front moved in.
She was not dressed for cold weather, but had a three or four carat diamond ring on her finger when she walked out of the house, her daughter said.
Angel Scroggins was last seen at her home at theValhalla Mobile Manor, and was found next to a tree-covered area at Seventh and Spring Streets.
Police had previously searched abandoned trailers in the area and the nearby Valhalla Memory Gardens & Crematorium, but it was their first time in that patch of woods south of the trailer park.
The area she was found in was a dumping ground of sorts for the community, police said. There were detached steps to trailers, water heaters, stacks of wood and other small boats around the area in which she was found.
Capt. Steve Kellams of BPD said evidence of drug use was found near the body. He also said the body looked like it had been outside for a long time, possibly the entire 15 days Scroggins was missing.
The boat she lay in was covered with blue tarp by police and transported to an evidence facility. Scroggins’ family was then contacted.
The family made fliers and phone calls to try and locate Angel Scroggins in the days following her disappearance. They knocked on doors and called news outlets to get Angel Scroggins’ face in the public eye.
The family received a few leads that fell short, Heather Scroggins said. A truck driver saw someone fitting Angel Scroggins’ description at a Taco Bell. A neighbor and family friend claimed to have seen Angel with her mother at Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard the day she went missing.
Heather and Terry Scroggins have expressed displeasure with BPD's efforts to find Angel Scroggins to multiple news outlets, including the Indiana Daily Student.
They said BPD failed to take the case seriously from the beginning.
Capt. Kellams said police did not suspect foul play at the start of the investigation because Angel Scroggins left her home willingly and because friends and family said she had been gone for periods of time in the past.
A detective was assigned to the case when it opened, and police said there were no signs of foul play at the scene.
BPD Detectives will be present at Angel Scroggins’ autopsy which is scheduled to occur in Bedford, Indiana.
