Dateline brings another shocking crime story to our screens. Angila Wilder, from the episode Prairie Confidential, was brutally murdered by her ex-husband, Richie Wilder Jr., in a case that shook Minot, North Dakota.
Dateline is one of NBC’s longest-running news magazine shows. In Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, audiences bear witness to some of the most shocking true crime stories in depth.
From investigators who worked tirelessly on these cases to families who had to deal with the unthinkable, Dateline: Secrets Uncovered brings a fresh perspective to some of the most haunting stories in recent history.
Over the years, Dateline has covered many true crime cases. One such case that left everyone shocked was the murder of Angila Wilder, a young student and mother from North Dakota.
The story featured in Dateline: Secrets Uncovered in an episode called Prairie Confidential. Here's a look into this shocking murder case and what exactly happened to Angila Wilder.
Dateline: The murder of Angila Wilder
In Dateline, Angila Wilder was a 30-year-old nursing student at Minot State University. Apart from studying, she was also the mother of three children. She was expecting her fourth child when her life was abruptly ended on November 13, 2015.
She was found murdered in her Minot, North Dakota, home. According to police reports, she had been stabbed approximately 40 times.
Angila was engaged to Chris Jackson, who was the first to face the horrific scene, according to Dateline. Chris worked at Walmart and had just returned home after his night shift when he found her dead body in the bedroom. Their 2-year-old son was in his crib, unharmed.
He immediately called 911 and informed the police that the back door had been kicked in. Jackson also mentioned that the previous night, Angila told him she felt like someone was watching her. She was nervous and had even heard noises at the front door the previous night.
Jackson had his doubts and suspicions about a particular person he thought might be responsible for the ruthless crime. During his police investigation, he identified the person, and that turned out to be Richie Wilder Jr., Angila’s ex-husband.
Once upon a time, Richie and Angila were a loving couple. However, Richie’s history of domestic violence with her paved the way for bitterness in their marriage. Richie used to be a military man. Before they ended the marriage, Richie and Angila had been locking horns in a legal battle over the custody of their children.
According to Oxygen, Angila’s sister Crystal Morton said:
“I got a frantic phone call from her one morning and I was like, ‘Calm down, what’s going on?’ And she says, ‘It’s Richie. I just woke up, came out of my bedroom, went into my living room and he’s sitting on my couch and looked at me and said, 'See, I told you I can get to you if I wanted to.’”
On the fateful night of the murder, Richie claimed to have been with his new wife, Cyndi Wilder, the entire time. Cyndi, who was a local kindergarten teacher, backed his story, saying she woke up multiple times that night with their baby.
She claimed to have found Richie sleeping each time she woke up. However, the police had their doubts and dug further to gather more evidence.
Dateline: Evidence against Richie Wilder
Physical evidence started stacking up against Richie Wilder Jr. They found a drop of Angila’s blood in one of his vehicles. Moreover, his DNA was discovered under Angila’s fingernails.
After that night, Richie seemed to have a scratch on his cheek. He kept denying his involvement in the murder, but the evidence against him was enough to arrest and charge him with Angila’s murder.
While serving his jail time, Richie had multiple interrogations. During the investigation, he changed his story multiple times. At one point, he even claimed that he had planned a break-in at the house with Chris Jackson.
The reason he gave was that Chris suspected Angila of cheating, and they hoped to get proof of infidelity to use in their custody cases. Furthermore, Richie claimed Jackson was the one who began stabbing Angila and killed her.
However, none of the detectives of the case bought his made-up story. They were sure that Jackson was at his job the whole time as they had watched the surveillance footage from Wal-Mart the night before Chris presented them with this false story.
The trial was swift. It did not even take the jury an hour to convict Richie Wilder Jr. of the murder of Angila Wilder.
According to Dateline, outside the courtroom, Richie’s wife Cindy was in tears as she told the reporters:
“He’s a good man. He’s a good husband. He would never do anything that would hurt his kids. None of it makes any sense to me at all.”
Dateline: Cyndi Wilder's shocking confession
Just when everyone believed that the case was closed, a new development revealed that there was more to uncover.
Richie’s wife, Cyndi Wilder, had met a former bartender, Matt Walters, with whom she was friends before her marriage. After Richie’s arrest, Cyndi looked Walters up on Facebook and reconnected with him.
Initially, she kept saying that her husband was innocent. However, as they continued talking, Cyndi made some shocking comments.
During one of their conversations related to Richie’s arrest, Walters told her that it was not really smart to use a knife to murder someone. Cyndi, then, made some shocking admissions about her involvement in the crime. In Walters’ words, she said:
“Well, the knife was a backup. It was supposed to be a gun.”
Walters was disturbed hearing this and contacted the police. He let them wire his car and went on to meet Cyndi. According to a recording got by Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, Cyndi had expressed:
“I’m just pissed that he got caught, and that he got sloppy and impatient.”
Cyndi further added that they had been planning for the murder for two years before it actually happened. She said Angila had “put up a good fight” against Richie and that those scratches by Angila got Richie caught.
She expressed that if it were her, she would have cut those fingers, burned them, and then set the house on fire to remove any evidence of the crime.
Later in the conversations, she admitted that she helped Richie in making the murder plan, surveilling Angila, and even cleaning up after the murder happened. With this damning evidence, Cyndi was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Despite being offered a plea deal for a 25-year sentence, Cyndi rejected it and instead opted for an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to not admit guilt but acknowledging there is enough evidence for a conviction. Her gamble did not pay off. The judge sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
While sentencing, Judge Stacy Louser told her:
“You were the one person who could have stopped this nightmare.”
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