On April 19, 2021, 36-year-old Angela Jamarica Burris was last seen near her home on Lake Montonia Road in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. On that day, she was seen sitting outside her home with a duffel bag and a teddy bear before getting into a black passenger car. This was the last time her family would see her. Her family reported her missing, touching off a search filled with years of uncertainty and painful questions for those who knew and loved her.
Angela's daughter, Katira Burris, described the years of not knowing as a time of sadness, anger, and numbness, all while holding onto the hope that her mother would be found.
The search for Angela involved numerous efforts from law enforcement. In August 2024, a significant search was conducted in a 20-acre wooded area in Gaston County near Crowders Mountain State Park, based on new leads in the case. The operation involved nearly 50 people and nine cadaver dogs, but the extensive search did not lead to her discovery. A major development in the case came unexpectedly. Human remains had been discovered in Gastonia on April 22, 2022, just over a year after Angela disappeared. However, these remains were unidentified for a long period. It wasn't until September 2024 that investigators from the Kings Mountain Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation noticed 'distinctive features' on the unidentified remains listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which prompted a closer look in connection to Angela's case.
In February 2025, the painful news was confirmed through DNA analysis: the remains found nearly three years earlier in Gastonia belonged to Angela Burris. The identification brought a heartbreaking conclusion to her family's long search. The remains were discovered in Ferguson Park in Gastonia, a place her daughter said was unfamiliar to her mother. While the discovery provided some answers, it also opened up new questions for her grieving family, who wonder how she ended up there. Investigators have stated that they found no signs of foul play, but the investigation into the circumstances leading to her death remains ongoing. Police have encouraged anyone with information, no matter how small, to come forward to help bring final clarity to her case. The years-long search for Angela Burris ended in sorrow, leaving her family to remember the joyful, magnetic woman who they called 'the soul of our family.'Last Seen: Apr 19, 2021
