Lancaster at a Loss Over Mysterious Killing of Girl, 14

It is the type of crime that makes people in Lancaster realize they do not live in a country town anymore: A teen-age girl from a devoutly religious family is found strangled beside a desert road, hours after running away from home.

“It’s a real high-priority case,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jackie Franco said of the murder of Angela Migliore. But investigators say they have developed few leads since a motorist discovered her body Oct. 11.

The Lancaster City Council planned to offer a $5,000 reward at its meeting Monday night in hopes that someone will come forward with information.

Franco has spent weeks talking to people who knew the victim and canvassing the neighborhood where the teen-ager apparently abandoned the relative’s car she used after slipping out of her house late at night.

“She was 14 years old,” Franco said. “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else up here.”

Sheriff’s and city officials say they are surprised at the lack of public outcry over Migliore’s death, because such crimes are still rare in the Antelope Valley.

“It’s been absolutely dead silent,” said Billy Pricer, an anti-crime activist, who often gets tips on high-profile incidents through a telephone hot line he has set up. “I’m surprised there hasn’t been more outcry. . . . The violent crimes just aren’t as prevalent here.”

Officials hope the reward will generate the same kind of attention that followed the area’s first gang-related murder earlier this year, when a high school soccer star died in a cross fire outside a party.

The Migliore case is more mysterious. Neighbors and investigators describe the Migliore family, who were not available for comment, as religious and strict. The Migliores moved to the neighborhood about three years ago from Edwards Air Force base after Angela’s father, Daniel Migliore, retired from the service, neighbors said.

Angela attended services three or four time a week at Lancaster Baptist Church and was an eighth-grade student at the church school, neighbors said.

But she had also run away from home several times during the past year because of family conflicts, according to neighbors and deputies.

Angela was last seen by her parents on the night of Oct. 10, when she went to bed at around 10 p.m., Franco said. She then left the house and drove off in her brother-in-law’s car, which was parked in front of the house, deputies said.

A teen-age neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said Angela was angry because of an argument with her 17-year-old brother. He said she had run away before because of similar arguments. Investigators would not comment on that account.

Angela planned to meet a female friend in Lancaster and then drive to a location outside Los Angeles County, which Franco would not disclose. But the two never met. The car was found in a residential neighborhood near downtown Lancaster the next morning.

The girl’s parents discovered that she was missing the next morning and called deputies. The body was found about 2:30 p.m. behind a tumbleweed near 70th Street East and Avenue N.