The first thing Angela Shiel did today was kiss the picture hanging in her dining room of daughter Bridget Shiel.
“Today is tough,” she said. Today marked three years since her daughter was killed and her body found in Oakland City Park. “I miss her so much.”
On May 31, 2016, Atlanta police received a call about a person injured at the park. They found Shiel, 19, naked with bullet wounds to her back, buttocks and legs.
In 2018 they arrested Christopher Spencer for her murder. A gang member tied to four other killings, Spencer is currently serving a life sentence in prison for two murders in DeKalb County. He has also been charged in connection with a suspected gang shooting that resulted in the death of two Clayton County children as they slept in their homes.
Angela Shiel, 41, has not spoken publicly on the case since Spencer’s arrest in her daughter’s case, but in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday she said she wants Spencer to get the death penalty.
“When it first happened, I initially wanted the person to rot in jail,” she said. “When I found out he killed so many, I changed my mind. If there was ever someone so deserving of it, it’s him.”
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office has not said if they will seek the death penalty in this case.
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Shiel also worries Spencer may be reveling in his alleged involvement in the murder cases.
“I think about the other families, too,” Shiel said. “My thoughts are also with them.”
Shiel described Bridget as an “extremely bright” and determined child.
“She was almost two years old and wanted to go into my grandma’s swimming pool,” Shiel said. “My grandma told her no and said she had to be potty-trained first. By that night, Bridget was potty-trained. That’s how determined she was.”
Bridget was also an animal lover, rescuing a starving dog who had been tied to a tree and two 3-week-old kittens who were sick when they came to her mom’s patio.
But with all the happy memories mother and daughter shared, they weren’t on speaking terms when Bridget died.
Shiel wanted Bridget to finish school and get a traditional 9-to-5 job; Bridget had dreams of being a model and eventually an actress. The two had stopped talking before Bridget’s death.
“I regret that the most: that my last words were never ‘I love you.’”
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