5 shocking details about Amyjane Brandhagen's murder case
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's new episode, Someone Was Out There, entailed the gruesome murder case of 19-year-old Amyjane Brandhagen. The episode featured not only the events that led up to Brandhagen's murder but also several emotional interviews with her friends and family. It premiered on Oxygen on September 6, 2023.
The official synopsis of the episode, as per IMDb, reads:
"One murder in broad daylight, then another brutal attack almost exactly a year later; police discover a chilling connection between the victims, and many fear they had a serial killer on their hands."
In August 2012, Amyjane Brandhagen was found dead at the Pendleton Travelodge, where she used to work. Her gruesome nature of death suggested that her murder had been a crime of passion, however, when the police were unable to find any suspects, her case quickly went cold.
Surprisingly, when one of Brandhagen's coworkers was attacked exactly a year later, the police were able to find a connection between both incidents, leading to a shocking discovery and the arrest of a serial killer.
5 things to know about Amyjane Brandhagen's murder case
1) Amyjane Brandhagen was stabbed to death
On August 14, 2012, Amyjane Brandhagen's dead body was discovered on the restroom floor at the Pendleton Travelodge. The Cinemaholic revealed that, according to forensic reports, Brandhagen was stabbed twelve times, with the majority of wounds occurring close to the heart.
Additionally, skin cells were found under Brandhagn's fingernails, indicating that she'd struggled to escape her attacker.
2) No viable suspects were found in the case
While the DNA evidence found under Brandhagen's fingernails was a major discovery for the police, they soon found that it matched none of the DNA cells of her friends and coworkers. Additionally, all of Brandhagen's loved ones described her as friendly and kind, giving her more or less the same characterization. The Pendleton police captain commented on the same by saying:
"Everybody knew her characterized her in the same way. She knew no stranger and didn’t have an evil bone in her body.”
Due to all this, the murder case was labeled a cold case.
3) Amyjane's coworker Karen Lange was attacked in August 2013
Exactly a year later, Amyjane's coworker, Karen Lange, was attacked while taking a walk outside her house.
CBS News revealed that Lange's husband reported her missing when she did not return for hours after her usual walk outside the house. Police officers found her unconscious in one of the nearby streets with a bloody injury on her head.
Lange had lost a lot of blood from the injury, so much so that even the officers had lost any hope for her recovery. However, after getting medical attention for a few days, she recovered and gave a description of her attacker.
4) The police found a connection in Karen Lange and Amyjane Brandhagen's case
The police instantly connected a link between Karen Lange's description of her attacker and the one given in the Amyjane Brandhagen case.
CBS News revealed that after scouring through surveillance footage of the nearby streets the day Lange was attacked, they spotted a man holding a metal pipe who had been stalking her for several blocks. The man was later identified as Danny Woo, with a long arrest record for petty crimes. However, after his arrest, his government name was revealed to be Lukah Chang.
The metal pipe used by Chang was found by the police in a nearby baseball field in the community. The DNA evidence discovered on the pipe matched the skin cell found under Brandhagen's fingernails.
5) Lukah Chang was sentenced to life in prison
In the legal proceedings that followed after the arrest of Chang, the criminal disturbingly revealed that his motive for murdering Amyjane Brandhagen was because he wanted to know how it felt to take someone's life.
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 35 years. He continues to serve his sentence at a prison facility in Oregon.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered's new episode, Someone Was Out There, is now available for streaming on Oxygen.
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