Murder Victim. Michele Avila grew up in Arleta, Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. She lived with her siblings and her mother Irene, her parents were divorced. Known as Missy to her friends she was a social butterfly, Pretty to her peers and like most teenagers stylish. Missy and Karen had grown apart since entering high school, Missy had been hanging around Karen less and less often. Karen had began starting rumors about Missy sleeping with a number of boys, and Missy was beaten up by a group of girls who accused her of sleeping with their boyfriends. During the girls’ junior year in high school, Missy began dating a boy named Randy. She broke the relationship off after a month due to Randy’s constant partying. Shortly after the break up, Karen and Randy began a relationship and eventually moved into an apartment together. Karen later told Missy’s mother Irene that she once witnessed Randy pulling Missy onto his lap. Missy told Randy she was not interested in rekindling their relationship and advised Karen to break up with Randy. On October 2, Missy told her mother that she was going out with one of her school friends, Laura Doyle. Doyle picked Missy up and the two left. Four hours later, Laura called Missy’s mother and asked to speak to Missy. After Missy’s mother told Laura that she thought her daughter was with her, Laura told her that she had dropped Missy off with three boys driving a blue Camaro. After getting gas, Laura said she returned to the location where she dropped Missy off but she and the three boys were gone. On October 5, Missy’s body was found face down in stream Big Tujunga Canyon in Angeles National Forest. She had been forcibly drowned, her waist length hair was hacked off and there was a four-foot log found on top of her body. Three years after Missy’s death, a teenager who witnessed the three girls enter the woods but only saw Karen and Laura come out contacted police. In March 1990, Karen Severson and Laura Doyle were convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. The jurors later said they were not convinced that the murder was planned and rejected the first degree murder charge. Her murder was the subject of a book,”Missy’s Murder”, by Karen Kingsbury. Her story was told in a movie made for television called “A Killer Among Friends”. (bio by: Shock)  Inscription:BELOVED DAUGHTER – SISTEROUR PRECIOUS MISSY