Dateline “Righteous Obsession”: The Milton Sawyer Murder Plot

The Dateline episode “Righteous Obsession” tells the story of Milton Sawyer, a 55-year-old antique shop owner in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, who was strangled in his home on August 2, 2018 by his wife Angel’s lover, physical therapist Isaac Melcher. Angel Sawyer and Melcher staged the killing to look like a robbery gone wrong, and the case broke only after Melcher confessed to his former youth pastor in Oregon, who then helped investigators record a second confession by phone. Angel is now serving life in prison without parole; Melcher pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Who Milton Sawyer Was

Milton Henry Sawyer Jr. spent his life in Elizabeth City, a small waterfront community in northeastern North Carolina. He ran The Treasure Hunter, an antique and collectibles shop where he also bought and sold gold, a trade he had learned from his father.¹ Angel Marie Sawyer, his wife, helped run the business. Friends and neighbors described him as a well-liked figure in town, and the couple lived in a quiet subdivision on Darian Drive.²

The Affair That Led to the Plot

In the fall of 2017, Angel started physical therapy at Sentara Medical Center after a car accident. Her therapist was Isaac Melcher. By December their relationship had turned sexual, sometimes during treatment sessions themselves, and they hid their contact by using Facebook’s encrypted “Secret Conversations” feature, which they believed erased messages from both phones.³

Melcher had a wife, Darlene, and three children. Those who knew him considered him a devout family man; his former youth pastor in Oregon, Eugene “Louie” Kazemier, had once called him one of his “greatest success stories” after mentoring him through a rough adolescence.⁴ By the summer of 2018 he had moved out of his marital home.³

According to trial testimony, Angel told Melcher that Milton was controlling and abusive and would never let her leave. She said she would not be free “unless he’s dead.” Melcher answered, “I’ll kill him for you.”¹ The two first talked about mixing Milton’s medications with alcohol to fake an overdose, then settled on staging a home invasion. Angel gave Melcher a spare key. He put together a bag with duct tape, rags, small bottles of alcohol, anti-anxiety medication, and a .45 caliber pistol.³

How the Murder Happened

In the early morning hours of August 2, 2018, Melcher let himself into the Sawyer home at 1824 Darian Drive using the spare key. He held Milton at gunpoint, taped his hands behind his back, and killed him by compressing his carotid arteries in what he later described as a “rear naked choke.”³⁵

Angel was there the whole time. She checked Milton’s pulse to make sure he was dead, then helped set the scene. She took cash and jewelry from the house, had Melcher tape her hands, and struck her own head against the floor to give herself injuries consistent with an attack.³ She then knocked on a neighbor’s door and said a masked intruder had broken in, assaulted her, and that she could not wake her husband. The neighbor called 911.⁶

Officers found Milton face-down in the bathroom with his hands taped behind him. Angel told them the master bedroom had been ransacked and expensive jewelry stolen. She was initially treated as a victim and taken to the hospital for a wound on her temple.⁴ Investigators, though, found no forensic sign of an intruder. Neighbor Josh Springstein also told reporters the story did not add up.⁶

How the Case Broke: The Youth Pastor’s Recorded Call

After the murder, Melcher confessed what he had done to his mother, his wife Darlene, and Kazemier, the Oregon dairy farmer who had mentored him as a teenager and who thought of him almost as a son. Kazemier was devastated. On August 13, 2018, he contacted the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Department.³

Detectives from Pasquotank County and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation flew to Oregon, interviewed Kazemier, and asked for his help. Kazemier then called Melcher and got him talking about the killing while the line was recorded. Darlene was also on the call. Melcher confessed again, said Angel had planned it with him, admitted he had “turned my back on God” to do it, and said that if he escaped arrest he still hoped to “end up with Angel.”⁴ The recording gave investigators what they needed. On August 21, 2018, Angel Sawyer and Isaac Melcher were arrested and charged with first-degree murder.⁶

What Happened to Angel Sawyer and Isaac Melcher

Angel Sawyer was indicted on first-degree murder in August 2018 and on conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in February 2020. Her four-day trial ran in September 2021 in Pasquotank County Superior Court before Judge Wayland Sermons. Melcher testified for the prosecution, walking jurors through the affair, the planning, and Angel’s role in staging the scene, and told them he felt “manipulated,” “stupid,” and “used.”³ The jury convicted her on both counts. On September 20, 2021, Judge Sermons sentenced Angel to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, with a concurrent 157-to-201-month term for conspiracy.⁷

Melcher, who had cooperated with investigators since a formal interview in October 2020, took a plea. On November 1, 2021, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 25, with more than three years of jail credit. A separate charge of possession of a dangerous weapon while incarcerated was dismissed under the deal. His projected release date is 2042. Darlene has since divorced him.⁵¹

Angel appealed, challenging the trial court’s denial of her motion to dismiss and its jury instructions on the theory of acting in concert. On March 21, 2023, the North Carolina Court of Appeals rejected both arguments and affirmed her convictions in an unpublished opinion by Judge John Arrowood.⁸ She remains in the North Carolina prison system.

Where to Watch

Dateline’s “Righteous Obsession” is reported by correspondent Dennis Murphy and covers the staged home invasion, the affair, Kazemier’s role in breaking the case, and the prosecutions that followed.⁹ Oxygen’s Snapped also covered the case in Season 31, Episode 6, titled “Angel Sawyer.”¹⁰

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Oxygen. Milton Sawyer Killed by Wife Angel and Isaac Melcher
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Oxygen. Milton Sawyer Murder Reveals Dark Tale of Lust
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FindLaw. State v. Sawyer, COA22-397
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Oxygen. Isaac Melcher and Angel Sawyer Kill Her Husband Milton Sawyer
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The Daily Advance. Melcher Pleads Guilty to 2nd-Degree Murder
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WAVY. Wife of Man Who Died in Elizabeth City Home Invasion Now in Custody
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The Daily Advance. Sawyer Guilty, Sentenced to Life Without Parole
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NC Courts. State v. Sawyer, COA22-397
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NBC News. Watch Dateline Episode Righteous Obsession Now
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Oxygen. Snapped – Season 31, Episode 6 – Angel Sawyer