Friends mourned Missy Avila’s death and were later charged with her murder

After her 17-year-old daughter was found drowned in a shallow body of water, her waist-length brown hair had been cut off and she weighed 100 pounds. a log over her body, Irene Avila took solace in the company of her daughter’s best friend, sharing their shared grief.

A friend, Karen Severson, moved into Irene’s house, vowing to find the killer who left Michelle Avila alone in California’s Angeles National Forest in October 1985.

“She became like a daughter to me,” Irene told PEOPLE in a 1989 interview.

Often the two stayed up talking about the beautiful popular girl everyone called “Missy,” whose body was found by hikers two days after she got into a car with another friend, Laura Doyle.

Doyle later claimed to have dropped Missy off with three boys in a blue Camaro.

For the next three years, the only leads were false, and the case went cold.

Then, another friend, Eva Chirumbolo, came forward, according to the factual background of the case as set out by the judge in respond to a writ of habeas corpus previously filed in the case.

Chirumbolo told investigators she was with the other girls when they were headed to the national forest.

As it turns out, Doyle recently broke up with her boyfriend — and she blamed it on Missy. As previously reported by PEOPLE, the idea that Missy was to blame came from Severson.

While walking in the woods, Doyle and Severson called Missy messy, according to the document, and Doyle grabbed her hair and cut off some of it. Two that were taller and bigger than Avila, who weighed just 97 pounds. – then he drove her into a shallow stream, tied her hands behind her back, gagged her and submerged her head in the water until her body calmed down.

They then left her trapped under a log heavier than her own weight.

In July 1988, Doyle and Severson were arrested in connection with Missy’s murder, and were later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

After years of mourning the loss of her daughter alongside her own killer, Irene had a different take on those first grief-stricken months.

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Severson became obsessed with Missy, visiting her grave several times a week and decorating her bedroom walls with photos and newspaper clippings of her friend. She often took beer to the creek where Missy was found, drank at the scene of the crime.

She even said that Missy haunted her: she saw her dead friend sitting on the couch and even blamed her when her van wouldn’t start after a trip to the grave. – Missy, let me go! she screamed, according to the confrontation described in PEOPLE’s previous coverage of the case.

Although Doyle kept a greater distance from Irene, she also occasionally dropped in to visit the grave, according to the statement, which added that she also “provided false information” to investigators.

The California Parole Board later said, according to a statement, that it was “particularly troubling” that both women maintained such close contact with Missy’s family, even as they “feigned” that they did not know what had happened to her. . .

Both women have after release. Severson was paroled in December 2011, and Doyle was up for parole in July 2020 after 22 years behind bars.

Severson went on to publish a memoir about the murder, which led to a 2015 signing Missy’s lawwhich ensures that convicted criminals in California cannot profit from their crimes.

In a 1989 prison interview with PEOPLE in which she maintained her innocence, Severson mentioned a boyfriend she was interested in, claiming Missy had “moved into my territory” and said, “I just couldn’t take it anymore tolerate this. »

But Missy’s family told PEOPLE at the time that it was much more complicated than that. “She was Missy’s best friend,” Irene said, “but she was jealous of her family, Missy’s looks, Missy’s popularity, and even Missy’s relationship with me.”

Missy’s brother Mark added: “Karen wanted to be Missy.”