PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — The disappearance of Angela Green may be heading to court. However, it would be civil at this point and not criminal. The family of Green says they are considering a wrongful death suit against her husband, Geoff Green. He was the last person known to have seen her and has also been the most quiet.
“We definitely want to know what Geoff has to say,” Green’s niece, Michelle Guo said.
The Prairie Village mother disappeared in June of 2019. At the time she lived with her husband. However, Angela wasn’t reported missing until her daughter, Ellie Green, realized something was wrong in February of 2020. Ellie says her father told her Angela died of a stroke in an unknown Kansas hospital, and he failed to tell Angela’s family what happened to her. When Angela’s family called Ellie in February of last year she told them her mother died, but they wanted to see proof.
Ellie says she went to Topeka to obtain her mother’s death certificate, but the clerk’s office told her there was no record of her mother’s death. When she realized this Ellie says she immediately called the Prairie Village Police Department and a missing person case was launched.
“It’s tough to see him be put in a place where he could be responsible for my mom’s death, but at the same time justice needs to be served, and he needs to answer questions,” Green said.
For the past year and a half Ellie and Guo have been fighting for answers. FOX4 has worked with them on the investigation, but they have also done a number of podcasts, and used TikTok to get the word out about Angela’s case. Now, they launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for local private investigators and a wrongful death lawsuit.
“There’s been no movement, no updates. Our family needs answers, and we need to get justice for my aunt,” Guo said.
Phil LeVota is a wrongful death and personal injury lawyer. He says a civil suit could uncover information that would help a prosecutor build a criminal case.
“The prosecutor is going to be watching that and watching to see what the potential defendant says in a civil deposition case. They can be used sometimes, they can’t be used sometimes, but they will be watching, and it would be very beneficial to a criminal investigation and a criminal prosecution,” LeVota said.
According to Prairie Village Police, Geoff Green only spoke with them on the day Angela was reported missing. His lawyer maintains his client has no comment about the case, and is not facing criminal charges. In the past year, the Prairie Village Police Department executed three search warrants in the case. One at the family’s home, another at a storage property, and a third at the family’s second home in Lawrence. Despite the warrants, Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Howe has not filed a criminal case, and Green’s case is still considered a missing person case despite no evidence of her being alive.
Over the past year FOX4 has spoken with his daughter, Ellie Green, and listened to secret recordings she made with her father, posing improbable scenarios about what happened to Angela.
FOX4 has requested copies of all three warrants but the requests were denied.
“I wouldn’t say he’s cooperated. He has his right to seek his counsel. He is doing that, and so, at this time, he is not able to communicate with us, I believe Mr. Green loves his daughter very much, and if he had any involvement with it, he will be the father and tell his daughter what’s going on, or somebody will say something to someone and they will report it,” Prairie Village Detective Adam Taylor told FOX4 in January of this year.
“We can only assume that they have some evidence, but they don’t have enough, and they’re waiting for something else, but we don’t know what that is, but the fact that they might have a wrongful death injury might help them,” LeVota said.
Ellie is graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in journalism this December. She says while mounting a civil suit is hard, she knows her mother is proud of her wherever she may be.
“I’m still trying to make something of my life and make my mom proud as well as finding answers so the rest of us might have something to go off of as we continue to move on with our lives,” Green said.
“Ellie and I will never stop advocating for Angela, trying to find out what happened to her, and trying to get justice for her,” Guo said.
“I’ll say the exact same thing I said to him the other day when we executed the warrant: We just want the help. You might have information. You might not. But we are here to help, and all we’re asking you to do is come forward and let us know anything and everything you know about Angela,” Taylor said in January.
Both the Prairie Village Police Department and the Johnson County District Attorney could not comment on the idea of a civil suit.
