Murder Victim. Michele Avila grew up in Arleta, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California where 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, was very stylish. Missy and her best friend Karen Severson had started growing apart since the two entered high school, and were hanging out with each other less and less often. Karen soon began spreading 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 only a month due to Randy's constant partying. Shortly after the break up, Randy began a relationship with Missy's best friend Karen, and the two 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 1st, Missy told her mother that she was going out with one of her school friends, Laura Doyle. Doyle picked Missy up at her home and the two left. Four hours later, Laura called Missy's mother and asked to speak to her. When 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 then returned to the location where she dropped Missy off, but she and the three boys were gone. Three days later, Missy's body was found lying face down in a stream at Big Tujunga Canyon in Angeles National Forest. She had been forcibly drowned. 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 of 1990, Karen Severson and Laura Doyle were convicted of second-degree murder, and both were sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. The jurors later said that they were not convinced the murder was planned and rejected the first-degree murder charge. The case became the subject of a book, "Missy's Murder" by Karen Kingsbury, and was also told in a made-for-TV movie called "A Killer Among Friends". Missy's character was portrayed by actress Tiffani Thiessen.