ATLANTA — A night of house music and dancing turned into a horrific nightmare for a 25-year-old woman who found herself fighting for her life in Downtown Atlanta.
On Aug. 26, Mitchel Dang's family said she told them she was meeting up with friends at Alley Cat Atlanta off Lower Alabama Street. The venue describes itself as "Atlanta's home for house and techno music parties."
Mary Dang said her sister loved to dance.
"She was really excited for the night," Mary recalled.
On that Saturday night, Victor Calderone, a legendary NYC DJ and Grammy-winning producer was booked along with international performing artist Giammarco Orsini.
Mitchel recorded a video of her outfit for the night for her vlog. In the video, you hear her describing her outfit as "casual and comfortable."
"I'm just going to dance my heart away," she said in the video.
Little did Mitchel know, it would be her last dance.
After she didn't return home late Saturday night, her family started getting worried. However, at first, they didn't suspect the worst and wanted to give Mitchel some space. While she did live at home with her two sisters and parents, she was still 25 years old.
It wouldn't be until the beginning of the week – when her family couldn't reach her and Mitchel didn't return home they contacted Atlanta Police.
On Wednesday, Aug. 30, four days after vanishing, officers were dispatched to a "person down" call at 75 Martin Luther King Dr., which is across the street from the Fulton County Justice Center Building in downtown.
This is near the area of Alley Cat where Mitchel was last known to be the Saturday prior. It would turn out, that the "person down" inside the parking garage would in fact be Mitchel Dang.
No longer a missing person, but now the victim of a homicide.
"Awful, she was just enjoying herself, the night, music… just enjoying it," her father Minh Dang said.
While APD has been tight-lipped on the investigation, her family said the detective told them it was a stranger on stranger crime. The family also said the garage where Mitchel's body was found was not where her car was parked.
"She did not deserve something like this," her father said.
Her sister pointed out that this could have been anyone leaving that venue.
"She could be anybody, she could be anybody's daughter, sister, walking the streets and it could just happen," Mary explained.
On Friday, Sept. 22, three weeks after Mitchel's body was found, APD announced the arrest of 24-year-old Ja’Keivious Arnold.
He was arrested with the help of Chamblee Police inside the DeKalb County Animal Services building on Chamblee Dunwoody Road. While it's unclear if Arnold is an employee at the facility, in the body camera footage obtained by 11Alive from Chamblee Police, an officer is heard stating Arnold's girlfriend is an employee.
In the video, you see Arnold on the ground, inside a back area of the facility with a number of staff members looking on as several officers responded to assist in arresting the wanted fugitive. He was escorted out and then brought back to the Fulton County Jail where his bond has since been denied.
In a statement to 11Alive, LifeLine Animal Project stated "Mr. Arnold was assigned to work for DCAS about two months ago through a temp agency. He was arrested while at work without incident. No further information is available at this time."
While the arrest is some good news for the Dang family, they are still broken.
"At nighttime, we sleep together in the family room. We can't separate out, we have to stay together to fill up the emptiness," her father said.
Mitchel's youngest sister, Maggie Dang, said she misses the advice, especially when it comes to boys.
"She really was just like that big sister for me, just a great role model," Maggie said.
Mary said the hardest thing for the entire family is knowing they will never see Mitchel's smile or hear her voice again.
"We just miss her walking through the door," she explained.
On Tuesday morning, 11Alive obtained the arrest warrants issued by a judge for Ja’Keivious Arnold in Mitchel's homicide. On the Robbery charge, the warrant states Arnold stole Mitchel’s cell phone at some point during or after the attack.
On the Kidnapping charge, the warrant states that Arnold abducted Mitchel and held her against her will which resulted in her death. On the Felony Murder charge, while typically warrants give some detail on how the suspect caused the victim’s death, in this case it just states Arnold, “knowingly and intentionally caused the death of Mitchel Dang” by ‘an act and actions of homicidal violence that created the circumstances that led to her death.