A life well lived tragically cut too short: Arlington’s Angela Cutrer
The papers — this one and every other one — are littered with stories of pain and sorrow, of death and of lives cut short. We read them, and they make us sad. They make us anxious. They make us fret about the troubled state of the world. Then the paper is thrown out, and too often the stories are forgotten.
On Sept. 21, 2021, Texas native Angela Cutrer Strussion was killed alongside her husband, Tom Strussion, their two dogs and a pet cat at their home in Belmont, Ohio. The couple were shot and their house was set on fire, authorities have said. The suspect, 32-year-old Andrew Griffin, was arrested in Hilo, Hawaii, on Feb. 28 and extradited back to Ohio to face 14 charges ranging from aggravated murder to aggravated burglary and arson. He pleaded not guilty on March 17, and he could face the death penalty if convicted at trial.
But that’s not the story; that’s a cleaned-up police blotter. This is the story:
Angela Cutrer grew up in Arlington, her father, Eddie Cutrer, told the Star-Telegram. They lived just south of Martin High School, which Angela, or Angie, as the family called her, attended for a time. She lived part of her childhood with her mother, Janice Butcher, in Dallas.
As an adult, Angela worked in business development for Chase Bank here in North Texas. She married restaurateur Tom Strussion, and throughout their life together Angela helped Tom run his eateries, including Salsa Joe’s Tex-Mex Smokehouse in Arlington and Tommy Boy’s BBQ in Fort Worth, all while climbing the ranks in banking and even starting her own business.
It’s here that Eddie Cutrer has to stop. Three and a half years after the homicides, the emotions are still raw. Angela was — is — his daughter, and like he said, you can’t imagine losing a child in such a way unless it’s happened to you.
“Angela was a very intelligent, very astute business woman,” said Eddie’s wife and Angela’s stepmom, Ann Cutrer, while her husband gathered himself.
“She was funny,” Eddie added, his voice quivering. “She could make fun of herself. And she was kind.”
Eddie then told a story he’d heard about his daughter, about her helping a colleague who was going through a rough patch in her marriage. Angela gave the woman money to help her get away from her estranged husband. That was the kind of person Angela was, Eddie said.
After moving from Arlington to Ohio, Angela and Tom opened up two more Salsa Joe’s locations. Like she had in Texas, Angela worked full time but devoted her off hours to managing the businesses.
The murder suspect, Griffin, was a business associate of Tom Strussion’s. Griffin’s motive hasn’t been firmly established.
The day Angela died, two days before her 50th birthday, Eddie got a call from Ann.
“She said you need to come home. I could tell by her voice that something was really wrong,” Eddie said. “I walked in the door and she told me what happened. I didn’t believe it. You go through it with relatives, your parents. You’re kind of resigned to the fact that that’s the way it is. You never really consider it’s going to be one of your kids.”
The Cutrers’ world forever changed. Since then, Eddie and Ann have in many ways put their own lives on hold. They’ve spent hours working with police in Ohio to bring their daughter’s killer to justice. Sometimes they’d talk to the detective daily. Other times weeks or months would pass without any information. Those periods were difficult, Eddie said, but he knew the wheels of justice were moving, even if he couldn’t see them.
What the Cutrers hope now is that others with information will come forward to help solidify the case against Griffin. They believe people in Ohio, or perhaps elsewhere, have information, and they encourage anyone who knew Angela or Tom or who knew Griffin to contact law enforcement, even if the information doesn’t seem pertinent. That’s for the police to decide, Eddie said.
But most of all, they want people in North Texas to remember Angela. The news stories that ran after her death and after Griffin’s arrest referred to her as Angela Strussion. That doesn’t mean much to anyone in Tarrant County, Eddie said. She was Angela Cutrer when she lived here. And she’ll always be Angela Cutrer — daughter, sister, friend, colleague.
And if nothing else stays with you today, let it be that.