Angela Shellis’s Facebook page painted the picture of a loving, hands-on mother whose world revolved around her children.
There were affectionate tributes to ‘my boys’, doting photographs to mark proud milestones, and videos of everyday family moments that mattered most to her.
Yet at the heart of those smiling family posts were loving images of the very son who would go on to murder her.
Violence-obsessed Tristan Roberts, 18, had become deeply entrenched in a toxic online world of hatred and fantasy.
Diagnosed with autism and ADHD, he spent hours each day absorbed in disturbing misogynistic material – and blamed his devoted mother for his unhappiness.
He bludgeoned teaching assistant Angela, 45, with a sledgehammer – while recording the attack on a Dictaphone and concluding: ‘I just killed her… job’s done’.
Troubled Roberts had even turned to AI to help map out his macabre plot last October citing a desire for ‘revenge, justice, vengeance’.
Yet in reality, family members said he had only ever been loved by a ‘fiercely supportive’ mother who ‘never gave up’.
Angela Shellis was a doting mother who was happiest when she was at home with ‘my boys’ – her 18-year old son Tristan Roberts (right) and his brother Ethan, seen here playing chess
Angela, a teaching assistant, posted a number of photos on Facebook of her son – who had autism and ADHD – including this one she captioned: ‘Sneaky pic with my lad’
Angela, 45, was actually a qualified teacher but took the role of a teaching assistant on a reduced salary so she could spend more time at home in north Wales with her two boys
Family members said Angela had only ever loved her violence-obsessed son and been a ‘fiercely supportive’ mother who ‘never gave up’ before he bludgeoned her with a hammer
Roberts, 18, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, first attacked his mother inside the home they shared in Prestatyn late on October 23 last year. Then he claimed he was taking her to get medical treatment when really he lured her to a nature reserve when he murdered her
Angela’s social media profile bears testament to that – revealing a trove of pictures of Roberts and eldest son Ethan, 20.
One loving photo from November 2024 is simply captioned: ‘My boys.’
Another shows a ‘sneaky pic with my lad’ – with Angela taking a picture of unsuspecting Roberts in the passenger seat of her car. Chosen to accompany the picture was the Jack Johnson song ‘Better Together’.
There are pictures of her sons playing chess together, enjoying trips to Blackpool and Paris, and fooling around together at their £182,000 semi-detached home in Prestatyn, North Wales.
One photo describes Roberts and Ethan as ‘young bingo lovers’. In another, Angela declared: ‘Home is where my boys are.’
On one image celebrating a full house, she wrote: ‘This makes me happy’. Another is a seemingly ordinary video of Roberts walking the family dog, Blade.
Angela, who returned to North Wales from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, after divorcing her husband Mark Roberts in 2021, had built her entire life around her sons.
Despite being a qualified teacher, she had taken a lower-paid role as a teaching assistant at Rhyl High School so she could spend more time with her children.
In one especially poignant post, she wrote: ‘I will never understand how some parents live every day knowing they have a child out there they rarely bother about and just get on with their life without a care in the world.’
Yet while Angela was posting loving tributes and happy family pictures, her deeply troubled younger son was plotting to kill her.
Fuelled by rage, much of it vented on the online platform Discord, Roberts turned to AI for advice for what weapon he should use as a ‘non-experienced’ killer.
Angela, who had been training to be a reflexologist, was first attacked inside the home they shared at Coniston Drive in Prestatyn late on October 23 last year.
Troubled Roberts spent hours online watching misogynist content and even turned to AI to help map out his macabre plot last October citing a desire for ‘revenge, justice, vengeance’
This is the moment Roberts led his mother to a secluded nature reserve before bludgeoning her
Roberts, pictured here in a police interview, answered no comment to all questions put to him
This is the hammer found at Roberts’s home which he had earlier bought on Amazon for £20
A pair of black gloves at the murder scene beside a footpath near a nature reserve in Prestatyn
Roberts also shared messages on the social media platform Discord about hating women
In another chat on Discord he shared chilling messages including one saying ‘now it’s time’
Roberts then tricked his injured and terrified mother into leaving the house by claiming he was taking her to get medical help.
Instead, the teenager led her into the darkness of Coed y Morfa nature reserve and bludgeoned her to death with a hammer bought on Amazon for £20.
Police found a trail of blood stretching for more than 100m the following morning, leading to Angela’s body hidden among undergrowth 20 feet from the nearest footpath.
Roberts, who had a morbid fascination with serial killers, recorded the prolonged attack on a Dictaphone, and was taped saying: ‘Oh God, that was terrifying, that felt so crazy.’
An earlier message retrieved by police said: ‘This is Tristan Roberts. Tonight I’m going to murder my mother with a sledgehammer.’
Mold Crown Court – where Roberts was jailed for life with a minimum of 22-and-a-half years – heard how his behaviour deteriorated after moving to North Wales.
Prosecutors told how Angela had repeatedly tried to get her son help but with little success.
Ethan, who had been studying as a university undergraduate, told the court: ‘Not a day goes by where I don’t question why. Why would he do that to her?
‘All my mum ever did was love Tristan, she looked after him and put up with way more than anyone ever should have, but that was my mum – she would do anything for us, anything for him.
‘She’s the only person that’s ever done anything and everything for Tristan his whole life and he’s the one who’s took her from us all.’
Her sister, Sarah Gunther, told Roberts in court: ‘As a close family, we all fought so hard to try and get you the help you needed, none of us ever gave up on you – Angela especially.
‘We all showed you love and cared for you, and tried to include you in everything we did.’
She later added: ‘She had so many amazing qualities, but one of the greatest was the way she devoted herself to her boys.
‘She was a fantastic and fiercely supportive mum, the kind who never gave up, no matter how hard life became.
‘She fought tirelessly for them, and her love for them was unbreakable, a source of strength that carried her and her boys through every challenge.’
Medical experts concluded that Roberts was not suffering any significant mental disorder at the time of the killing.
Angela often shared on her Facebook how much she adored spending time with her son who went on to murder her because he claimed her love was the root of his unhappiness
Angela said spending time with her family with a ‘house full’ made her happy
Angela’s social media profile bears testament to her devotion to her children
In the weeks leading up to the murder, Roberts wrote on Discord about his ‘hatred of women’ and wrote about feeling ‘abandoned, betrayed and bullied’.
He said that he was killing her for ‘revenge, justice, vengeance’.
Passing sentence, judge Rhys Rowlands said: ‘It is clear to me that you both looked forward to inflicting pain and ultimately death upon your mother.
‘In recording what you did on a dictaphone over several hours, you enjoyed what you were doing, exercising control over you mother in her last hours, no doubt revelling in what you did as you attacked her.’
