On the morning of February 8, Angara arrived at 7:30 a.m. and worked until a 9:45 a.m. breakfast with her immediate coworkers. One, a subordinate of hers, told her that the plant's filters and clarity sensors needed to be calibrated, an assertion supported by plant records. The group left for another building shortly before 10 a.m.; Angara returned to the building where she usually worked at 10:30. Angara was carrying a clipboard, beaker, and a two-way radio. She left a sandwich on her desk, apparently intending to eat it when she returned from a task her coworkers said she had done many times without incident. It was the last time Angara was seen alive. The subordinate who had reminded her of the need to calibrate the instruments went into the basement, noticing broken glass on the floor in one area about 15 to 20 minutes later. By 11 a.m. the subordinate was asking other workers in the lab if anyone had seen Angara. Angara's absence would not otherwise be noticed at work until 9:20 p.m. that night, when a worker on the night shift noted that her car was still in the parking lot; another worker noticed that her sandwich was still on her desk where she had left it and her coat was still in the closet. Her coworkers returned to work from their homes to search the building for her. Repeated calls to her cell phone from her family in Holmdel, where she was supposed to give her daughter a ride to an afternoon basketball game, had gone unanswered. Workers at the plant called the Angaras to say they could not find her at the plant and it did not appear she had ever left. Before midnight, she had been reported missing to police. Workers searching the basement found an area where one of the , aluminum floor panels that opened onto the million-gallon () tanks was slightly ajar, and the 12 screws which normally held it in place were broken or missing. On the floor nearby were some shards of broken glass consistent with the beaker Angara had been carrying. These were swept up and thrown away. At 2 a.m. on February 9, PVWC officials shut the plant down so that the tank below that panel could be drained. When it was, Angara's radio and clipboard were found. Over the course of the day, the other tanks were drained. At 6:30 p.m. Angara's body was found in the clear well, a different tank it had drifted into.