Post by Scumhunter on May 9, 2014 19:11:18 GMT -5
There have been abduction theories, reward offers and a feature on America’s Most Wanted, but 10 agonizing years have passed with no answers about the gruesome New York slaying of Tecumseh’s Stacy-Ann Sappleton.
The 26-year-old bride-to-be was found stripped and shot to death in a Queens dumpster on May 10, 2004, three days after she was abducted near her future in-laws’ home. Sappleton, who worked as an insurance benefits specialist in Windsor, was in New York finalizing her wedding arrangements.
“Certainly there is the indescribable thought that 10 years have gone by and a young lady, who was in the early stages of her life, had her life taken away from her,” said friend Tim Jones. “I’m sure the police have their thoughts on where they think this is going or where it’s been. But there are a lot of people close to Stacy that would like to see a break in the case and get it resolved and somebody be brought to justice.”
Sappleton disappeared from the broad daylight of a New York City street on May 7, 2004. The excited bride-to-be had flown to the Big Apple to stay with her future in-laws, scout out the wedding hall and buy a new gown.
“She was excited about getting on to the next chapter of her life, getting married,” said Jones. “Just a very kind, high-spirited, loving individual.”
Her fiancé Damion Blair had taken her to the airport in Detroit early in the morning May 7 and watched her walk away from him for the last time. She landed at La Guardia airport, took $40 out of an ATM and hailed cab.
Her first stop was to be her future in-laws’ home. She got into the taxi but forgot how to get to the house, so she pulled out her cellphone and called Blair for directions.
Blair guided her there, and they got off the phone when the taxi turned onto his family’s block in a quiet Queens neighbourhood. Blair’s parents called him later that day to say she never showed up.
A sanitation worker found Sappleton’s bullet-riddled body, stripped to her underwear, three days later. Someone had tossed her into a garbage-filled dumpster behind a grocery store a few miles from the Blair’s home.
New York police initially said they believed Sappleton had arrived at the front door of her future in-laws’ home before being snatched. They later said it’s possible she was dropped off on the wrong block. Investigators have also theorized she might have known her killer.
An autopsy revealed there had been a fierce struggle. Then Sappleton was shot three times, in the arm, torso and neck.
Police ruled out her fiancé, a marine and computer engineer in Detroit. They also cleared Blair’s brother Mark, the only person home when Sappleton disappeared.
Investigators worked through a number of abduction theories and hit dead ends. They tracked down the taxi driver, interviewed friends and family, and subjected people to polygraph tests. New York police didn’t respond to repeated information requests this week.
“I’m sure they’ve gone through all the theories, whether it was an abduction, wrong place at the wrong time, mistaken identity, whether it was a setup,” said Jones, who keeps in touch with investigators in New York.
But police quickly ran out of leads and the trail went cold. Hope for justice dimmed. Even a $12,000 reward and a feature on the crime show America’s Most Wanted haven’t prompted any useful information. Now a decade has passed and police are no closer to discovering who is responsible for the grisly murder.
“Somebody out there knows something, whether big or small,” said Jones. “More than likely somebody thinks about it every day, not just her family, but maybe the people who are responsible.”
Thoughts? I think accidentally being dropped off on the wrong block actually makes a lot of more sense. She was in city and a neighborhood she was not familiar with and may have seemed obviously lost to whoever attacked her regardless of if she made her fiance's brother's door or not. And that "quiet" neighborhood according to what I've found on Google is Hollis, Queens which while I don't mean to insult it, but as a native New Yorker I can say it has never had the best reputation whether that is fair or unfair. It sadly seems there is not a lot to go on. She seemed like a wonderful person and it's absolutely tragic that she was so excited to get married only to get murdered before she could. I hope against all odds this case can one day be solved.
blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/05/09/killer-remains-at-large-10-years-after-the-new-york-slaying-of-a-tecumseh-woman/
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