Whisper
July 11th, 2009, 02:04 AM
After posting a thread the other night about Darryl Littlejohn being senternced for murdering Imette I got thinking about this case .Stacys mom is a friend of my moms.She had her wedding almost 100% planned and she had to go to her future mother in laws home in N.Y for final preperations to see banquet halls I believe.She flew into La Guardia,got into cab,called her fiance' from the cab that was parked in front of his moms home.She was cell b/c she had to get directions from him on how to get there.Somewhere between the curb and the door maybe 20 feet away she disappeared.They found her badly beaten shot body in a garbage bin.Its was plain as day that she had been alive for the few days right up until just before they found her.Its really bothering me now I guess b/c my Heavens same age and we are planning her wedding between here and States and its always in the back of my mind.Maybe someone will know something to help this family.They started a golf Tourney each yr to pay tuition for students that wouldnt be able to afford colledge,A Body in the Trash and a Missing Bride-to-Be
It was an errand full of promise: Stacy Sappleton, 26, got off a plane at La Guardia on Friday morning to make arrangements for her September wedding. She took a cab to the Queens home of her future in-laws, getting directions by cellphone from her fiancé back in Detroit and saying goodbye when she reached the corner near the house, he told the police.
But if she indeed reached Brookville, the placid residential neighborhood where his parents live, she never made it to their house.
Yesterday morning, a slender body was found, shot several times and nearly naked, in a garbage truck filled with waste from a Key Food trash bin in Queens. The body was not officially identified yesterday, but law enforcement officials say they believe that it is Ms. Sappleton's, and witnesses said that like the missing woman, the dead woman was black and in her 20's, and wore braces.
For Ms. Sappleton's intended in-laws, the weekend was filled with frantic phone calls, the filing of a missing-person report, and the posting of fliers with not one but four phone numbers, just in case.
But what ordeal Ms. Sappleton, an insurance benefits specialist in Tecumseh, Ontario, might have undergone in that same period is a mystery, all the more puzzling because the Queens neighborhood is considered so safe that some residents leave their front doors unlocked.
The body was found about five miles from the in-laws' house, when a truck driver for a private trash-hauling company stopped to check an equipment jam. The driver, who works for the Ragonese Carting Company and would give only his first name, James, said the woman's eyes were open and her teeth clenched. ''It seemed like she died in a horrible way, like she saw it coming,'' he said. At the scene yesterday, Inspector Kathleen Kearns of the Queens South Detective Bureau said the woman appeared to have been dead for less than 24 hours. Investigators said they were looking into the possibility that she had been detained for a while before being killed.
They were also scanning airport security tapes to see if they could identify the taxi driver who picked up Ms. Sappleton, and interviewing neighbors to see if there were witnesses to any foul play, a law enforcement official said. The police said they would have to wait for an autopsy, to be conducted today, to determine if the dead woman had been sexually violated.
By some accounts, Ms. Sappleton's life in Tecumseh, just over the border from Detroit, was coming into full bloom. She had held a job as a group benefits specialist at Great-West Life, an insurance company in nearby Windsor, for 18 months. She was engaged. She had recently had her hair done in braids.
''She was at a good point in her life,'' said Christy Black, a branch manager at Great-West Life. ''A very smart, responsible, well-liked young woman. It just makes it all the more unbelievable.''
The police said that last week, Ms. Sappleton's fiancé, Damion Blair, took her to the airport in Detroit, and that he spoke to her by phone after she landed Friday morning. She was supposed to hire a hall for the wedding and look for a bridal gown. But later that day, Mr. Blair's parents called him to tell him that she had not shown up.
''They ended the conversation when she was at the corner of the block on which his family lived, and no one heard from her or has seen her since,'' a law enforcement official said.
On Saturday, the police said, the family called 911 and reported her missing. They plastered the neighborhood with fliers that included a photo of Ms. Sappleton and said she had last been seen wearing blue pants, a blue long-sleeve top and a gray vest, a dark blue jeans jacket and a multicolored handbag.
The body found yesterday was wearing only a bra and panties, the police said. That morning, the garbage truck driver stopped first to empty the trash bin at the Key Food supermarket at Braddock and Hillside Avenues, then did the same at the Key Food at 214-14 73rd Avenue in Oakland Gardens. While he was emptying the second trash bin, a discarded display rack jammed the truck's mechanism. While investigating, the driver saw the body in the truck and called the police, who said they did not know if the body came from the driver's first stop or his second.
Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Blair, crying, said he did not want to talk to reporters.
His parents, who were with Ms. Sappleton's mother and other family members at their home on 226th Street, said they did not want to discuss the situation with reporters. The people at the house said that when Ms. Sappleton was first found to be missing, they had tried to interest several news outlets, with no success. ''We don't want to talk,'' one man said from the front door. ''When we needed help, they could have found out about it a long time ago. When we need help -- nobody.''
Eventually the family retreated into the house and closed the blinds.
Neighbors expressed surprise to hear of Ms. Sappleton's disappearance, saying foul play would be very unusual in their neighborhood.
''If you get killed going to work or walking down the street, that's sad,'' said Harris Thompson, 47, a pastor. ''To be murdered preparing for a wedding, that's the ultimate twist.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/nyregion/a-body-in-the-trash-and-a-missing-bride-to-be.html
It was an errand full of promise: Stacy Sappleton, 26, got off a plane at La Guardia on Friday morning to make arrangements for her September wedding. She took a cab to the Queens home of her future in-laws, getting directions by cellphone from her fiancé back in Detroit and saying goodbye when she reached the corner near the house, he told the police.
But if she indeed reached Brookville, the placid residential neighborhood where his parents live, she never made it to their house.
Yesterday morning, a slender body was found, shot several times and nearly naked, in a garbage truck filled with waste from a Key Food trash bin in Queens. The body was not officially identified yesterday, but law enforcement officials say they believe that it is Ms. Sappleton's, and witnesses said that like the missing woman, the dead woman was black and in her 20's, and wore braces.
For Ms. Sappleton's intended in-laws, the weekend was filled with frantic phone calls, the filing of a missing-person report, and the posting of fliers with not one but four phone numbers, just in case.
But what ordeal Ms. Sappleton, an insurance benefits specialist in Tecumseh, Ontario, might have undergone in that same period is a mystery, all the more puzzling because the Queens neighborhood is considered so safe that some residents leave their front doors unlocked.
The body was found about five miles from the in-laws' house, when a truck driver for a private trash-hauling company stopped to check an equipment jam. The driver, who works for the Ragonese Carting Company and would give only his first name, James, said the woman's eyes were open and her teeth clenched. ''It seemed like she died in a horrible way, like she saw it coming,'' he said. At the scene yesterday, Inspector Kathleen Kearns of the Queens South Detective Bureau said the woman appeared to have been dead for less than 24 hours. Investigators said they were looking into the possibility that she had been detained for a while before being killed.
They were also scanning airport security tapes to see if they could identify the taxi driver who picked up Ms. Sappleton, and interviewing neighbors to see if there were witnesses to any foul play, a law enforcement official said. The police said they would have to wait for an autopsy, to be conducted today, to determine if the dead woman had been sexually violated.
By some accounts, Ms. Sappleton's life in Tecumseh, just over the border from Detroit, was coming into full bloom. She had held a job as a group benefits specialist at Great-West Life, an insurance company in nearby Windsor, for 18 months. She was engaged. She had recently had her hair done in braids.
''She was at a good point in her life,'' said Christy Black, a branch manager at Great-West Life. ''A very smart, responsible, well-liked young woman. It just makes it all the more unbelievable.''
The police said that last week, Ms. Sappleton's fiancé, Damion Blair, took her to the airport in Detroit, and that he spoke to her by phone after she landed Friday morning. She was supposed to hire a hall for the wedding and look for a bridal gown. But later that day, Mr. Blair's parents called him to tell him that she had not shown up.
''They ended the conversation when she was at the corner of the block on which his family lived, and no one heard from her or has seen her since,'' a law enforcement official said.
On Saturday, the police said, the family called 911 and reported her missing. They plastered the neighborhood with fliers that included a photo of Ms. Sappleton and said she had last been seen wearing blue pants, a blue long-sleeve top and a gray vest, a dark blue jeans jacket and a multicolored handbag.
The body found yesterday was wearing only a bra and panties, the police said. That morning, the garbage truck driver stopped first to empty the trash bin at the Key Food supermarket at Braddock and Hillside Avenues, then did the same at the Key Food at 214-14 73rd Avenue in Oakland Gardens. While he was emptying the second trash bin, a discarded display rack jammed the truck's mechanism. While investigating, the driver saw the body in the truck and called the police, who said they did not know if the body came from the driver's first stop or his second.
Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Blair, crying, said he did not want to talk to reporters.
His parents, who were with Ms. Sappleton's mother and other family members at their home on 226th Street, said they did not want to discuss the situation with reporters. The people at the house said that when Ms. Sappleton was first found to be missing, they had tried to interest several news outlets, with no success. ''We don't want to talk,'' one man said from the front door. ''When we needed help, they could have found out about it a long time ago. When we need help -- nobody.''
Eventually the family retreated into the house and closed the blinds.
Neighbors expressed surprise to hear of Ms. Sappleton's disappearance, saying foul play would be very unusual in their neighborhood.
''If you get killed going to work or walking down the street, that's sad,'' said Harris Thompson, 47, a pastor. ''To be murdered preparing for a wedding, that's the ultimate twist.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/nyregion/a-body-in-the-trash-and-a-missing-bride-to-be.html