Cape family's tough year: Fire, illness, attempted rape

A Cape Girardeau mother and her family are trying to recover after a number of obstacles this year.

Between a house fire on New Year's Eve, caring for a sick family member or pulling a pistol on an intruder May 30, Lisa Conrad can't decide which is worse.

"It's been one thing after another," Conrad said. "But we take it day by day, wake up in the morning and face what the world's got in store."

Conrad was forced to protect her family last month when a man broke into their Minnesota Avenue home. Craig Kizer, 51, has been charged with attempting to rape her teenage daughter.

It was around 5:30 a.m., Conrad said, when she heard voices come from her daughter's room. Because it was so early, she decided to peek in to see what was happening.

"It shocked me what I saw -- a black man on all fours hovered over my daughter on her bed. The thought never entered my mind to go wake up anybody else," Conrad said. "I went and got the pistol, walked back in there and put it up to his head."

Conrad remembers telling the man to get off her daughter and leave. Although she can't pinpoint why she didn't pull the trigger at the time, she said it may be because she was shocked that she recognized the man when he turned around.

Kizer was a contractor working to repair fire damages to the Conrad's home. They'd been welcoming Kizer into their home for around four months, Conrad said, offering him food and beverages whenever he needed them.

"Thinking about it now, I'm surprised I didn't freeze. I was just wanting that person off my daughter," Conrad said. "I didn't know at the time he was holding a knife to her throat and had a pair of my underwear from a drawer and was going to shove it in her mouth."

Once Kizer left the residence, Conrad called 911. Officers found Kizer less than 15 minutes after the incident, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case, at Montgomery and Albert streets.

Kizer is charged with attempted forcible rape, armed criminal action and burglary, all felonies, and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for his preliminary hearing.

Conrad said she and her daughter are prepared to testify.

"I'm just glad ... I'm just glad that it's over. It was such a bad day," said Conrad, who less than a week after the intrusion began caring for her ill 81-year-old father.

Even more satisfying, Conrad said, is that she and her husband had only retrieved the pistol from a friend's home two weeks before the burglary. Their friends had been holding the gun for them.

Conrad said that although her daughter was "more clingy than usual" after the break-in, she's doing well now. For Conrad, grabbing the pistol to protect her daughter was doing something any mother would have done, and she said she's looking forward to court proceedings being over so her daughter doesn't have to continue to relive the incident.

"I think anybody would have done the same thing. Some people may have shot him," she said. "I don't feel like I did anything special."

ehevern@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

Minnesota Avenue, Cape Girardeau, MO