CRIME: SUSPECT IN WOMAN'S SHOOTING DEATH DIES

A Cape Girardeau murder investigation has been closed following the death of the only suspect at a nursing home.

Gregory S. McGill had shot and killed Kendra S. Bannister, his co-worker and girlfriend, in June 1998, and then shot himself in the head, police said. Until Oct. 29, he was severely brain damaged and relying on a feeding tube at Heartland Care Rehab Center to keep him alive.

McGill, 37, was never charged with murder.

"There would have been no point in charging him," Cape Girardeau County Prosecutor Morley Swingle said. "He would not have known he was being prosecuted, and the county might have become responsible for his extensive medical bills."

A county can become financially responsible for anyone held as a prisoner, Swingle said.

Investigators are certain that McGill acted alone in shooting 26-year-old Bannister with a .22-caliber revolver.

McGill had gone to Bannister's apartment when she left her job at plastic manufacturer Spartech on a lunch break.

"She called her workplace minutes before her death and told a co-worker that McGill was at her home and that she was frightened and needed help," Swingle said.

The supervisor called police, who forced their way into the apartment to find the critically injured McGill and the body of Bannister.

Both had been shot once in the head.

"The gun was still in McGill's hand," Swingle said.

Police found a suicide note in McGill's pants pocket.

The shooting was the third time that police had responded to Bannister's apartment within 48 hours. McGill was believed to be involved in each of the disturbances, police said.

Investigators have kept in contact with McGill's doctor and visited the nursing home on a regular basis, Swingle said. McGill has come in and out of a coma since the shooting.

"This was such a sad and selfish and senseless killing," Swingle said in a press release. "It is tragic that some weak men cannot get it through their heads that having a woman break up with them is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. Women need to be so careful when choosing the men they date."