Lape family awaits suspects' trial for murder, kidnapping

The last time Diane Miller saw her brother was a chance encounter at a stoplight in Cape Girardeau in May 2002. They chatted a few moments and then each drove away, smiling and waving, she said. Her brother, Ralph L. Lape Jr., 54, of Jackson, went missing soon after.

One painful year later, Lape's family awaits the trials of the two men charged with his murder and kidnapping.

Justin M. Brown, 23, and Mark A. Gill, 32, remain in custody awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Both men face a possible death penalty. Investigators with the Cape Girardeau-Bollinger County Major Case Squad say they shot Lape in the back of the head after kidnapping him from his home, beating and robbing him on July 8, 2002.

For Miller, the year has seemed to pass both in an instant and excruciatingly slow, she said. She said it is difficult to get past a family member dying in a violent way as opposed to age or sickness.

"When somebody cold-bloodedly murders your sibling, it takes away a part of you and you'll never be the same," she said. "But you have to go on. You can't let it consume you."

Dwelling on the good

Instead of dwelling on the murder, Miller chooses to remember the good relationship she had with her brother, she said. The two would talk on the phone every couple of months to catch up on each other's lives. Their last conversation was after Lape's daughter, Megan, graduated from Jackson High School.

"We talked about her graduation and about whether he'd be going out on a lake soon," Miller said. "He had bought a new pontoon boat in April and had only used it three times."

At a preliminary hearing in August, investigators testified that the suspects had each indicated the other as being the trigger man. Gill awaits a motion hearing on July 3 in New Madrid County. The case was moved on a change of venue. His jury trial is set for Sept. 15, with public defender Delores Berman. Gill faces additional charges of tampering with a motor vehicle, armed criminal action and robbery.

Brown's case was also moved on change of venue, to Pulaski County. He has a motion hearing July 11 and faces a a jury trial Jan. 20, 2004, with public defender Paul Yarns.

Lape was a retired conductor with the Burlington Northern Railway Co. Investigators said Gill had come to be Lape's roommate shortly before the murder.

The Major Case Squad, which had only been called on five times in the six years preceding the incident, investigated the crime shortly after foul play was expected in Lape's disappearance. Gill was arrested in Santa Rosa, N.M., after police tracked him allegedly using Lape's ATM card in Cape Girardeau, St. Louis, Las Vegas and finally in Santa Rosa. Brown was later arrested at his home in Cape Girardeau.

Lape's truck was discovered at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky., shortly before Brown led investigators to the body, buried in a shallow grave in a cornfield near Portageville, Mo. The body was found about a week after the time of death, according to an autopsy performed by the New Madrid County Coroner.

mwells@semissourian.com

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