Michael Tapley’s Family Convinced he was Killed Part II By Karen Warnick The Western Watchmen Gina’s story continued: According to Gina, while the couple was supposedly in Missouri visiting her sick mother, Michael told her to get rid of the truck because it was not mechanically sound enough to get them back home and he thought they should give it to someone to “part out”. She later said he told her they needed to get rid of it because they owed too much money on it, which has been proven false. Gina took the truck to her brother’s tire store where it was given to a co-worker along with a hand printed note dated Feb. 22, 2008 giving him title to the truck. The note was supposedly from Michael, but his signature was not on it. Mike Tapley was printed on the bottom. Michael’s mother Shirley said that Michael always printed his letters, but signed them in cursive using his full name, Michael Tapley, not Mike. Gina was given a white van by her brother, Chris Romero, which she drove back to Arizona. The co-worker, Kyle Wolfley, did not pay for the truck and is reported to have used the vehicle in demolition derbys. When the police went to check on the truck, the tires and bumpers had been disposed of and not tracked down. The truck was blacklighted, but not Luminal tested, nor the outside or undercarriage inspected. The truck was released back to Kyle Wolfley. The note transferring title was sent in for analysis by Detective Stevens of the Navajo County Sheriff’s office in May. On Aug. 25, the results were reported as inconclusive due to the poor quality of the note as it was not the original, only a faxed copy. Detective Stevens told the family he would try to get the original and start the process over. The family wants to know why the letter was not given a higher priority if it’s the only evidence uncovered so far that Michael was alive on Feb. 22. On one of their trips to Missouri, Michael’s daughter Christina and her fiancé Justin, found Michael’s dog Lady at Gina’s mother’s house and brought her home to live with them. No one contacted in Missouri, from Gina’s mother and brother, to the police or the mechanics and Kyle Wolfley, had seen Michael there at anytime. Michael and Gina were married for about 3 years before they “went missing”. They first lived in the Phoenix area before moving to Snowflake. After about 6 months, Michael told family members that he thought he had made a mistake. He took out an order of protection against Gina and started divorce proceedings in August of 2005. On the paperwork for the protection order it says, “defendant has committed several acts of domestic violence against plaintiff and has threatened serious physical injury….defendant has repeatedly threatened to shoot plaintiff with a gun.” He wanted her to get on mediation for her “bio-polar” behavior. Michael and Gina worked it out and Michael dropped the order of protection and stopped the divorce proceedings. Michael moved up to his property in Snowflake to ready the cabin for Gina to move into. She followed him up within a year. Their relationship does not appear to have improved. Michael’s father, Joe Tapley, said that Mike told him he didn’t trust Gina. He asked his Dad to help him move a gun safe out of the house (while living in the valley) and Joe said when he went over there the house was trashed and things broken. “She was crazy. She threatened to damage his motorcycle because he wouldn’ t let her drive his truck.” He told his Dad after the move to Snowflake that he wanted to leave her. His daughter Christina said her dad told her that if he left Gina she would try to take away his pilot’s license. Michael’s family said that Gina didn’t like them and didn’t want him associating with them. Michael’s co-workers told family members that he was talking about divorce shortly before he disappeared. He also told family members the week before he went missing, that he thought Gina was going to “do something” to him. Gina was married at least once before Michael. Court records obtained by the family show that Gina’s ex- husband filed at least 2 orders of protection against her. He told the family that he had moved from up north to get their kids away from her. She found them in Arizona and he filed orders of protection against her in 2002 and 2003. In the first filing he stated, “My spouse controls all aspects of our lives. She has the only keys to our apartment and controls access and departure. She has the only keys to our car and doesn’t allow anyone to sit up front with her. I left my wife one year ago because of excessive verbal and limited physical abuse. She came to Arizona with the idea to try and reconcile. This situation is as bad as when I left. She has obsessive compulsive disorders that make life unlivable.” In 2003 he filed another order of protection and stated, “Individual stated that if I leave her again she will kill me and my family. I intend to leave for reasons too numerous for the space allotted.” He also asked for the protection order to include his parents and siblings as she had threatened them also.” Detective Stevens was interviewed for this story and he admits that unless they get further proof, he is going on the assumption that Michael is still alive and doesn’t want to be found. He says he is actively working on the case on an ongoing basis. The family has accumulated massive amounts of paperwork, logged thousands of hours and miles of legwork and refuses to give up. Despite several searches of the property, they are convinced he is buried somewhere on his property and will not give up looking. Michael’s mother Shirley says, “We just want people to know who Mike really is. He is not the monster Gina says and we know he didn’t just disappear on his own. We want justice and closure. Why is what she says being taken at face value and everything we say discounted and brushed off?” The family hopes that anyone with information on Michael and Gina will come forward. They won’t quit looking and further searches of the property are planned. The Western Watchmen will continue to follow the story and report on any updates. |