Where Is Michael Tapley?Part 1 Part 2   "I just want to find him. I want to know what happened to him." Those are the pained words of Kim Palmer, Michael Tapley's sister. Michael is 51 years old and bigger than his wife of about 4 years, Gina. The Navajo County, Arizona sheriff seems to think that's all the evidence he needs. Obviously, nothing bad could have happened. So what that Michael, the father of two children has been missing for 6 months. Does it matter that his wife claims they drove across country to visit her family and the first thing she does is drop Michael off at a local casino? The fact he doesn't show up on any of the surveillance video the casino has shouldn't be a sign that he wasn't actually there, would it? Or the fact that she gave away his truck after having the bumpers replaced--no red flags there! And the reason she said she gave it away...it was broken down and they didn't want to make any more payments on it. Now that makes no sense. First, the truck was paid off. Second, even if it wasn't, giving it away doesn't get rid of the payments. And third, as if a third is even needed, the truck was not in bad shape. Kim doesn't buy the story. "Michael was fearful of her," she said. "In the past month, my family has discovered that her ex-husband also had an order of protection from her. (Michael had one put on her at one point in their marriage). In Gina's previous marriage, her husband said she ran the whole house, made every decision, he wasn't allowed to have a key to his own home or the car. He wasn't allowed to drive but was forced to sit in the back seat. The entire family feared her including the children." The sheriff's department was aware that both Michael and Gina's ex-husband had filed these orders against her but dismissed it saying anyone could file an order of protection. "They said that didn't mean anything," Kim said. "She threatened to kill her ex-husband; she threatened to kill my brother, along with their families. My brother's co-workers said he told them that he had enough and he couldn't live this way any longer. He was going to ask her to leave." This was shortly before, according to Gina, Michael woke up one morning in February, decided he wasn't going to go to work, wasn't even going to have the courtesy to call his boss, and take her to see her mother in Missouri. There has been no activity with any of Michael's credit cards. There is no evidence he actually made that trip. Gina never returned to the cabin in Snowflake. Kim has no idea where she is now and doubts the police do either. Since a couple of searches near Michael's property, police have done nothing further to find him or investigate Gina's story. Another concern, Kim said Gina owned a handgun. "I understand she was a pretty good shot," she said. It's bad enough the Tapley family thinks Michael has been murdered. What makes it worse is no one is willing to help them. "They won't give me the police report. I have contacted congressmen, the governor, the attorney general, the county attorney, media...nobody is willing to call the sheriff's department and ask what is going on here." It appears you can get away with murder in Snowflake. |
