Stronger Tomorrow
Original Message—–
From: achapa74@hotmail.com
Sent: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 7:12 PM
Subject: Stronger tomorrow
You can hide things about yourself from just about anyone, but you can’t really hide them from yourself. You know what you’re up to, and that’s important. Because the person you are to become tomorrow is always watching the person you are today.
How can you live this day so that your future self will find strength and inspiration? What can you do that will make the person you’ll be tomorrow proud to have been the person you are today?
You know who you are right now, you know what you’re doing, what your motivations are, what kind of attitude you maintain. You know and control the real you. Let the person you are today push you forward, positively into the future. Soon you’ll look back on today, and what you see can either give you strength or bring you regret. Choose your actions so that what you do today will truly make you stronger tomorrow.
Be Thankful
Subject: Be thankful
Be thankful for what you have, and you’ll get more from it. Be grateful for the challenges, and they will help you become stronger. Appreciate the dark, cloudy days and they’ll instantly become brighter. Appreciate the sunny days, and you’ll enjoy them even more.
Those things you take for granted will fade from usefulness as you forget they’re even there. By contrast, those things for which you’re thankful remain readily available and will grow even stronger as a result of your appreciative attention.
Consider how very fortunate you are. Consider it often. The more you count your blessings, the more there will be to count.
Danville Virginia Co-workers
SUE (CO-WORKER) at DRMC
Anthony was such a wonderful person ,always with a smile and a good attitude about everything.We laughed about a watch he bought on e-bay and it was so ugly. He will be sorely missed by everyone that knew him at drmc in danville,va.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Candice Stanfield
CO-Worker/Friend/DebaterThis is hard to believe. I was blessed to have worked with Anthony in Danville and his presence was big, funny, witty and very bold. The small amount of time we spent working together and the rest of the time was spent talking about our lives and his favorite past time: debating and discussing politics and religion . He was desperatly missing his son and VERY in love .
He was interesting and someone who actually introduced this southern food eating woman to eating SOYBEANS. My prayers are with his son / adrienne / his MOM whom he talked about all the time we even check out her pastor’s web site together/his sister/his brother and his nephew. May Godbless you all and I hope you have some comfort in knowning that he was beautifully human . GOD BLESS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Brooke Yeatts
Relationship with Anthony: Co-worker
Content: Anthony
I worked with Anthony in Danville and just thought he was an absolute wonderful person. We had so many good times and work was always more fun when he was there. He introduced me to alot of things I would have never experienced if not for him. He was a good friend and I have missed him since the day he left Va. I would often think of him and hope that everything was well and that he had gotten to see his son. He loved him so, talked about him all the time. I was sad to hear from other co-workers that he had passed. I thought so much of him. He was just a all around great person. He will surely be missed by everyone that knew him. My deepest sympathy. May god and peace be with him.
Fabian’s email about his accident
Sent: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:22 am
Subject: To my aunty and Ismael
I just wanted to say hallo and ask how the two of you doing?.
i dont know if my mom told you about my car accident three weeks ago..
the complete right side and front of my car was gone. the policeman who was first at the
place of the accident said to me, that he has never seen a wrecked car like that were the driver survied the crash.
what i didnt tell them was that i even forgot to put my seatbelt on!!!!
he asked me if i had my papers of regisration with me, so i had to go back to my wrecket car to open my sun blindes to get them.
when i opend the sun blind right over my drivers seat the first thing that felt out was my picture of anthony which i always had wid me
in my car since last year.
in that moment i felt somehow that he watched out for me in that during the accident.
i feel that anthony is with the ones who love him all the time ..
luv
Fabian
Letter to Cheyenne Police Deptm.
Following is a letter sent to the Cheyenne Police Department in February 2008. So far I have had a police officer call me in late March to let me know in a friendly way that “he was working on it and going to do the best he could” and “get back to me later”. well, so far no further response. I had no experience in writing this kind of letter, so I have no idea how effective it would be and whether or not to go further at this point.
I would like to know your opinions, insights, corrections and /or ideas about this issue. Thanks!
February 14, 2007
Reference the police reports – Case # 06-59905, dated 11/24/2006
CC: Robert D. Fecht Chief of Police, Terry L. Armitage Deputy Attorney General, Forrest C. Bright Division of Criminal Investigations, Bruce A. Salzburg Wyoming Attorney GeneralI
Dear Ms. Betty Haukap,
I am sending you a copy of this letter because I am aware that you are of influence involving the Standards and Training Commission for the employing, certifying and training of the Wyoming Peace Officers and Coroners. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for your consideration.
My name is Regina Rodriguez, I am the mother of Anthony Chapa and am writing to you in regards to the above police report. It has been over a year since our son was found (on Nov 24, 2006) in his
apartment with a gun sho wound to his head. The police officers at
the site ruled it to be a self inflicted gun shot wound/suicide. The
following is a request to reopen this case and/or further investigate .
For one thing, it will be helpful to us to come nearer to a place of
closure regarding the circumstances, questions and inconsistencies
surrounding our son’s death and also we assume that the Cheyenne
Police Department is striving to serve in a professional and ethical
manner in all matters. Truthfully, I believe that you did not respond to
Anthony Chapa’s death with the competence and expertise warranted
by public servants, especially in response to the death of a human being .
Actually it appears that right from the start you responded with the
preconceived notion and assumption that this was a suicide. When
reading your report it seems that you allowed yourselves to be
completely influenced by the initial report and conclusion by his
girlfriend Adrienne Casey, who was reported to have been the only person
with him in the small apartment and said to have benn in the
shower at the time of his death. We believe that was a critical error on your part!
Anthony was an exceptional human being, bright, caring, compassionate,
intelligent, a loyal friend to many people and beloved by his family, friends
and coworkers. Please understand that I am not writing this letter because
I am totally convinced that our son did not commit suicide, but was
murdered instead. If I (and many of Anthony’s friends and family feel the
same way ) had “to put it in numbers”, I would say that there is a 50%
chance that our son’s death might have been a suicide. But it is the 50% of
doubt and questions I am going to address in this letter.
We hope that it will fulfill it’s purpose of not only answering some of our
concerns and questions, but also that it may help your police Department to
be more effective in serving your community in Wyoming, with more
competence and awareness, whether handling a possible suicide or
homicide or accident.
I also know that we do not stand alone in believing that all (violent) death
inquiries (even if they appear to be a suicide) should be conducted as a
homicide investigation initially until all facts prove differently. In other
words, I believe this principle should have applied to our son’s death as
well, but instead we found that Anthony’s death was handled in a very
sloppy manner. Following are the reasons (the minor ones first and the
more important ones are following):
According to your reports I have in hand, it appears that you neglected to
approached the neighbors or any other possible witness to give evidence as
to if someone else heard the gun shot and to confirm the estimated time of
death. Also, to determine if anyone overheard any arguing and especially if
anyone noticed any other persons coming and going from the apartment
during the hours before Anthony Chapa’s death. So the question is: Why
were none of the neighbors or anyone else questioned? Or if they were, could
you please disclose the results, since they are not noted in the report?
If he was already dead upon your arrival, by what method was the actual time of his death estimated? Was it estimated at all? Who actually called and notified the police? Was it his girlfriend Adrienne or someone else? Did she or someone else call 911 immediately?
I regards to the weapon used: I questioned his girlfriend Adrienne Casey several times as to what gun Anthony used to take his life and she claimed she was sure about the identity of the gun, that “it is was the one Anthony owned.” It was a gun to be easily distinguished from a regular hand gun. Your police report mentions a C52 hand gun. She claims she saw a different one in his hand, the one and only gun she claims he owned, and it is also the only one we knew of he owned. Either way, a couple of month before his death , Anthony brought this particular gun, which he said to have been given/or sold to him by his friend , to our home in Colorado Springs, so he could take his younger brother target shooting . They were laughing about how unreliable this gun was. It was an older gun, his friend told him almost like a collector item, and it did not always shoot, but skipped a couple of shots regularly. I personally was present and witnessed the gun skipping, a shot ever so often. We have reasons to believe that it would have been unlike Anthony to use this particular gun, but want to confirm this fact. The gun he owned was extremely loud when fired and also had a strong “kick back”.
Since Adrienne Casey lived with Anthony and was very familiar with this gun, its stands to reason that she correctly recognized it in his hands on Nov 24, 2006. Therefore I am wondering how come, according to the police report, my son was found sitting up on his couch, with this gun still in his hand and his finger still on the trigger, that would be IMPOSSIBLE if he used this particular gun he owned , the gun would have slipped out of his hand for sure, too much of a kick back. Also, knowing our son’s personality, he would have used a more reliable gun, if trying to commit suicide .
When Michael Chapa, Anthony’s father, for the above reason called you and inquired about the gun which caused Anthony‘s death, he initially was told by the detective that she was unable to locate the gun, she “did not know what happened to it”. I believe she located it at a later time. In your police report the gun used is described as a hand gun C52.
So we want to confirm: which gun was used ? Was it registered to Anthony or someone else (if it was registered at all) ? Did you try to confirm the owner of the gun to have been Anthony? Were any fingerprints taken on the gun which Anthony was holding in his hand ?
We request that you please look further into this matter and answer the questions we have regarding it.
Another very important consideration that seems missing from this investigation was a review of recent police reports involving Anthony and his girlfriend, Adrienne Casey. In late October 2006, Anthony was having problems with his girlfriend’s violent and what he termed “bi-polar” behavior, which involved more frequent episodes than in the past. To the point that he filed a restraining order against her (Oct 27 2006). That should have raised some flags in your “investigation“. Don’t you think? We find this very disturbing and it leaves us to wonder if you even investigated at all , or was it just an attitude like:
Some of the standard tests ALONE may not be sufficient to rule out foul play. The coroner very defensively stated “I have been doing this for 20 years, I know a suicide if I see one”. It has been proven that a coroner’s findings and opinion alone, especially in such a short time, can not always completely exclude the possibility of foul play. And especially since there was no autopsy done, for all we know, only a gun residue test. We all know, it would not be the first time a coroner made a mistake.
“Well. it looks like a suicide, his girlfriend tells us it is and she gives us the reason why he did it, we did a gun powder residue test, so let’s right away leave it at that, why bother to do more, no time to be wasted and no further effort needed.”
The police report says the tech officer and the detective, both concluded “nothing appeared suspicious” shortly after arriving at the scene at Anthony‘s apartment. Of course, the scene itself and everything else appeared like a suicide. Don’t you think that even in the event there would have been any foul play, “the appearance” was to be expected?
The truth be told, the purpose of a “staged suicide” is to make the presentation of the victim and manipulation of the crime scene to look like a suicide. Many people nowadays have knowledge on the subject (per internet and TV etc) about gunpowder residue tests and ways of people often killing themselves, and therefore can take advantage of that knowledge.
What disturbs us is that neither the detective nor anyone else paid any attention to the fact that there was a record of recent domestic violence and that in this case, my son, Anthony, on Oct 27th ,had filed a restraining order at the Cheyenne Wyoming Court against his girlfriend Adrienne . On October 31, Anthony had (again) given in to and reconciled with Adrienne and they together went to the Cheyenne courthouse to request dismissal of the restraining order, due to the respondent (his girlfriend Adrienne) agreeing to have her mental health issues treated professionally (see copy of the report which I am including FYI ) . I don’t have a copy of the original restraining order, but one of Anthony’s friends slipped a copy of the dismissal report to me, before Anthony’s Memorial.
I also saved a copy of the voicemail Anthony left for me on Oct 27th regarding this incidence.
Continuing with relevant past-history; there had been a serious incident which happened around at the beginning of the year 2005. At that time, Adrienne Casey attacked Anthony with a knife as his back was turned from her, “because he was not paying enough attention to her“. She then attempted to take her own life, but he was able to prevent her by calling 911 and she then was admitted to a psychiatric unit and he later decided to not press charges. This incident took place in Danville, VA.
It may prove that our son definitely did not make the best choices when it came to relationships and his “rescue“ mentality in “toxic” relationships had gotten him in trouble before, but it also should at least warrant further considerations about raised questions surrounding his death.
I am not mentioning these event because I am certain that Adrienne Casey murdered my son, the chances for this I’m sure are UNLIKELY. But then again, I can not say I am 100 % sure either. Not necessarily because I think she did not love my son, but because of her mental instability and history. The degree of which he greatly misjudged.
Also, there may be a slight possibility that she assisted him, “assisted suicide“. She stated to me and some other people (after his death) that she and Anthony were looking up on how to commit suicide on the computer prior to the incident. But she did not release his computer to me, not even just to download some of his documents, photos etc nor did your police department find it prudent to take a look at the computer yourself. So I don’t know if her statement is true.
But more so a possibility so that someone else, someone other than Adrienne was involved .This for the following reason:
Much more care should have been taken in investigating the reasons Adrienne Casey gave regarding their argument the morning of Nov 24th 2006, about the ticket mentioned in
your report (40698Z0). Indeed, this incident on November 13th had been causing muc
h distress and worry to Anthony. Indeed he had been involved in a fight that night. The
following had been Adrienne Casey’s recollection of the event as she described it all along :
Anthony and her had gone to a bar in Cheyenne to celebrate Adrienne‘s job position as a
N.A. at the hospital were Anthony worked as a Respiratory Therapist. As they came out
from the bar to the parking lot, there was a young man who became upset with Adrienne
Casey for “making fun of him“, he proceeded to hit her with his hat (beanie) in the face at
which time Anthony intervened and tackled him to the ground. Another man, whom she
was able to describe as an African American and “big” started to intervene and beat on the
young man on the ground and Anthony even at that point tried to break it up and tried to
pull him off from the person on the ground, as he realized this man was getting
dangerously aggressive . Anthony called us immediately after getting home that night to
tell us about the incident, which disturbed him greatly. The young man who was the victim
in this fight at a later time (I think it was the next day) went to the hospital for a broken jaw
and pressed charges. According to Adrienne Casey it was the other man (“big-guy“), not
Anthony, who broke his jaw. Of course we personally have no idea about what happened
that night, it is all here say, but Adrienne Casey repeatedly confirmed that that’s what she
saw that night ( to me and several other people) and that she was sure that Anthony was
innocent of the charges of breaking his jaw. She also stated this in your police report, she
said “ Anthony had been issued a ticket for something he didn’t do” But according to
Adrienne’s statements, she had “changed her mind” because “they were upset with each
other” that morning (she never told us why they were arguing) and therefore told him that
she was not going to be his witness after all and that she was just going to say “she could
not remember anything about that night”. Maybe she was afraid to testify against the other
person involved in the fight, or maybe the other person had been involved in some way in what happened with Anthony the morning he died.
So the point here is: that there was another person (someone who, according to what
Anthony stated to me the night of the incidence, personally “knew” Adrienne Casey) who
possibly benefited from Anthony’s death . Supposedly this particular individual had a legal
record, was on probation and supposedly you told my son your PD was looking for him at the time, but had not been able to locate him yet.
But if Adrienne Casey had testified against him on behalf of my son, it probably would have not been a good thing for this individual.
Again I am not saying that the involvement of another person is something we can be sure
of, but it is something that your police department should at least pay some attention to,
given these circumstances, this possibility can not be excluded.
After Anthony’s death, Adrienne Casey was never asked to testify regarding the ticket
(40698Z) , we assume the case was dropped. Is that correct?
Anthony had many friends, but we can not think of any enemies he might have had in
Cheyenne. But , as of recent, Adrienne Casey had a few episodes where she brought home
strangers in Anthony’s absence and twice she “disappeared” for a couple of days, calling
Anthony from a motel were again she hooked up with questionable individuals. This
greatly distressed our son, but it also gives more opportunities that someone else could have been involved in his death.
I do understand Adrienne Casey was difficult to interview the morning of Nov 24th, due to
her emotional state of distress, but if you had taken the warranted step to interview her at a
later time and/or also certain other individuals, you may better understand the above
statement about someone else might have been involved. I totally see no reason why she
was not approached at the next possible time to be questioned further, for after all, she was
the only person present in the apartment with the (suicide) victim and she had a recent
history of violence, mental instability AND also all those other circumstances surrounding
his death as mentioned above. So how on earth can you excuse this negligence? The
detective on duty on this case straight out admitted ,when asked a few weeks after
Anthony’s death, that she was not aware of any of these circumstances. It is no wonder any
one would not be aware , if no one in your PD bothered to ask any questions. It seems self
evident that this lack of awareness demonstrated a lack of competence and/or caring.
Further consideration should be given to the fact that Adrienne Casey was also very
concerned about the upcoming court date (scheduled for Monday, Nov 27th) involving her
to be a witness for Anthony and therewith possibly incriminating this other individual
mentioned earlier in this letter. She was extremely worried about this. So much actually
that she had been pushing Anthony to look for another job in another state after she
would testify. My son confided this to me when he asked me to request information from
my cousin about jobs at another hospital . I asked him why he would do such a thing, since
he was so extremely fond of his job in Cheyenne and he answered that it definitely was not
his idea, but that Adrienne had been pushing him to do so, due to her own fears (about the man she would testify against)
Adrienne states that she was in the shower when Anthony died from the gun shot wound.
She says she did not hear the shot, but heard a noise which she described to us as
“something hitting the floor, that she thought he had fallen” or “that he might have hit something”.
Did anyone confirm if she got out the shower immediately after hearing the noise (which
by the way she was not able to recognize properly to be a gun shot, since Anthony never
fell, e was found in a sitting position, so it could have also been a door slamming what she
heard or something else.) And did she immediately call 911? Especially, did anyone check
the bathroom and shower and clothe for any possible blood residue?
I would assume that to be a common “just in case” procedure !?
The apartment is very small, so if Adrienne could not clearly hear the gun shot while in the
shower, couldn’t also easily someone else have come in and leave again, with or without her knowledge, before she got out of the shower?
I noticed you checked for gun powder residue, but would it have been possible for someone
else to have placed the gun into Anthony’s hands and held it to his head and then cause the
trigger to be pulled ? It is a fair supposition that this could be done to a person asleep,
drugged or someway rendered unconscious. It is in fact not impossible for a murder to be
committed in a similar fashion and then rearranged as a suicide, and in fact something not
so rare to occur.On Nov 24, 2006 Anthony’s father had told the coroner that our son had
requested cremation in case anything would ever happen to him, so I agreed to it ,when
asked by the coroner. Notwithstanding, I am still amazed at what speed his body was
released to the funeral home. I had thought maybe within a few days, but he was brought the same day within hours.
Since I was in a deep state of shock, grief and confusion and not aware of all the circumstances, I agreed to have him cremated the same day on Nov 24th (after a viewing of
the body by a few friends, co worker and family present.) Since several strong medications
were found at my son’s house and also if anyone had paid attention to the special
circumstances, wouldn’t an autopsy be more appropriate? Or at least to check his blood
levels for any drug or alcohol residue or anything else???
The prescription bottles found were rather strong medications used for insomnia and
anxiety and we understand that one of their side effects could have been suicide, especially
if combined with any alcohol and/or difficult circumstances. So we don’t refuse to admit
that these facts can be very realistic explanations as to why Anthony might have taken his own life, especially if he was heavily medicated at the time.
But then again, Adrienne stated that Anthony did not at all appear medicated that morning,
nor had anything to drink except for a cup of tea they had together before she went to take
a shower. The night before he had attended a Thanksgiving dinner at a coworker’s/friend’s
house, but there was no heavy drinking and nobody (as far as I know) noticed anything unusual about him.
On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, if somehow he was made drowsy or even
unconscious after returning home, would that not have made it easy for another person to
stage his death as a suicide? We are just looking at possibilities.
Also, since a death had occurred, why didn’t the police take a look at the computer in the
apartment? We have reason to believe it would have given some more insight. You can ask
me in person why, if you like.
Last but definitely not least, we have one more major grievance, the supposed “suicide note“:
Anthony’s close friend and coworker Teri had come to the scene to be of assistance to
Adrienne Casey. She asked the police officers if there was a suicide note and she was told
that “they had looked everywhere but could not find one.” On the phone I was also told “no
suicide note” by the police officer. The mortician gave me the content of his wallet and told
me that was all they could find on his body. His jewelry was not found on his body after his suicide, including a ring and necklace he always wore.
When Anthony’s father requested a police report from you, a couple of weeks later, we
discovered, that the report stated that some kind of note was found indeed. My questions
are: When was that note discovered and by whom? Why was I or any other relative or
friend, not informed of this note? Was this note checked for authenticity? Anthony’s father
had requested a report from your police department a couple of weeks after Anthony
Chapa’s death. But the initial report his father received did not even mention a suicide
note. The first report Mr. Chapa received from you included only a couple of sentences and
was not considered acceptable by any standards. So he requested a more comprehensive
report and it was not until he received this second report, that we saw a suicide note mentioned.
Actually, these two sentences on this piece of paper :“Adrienne, how is your memory now?
I’m sorry Mom, stay away from Adrienne she’s off” do not necessarily convey a suicide to follow. This could have been written in a different context.
You stated the note was found in a plastic bag on his body. For one thing, if it really was a
“suicide note” and if I had read the one sentence in the note addressed to me, I would have
handled some of his remaining affairs much differently and with more awareness.
Nevertheless, we believe you mishandled this terribly and while I do not know about the
legalities for procedures regarding suicide notes in the State of Wyoming , I would
appreciate if you could enlighten me. Maybe it is common practice not to reveal the content
of a suicide note to the next of kin, but if it is, I would want to be an advocate to have that changed.
I don’t believe that is a good way to treat the loved ones of a person who supposedly
committed suicide, there is usually a message for them which should be highly respected.
Please help me understand why this note (in our opinion) was so terribly miss-handled by
your police department, especially if in your minds there was no room for foul play/staged suicide, then why withhold this note?
If Anthony’s father had never asked for a police report we would never even known a
suicide note (if it was one) had been found. In a matter of fact, the first report you send to
him upon his request was extremely short, a couple of sentences, did not even mention it.
Again, Mr. M. Chapa had to express his dissatisfaction about this and request a more detailed report, which he finally received. To me that sounds unacceptable.
We also have a couple more questions: Did you check out the usual question following a
suicide, like who will financially benefit from the death ??? I noticed photos were taken by
the PD at the scene. Could you please tell us where on Anthony Chapa’s head was the
entrance of the bullet which caused his death? ( we are asking, because at the viewing of
the body prior to cremation I did not notice any shot wound at all, and other people I asked
did not remember either. But my husband, Anthony’ s step father, says he noticed
something like a gun shot wound on the left side of his neck. We just want to confirm the facts).
Also : Please let us know if his hand holding the gun was found in his lap or next to the right or left side of his body.
We realize that many of the mistakes, omissions and negligence can not be undone, and even if our son took his own life on Nov 24, the fact remains that your incomplete and insufficient preliminary actions (or inactions) and “short cuts” have raised legitimate concerns. I myself grew up in Frankfurt Germany and lived most of my adult life in Los Angeles County California. From cases I personally know about, even the LAPD does a better job with homicide/suicide investigations, and it is known that, being usually over worked and under staffed, they don’t have the best reputation for thoroughness in the world. But as far as I know, your PD in Cheyenne WY is not terribly overburdened with homicides and suicides on a frequent basis, and your crime rate is relatively low. But when considering the way you handle a proposed suicide scene, it would not take a very intelligent person to get away with murder, quiet literally.
I truly hope you reconsider your approach and procedures should you be called to another suicide or homicide scene. Forgive this letter being dominated by a frustrated and somewhat angry tone, but if you yourselves had lost a child under these circumstances and considering how special and kind of a person Anthony Chapa was, you may look at these comments and questions from a different point of view as well.
Notwithstanding, herewith we request that you reopen the case and follow up with a detailed investigation and findings in a final report, explaining the circumstances of Anthony Chapa’s death .
Please pay special attention to ALL the underlined questions in this letter taking care to address them. Also include a statement as to weather or not the cause of death could have possibly be something other than suicide and please support your statement with evidence one way or another.
Please include your information about your usual procedures for suicide notes and what are your usual procedures in determining if an autopsy is warranted, especially if prescription bottles are found close to a presumed suicide victim. Your quick response and cooperation are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely and Respectfully,
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