Dayton murdersyou don't know what they're really like

[Lynn Smith]

Please forgive my typing skills.
Dayton Daily News by Tom Beyerlein 9/24/00
"You don't know what they're really like"
When Barb Andrews arrived at a high school football game a week ago
Monday night, she ran into a man she thought she knew, an easy-going pee
wee football coach named Larry James Gapen. Three days later, the man
she knew was being hustled off to jail in handcuffs, accused of slipping
into his former wife's home in the middle of the night and using a
log-splitting maul to fatally bludgeon her, her ex-husband and her 13
year old daughter.
Now, Andrews and a lot of other people are wondering how well they truly
knew Larry Gapen. "like they say, if you don't live in somebody's house,
you don't know what they're really like," she said.
But even close family members reacted with disbelief to the early
morning bludgeoning of Martha Madewell, her daughter, Jessica Young, and
Madewell's first husband, Nathan D. Marshall, 40, at Madewell's
residence at 6255 Pheasant Hill Drive in Dayton. Marshall, an employee
of Delphi, and Madewell, a Vandalia school bus driver and Huber Heights
school cafeteria worker, were dead at the scene. Jessica died Tuesday at
Miami Valley Hospital.
All three died of "multiple chop injuries," the Montgomery County
coroner's office ruled.
Gapen, Madewell's fourth husband, was arrested Monday in vandalia, where
he was living with and adult daughter and his teenage son. Madewell's
two youngest children, ages 7 & 9, who had been taken from the crime
scene, were unharmed in the back seat of his rented car when he was
arrested.
The oldest of Madewell's four children, Daniel Marshall, 17, awoke
Monday morning to Jessica's screams. He called 911 after seeing Gapen in
the residence and then finding the bodies.
"It's like a bad dream," said Gapen's son Jimmy, 17. "But you wake up
the next morning and it's still there. The person we knew (Gapen) and
the people we lived with (Madewell & Jessica) -- it doesn't seem
possible it's them."
Friends said Gapen and Madewell both were well liked in Huber Heights
youth sport circles. Gapen, 52, was a coach for the Huber Hieghts Youth
Football and Baseball clubs. Madewell, 37, helped to organize events for
the Junior Warriorettes drill team as a "team mother". Jessica and
Brooke Madewell, Marhta's 9 year old daughter, were drill team members.
"She (Madewell) was a good person. She loved her children very much,"
said Gwen Eschelman of Huber Heights, whose daughter, Renee Petry,
directs the drill team. "And Larry was an excellent father. The kids he
coached loved him."
Their friends knew they had marital problems: Married in 1997, they had
been separated about a year and the dissolution of their marriage was
final Sept. 14, the Thursday befor Monday's slayings. Eschelman said,
"They separated and got back together various times. Up until a few
weeks ago, they were trying to work things out. I don't know what went
wrong. I think up until the minute it (the homicides) happened, they
loved each other. They were just sort of like oil and water."
But their friends sisn't know that Gapen was awaiting trial on charges
of domestic violence and abduction. Madewell told police that Gapen
entered her home in the early morning of June 24 and tried to tie her up
with rope as she slept.At the time, she said she had changed her locks
because Gapen repeatedly entered her home when she was asleep and tried
to disrobe her.
When Barb Andrews saw Gapen at the Wayne High School football game a
week ago Friday, she didn't know he was supposed to be under house
arrest with electronic monitoring. Officials of Montgomery County Common
Pleas Court's pre trial services division admitted last week that Gapen
was mistakenly allowed work-release privilages without a judge's order.
Until the June incident, Gapen had a clean police record, according to
court documents.
Born Aug. 23, 1948, Gapen grew up in Pennsylvania and Arizona. His
father, James Gapen, a manager for the old Lawson Milk Co., first shows
up locally in the 1966 Dayton suburban directory, living in Madison Twp.
Larry is listed as a clerk for Lawson's.
Gapen married his first wife, Virginia, on Aug. 26, 1966, and they had a
daughter, Holly, that December. Their marriage ended in a dissolution in
1975.
Gapen remarried in 1977 and had two children with his second wife,
Pamela: Chastity, born in 1979, nnd Larry, Jr. called Jimmy, in 1982.
Hefiled for divorce in May, 1994, claiming Pamela was an alcoholic. The
divorce was granted that september and Gapen was awarded custody of the
children. Pamela Gapen died of cirrhosis of the liver two years later,
in September 1996.
Sometime in the mid-1990's, Gapen and Madewell got together. Both were
heavily involved in the youth sports scene: Gapen coached both his son,
Jimmy and Madewell's son Daniel in youth football. Later he coached her
younger son, Billy Madewell, 7. Martha Madewell would work in the
concession stand during games and help with the drill team.
Gapen was one of the coaches of a sixth grade football team that won a
national championship in 1995.
In June 1996, Gapen and Madewell bought a house at 6529 Deer Bluff Drive
for $145,000, according to county property records. They had a large
blended family: Gapen's two youngest children and all four of Madewell's
children lived with them.
"It seemed like they always had plenty of money -- the kids had all the
latest stuff," said next door neighbor Jimm Lynn. "They were always
friendly, especially Larry. He always seemed like he was trying to do
things right, always working, always hustling."
Gapen and Madewell were married in Gatlinburg, Tenn., on Jan. 12, 1997.
But domestic bliss proved elusive. Huber Heights police were dispatched
to the home 14 times since Jan. 1, 1997.
"Our home life wasn't easy," Jimmy Gapen said. "They had an up and down
relationship -- from both sides."
On Sunday morning, Nov. 1, 1998, Jimmy awoke to hear Gapen and Madwell
fighting. The elder Gapen had a bloody nose and lip. Jimmy tried to call
911, but Madewell wrestled the phone from his hands, breaking it. He ran
next door to call police. Madewell was handcuffed and arrested, later
pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
Domestic trouble continued. In May and June of 1999, police responded to
fights at the Madewell home.
Brandon Laino, 18, of Huber Heights, a close friend of Daniel's said
Madewell sent Daniel to live with her father in Highland County during
the 1999-2000 school year because Daniel physically fought Gapen. Laino
said the fights occurred because Daniel didn't like the way Gapen was
treating his mother. Daniel, a Wayne High School football player,
returned to Wayne High this school year.
Court records show Gapen moved out of the Deer Bluff home in the fall of
1999, but he was hardly out of Madewell's life.
In January, 2000, Madewell called Huber Heights police after she found
Gapen hiding in a closet after she thought he had left.
The couple filed for dissolution on June 21.
Four days later, Gapen allegedly entered the Deer Bluff residence while
Madewell slept, tied her feet and was trying to tie her hands when she
awoke. She told police she fought him off, freed herself from the ropes
and "I ran to the front door and he grabbed me by the face and throat. I
was screaming for help and he kept pulling and trying to get me back in
the house."
A neighbor called 911 and Gapen drove away, leaving behind a cooler full
of beer, accoriding to police reports.
Judge James Hensley of Montgomery County Court, Area 2, on June 29
issued a temporary restraining order requiring Gapen to stay at least
500 yards form madewell. Hensley also ordered Gapen placed on electronic
detention at his daughter's Vandalia home.
On July 11, Gapen's attorney L. Patrick Mulligan filed a motion in
Montgomery County Common Pleas court requesting that Gapen be released
from electronic home detention so he could keep is Dayton-to-Louisville
night truck driving job with Federal Express Ground.
According to his dissolution affidavit, Gapen made $48,616 a year as a
driver for the company. He needed the job. He owed $131,000 on the
house, $20,000 for a second mortgage, $16,000 for a travel trailer and
$8,000 in personal loans. He listed no bank accounts or investments.
Tom Muhlman, director of the court's pre trial services division, said
his staff inadvertantly mistook Mulligan's motion for work release as a
court order and the work release was put in place.
Mulligan, who is not representing Gapen in connection with the
homicides, said Saturday that court and pre trial services officials
can't be blamed for the homicides.
"The court did what they normally do," he said. "The court is not in the
business to jail everyone in the community. At that particular time, Mr.
Gapen was merely accused of some quite frankly minot offenses and I
don't know if the state could have proven them."
"The guy is 50 some years old, no criminal record, coached pee wee
football and everybody who knew him liked him - That's the profile."
Madewell's friends with the drill team said she didn't voice any fear of
Gapen over the summer.
"She didn't really go into detail, she just said they were having
(marital) problems," said Jami Morris of Huber Heights, a fellow drill
team mother.
Morris said Madewell was happy about getting a condominium at 6255
Pheasant Hill Road in Dayton, near Huber Heights. She and her children
moved there several weeks ago. Gapen planned to move back into the house
on Deer Bluff, he told neighbors.
Brandon Laino said he visited Daniel Marshall at his home three or four
weeks ago, and both Gapen and Madewell were present. "Larry was there
with Martha and they were acting like friends, everybody was drinking
beer," he said.
On Sept. 8, the couple appeared before a juge to end their marriage.
Madewell's attorney, Joh Herndon, said she "had expressed concern" about
Gapen's reaction to the break up, but I wouldn't say she was living in
absolute fear."
The dissolution became final Thursday, Sept. 14. That night, Gapen made
his last scheduled run to Loiuisville for Federal Express Ground,
according to company spokeswoman Betsy Momich of Pittsburgh. "He was not
scheduled to drive over the week end," she said.
That's not what Gapen told pre trial service officials. Muhlman said
Gapen told them he had to work Saturday night.
At around 2 a.m. on Monday, Daniel Marshall awoke to Jessica's screams.
Minutes later he called 911.
"My mother. Oh my God, she's dead. I woke up about five minutes ago,"
he told the dispatcher. "I heard my sister screaming. I got up and my
stepfather was here. My ex-stepfather."
"My mother's dead! her boyfriend is dead! My sister is dead!"
Dayton police tracked Gapen to his daughter's condo at 132 Brushman
Avenue in Vandalia. He was arrested on East National Road about 7:40 am,
minutes after leaving the condo with Madewell's two youngest children.
Gapen is being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $3 million bond.
Prosecutors were expected to present the case to a grand jury this week.

County Common Pleas Judge Barbara Gorman is investigating how Gapen won
work release privileges without a judge's order.
Two families have buried loved ones.
And friends of Larry Gapen are still wondering if they really knew him.
"You spend all this time for the last week asking yourself, how did this
happen? Why?" Eshelmann said. "There is no answer why. No one knows why,
except Larry. And maybe he doesn't even know why."
Contact Tom Beyerlein at tom-be...@coxohio.com