American Murdered In Thailand Is Laid To Rest In America

[sriracha john]

In a continuation of a closed thread:

Farang Killing

an extensive article provides more insight into the man and his life before Thailand, yet many more questions remain. Additionally of note is that there has apparently been no progress in the investigation of this murder and no one has been arrested.

Just as a reminder, the original thread concerning this case was closed due to assorted flamings and rantings. Please post appropriately:

The Life And Death Of The Monkey Man

Monkey sculptures dot the North Stonington property of the late Jon LaChappelle, who was shot in the back in Thailand last month.

Published on 11/19/2006

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses

You've been out ridin' fences,

for so long now.

Oh you're a hard one.

I know that you've got your reasons.

These things that are pleasin' you

Can hurt you somehow.

— Lyrics to 1973 Eagles' song

Not much was routine at Jon LaChappelle's funeral, where a colorful stuffed monkey sat perched on the coffin while hushed mourners listened to a recording of “Desperado,” the 1973 song by the Eagles that was one of his favorites.

But then not much was routine about LaChappelle's life.

And for all those who came to say goodbye last month, crowding into two small parlors of a Hope Valley, R.I., funeral home, there might have been nearly as many who were not so sorry to see him gone.

Jon A. LaChappelle, 43, was an entrepreneur, a wily businessman who made a lot of money in everything from home remodeling to importing and selling vitamin juice concoctions. He was born in Westerly in 1963, grew up in southern Rhode Island and lived most recently in North Stonington, where he owned some rental properties and violated so many building and zoning regulations that people in Town Hall tend to sigh when you mention his name.

At the town landfill they knew him as Monkey Man, because sometimes he would show up there with his monkey, Jacob, in the truck with him. It was a Capuchin monkey, one he imported illegally, the kind you usually see accompanying an organ grinder in the circus.

He also had a long criminal history, starting when he was 19 with the rape of his 16-year-old girlfriend. When he was 24 he was charged in a fatal car accident in which police said he was drag racing his Corvette on Interstate 95 at speeds of up to 100 mph. His most recent arrest was in February of this year, when he was accused of stealing highway construction material from the North Stonington highway department.

When word spread through town last month that LaChappelle had been found dead on a coffee plantation he owned in Thailand, an apparent murder victim, with two shotgun wounds in the back, some were not that surprised.

“He burned a lot of bridges,” said one of LaChappelle's tenants. “I guess he finally crossed the wrong person.”

•••••

LaChappelle's likely murder is under investigation by Thai authorities, according to a spokesperson for the American embassy in Bangkok. Few details are available. His body was found Sept. 29 and had been shot sometime between Sept. 28 and 29, the embassy spokesperson said, quoting Thai authorities.

Word of the apparent murder began spreading here last month after it was disclosed by LaChappelle's fiancée, Dara Panasy, who had been living with him in one of several houses he owns near Billings Lake. She was also a partner in his importing business, she has told people.

Associates of the couple say that Panasy, who grew up in Danielson, is either of Laotian or Thai descent, and that LaChappelle's business dealings and frequent visits to Thailand began at about the time they started dating.

Panasy has told people she will inherit LaChappelle's estate because her fiancé, who had no children, was not especially close to his family. She would not talk about LaChappelle or his estate when questioned while she was collecting rents at one of the properties on Route 2 owned by a limited liability corporation that uses LaChappelle's initials in its name, JAL Properties.

“You're the reporter, you figure it out,” she said.

She said the estate will be handled by Attorney Michael Ursillo of Providence, who did not return phone calls. No estate has been opened yet in Probate Court in North Stonington.

LaChappelle had seven siblings, including steps. His father, Jon A. LaChappelle Sr., who runs a car repair and towing business in West Kingston, R.I., also declined to talk about his son and closed the door on a reporter.

A spokesman for the Connecticut State Police said they have had no official notification of LaChappelle's death nor any involvement in the investigation of his possible murder.

“Once he was your friend, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for you,” said William Johndrow, one of LaChappelle's nearest neighbors in the small community of mostly seasonal cottages at Billings Lake. LaChappelle, said Johndrow and others, could be charming.

Yet there is a long history of contentious relations with town officials and neighbors in places where he owned property.

At Billings Lake, there were two separate zoning battles over whether two cottages he owned at 83 Billings Lake Road had been used year-round prior to the 1964 zoning regulations that restricted small lots in the neighborhood to seasonal use. One of the houses had not even been built at the time he was claiming it was used all year, say town officials.

He eventually prevailed in one of the cease-and-desist cases and was able to use that house all year. For the second property, he bought more land so that it would not be restricted to seasonal use.

On another, larger parcel at 59 Billings Lake Road, one that was landlocked when he first bought it, LaChappelle began building a new house in 2004 without a building permit. Once that cease-and-desist order was resolved, he got in another tangle with the town over whether two big piers for stone gates leading onto the property were structures and therefore too close to the property line.

Today, the columns remain unfinished, and big metal gates stand open in the middle of the woods but lead nowhere, since neither the house nor the road to it has been finished.

The project at 59 Billings also led to disputes with other neighbors who said that LaChappelle obscured property line markers with heavy earthmoving equipment and moved things onto their land.

Neighbors Carl and Brenda Johnson complained in a letter to the town in late 2005 that LaChappelle had left construction debris on their property, created ruts from heavy equipment and, with all the earth moving, made a stream there impassable.

LaChappelle was once cited by the state Department of Environmental Protection for storing 55-gallon drums filled with an unidentified substance on his Billings Lake Road property. He was also warned for illegal burning.

“He has total disregard for the rules, regulations and building codes of the state and town,” an exasperated first selectman, Nicholas Mullane II, was quoted as saying at the time LaChappelle was found building the house without a permit.

Real estate broker Myles Meader said he got into a legal dispute with LaChappelle and one of his previous girlfriends over a right of way across an abutting piece of land he owned on Route 184.

“He was nasty,” said Meader. “First time I met him, after 10 minutes, he threatened my life.”

•••••

LaChappelle's criminal arrest record, mostly in Rhode Island, includes disorderly conduct, willful trespass, breaking and entering, reckless driving, eluding police and violation of probation. He also has a long history of motor vehicle infractions, including six speeding tickets in two years, 1985 and 1986.

A review of court records indicates that he never spent any time in prison, and many of the charges were not prosecuted or were dismissed. In one case an alleged victim declined to testify. In others prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to proceed.

In 1983, though, he pleaded nolo contendre to the sexual assault charges related to the attack on his girlfriend and was sentenced to five years in jail, suspended, and five years' probation.

The 16-year-old victim in that 1982 case told police that LaChappelle, her boyfriend at the time, made her leave a party in Connecticut and drove her to a remote cemetery in Rhode Island where he sexually assaulted her in the back of the car. She said he was very agitated, acting strangely and driving fast.

“All the way to Rhode Island I kept crying and he kept telling me that in two weeks that he was going to be dead and that he always cared about me and loved me,” she told police.

A year after being sentenced for the sexual assault, he was charged with violation of probation, when the victim reported he continued to harass her, in violation of a court order.

LaChappelle was charged in 1987 with driving to endanger, death resulting, and leaving the scene of an accident, after a fatal crash on I-95 in North Providence. A witness said that a white Corvette, like the one owned by LaChappelle at the time, stopped briefly in the breakdown lane after the crash, then sped away.

The driver of the other car, in which the passenger was killed, described the start of the accident this way: “A white 'Vette made a move on me, so I downshifted and made a move on him.” He said his car must have hit something in the road, then rolled over.

Police said they linked debris at the site to pieces missing from LaChappelle's car. The charges proceeded to trial but were eventually dismissed, after prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to continue.

Early this year LaChappelle listed two of the houses on Billings Lake Road for sale, one for $399,000 and one for $310,000. He also listed one of his investment properties, a cottage on Route 184.

A neighbor said LaChappelle told him he was planning to move to Thailand permanently. The realtor who had the listings, Samantha Storey of Re Max Shoreline, said she had the impression he was going to finish the other house on Billings Lake Road, which was not for sale, and live in it with his fiancée.

Storey said her dealings with LaChappelle were routine and pleasant. She said she was intrigued by Jacob the monkey, who she heard sometimes swam in the lake with his owner.

She said they withdrew the properties from the market when she learned of LaChappelle's death.

“He was always very nice to me. He gave me the listing,” she said. “He was a character, I guess, an adventurer.”

- The Day (New London, Connecticut, USA)

Edited November 19, 2006 by sriracha john