Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

911 call
Dispatcher: Sheriff’s office…

Caller: Hey, I got a vandalism [to report]…

D: Alright are you out there now?

C: Yes…

D: OK. What happened?

C: We got three motor homes back here that had the windows busted in, and they went through the motor homes and they tried to steal a TV, so there’s probably some prints and shit on the TV and the screwdriver that they tried to use.

D: OK. Alright. And what’s your name?

C: [Provides name.]

D: What’s your phone number there?

C: This is my cell phone number; it’s [provides number].

D: OK, we’ll send them out there.

C: Alright, thanks.

Officer’s Report: I was dispatched on burglaries to several vehicles. All vehicles were parked in the rear of Rush Racing… behind a privacy fence. The area is not enclosed on all sides, and it was not necessary to breach any fence to gain access to the vehicles. It seems reasonable to assume that all of these burglaries were part of the same incident. The first and second vehicles are a Class A motor home with an attached, enclosed trailer. … Vehicle #3 is a Class A motor home. … Vehicle #4 is a camper trailer. … Except for Unit #2, entry was gained by breaking our windows and reaching inside to unlock doors. All units were rummaged through extensively. Drawers and cupboards were gone through. Some damage was done in attempting to remove some installed items, such as television sets, etc. None of the victims had any serial numbers for any missing items. In fact, they did not even know the brand names of some of the electronic equipment stolen. I found nothing of IDENT [fingerprinting, etc.] value at the scene.

Docket diving

A few days after the new year in 2004, a Buchanan County Sheriff’s deputy was making his rounds through the small town of Raymond. When he cruised by the bank, he noticed something odd: a car, with someone behind the wheel, parked in front of the bank, hours before the bank was scheduled to open. As the deputy drove slowly by, the car — almost as if startled — moved to a nearby convenience store, where it “took off at a high rate of speed,” according to court documents. The deputy tailed the car until it detoured into a farm field. The driver got out and ran, while the deputy called for backup to search the field.

Eventually, police found a man laying in the dirt, bleeding from the stomach. He had what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds slicing across his abdomen. The man, later identified as Lynn Gene Lamasters, was taken to the hospital, and a bizarre story began to unfold.

The car Lamasters had been driving was registered to Patricia Rapacki of Jesup, and a purse belonging to Rapacki was found in the trunk. Authorities began to question Lamasters, who was still in the hospital, about the woman. Who was she? Why was her purse in the trunk? On Jan. 7, three days after the accident, a police officer asked Lamasters if he thought that Rapacki might have been hurt. Lamasters responded, “They can tell time of death, right? And her time of death will state that I was not—or will show that I was not there.”

Two days later, deputies read Lamasters his Miranda rights and continued to question him. They also revealed that they’d found methamphetamine, along with an unknown key, in the car. Upon his release from the hospital, Lamasters was transported to jail.

On Jan. 12, special investigators discovered Rapacki’s body crammed inside a locked freezer in the basement of her Jesup house. She’d been strangled with an electrical cord. Lamasters’ DNA was found on the collar of Rapacki’s sweater and on the electrical cord. And authorities matched the key found in the car Lamasters was driving to the basement freezer.

During the next few days, investigators learned that Lamasters and Rapacki had been living together in the Jesup home, along with Rapacki’s two children from other marriages. On Dec. 27, they’d taken the kids to their respective fathers’ homes for the holidays. No one heard from Rapacki after that day.

A Buchanan County jury found Lamasters guilty of first-degree murder, a verdict that Lamasters recently appealed. He claimed that the sheriff’s deputies failed to read him his Miranda rights the first two times they interviewed him, and that he was too medicated with pain drugs when the Miranda rights were read later.

The deputies, however, maintained that when they first interviewed Lamasters at the hospital, they did not read his Miranda rights because they didn’t suspect foul play, according to court records; they simply wanted more information on Rapacki because her car had been involved in a police chase and her purse was in the trunk.

The Iowa Court of Appeals pointed out that Miranda warnings are not required unless “there is both custody and interrogation.” Lamasters, the court said, was not under police custody at the hospital; therefore, his appeal was not valid. Even though he was medicated, he was “responsive” and “not confused” during questioning, they found. His appeal was denied.

Lamasters is serving a life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary for the murder of Patricia Rapacki.

On the clock

Des Moines Police – Nov. 7

5:32 a.m.
Harassment of a police officer in the 6100 block of Francis. A male suspect called Iowa Lutheran Hospital and warned that he was going to “fucking kill someone.” He said he had a gun, and was “in the mood” to kill police officers, police dispatchers and mental health nurses, for “the way they treated him,” according to police reports. When police discovered the address of the caller, they realized officers had visited his residence “several times” already that night —once for a neighbor dispute, and another, when he told police he wanted to go to jail because “that is what the police wanted.” He was “extremely intoxicated” and “very belligerent,” police reports indicate. Officers went to his home again, where the suspect refused to obey commands to open the door. Finally, police kicked in the door to find the man in his living room, smoking a cigarette. They arrested him and transported him to Polk County Jail.

9:30 a.m.
Criminal mischief in the 3600 block of Douglas. A couple reported that green paint had been sprayed on several vehicles behind their business. One truck had the letters “RD” in addition to a symbol, painted on a back panel, and a van had the word “kazadeep” on a front panel.

12:15 p.m.
Assult with weapon in the 900 block of Grandview. A Grandview College professor was pulling out of a parking space on campus, when a male blocked her car. A witness heard the suspect tell the victim, “Don’t look at me. I’m packin,’” at which point the suspect lifted his shirt to reveal a handgun tucked into his waistband. The victim reversed her car quickly, striking a parked car, and exited the parking lot to get away. Witnesses saw the suspect get into his vehicle and drive away, as well.

8:35 p.m.
Burglary in the 2400 block of Farwell. The victim reported that his overhead garage door, which he kept closed, was open when he returned to his residence. There was no sign of forced entry, but the following items were missing: a Snapper snowblower, valued at $1,800; a Cub Cadet lawnmower, valued at $1,000; a Total Gym machine, valued at $1,800; a large box of assorted knives, valued at $800; a cordless drill, valued at $250; and miscellaneous tools, valued at $500.

2,367 : number of civil rights complaints filed with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission during the 2002-2003 fiscal year.

Sucks to be you

Location: Super Target, West Des Moines
Sucks to be you because: It’s not a great time to be a deer in Des Moines’ suburbs, as deer populations surge, and as subdivisions encircle what was once their habitat. One deer had quite the scare last Tuesday night when it accidentally charged into a Super Target store, ran around in a panic for 20 minutes, then bolted back out the door. If it managed to outwit crazed holiday shoppers, perhaps it will be shrewd enough to dodge hunters (and developers) this season.

Clear as mud

Vision Improvement Technologies, Inc. claimed it had a “natural” vision-improvement kit that could eliminate the need for patients’ contacts or glasses. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller called the company’s bluff, and he filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the Fairfield-based company’s “See Clearly Method,” which was a kit of “manuals, charts, videos and audio-tapes” that purportedly could teach people to correct their own eyes. The Polk County District Court told the company to take the kit off the market. “The company made dramatic claims for its product that it could not substantiate,” Miller said in a recent statement.

Comment on this story | Return to top