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Lost hunter�s fate unknown Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Nearly two months after her boyfriend went missing, Dawn Hull, of Central Point, continues to wonder what became of Christopher Lapping. She still searches the mountains east of Coquille for his body, but sheriff�s deputies believe he may have faked his own death. His new Dodge pickup truck was found at the bottom of a cliff, but no blood was in the pickup and there was no evidence that he fell out as it went down. Girlfriend looks for his body, but police think he�s alive � somewhere By Jill Briskey Christopher Lapping�s pickup truck was found smashed at the bottom of a steep ravine in the rugged Tioga wilderness east of Coquille, the seatbelt securely wrapped around the steering wheel. The experienced 46-year-old bow hunter from Central Point was last seen Sept. 10 when he set off for a solitary, one-day hunting excursion, telling family he would try his luck near Butte Falls or at a popular hunting ground in the Tioga wilderness. His 2000 Dodge 4x4 was found a week later at the base of a 350-foot cliff in an area off Highway 42, several miles from Coquille. But there was no sign of Lapping. His longtime girlfriend, Dawn Hull, searches nearly every weekend for his body, convinced that the only explanation for his disappearance is that he�s dead. Police search, too, but for a living Lapping: They think he faked his own death. Nearly two months later, the mystery only deepens. "The biggest possibility at this point is that he ran the pickup over the cliff himself," says Deputy Ken Marlin of the Coos County Sheriff�s Office, which is handling the investigation. "At this point, we have no other explanation." No blood was found in Lapping�s pickup, Marlin says, and there was no evidence he fell out of the vehicle as it plummeted down the embankment. "That�s pretty much the only thing we can rule out," Lt. Larry Leader says. "We know he wasn�t in the truck when it went over." But Hull, Lapping�s live-in girlfriend of nine years, continues to comb the countryside on weekends, looking for any clues of Lapping�s whereabouts. She maintains Lapping was either injured or the victim of foul play. "That�s the only thing that has given me any stability, going down there to look for him," the Central Point resident says. "I just want to find him. Even if he�s dead, I just want to find him and bring him home." Coos County deputies say there have been no sightings or leads, even after extensive aerial and ground searches and despite a $5,000 reward offered by Lapping�s family. But they do know this: � ATM records show Lapping withdrew $400 at about 7 a.m. Sept. 10 in Coquille. � There were no skid marks on the top of the cliff to indicate a driver was out of control prior to the crash. � The truck�s middle safety belt strap was wrapped around the steering wheel, which would have forced the truck to veer to the left off the cliff, Leader says. "It was wrapped around the wheel in a manner that didn�t appear to be accidental," says Marlin. Leader also wonders why water bottles and a pack lunch were missing from the truck. And he questions why Lapping wasted valuable hunting time withdrawing money from an ATM in Coquille instead of waiting until the day was over. "The scenarios just don�t fit," adds Marlin. "Foul play on someone else�s part doesn�t fit either." On the ground scattered around the wreckage, authorities found Lapping�s bow and wrist band, a brand new Global Positioning System unit and other personal items. Inside the cab, his wallet was missing but the fanny pack he always kept it in was on the seat. Investigators have not given up, however, periodically checking with Lapping�s friends and family to see if he has attempted contact. Timber patrol deputies who spend most of their time deep in the forests have been instructed to look for Lapping. Initial ground search teams, numbering 75 volunteers, have given way to small search parties led by Hull on the weekends. Hunters have been notified to look as well, but sheriff officials speculate Lapping probably won�t be found. "We�re certainly not ruling out any possibility at this point, but as time goes on, the situation usually gets clearer. In this case, it hasn�t," Leader says. "People disappear for personal reasons; it�s not uncommon." Officials wonder if Lapping�s disappearance was motivated by debt or personal reasons. Hull disagrees, and says her boyfriend�s only debt was his recent purchase of the $30,000 pickup. It was not, she adds, a financial hardship. Besides, Hull says, why would Lapping skip town with only $400, when he had additional funds available? "It just doesn�t make sense," she says. "How far can you get with only $400?" Friends and family believe Lapping hasn�t skipped town. Hull says that for over a year, she had noticed Lapping suffering from increasingly worse migraines. Hull fears her boyfriend may have blacked out as a result of a headache, fallen out of the truck and wandered away hurt. "I think that maybe it could be foul play. What else can it be?" she asks. "I just don�t feel there is any foul play on his part. I just don�t see it." She criticizes the county�s efforts to solve the case, citing the fact that no fingerprints were taken from the pickup. She also questions why the pickup�s tailgate was left behind after the truck was hauled out; the tailgate was found weeks later by a search party. Lapping was scheduled to work, at Viking Automatic Sprinkler Co. in Central Point, the day after his hunting excursion, and Hull says he isn�t the type of person to leave anybody in the lurch. She also says Lapping would always call when he was going to be late. "I don�t know what�s true anymore," she said. "There is no way he would ever do that to his family, to me." Leader hopes that if Lapping has chosen to leave his life behind, that someone will notify the sheriff�s office so everyone can achieve some kind of closure. "People always say they know their loved ones, that they would never do this or that," Leader says. "In real life, you never know what�s in someone�s head." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.