Today, I spoke to the mother of a girl who was on
Greg Kapela's North Olmsted soccer team, in 1989. Her message was similar: Whether Kapela knew Amy or not, the man was a grade-A creep.
This woman was once friends with Kapela and even invited him to her family's summer cottage in central Ohio--a fact the FBI agents were particularly interested in. Kapela was also her daughter's dentist and, she says, he would close the door to the room when he was there, alone, with the girls. She often made excuses to step inside, herself, making small talk about soccer just to keep an eye on her girl.
Then, there was the pajama party. One of the girls on his team had a party at her house and invited the other 10-12 year olds to come in pajamas. Kapela was caught looking in the basement windows at the girls, but then invited inside by the parents.
But after Amy's abduction, rumors began circulating in the team about inappropriate contact with girls and eventually the story about Kapela asking an eleven-year-old girl if he could be her boyfriend surfaced. Parents began pulling kids off his team. The FBI asked at least one parent to stay on and pretend to be his friend, to see what he might say. But when Kapela began to spin his troubles by blaming the 11-year-old for "pursuing" him, it got to be too creepy and even those parents pulled their kids away.
The mother says by this time the FBI had a lot invested into the investigation. One agent, she recalls, said: "I'm going to get this bastard if it takes my entire life."