Paul Taylor didn't shown up for work for a few days this past July, so concerned co-workers alerted authorities to check if anything was wrong. Police arrived at Taylor's north St. Louis County home to discover Taylor's car missing and Taylor dead from a gunshot. A few days later police in Clarksdale, Mississippi, arrested Taylor's brother, Calvin Taylor, driving the victim's missing vehicle. Taylor has been charged with first-degree murder and armed-criminal action.
Martin "Marty" Lampe
Martin Lampe, of Maplewood, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After a night out on the town, Lampe and friends stopped by a Sauget liquor store around 3:30 a.m. on March 25. As his friends went inside, the 23-year-old Lampe waited in the parking lot in a 2002 Chevrolet Impala with customized rims. Security cameras showed a man walk up to Lampe, shoot him twice in the gut and throw him to the curb before driving off in the vehicle. The car was found a couple days later in St. Louis with its 22-inch rims missing. It would take police four more months to arrest their suspect, 20-year-old Lason Elliot who police believe remained in St. Louis during most his time on the run -- dodging authorities on several occasions just moments before they arrived to make an arrest.
4. Funeral for Murder Victim Begets Two More Homicides
Two thugs with a list of previous crimes for drug dealing and theft were attending the funeral of murder victim David Davis in November when they got into a fight at the mortuary. The brawl spilled outside where Jason Finney and Trevlan Glass both drew guns and traded fatal gunshots with each other. A third man was also injured in the melee. Davis, whose funeral the men were attending, was killed a week earlier, shot around 10:30 a.m. in an alley in north city.
