A Murdered 17-Year-Old’s Bucket List

Oct 17, 2012 by winjaw

This is a sidebar story that ran last Sunday in The Newnan Times-Herald on Blake Chappell’s “bucket list.” He started it shortly before he went missing. Two months later, he was found in a creek with a bullet in his head. Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of his disappearance. Despite a $20,000 reward, the killer or killers remain at large

•••••

In the fall of 2011, Blake Chappell started a bucket list — things he wanted to accomplish in life. Handwritten in typical teenager scrawl, the 100-item list fills a single sheet of white paper. Less than 10 of the items are crossed out. His mom, Melissa Becker, believes he started it shortly before Blake went missing after walking home from his girlfriend’s house early in the morning on Oct. 16, 2011.

It is a very telling list.

There’s no mention of dating a Victoria Secret’s model, flying to the moon, climbing Mount Everest, becoming a multi-millionaire, sailing around the world, owning a Lamborghini, or walking across America.

There are a few typical big goals for a 17-year-old: Write a song, drive a foreign car, fly to England, fly first class, be in a movie, stay in a mansion one night. But the vast majority focus on self-improvement, becoming a better person.

Among Blake’s list:

Hug my mom like I’ve never hugged her before; stay true to at least one friend; become more confident; stand up for someone else; prove to yourself you can do something you’d never thought possible; save someone’s life; stop childish lying; help out a complete stranger; don’t get angry so easily; get closer to my brother; keep a promise; keep a secret…

And so on.

Blake had marked off a few items: spend more time at home; realize how good your life really is; be more sociable; kiss a complete stranger; stand up for yourself; move and live in the country…

Blake had barely started on his list. He will never finish it. His body was pulled from a SummerGrove subdivision creek in eastern Newnan on Dec. 19, 2011. He was killed by a gunshot to the head.

* * *

“He was country,” his girlfriend at the time of his disappearance, Rion Cameron, said. “He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he really was.”

“He was crazy, crazy in a good way,” she added. “Way crazier than me.”

His mom Melissa recalls how when they moved back to Senoia earlier in 2011, Blake was ecstatic because they had a fishing pond.

“He probably loved fishing more than anything,” she said. “He’d wake up at dawn, go down to the creek where he knew the worms were and he’d fish all day. He once caught an alligator gar when he was 6. I cooked it up for him, but I sure didn’t try to eat it.”

His half-brother, Chris Ripley, said Blake loved to just “squeal tires.”

“We’d just drive around, it could be on motorcycles or a truck, he’d just love to squeal tires,” Chris said. “We had a typical brother relationship. I just wanted him to learn from my mistakes.” Chris was five years older than Blake.

Rion remembers Blake’s laugh the most.

“It was sort of high-pitched, it almost sounded mischievous,” she said. “And then he’d sort of just giggle.”

Melissa agreed. “He just had this way about him. He’d throw his head back and just chuckle… it really was cute.”

* * *

More from Blake’s list:

Accomplish something great; prove the haters wrong; try your hardest at anything you do; don’t be a follower, be a leader; don’t hold your grudges; don’t take anything unless you plan to pay it back; always keep a promise to yourself; don’t give up on yourself; become a grandfather; make your mom proud.

* * *

“He was an incredible son, he was always looking out for me,” Melissa said. She got cervical cancer in 2006 and had to quit her job.

“We were really struggling,” she recalled. “Blake promised to stay and never leave. He wanted to make sure I was OK.”

Melissa is the first to tell you she loves animals. “I mean love!” she joked. “He’d come home with all these strays because he knew they would cheer me up.”

In various interviews with friends and family, Blake was not only a good son, but a friend as well.

“He was a good kid in the truest sense,” said Shannon Cameron, Rion’s mom. “He’d take time always to play with my little boy and just kid around. He had as much fun just hanging out with our family as anything. He was just part of the family.”

“He always, always, kept his word,” Rion said.

“He was more like a brother, he was just the type of friend you always hoped to be,” added Brent Beaman, who put together the video slide show at Blake’s funeral and lived down the street from him. “He would always stand by you. If you were ever in trouble, he’d be there.”

* * *

More from Blake’s list:

Bungee jump; tell someone how I feel about them; buy my first beer legally; get married; save someone’s life; hold your head up and don’t worry for once; let something go; learn to save money; stop being too modest; be silent for a whole day.

* * *

Blake never really had a dad.

Melissa had a very brief encounter with an older man while living in Florida. He was a boat captain living at a marina.

“I just couldn’t have an abortion,” Melissa said. “I ended up cutting all ties with him (Blake’s dad).

“It was hard for Blake growing up without a dad,” she added. “But he was such a beautiful gift to us.”

When he was still young, she remembered how he hated that she smoked. And one time as a child he jumped out of the car and stood in front of it, refusing to let Melissa leave the convenience store.

“You can’t drink and drive, I won’t let you,” she recalled him saying. “He didn’t understand that I just had an iced-tea. He was taught in school you couldn’t drink and drive.”

Blake knew his dad was a boat captain, and one time when he was very young he walked the two to three blocks down to the marina and started asking people if they were his dad.

“His was never close to his dad,” Melissa said. “I asked him one day if he wanted to take his dad’s name — he had that right — and he told me ‘no,’ he was a Chappell.” Melissa’s maiden name is Chappell. Melissa said Blake first met his dad around the age of 10, and only saw him a few times after that.

Despite that, Blake was quite the entrepreneur.

“He kept making me go and buy cases of Monster,” Melissa said. “He’d take them to school and sell them for $2. The only deal was they had to give him the tabs back. He had a Kawasaki dirt bike, green and black, and he would trade those tabs in for all the Monster stuff — coats, shirts, hats.”

Blake also wanted to help out his friends.

“I used to make candy apples and he’d set up a stand and sell them at the trailer park,” Melissa said. “One day he came up and said he wanted Rion to help him sell candy apples at school to help out his friend whose family was in financial trouble. He kept begging me to make more candy apples so he could help his friend.”

“Blake cared about his friends,” she added. “He would do anything he could to help.”

Ane he helped a few with skin piercings. Blake had his own “snakebites,” two holes about two to three inches apart running just below the lower lip with a piece of jewelry through them.

“He was pretty good at it,” Rion said. “He did his own and also some friends’.”

* * *

More from Blake’s list:

Have a son/daughter; talk to your dad more often; do what’s best for you at least once; stay one night in a haunted mansion; be a hero at least once; take someone with you on a special trip; complete 50 goals on this list; don’t beg so much; realize your destiny; don’t deny an obvious truth; never back down.

* * *

Talk to anyone about Blake and they will tell you he was a loyal friend — and a master at Guitar Hero.

“When he played, he would turn around and talk to me… and not miss a single note on that game. He amazed me with it,” one friend posted on a Facebook memorial page for Blake.

While he mastered Guitar Hero, the real thing wasn’t quite as successful.

“He couldn’t play the guitar. And he thought he could rap. He couldn’t rap,” Rion said while laughing, one of the few times she did in a recent interview.

“He just loved karaoke,” Melissa said. “He sang at my mother’s wedding. He had every Celine Dion and Sarah McLachlan song memorized.”

Melissa also said that Blake got along with everyone.

“He didn’t see color,” she said. “He didn’t care if you were rich or poor. And he loved the girls and the girls loved him. He was quite the charmer.”

There are several Facebook pages set up in memory of Blake. The latest is called Justice For Blake. Although it’s set up as an “event” site, it’s more of a “never forget” one, according to Brent, who set up the page.

“I just thought it was the right thing to do,” Brent said. “I just want to give him some peace. I promised a lot of people I’m not going to stop.”

Brent also posted Blake’s last Facebook entry, posted at his house shortly before the Oct. 15, 2011, homecoming dance at East Coweta High School:

“I think this might b tha first time tht I can say tht im truly fallin in love!!! I hope tht I dont get hurt again… This time it might kill me”.

* * *

In the bottom right corner of Blake’s bucket list, is a shorter one marked off by squiggly lines. It is Blake’s “To Do List.”

• Read the Bible

• Go back to school and graduate

• Get a job and buy your own car

• Move into your own place

• Find a good girl + stay faithful

• Take a road trip

• Get your license

• Become a better person and son

• Work out on a regular basis

• Help out mom more

 

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