Gospel Singer Marvin Sapp Under Federal Investigation In Case Of Missing Doctor
Grammy-nominated gospel singer Marvin Sapp says he was forced to file a protection order against missing doctor Teleka Patrick after she showed up at his church, sent him scores of letters and contacted his children. Now the authorities confirmed that he’s officially being investigated due to inconsistencies in his statement.
Investigators find it ‘interesting’ that Sapp claims to have been stalked by Patrick for over a year, but never made any 911 calls to police, prior to filing the order of protection. Authorities believe there’s definitely “foul play”, but need to find the body in order to “strengthen” their case against Sapp.
Teleka Patrick, of Kalamazoo, Mich., went missing on Dec. 5 (just three months after Sapp filed his order of protection) and hasn’t been seen since.
The search for a missing Michigan doctor took a bizarre twist after a chart-topping gospel singer said the woman stalked him, prompting him to file a protection order against her. Marvin Sapp, a Grammy-nominated gospel crooner and Grand Rapids pastor, claimed that Teleka Patrick sent him more than 400 love letters, joined his congregation, contacted his children and even moved to Michigan from California to be closer to him, local WOOD-TV reported. Sapp, 46, filed the protection order in September, some three months before the 30-year-old doctor vanished, the station reported.
The stalking had gone on for at least a year, Sapp said. In at least one instance, Patrick even professed that Sapp was her husband, according to the order. In a statement to the station Thursday, Sapp said, “As a father of three and pastor of one of the largest congregations in west Michigan, I cannot take this kind of obsessive attention lightly.” Gospel singer Marvin Sapp, who serves as a pastor at a church in Grand Rapids, says Patrick stalked him, prompting him to file a protection order.
Gospel singer Marvin Sapp, who serves as a pastor at a church in Grand Rapids, says Patrick stalked him, prompting him to file a protection order.
Patrick was last seen on Dec. 5 at her job at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, where she was a psychiatric resident. Later that evening, her abandoned 1997 Lexus was found with a flat tire by a highway in Portage, Ind., about 100 miles away. Authorities in Kalamazoo and Indiana were searching for her, and, so far, the case was being treated as a missing person. There were no suspects or signs of foul play, authorities said.
Patrick, disappeared from Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Dec. 5. Her gold Lexus was found 100 miles away in Indiana.
News of Sapp’s protection order raised questions about whether he was the one Patrick was addressing in a bizarre series of YouTube videos that surfaced last month. The clips, filmed before the disappearance, showed Patrick appearing to send tender messages to an absent boyfriend and serenading the camera with love songs.
In one video, titled “Surprise! Final Video,” she shows off a breakfast table set for two. Pointing to a plate of veggie bacon, tomatoes and an omelet, she says, “If you were here, this would be your plate.” Her parents have said she was not dating anyone, and they have no idea who she was talking too.
Patrick posted a YouTube video in which she lovingly prepared breakfast for her ‘baby’ — but friends and family have no idea who that might have been. But her ex-husband, Ismael Calderon, told WOOD-TV earlier this week he suspected Patrick suffered from mental illness.
The two were married and lived in California from 2006 to 2011, but their relationship began to unravel after Patrick became delusional, paranoid and began hearing voices, Calderon said. Patrick’s parents have said she had no interest of mental illness. Calderon told the station, “She went to Michigan on purpose and I don’t believe it had anything to do with, ‘Oh, Michigan has a really great psychiatric residency program.’”
On the night she was last seen, Patrick tried to check into a hotel only a few miles from her apartment, but left without getting a room.
“What I heard is that there was somebody that she maybe felt that God wanted her to be with.” He added, “Every day that she’s still missing, it’s a danger. This is a red alert.”
In a statement on Thursday, Patrick’s parents said they believed “wholeheartedly” that their daughter “had encountered some harm or danger.” “Teleka is missing and we want whoever has her or has harmed her in any way to come forward,” the statement to the station said. “Teleka is our eldest child. One of three bright stars in our lives, and we won’t be whole again.”
CNN
Comments
Post a Comment