Crime & Safety

"None of It Makes Any Sense"

Todd Rehkop's girlfriend says he was a man who would not ask for help even when he had reached the end of his rope.

Dana Johnston stood on the front porch of the home she once shared with Todd Rehkop on Morton Lane in Lake Saint Louis.

"Poor man, he couldn't take it anymore," she said.

Rehkop, 41, shot himself after a brief standoff with police on I-70 near Boonville at 2 a.m. Wednesday. He was suspected in the assault of a woman in a grocery store parking lot in Columbia and the attempted assault of two other women, one in Columbia and one in Boonville.

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Johnston, Rehkop's girlfriend of three years, painted a picture of a man pushed to the limit.

"He lost his business, a million-dollar construction business. It was the only thing he knew, he'd been in construction since he was 15. He had applications everywhere, but he couldn't get a job," Johnston said. She said Rehkop's financial difficulties forced him to sell part of his farm in Monroe City.

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A search of court records shows a history of domestic problems with his wife Diane M. Rehkop that resulted in a series of lawsuits against him every year since 2007. In addition, Ford Motor Credit sued him for breach of contract lawsuit just last month. And there was more.

"He had broken his knee and ankle. He had heart surgery. He was served court papers the day he went for heart surgery," Johnston said.

"He was so depressed, but he was so prideful, he wouldn't ask for help," she said. "He wasn't himself at all. He was acting crazy. I didn't know what to do."

Johnston said that when she last saw him Tuesday, Rehkop said he was going to Colorado, to his favorite hunting spot.

Police suspect that Rehkop is the man who approached a 57-year-old woman in a parking lot of Conley Road in Columbia about 7:35 p.m. Tuesday and showed her a gun. When she told him to leave, he walked away.

Then, at 10:59 p.m., police say a man with a gun -- likely Rehkop -- approached a woman in the parking lot of the Hy-Vee store on Conley Road. He ordered her to take off her clothes and perform a sex act on him. The woman ran into the store for help.

At 12:21 a.m., Boonville police received a report of an attempted sexual assault at a truck stop. The suspect left, but not before he told the woman that he was going to kill himself.

A Lafayette County Sheriff's Deputy spotted Rehkop's truck on I-70, where Rehkop shot and killed himself at 2 a.m. after a brief standoff.

Johnston said that she and Rehkop had a good relationship, and Rehkop's troubles overwhelmed him.

"He was a good, good, man. He was never, ever mean to a woman. He was never angry. He was more of a protector than anything else," she said. "He just couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel."

Johnston expressed sorrow for the three women "whose lives were changed" by Rehkop's inability to cope with his problems or to seek help.

"It's just so wrong. And it's not the man I know."

During an interview with Lake Saint Louis Patch, Johnston's friend Gail Gallagher, stood nearby to offer her support. It was Gallagher, Johnston said, who had brought the two of them — Johnston and Rehkop — together three years ago.

Gallagher said news reports about Rehkop haven't told the whole story.

"We've gone from grieving to being angry to being upset to our stomachs. None of it makes any sense," she said.


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