.
Martins Creek – People come together in life for a variety of reasons for friendship, companionship and love. However, on occasion folks are paired with someone who is nothing less than a nightmare.
Debi Gaffey was in just such a relationship with a man who not only failed to protect her, but did her great harm. Her boyfriend, George Tharp, would eventually end up hanging himself in 2005 while incarcerated.
The two met in 1998, when Gaffey tried to help a man and his mother at the request of a friend by offering them a place to stay. She was told Tharp had served time for a DUI that resulted in a fatality.
Gaffey had no idea of the trouble that lay ahead of her. Tharp was not who he appeared to be, as he was in prison for far more serious charges than she was led to believe. Ten months into the relationship, she started noticing changes in his behavior.
“I didn’t investigate as much as I should have when things started happening,” she said.
By the time Gaffey met Tharp, he had already served time for criminal mischief property damage, grand theft motor vehicle, traffic in stolen property, second-degree murder and burglary of a dwelling occupied. They were together for about seven years before he ended his own life in a Cherokee County Jail cell.
During the time the two were together, she noticed her pets would either go missing or die, for which he always had an explanation.
“He was like two different people, like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Gaffey said.
She told him he needed to stop drinking, which he did. However, it wasn’t long before drug use entered the picture.
“He just kept acting crazier,” Gaffey said. But she would make excuses for the way he acted.
One day he disappeared with one of Gaffey’s dogs and was found by the police with a bloody knife on him. The dog was never found.
He also threw a cat out of a car window. Her things would also disappear, like a favorite lamp and other items.
“That’s a way of dehumanizing a person; taking your things and keeping you from others in your life,” Gaffey said.
On two separate occasions he kidnapped her. Then there was a time he entered her home around midnight and hid until she returned from work.
Gaffey had a restraining order against him. Once again things got scary, this time far worse.
“I asked him to leave and he said, ‘If I’m gonna die, you’re gonna die,’ “ she said.
He put a pillowcase over Gaffey’s head and stabbed her. He also began biting her back and cut her finger deeply. She was able to stab him in self defense.
“The sheets were bloodied,” she said.
Gaffey said Tharp had a claw-hammer hand tool and garbage bags nearby. Despite being injured, she managed to run to a neighbor’s house, while he took her van.
From the hospital and after treatment, he was taken to jail in 2005, where he would hang himself on Christmas Day.
Gaffey said Tharp was suspected of previously killing five women. She has been in contact with the State Bureau of Investigation regarding women’s disappearances when he died.
Today, she is happy and free of the physical harm she endured. She enjoys painting and making sun-catchers, all without having to look over her shoulder.