Stephen Schap: The Unfaithful Wife And Her Headless Lover
In today's world of websites dedicated to horror and gore, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Psychopaths seem to creep around every corner. Grisly murders abound. One popular story from the early 1990's contains the details of a woman cradling a man's decapitated head and a particularly gruesome tale of infidelity that ends with a husband dumping the severed head of his wife's lover into her lap. Fake? Think again. This is the true crime tale of Stephen Schap.
In 1993, Stephen Schap, 26, was an Army sergeant stationed in Germany. He and his wife, Diane Schap, had suffered several miscarriages. Stephen underwent a vasectomy to spare his wife future loss, but the marriage was not without its troubles. Diane would later state that there were communication issues and frustration, and she found herself unhappy. Apparently, Stephen was not concerned about these issues and went about his life as though everything was normal.
Then Schaps befriended another soldier, a young man named Donald Glover. Glover, 21, worked with Stephen and spent a lot of time with the couple. When Stephen was sent away for training in the fall of 1993, Diane and Glover continued their friendship. This ended up blossoming romantically and the two became sexually involved. Soon, Diane found out that she was pregnant. Both she and Glover welcomed this news and wanted to move forward in their relationship. Diane began the process of ending her marriage to Stephen. Stephen, surprised by the suggestion of divorce and unaware of the extramarital relationship, was upset. When asked, Diane told him that she had not been unfaithful and that was not the reason she was breaking up with him.
One early December morning, Diane began experiencing the symptoms of another miscarriage and was admitted to the hospital. This was not something she could hide from Stephen and, when he came to her bedside upon hearing the news, she broke it to him that she was pregnant with another man's child. Stephen appeared to take the news fairly well, though he had questions about the other man, including inquiring as to what Army rank the man was. Later, he left the hospital, supposedly to begin moving out of the couple's home.
Later that day, Diane was on the phone with Glover when their conversation abruptly ended. Stephen had figured out the identity of the other man, located him at a pay phone at the base, and then attacked him. The two men fought, but Stephen managed to overpower Glover and stab him repeatedly with a knife. After sawing at the younger man's neck, Stephen kicked at his head until it severed from the body. He then shoved the head into a duffel bag and returned to the hospital. Once in his wife's room, he pulled the macabre souvenir out and placed it on the nightstand. He then said, "Look Diane, Glover's here. He'll sleep with you every night, only you won't sleep at night."
Stephen was later charged and found guilty of premeditated murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Adam Quirk is a criminal justice expert and true crime writer from Wisconsin. Adam holds a Master's degree in Criminal Justice (MCJ), as well as a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA).