Man Burned in House Explosion Menaced Neighbors: Residents

By Joseph Hosey

The Sunday night house explosion that severely burned a man eyed by police in connection with his girlfriend's disappearance was a deafening exclamation point to the couple's tumultuous time on Circle Drive, neighbors said.

One neighbor, Mike Grigat, recalled James Borg spraying Mace in his puppy's face.

"I think he was kind of a weirdo," Grygat said of Borg, 44.

Another neighbor, Michael Kristina, petitioned for a protective order in April after Borg allegedly threatened him.

"He called me on the phone telling me he will kill me and my family," Kristina wrote in his petition.

"James is always drunk," Kristina said. "Many times I have seen James walking his dog. He will have a large can of Mace and a big knife on his belt."

A Judge denied Kristina's petition, but Borg was found guilty in February of threatening to kill Kristina and damage his property. Borg is still awaiting sentencing, according to court records.

Yet another neighbor, Tiffany Walpole, said Borg and his now missing girlfriend, Anne Gay, constantly engaged in drunken fights.

"They were always drinking and they would always fight," said Walpole, who estimated that before Gay's disappearance in early June the police were called to domestic incidents "every other day."

"Since she went missing, it's been real quiet," Walpole said.

The police questioned Borg about Gay's disappearance last week," said Deputy Chief Paul Kaupas of the Will County Sheriff's Department. Deputies also searched Borg's truck and house, he said, and seized evidence related to Gay's disappearance.

A police dog trained to locate cadavers was taken into the house during the search and indicated there was evidence of a corpse having been inside the residence, Kaupas said.

Just a month prior to Gay, 52, vanishing, Borg accused her of attacking him while she was drunk.

"She will throw things at me, chairs plates, forks, whatever she can get her hands on," Borg wrote in a petition for a protective order. "She will call me a broke m f er. She will call me a looser (sic). She will say I'm going to kill you. She has told me she would get her sons to come over and beat me up until I'm half dead."

A judge denied Borg's petition.

In the petition, Borg also claimed Gay "is wanted in Canada." Coincidentally, Walpole said Borg told her Gay is now hiding in Canada. On another occasion, Borg said Gay "left with some big black guy," Walpole recalled.

Walpole also said Borg was irritated by the idea that some might suspect he had a hand in Gay's disappearance, complaining that he wouldn't be able to take it "if one more person says I put her in a blue barrel."

Convicted wife-killer Drew Peterson was suspected of stuffing the dead body of his fourth wife—who he was not charged with harming—into a blue barrel.

Borg was on the second floor of the house when it blew up, Kaupas said. A state fire marshal determined the gas line to the dryer had been disconnected and the valve left open, leading him to conclude the explosion was intentionally set off, Kaupas said.

Lisa James and her boyfriend had returned to Cricle Drive from a fishing trip to Missouri just 40 minutes before Borg's house blew up only yards away.

"We ran down to see and I said, 'Call 911.' When we looked over, it was an inferno," James said.

James did not know Gay was missing until a neighbor filled her in after the explosion.

"That's really sad," James said.

Borg was taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox and then transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He has burns on 70 percent of his body, Kaupas said.

With Borg in the hospital and Gay's whereabouts unknown, Circle Drive has quieted down quite a bit, Walpole said.

"We never personally liked the guy," she said of Borg, "but he always came over to talk."

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