EXCLUSIVE: Former business partner of murdered South Tampa designer speaks out

TAMPA - Gail Appel showed me one of her company's biggest files, that of New York Yankee Derek Jeter.

"I remember I asked him to sign every card that I could find, which he did. I told Wendy to do the same," Appel recalled with a hint of a tear in her eye.

In the mounds of paperwork, priceless memories of a woman she described as more than just a friend. Her partner of thirteen years at their interior "Designing Women" business, Wendy Albano.

"We were the only friends we knew at the time. We were always together. It was like being Siamese twins. In fact, we were born on the very same day. I guess some people would say it was not healthy to be so close, but she completed me," Appel said.

The day she learned Albano died, Thai authorities said she was found stabbed and strangled in her upscale Bangkok hotel room, her heart sank.

"You hear about these kind of things on national news. Not to someone you were so close to. And someone who was so loving and so kind," Appel said.

The women met more than 20 years ago. Appel said their clients included the elite, from the owner of Rooms to Go, to former pro baseball player Tino Martinez, and New York Yankee Derek Jeter. They did the interior design work for Jeter's Avila home and his Manhattan condo.

"During the entire time we were business partners, we never argued -- not once! That is saying something when you are with someone all the time for thirteen years," Appel said.

But then, their friendship began to unravel. Appel said their lives took two different paths. Appel is still married. Albano was now single.

"She has a different set of friends now. Friends that are so wonderful, but our lives are so different, maybe that is why we grew apart," Appel said. "Our daughters are still extremely close. We each have two and they are very similar ages. In fact, Wendy was the godmother of both my girls."

She won't speculate on the relationship her friend had with her alleged killer: Authorities say a man of Indian descent was caught on camera leaving her hotel room the night before and then leaving and last seen in the airport, heading to his native India. He has not been found.

"It would not be fair for me to speculate on her personal life. But she never saw the bad in anyone. She was so trusting,"  Appel said. "The biggest regret in my life is not being able to capture that closeness with her again and I don't think she knew that. She was a part of me."