There aren't many longtime neighbors on Darley Avenue who didn't know 97-year-old Waddell Tate.
After all, he'd lived in his home for more than 60 years, content to live by himself after his wife's death and his four children had moved on, when someone broke into his home through the back door and murdered him in cold blood.
Now, police are looking for leads, mindful that Tate's family lost its patriarch in the most brutal of fashions.
"It's very tragic. They're taking it very hard,” said Willard Swann, the victim’s son-in-law, “I mean that was their dad that was 97 years old and he was heading to 100 and for somebody just to come along and take the rest of the years that he had left, it just wasn't fair. It didn't make any sense."
It is a sentiment shared by Tate's neighbors who now fear for their own safety.
"It's just so sad. It really is, and it makes you really apprehensive and frightened to know that somebody can come just walk in your house and attack you for no reason, because he didn't bother anybody," said Louise Cuffie.
"He don't bother nobody,” added her husband, Joseph Cuffie. “I don't know why somebody would want to come and kill a 97-year-old man. For what? He doesn't have any money. He takes his money to the bank. So what are you killing him for? You go in the house. You don't find any money. Why do you kill him?"
While police are finding it difficult to crack the case, those who knew Tate say he would have been an easy target.
He awoke each day and went on a morning walk, speaking freely to anyone without crossing a soul.
"I don't know, because like I said, he was a generous person and it could have been somebody that he spoke to... that he knew and just decided that they were going to take advantage of this elderly person, you know?" said Swann.
Tate's body was discovered about 6:30 p.m. last Friday, and if you have any information you're asked to call Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-7LOCKUP.
You could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $2,000.
