Police investigate death of 92-year-old, killed in his home

EAST POINT, Ga. — East Point police are searching for the killer of a 92-year-old Army veteran.

Julius Dewberry was found dead in his Jefferson Avenue home Tuesday afternoon.

Relatives said the home had been ransacked and items stolen.

A cousin of Dewberry's, who doesn't want to be identified, said she went to the home Tuesday to check on the elderly man and cook him some food.

When she couldn't raise him, she unlocked the door and immediately knew something was wrong.

"When I walked in, I seen change, money laying on the floor," she said. "The ham I had baked about a week ago, it was on the table. A knife was lying on the floor and liquor was open."

Open liquor, she said, wouldn't have been in the home of a 92-year-old that didn't drink.

She said she noticed a big screen TV and other items missing.

East Point police then responded and found Dewberry dead, killed in the home he had lived in for more than a quarter century.

"At this point we don't know whether it was stranger-to-stranger or if it was someone he actually knew. He was targeted," said East Point police Maj. Tony Mabry.

Investigators believe Dewberry was killed sometime over the weekend or possibly Monday.

His relative said she couldn't imagine him not trying to put up a fight, despite his age.

"I imagine he would, depending on how mad he was. He was kind of feisty," she said.

Dewberry lived alone in the home after his wife suffered a stroke and moved to New Jersey to be cared for by their daughter.

East Point police do not want to release how Dewberry died or any details of the crime.

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