Three elderly men, including two military veterans, were found apparently beaten to death with hammers in the basement of a suspected Detroit drug den, police said.
The bodies of US Marine Corps vets Mark Barnett, 65, and Norman Hamlin, 66, were recovered along with the body of William Barrett 72, in the basement of Hamlin’s home on Edsel Street, Detroit police said.
Although Assistant Police Chief Charles Fitzgerald refused to divulge specifics about the grisly scene, he said that all three men were killed by “blunt force trauma,” with at least one of them sustaining additional stab wounds, WDIV Local 4 reported.
Cops had been out searching for Hamlin, who was reported missing, when a person staggered over to them and frantically claimed they’d been beaten with a hammer at a nearby home — where Hamlin reportedly lived.
When officers arrived at Hamlin’s house, they found the three bodies in the basement. All three men appeared to have been “brutally assaulted,” according to Detroit PD.
Their clothes were covered in filth, and one of the bodies was concealed beneath a rug, Fitzgerald said, adding that the house operated as a sort of boarding home that welcomed “a lot of folks” daily.
Horrified neighbors were heartbroken to hear of Hamlin’s death, but not entirely surprised, they told WDIV.
The house had apparently become a recent hub for drug activity, one neighbor told the outlet — describing Hamlin as a man with a “good heart who just got tied up with the wrong kinds of people.”
Her account was corroborated by a friend of Hamlin’s, who reluctantly offered that the community figured “something bad is going to happen” at the house, WDIV reported.
“He seemed to have set up a safe environment for people to come and use,” neighbor Joel Bond said.
“He got sidetracked on some things. He went to the military, served his country, and … it’s just a tragedy, as to what happened,” he added.
Distraught family members told CBS News Detroit that Barnett and Hamlin served in the Marine Corps together.
The sole person of interest, a light-skinned black male in his early 30s and around 5 feet 6 inches tall, remains at large.
It’s unclear if the suspect is the same person police encountered while looking for Hamlin.