Blow to head kills man, 34

Police are still searching for three or four men suspected of beating a 34-year-old man to death early Wednesday morning in northwest Columbia. The crime marks Columbia’s first homicide of the year.

Carlos L. Kelly of Columbia was found dead in his triplex apartment at 1311 Cynthia Drive after police responded to a 911 call.

Columbia police Capt. Brad Nelson said Wednesday night that he did not know whether the suspects were still in the city. While he said the public should be concerned that the suspects have not been caught, so far “they have not been running around on a crime spree.” An autopsy performed Wednesday indicated that Kelly died in his apartment from a blow to the head. Nelson would not say what type of weapon was used in the attack, because officers were continuing their investigation.

Nelson confirmed that the motive appeared to be attempted robbery but added that police did not know what, if anything, was taken. Police initially thought Kelly’s car had been stolen but later determined that this wasn’t the case.

A woman whom Nelson called an acquaintance of Kelly’s phoned 911 at 4:07 a.m. and reported that she and Kelly had been beaten and robbed. Five people, including Kelly and his female acquaintance, were in the apartment when the crime occurred, police said.

Police arrived at the home 15 minutes later and found no one there except Kelly lying dead on the floor, Nelson said. Police later identified, tracked down and interviewed the four witnesses, one of whom was an 18-year-old man who had been stabbed in the leg during the attack. That man has since been treated and released from a Columbia hospital.

Nelson said the suspects in the attack were probably familiar with Kelly, although he was not prepared to go on record to state how or why he thought this. It was known that Kelly did not live alone. Nelson confirmed that several people did live in the apartment on and off.

Roger Wittmeyer, a neighbor who has lived on Cynthia Drive for almost 27 years, said he never heard or noticed anything unusual at Kelly’s apartment, until this morning when he saw several patrol cars and vans outside the home.

“I was real surprised to see the police cars out there this morning,” he said.

Wittmeyer, who said he didn’t know Kelly, added that after a fire last summer, the apartment remained vacant until the fall.

Court records show Kelly had been charged in several misdemeanor and felony cases since 1989 and had pleaded guilty to several crimes, including assault, drug possessing and resisting arrest, between 1989 and 2004. Asked if Kelly’s criminal past had anything to do with his killing, Nelson declined to speculate.

“You can infer what you want,” he said.

Nelson said police will not convene the Mid-Missouri Major Case Squad, as it has done for other homicide investigations.

“We feel we have the resources necessary to fully investigate the case,” Nelson said.

He was not prepared to say how close police were to making an arrest but said officers had investigated about 35 leads and received several calls on a hot line.

Nelson asked anyone with information about the homicide to call CrimeStoppers at 875-8477. There is an award of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

Missourian reporters Adam Schreck, Karla Wentzel and Tingting Qiu contributed to this story.