Murder victim Wesley Wayne Stewart and his alleged killer Larry B. Dover were reportedly  former neighbors.

Rome Police Capt. Mark Tison said the two knew each other and Larry Dover used to live on the same street as Stewart, Marshall Lane.

Police were still not sure of the motive behind the murder of Stewart on January 18th, and because Dover killed himself before police could talk to him, they may never fully know.

The autopsy revealed that Stewart had multiple stab wounds around his neck, a cut on his neck and blunt force trauma to his head. Tison said either one of those last two injuries could have been fatal.

Tison also said Stewart was killed sometime after 8:30 a.m. that morning. Dover left his car, a Nissan Altima, at the West End Shopping Center and walked over to Stewart’s house at 106 Marshall Lane.  Tison also confirmed that Dover had stolen Stewart’s truck and a handgun that was missing from the house.

Dover was also listed as the offender in an attempted shooting that took place in Chattooga County the same day Stewart was murdered, according to the initial incident report from the Chattooga County Sheriff Office.

The reports states that a woman was driving on Trion Teloga Road in Summerville around 11:55 a.m. when Dover drove up beside her in Stewart’s truck. Dover fired a gun into her vehicle. She immediately stopped and turned around. Dover followed her and shot at her car again.

The woman pulled into Cooper’s Country Store and Dover got out of his car and walked up to her car and tried to shoot again. He then went back to the truck and she ran toward the door of the store. Dover grabbed her jacket collar and pulled her down. For some unexplained reason, he then turned around and ran back to the truck and left the scene.

Chattooga County Chief Deputy Sheriff Kevin Woods said the woman — whose name is not being released — returned to her house later that day and found it had been set on fire. Woods said he was not sure if it was Dover who had set the house ablaze. Dover shot himself in the truck later that same day.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Dover was convicted of the 1980 murder of his wife in Bartow County and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He was released on parole in 2009.

(Rome News-Tribune)