Dougherty police ‘shocked’ $70,000 reward has not produced tips

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Police Department continues to search for suspects involved in the brutal June 15 home invasion on Gravel Hill Road that left Francis Wetherbee paralyzed, and despite a $70,000 reward offered by Wetherbee’s friends and family for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators, only one tip has been phoned in to investigators, which turned out to be nothing, officials said.

“It’s crazy,” DCP Capt. Tom Jackson said. “Somebody out there knows who did this, and with $70,000 being offered as a reward, I just can’t believe that no one has come forward with any useful information yet. We have literally had one tip called in to us, and when our investigators looked into it, it turned out to be nothing.”

According to a DCP incident report, on June 16 at 2:13 p.m., officers were dispatched to 4602 Gravel Hill Road in reference to a shooting. When officers arrived on scene, they found Wetherbee lying face-down on the back screened porch of the residence with at least one visible gunshot wound.

“Francis Wetherbee stated that there were four or five people in his residence at an unknown time on June 15,” the report said. “Francis Wetherbee was only able to confirm the subjects shot him and took his 2007 gun-metal blue Toyota Tundra and also a black Anderson trailer.”

Wetherbee’s father, Frank confirmed the attack, saying that his son had been beaten with a baseball bat before being shot twice by a group of five people consisting of three black men, one black woman and one white man. The suspects demanded that Wetherbee open his gun safe.

“They knew, or somebody had told them, that there was a gun safe in there.” Frank Wetherbee said. “They beat him bad, trying to make him open that safe. He (Francis) thinks that there were four guys and one woman involved. All were black except one white man. They shot him twice. The bullet just barely missed an artery, and he lay there for 12 to 14 hours before he was found at the house. They left him for dead. Nobody knew it. He is paralyzed from the waist down, but he is alive.”

Frank Wetherbee went on to say that his son, who is recovering in Jacksonville, Fla., was in good spirits despite everything that has happened.

“His spirits are good, and I am proud of him,” Frank Wetherbee said. “He is doing well, and that’s what counts. The pecan world and everybody else has really been very supportive with everything.”

Wetherbee’s truck and trailer were recovered last Saturday at Shadowood Apartments on Brierwood Drive in Albany, according to reports. But so far, no leads have surfaced. Investigators continue to stress the importance of community involvement when it comes to solving this and other crimes.

“We are still following up on stuff, but the most important thing is for people to call in tips if they know something,” Jackson said. “We should be able to get people to call in some tips with a $70,000 reward. So far, we don’t have anything, at least nothing that I want to release at this time. There is no smoking gun or nothing like that. That is why tips are so important. Somebody that watches the news or reads the paper knows something, and all they have to do is pick up the phone and call. If they want to, they can call Crime Stoppers anonymously.”

According to Jackson, DCP has been investigating past workers at the Wetherbee farm but have not found a connection.

“We haven’t made any connection between possible suspects and past employees at this point,” Jackson said. “One of the assumptions with that is that they had people working for them from the diversion center when it used to be open in Albany. They gave us a list of former employees, but it is quite a long list. That is very time consuming.”

Jackson said investigators were also still looking into a possible connection to Shadowood Apartments, where Wetherbee’s truck and trailer were found.

“We don’t know 100 percent yet if the suspects actually lived around there or not,” he said.

According to Jackson, an important aspect for concerned citizens to look out for is Wetherbee’s gun safe.

“One thing to mention is that the perpetrators took Mr. Wetherbee’s safe,” Jackson said. “This is one of those very large 1,000-pound gun safes. That is something that seems like it would be hard to hide. The really sad thing about all of this is that he (Wetherbee) told us he had a few guns in the safe, but nothing expensive.

“Now, a man is paralyzed and chances are these people will never even get into the safe, or if they do, they will probably destroy everything that is in it. What a waste. It will probably end up in the river. To me, this is a complete lack of respect for human life. It is just like those two prisoners that killed two people to get three days of freedom. Now a man is paralyzed and for what?”