UPDATE: Police have identified the victim of Wednesday night’s home invasion/homicide as 59-year old Ricky H. Bailey.
Police are searching for two suspects in a home invasion/robbery Wednesday night that left a 59-year old Verona Township man dead. Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson says Huron Central Dispatch received a call shortly before 11:30 p.m. from the residents of a home on Rapson Road stating that their father had just been shot by unknown individuals. Sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Bad Axe Police Department arrived shortly after to find the 59-year old man unresponsive laying on the floor with two gunshot wounds. The sons who made the initial call to dispatch, aged 11 and 20, were not harmed. The father was taken to Thumb McLaren Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Investigation revealed that the 11-year old son heard a door opening and went to alert his father, when the two assailants appeared with handguns and shot the man after demanding money. The suspects are described as two men wearing black ski masks, black leather coats, black gloves and black khaki-style pants. At this time, it’s unknown how they arrived at or fled the scene. Investigators believe that the suspects targeted the home possibly due to a previous resident who had lived there. Police ask that anyone who may have seen any vehicles in the Rapson Road and Sullivan Road area of Verona Township around 11:00 p.m. Wednesday night call Central Dispatch at 989-269-6421. Authorities are releasing no further information at this time, as the search for the suspects continues.
