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Murder investigated

The mobile home where former Fayette County Commissioner Charles Mask was found dead awaits further investigation in the impound lot of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department Tuesday. Police said Mask was killed by Thomas Allen Richie who fled the area and was believed to be hitch-hiking his way to a friend's house in North Carolina. Photo/John Munford.

Bludgeoned ex-official had ‘relationship’ with suspect

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Although robbery is being considered as a motive in the beating death of former Fayette County Commissioner Charles Herbert Mask, he also had a relationship with the Jonesboro man who killed him, police said.

Charles Herbert Mask	Thomas Allen Richie

Mask, 74, was killed with a concrete block inside a motor home on property that he owned at 622 McBride Rd., said Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department.

The man wanted for murdering Mask, Thomas Allen Richie, 33, had previously lived in Mask’s home on East Lanier Avenue in Fayetteville and later moved to the motor home

Mask’s body, nude but for a pair of socks, was found Thursday on a bed in the motor home, Jordan said. He died sometime Sept. 7 after he was struck twice on the head with the concrete block, which was found on the bed under a pillow, Jordan noted.

Robbery is believed to be a possible motive for the killing, Jordan said. But that’s not the only possibility, Jordan added cryptically.

“The condition of his lack of clothing brings up other speculation as to what other motives might have been here, but that’s really all I need to say,” Jordan said Monday afternoon.

Deputies were called to the scene after persons renting the home on the property reported a strange odor coming from the motor home, the chief detective said.

The renters told detectives that Mask would use the motor home to “meet people,” Jordan said, declining to get into further details.

Richie was believed to be hitchhiking his way to a friend’s home in North Carolina, and the Southeast Fugitive Task Force was working to track him down, Jordan noted. Richie is also charged with theft of a motor vehicle for taking Mask’s 2000 Ford Ranger, which was later recovered at a business in Atlanta where it had been abandoned — near where some of Richie’s family lives, Jordan said.

Jordan also cautioned that Richie has a twin brother, Rodney, who also lives in the Jonesboro area, and Rodney Richie is not wanted for the murder.

Jordan said he was not caught off-guard by Mask’s killing because he thought “one day” something like this might happen. He would not elaborate as to why, but sheriff’s department records indicate that Mask was twice accused of sexual crimes involving men who rented rooms from him.

The first accusation, leveled in 1994, led to a sodomy charge that was later dismissed after a grand jury declined to indict Mask. The second accusation came in 2003 when Mask reportedly touched the genitals of one of his renters at the downtown Fayetteville home.

“I have suspected for some time that this may happen one day,” Jordan said. “Is it bizarre? Yes. Is it a surprise to me? No.”

Mask formerly lived off McBride Road in a home that mysteriously burned to the ground June 4 this year in what was deemed a fire with “suspicious” origins. Arson charges were never filed in the case, however.

Fire officials said Mask was in Fayetteville when the fire broke out. At first firemen believed a woman who lived in the basement of the home was there, but it was later determined that she was incarcerated at the Spalding County Jail, fire officials said.

There is no indication that Richie was responsible for the fire, Jordan said. He does have an extensive criminal record, Jordan said, though none of the crimes were violent in nature, he added.

Richie served time in 1993 for theft of a motor vehicle or parts, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The home burned almost completely to the ground and was believed to have started about seven hours before it was reported to a 911 operator, officials said.