A Griffin man has been charged with murder in the Sept. 30 slaying of Senoia business owner Ken Crook, found dead of a gunshot wound in his home. Fifty year-old Richard Nelson Brown was arrested in Spalding County Wednesday and is currently in custody in Coweta County.

The months long investigation culminated yesterday with Brown’s arrest, Coweta Sheriff Mike Yeager said Thursday afternoon. The arrest followed closely behind information investigators received concerning the whereabouts of the vehicle thought to be linked to the murder after being recorded on videotape near the time of the incident. Yeager said Brown has not confessed to the murder but is cooperating with investigators.

“Our investigation has been ongoing. One of the main focuses throughout this six months time was the high-top van that we had been describing. More information on the van was developed this past weekend and it led us to Griffin in Spalding County where we built additional information. And we came up with Richard Nelson Brown,” Yeager said. “Yesterday we secured an arrest warrant for Mr. Brown and the investigators went to Spalding County and took him into custody. He has spoken with our investigators and he’s been cooperative with them. We have also recovered the van. It’s been altered somewhat. It’s been painted and sold two or three times since September 30.”

Yeager said investigators are gathering additional information on the case, but that he felt very confident in the case investigators have put together and the arrest that’s been made. Yeager said his office had been following a number of leads, including those that developed recently relating to the vehicle believed to have been involved in Crook’s murder.

Yeager declined to address a number of factors involved in the Brown’s arrest, such as a motive, the specifics about the way the van was located, other items that might have been confiscated and Brown’s activities since Sept. 30, saying that the investigation is ongoing and that he feels confident about the facts uncovered thus far. Yeager did say that Brown had apparently been involved in basic labor jobs and that Brown had been employed by Crook for a brief period several years ago.

Yeager credited the continuing efforts of investigators and that of local television outlets for publicizing the van. The van was located in Gwinnett County and had been painted black, but the distinctive array of windows in the high-top Ford van made it stand out, he said.

“Luckily, we had some people that paid close attention to it and that helped lead us to identifying it,” Yeager said.

Yeager said he did not expect other arrests at this time, but he did not rule out them out depending on the course the investigation takes.

Speaking about the arrest, Crook’s father, Ellis Crook, said his family was relieved at the news. Crook expressed his family’s appreciation for the efforts of Sheriff’s investigators and for the television stations that aired photos of the van.

Referencing Brown’s former employment at Crook’s Tire Center, Crook said he did not recall his face but he did recall Brown stealing motor oil from the business when employed there seven or eight years ago and then re-selling it at a flea market. Crook said he, not Ken, had fired Brown in the incident.

“I cut him loose myself because of what I found,” Crook said. “Ken, my son, was easy going. He could work with the devil himself. He was an easy-going kind of guy. He didn’t get angry at anybody and he didn’t deserve what he got. The way I feel is (Brown) was after money.”

Both Ellis Crook and Ken’s brother Greg said they and the family were relieved with the events that have unfolded. The elder Crook said he took the posture that he would never give up the search to find the person responsible for his son’s death.

“We miss him terribly,” Ellis Crook explained, the emotion in his voice and in his eyes obvious.

Greg Crook stood close by as his father commented on the events of the day. His feelings, like so many others who have lost loved ones through homicide, contained a clear longing for the one taken so violently from his family and for the need for justice to be served.

“You don’t feel joyous. You don’t feel like you’ve just won a long battle, because you don’t win,” Greg said. “My brother’s not coming back. But it does give you a peace of mind, a sense of a slight bit of content that somebody is going to be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I don’t want my brother to die in vain, without anybody being held accountable. His life was worth something.”

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