The family believes the father of four may have been suffering from mental illness when he was attacked in August. Police are still looking for suspects.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A 44-year-old father of four died in September after being brutally beaten in a Fort Worth neighborhood in August.
Monroe Lingle was found face-down near Cypress and Presidio streets with severe head trauma, according to Monroe’s sister, Susan Lingle.
“They found him facedown and that he had been beaten to the back of the head with bricks,” said Susan Lingle, the victim’s sister.
Lingle spent nearly a month hospitalized before succumbing to his injuries. His sister said the experience was difficult for the family.
“I struggled myself to go see him,” Susan Lingle said, preferring to remember her brother through photos on her phone rather than his final days in the hospital.
Susan Lingle described her brother as a father to four grown children. He lived in Springtown, a small community Northwest of Fort Worth.
“He loved being around family. He would give you the shirt off his back,” she said, describing her brother.
Lingle said he also battled mental illness. She said the family never fully understood the extent of his condition.
“It gets to where you don’t want to be around him,” she said. “Not that he’s violent, he’s never been violent.”
She believes her brother was experiencing a mental health crisis when he disappeared from their home in Springtown, just days before he was found beaten in Fort Worth.
“We kept trying to get him to go get some medication, but he never would,” Lingle said. “He’d say, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine.'”
Fort Worth Police Public Information Officer Buddy Calzada said investigators have arrested one person in connection with the killing, 63-year-old Carl Wayne Davis, and are searching for two additional suspects.
“I can tell you from some of the information that we’ve gathered, it looks like the victim in this case was walking around yelling some derogatory slurs at individuals,” Calzada said. “Now, that does not justify what they did to him.”
The Cypress and Presidio area is known as a place where homeless individuals and others with nowhere else to go often congregate. While residents say it’s relatively safe during daylight hours, they describe it as more dangerous after dark. Calzada said there are surveillance cameras in the area, and they have leads on the two other suspects.
“We do have some information, some evidence that we’re not willing to release yet as it’s part of the investigation and we don’t want to ruin any of that,” he said.
Susan Lingle said she hopes the remaining suspects will be caught and brought to justice.
“Hopefully, they have enough to get the rest of them caught,” she said.
Beyond seeking justice for her brother, she wants his death to serve as a warning about what can happen to people struggling with untreated mental illness.
“If it helps one person that struggles with mental… if it helps one person, this could be what could happen,” she said.
The investigation remains ongoing as police continue searching for the two remaining suspects in Monroe Lingle’s death.