WILMINGTON, Del. -
New Castle County Police spent their day combing the woods and ravines along Marsh Road and the surrounding neighborhood looking for clues in the murder of Wayne Cappelli, whose lifeless body was found Monday morning along Delaview Avenue.
"Good guy, great guy, easy-going, quiet, very quiet, didn't say much," said Art Chiarini, one of Cappelli's close friends.
"I don't know what happened to him. But whatever happened to him, there's something wrong," Arlene Hearne told FOX 29.
Cappelli's friends were in shock over the 43-year-old's murder. The father of an 11-year-old daughter, Cappelli was on his way home from work at this Super Fresh Supermarket nearby just after 9 p.m. Saturday.
Detectives say he suffered blunt-force trauma to his upper body. He was found along the side of the road in the Brandywine Hundred section of North Wilmington.
"That's kind of surprising. Astonishing is the better word," said one neighbor about the homicide here.
"I don't know if he was randomly picked out," Chiarini added. "Somebody saw him walking home. It was pay day, so maybe they wanted his money."
On Tuesday, more than 20 detectives and police officers went door to door in the Brandywine 100 neighborhood where Cappelli was found. He would walk home from work this way each day to the house, where he and his daughter were living in Claymont.
Arlene Hearne says Cappelli was just starting to get his life back together when he was killed.
"Wayne was a soft spoken, quiet man. All he cared about was his daughter, he loved his daughter," Hearne added.
Police canvassed neighborhood after neighborhood looking for answers Tuesday. They checked for surveillance video and anyone who may have seen Cappelli Saturday night before he was killed. This is a quiet, middle-class community. Detectives confiscated some evidence, but exactly who killed Cappelli and why, remain a mystery.
"I don't know why," Chiarini said. "I don't know why it would happen, he didn't know that many people."
"He was so happy," Hearne said. "He was finally trying to get his life together."
Detectives believe Cappelli was assaulted somewhere near the scene where his body was found. They also think a car may have been used in the crime.
They will not say, at this point, if they believe robbery is the motive.
Anyone with information should call New castle County Detectives.
