Macon man found slain had been homeless for 7 months, friends say

Jeffery McKuhen had been homeless for seven months before he was killed.

He was living with his longtime girlfriend before she moved out of state last summer.

The 51-year-old was a new face to the vagrant community in Macon. He first moved to Central City Park, then to the Salvation Army on Broadway, his friend Susan Lang said.

McKuhen had a cellphone and, on occasion, would call Lang.

"He’d cry and it was sad because I didn’t know what to do," she said, adding that things often didn't work out at the Salvation Army. "He didn’t like the rules. Most alcoholics wouldn’t like the rules. ... I told him, Jeff, you got to quit drinking, man.”

Recently, McKuhen, who Lang said was legally blind, had been staying inside a blighted house at Broadway and Houston Avenue. His body was discovered Jan. 10, buried beneath a pile of clothes and blankets in the bedroom.

Lang said she doesn't understand why someone would hurt McKuhen.

“All he had was a food stamp card,” Lang said. "He was just a good person. When I first met him, he drank, but he could build a house from the ground up and that’s how smart he was. He was a contractor and he’d make good money. But he lost his way somewhere and started drinking again."

Lang said she met McKuhen about 17 years ago when he started dating her friend, Lynda Smith Jackson.

Jackson, who moved to Louisiana last year, said she needs justice for McKuhen and that "he didn't deserve to die so tragically."

"I know people think, 'He was homeless, so who cares?' But they are wrong," Jackson wrote in a message to The Telegraph. "A lot of people care and sometimes relatives aren't even aware of the situation. I loved Jeff and we were together 17 years. I wish I could have done more."

Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said McKuhen was admitted as a patient at the Medical Center, Navicent Health, on Dec. 26, but he left hours later against medical advice. McKuhen had a subdural hematoma, a brain bleed, from a fall, Jones said.

In a Facebook post Jan. 2, Jackson posted McKuhen's picture with a plea, "IF YOU SEE THIS PERSON PLEASE LET US KNOW ....HE NEEDS MEDICAL ATTENTION."

The next day, Lang and her friend Barbara Peacock went looking for McKuhen.

"I went into the house," Peacock said. "I was just thankful I didn't find him. I would have went to pieces."

Lang and Peacock said they talked to a Bibb County sheriff's investigator about filing a missing persons report, but they "were told to hold off," Peacock said.

The two women wrote the note that investigators found on a mattress near McKuhen's body.

It read: “Jeff, please call us and let us know you OK. Barbara and Susan."

The body was found by 33-year-old Andre Clark, who has been identified as a suspect in the killing.

Though McKuhen has grown children in Macon, they haven't spoken in years, his friends said.

"I want to know why. He didn't have anything," Peacock said. "It upsets me. The man shouldn't have died like he did."

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Macon man found slain had been homeless for 7 months, friends say."