A pro golfer who was fatally shot on a country club golf course in Georgia, near where two other men were found dead in the bed of a pickup truck, had witnessed a crime before he was killed, authorities said Tuesday.
The body of Gene Siller, an employee at the Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw — about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta — was found with an apparent gunshot wound to his head on the green of the 10th hole at about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, Cobb County police said.
Police also discovered a Ram 3500 pickup truck on the green that contained the bodies of two men, one of whom was identified as Paul Pierson, the truck’s registered owner. A third deceased man had not been identified. They had died from gunshots and were found in the truck bed, police said.
Siller was killed after seeing a crime involving the two other men, police said in a statement.
"Mr. Siller happened upon a crime in progress involving the unknown suspect and the two deceased males who were found in the pickup truck," the statement said. "It does not appear he was in any way targeted, but rather was killed because he witnessed an active crime taking place."
Pierson and the unidentified man did not appear to have any connection to the country club, police said.
The investigation is ongoing, with police saying it is too early to determine a motive. No arrests have been announced.
Siller, who was in his 40s, was a member of the Pinetree Country Club staff and previously worked as the director of golf and head golf pro at Summit Chase County Club, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Since 2007 he had regularly competed in Georgia’s PGA section golf tournaments, the Post reported.
Siller, a husband and father of two, was responding to an issue on the course’s 10th hole when a man in a white truck pulled his vehicle onto the sand trap nearby, according to the Post. When Siller went to talk to the man in the pickup, he was shot.
Siller’s widow, Ashley, Tuesday afternoon told NBC News, “I loved him very dearly, and I am very sad.”
A representative with the Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office deferred questions to police.
A GoFundMe for Siller’s family received about $483,325 from 3,400 donors as of Tuesday afternoon. The fundraiser, which launched Sunday, had a goal of raising $500,000.