'He Was the Best Father': Family Remembers Veteran, 81, Killed Working Security at His Retirement Community

Ed Mead was an 81-year-old war veteran who worked two nights a week as a safety officer at the retirement community where he lived in Brooksville, Fla. In late September, that job cost him his life, when he was repeatedly stabbed while on duty.

“It's devastating and we are going to do absolutely everything we can to bring justice to the family on his behalf,” Walter Forgie, Chief Assistant State Attorney with the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office, tells PEOPLE. “It is absolutely a horrible case of someone that's served the country and is still trying to protect people at an advanced age, working in the capacity he was. It's just a terrible, terrible case.”

Mead served in both the Army and the Army National Guard. He spent 35 years as a truck driver, based in Johnson City, Tenn. Fourteen years ago, Mead and his wife of 55 years moved to Florida. “It was time to retire,” Rebecca Mead Tipton, the youngest of his three daughters, tells PEOPLE.

When Mead and his wife first relocated, Mead worked part-time delivering medication to hospice patients. Eight years ago, he started working two nights a week as the safety officer at the High Point Community. During the day, he made catering deliveries for a local barbecue restaurant. He golfed, gardened, and drove neighbors to the grocery store and to doctor’s appointments.

“He was always going,” Tipton says. “Dad just never slowed down. Never.”

Mead’s middle daughter, Kimberly Mead Semcho, moved to Florida in August 2022, and alternated her working days with those of her father so that one of them would always be available to care for her mother, Barbara Mead, 78, who is battling health problems.

On the evening of September 28, 2023, around 9 p.m., Mead kissed his wife goodbye and hugged his daughter. He worked the evening shift from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Sometimes, he gave people who drove into the community directions. Always, he smiled and waved as they drove by.

About 9:45 p.m., his wife called to wish him goodnight and say, “I love you.” He told her it was a quiet evening, he was eating Skinny Pop popcorn, as usual.

At approximately 10:15 p.m. on September 28, 2023, the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call for a medical emergency at the front gate of the High Point Community, according to the sheriff’s office report obtained by PEOPLE.

Mead’s daughter, Kimberly, was scrolling through Facebook when she saw neighbors posting about a commotion at the front gate. She called her father five times, but he didn’t answer. She told her mother she was going to step outside to make a call. Then, she found sheriff’s deputies walking up the path. They told Kim her father had been stabbed to death.

“Two weeks before he died, he told my sister Kim that he had the heart of an athlete — he said he had about 15 years left to live,” Tipton says. “The detective told us, ‘I can see that.’ He told us, "Your daddy fought back.' ... Because any 81-year-old man would've probably just gone down with one stab."

According to the police report, when officers arrived at the scene, Mead was found “lying on the floor inside the guard shack.”

Through witness statements and video surveillance footage, Hernando County Sheriff’s office identified the suspect as 23-year-old Jeremy Jason Patterson. A description of the suspect went out, and authorities immediately began searching.

“There were police and sheriff presence everywhere,” Tipton says. “There were helicopters. There were drones flying around. It was crazy.”

Patterson was arrested at 8:26 p.m, less than 24 hours after the murder, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s office arrest affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.

“This was horrific act that my deputies worked day and night to ensure we brought the person responsible for this heinous act to justice,” Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis said in a statement to PEOPLE. “We also send our heartfelt condolences to the family during their time of grieving for the loss of their loved one.”

Patterson is charged with second-degree murder. He is being held with no bond. It's not immediately clear if he has entered a plea or retained an attorney.

To date, prosecutors have not discovered why Mead was killed, Forgie, of the state attorney's office, says.

“We have no evidence of motive, which it makes it all that more troubling,” Forgie says.  “That's what made it so tragic to me. You've got an 81-year-old that's a veteran and a 23-year-old that we can't even ascertain what led him to commit such a heinous act. So it really is, it's just a tragedy. It's awful.”

'He Didn't Die Alone'

There were 150 people at the community vigil in Mead's honor. A woman approached the sisters and said she was with their father in his final moments.

“She's just been a blessing. She told us that he didn't die alone, that she stayed with him til his last breath,” Tipton says. “She said he looked at her and just closed his eyes like he was going to sleep. It made us feel good that he didn't die alone.”

Tipton was overwhelmed that more than 250 people attended her father's memorial service. “It was standing room only,” she says.

Her father was a kind, generous man: "Growing up we would go without so that we could help others," she says.

“He was the best father,” Tipton adds. “He gave us everything we needed.”

Tipton misses being able to call her father for advice. He was the person who gave comfort, support and strength to his daughters.

“In our biggest moments of struggles, he always told us we'd get through it. He would say, 'Hey, I'm here for you. I'm your rock,'” Tipton says. “Here we are in our biggest devastation of our lives, and we don't have that person to help us through it.”

A GoFundMe has been established to help the family.

“We're a family that loves each other and does anything for each other and for the people around us,” Tipton says. “I'm sure we have a long road. I know he’s watching over us.”           

PEOPLE reporter Wendy Grossman Kantor grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., and has known the Mead family most of her life. She has nothing but fond memories of Ed Mead smiling, laughing, and being a kind, warm, loving dad to his three daughters and beloved granddaughter, Maddie Anderson.