Murdered Antique Store Dealer Mourned
By: Sherrell Hubbard
Updated: January 3, 2013
Area residents are still shaken up over the death of an antique dealer who was bludgeoned to death. 58-year-old J. Robert Shimer died of blunt force trauma to the head and his death was ruled the 30th homicide of 2012.
Booth 63 belonged to J. Robert Shimer of
The store's owner says they are in shock over who would commit a crime so brutal to a person so nice. Customers have also been touched.
"I came in here to find out if everybody was okay and to see what happened," says 15 year-old Chris Foster. He likes the beauty in antiques. He stopped in to see if the deceased was one of his favorite clerks. He says "I'm glad in a way, it was not him but I'm still kind of sad that somebody did have to die."
The owner of Antiques on Broadway says the store has been around for ten years, but now has an uncertain future.
Surveillance cameras are planted throughout the antique store but they have to be turned on daily. They hadn't been turned on the day of Shimer's death.
