Seminole County deputies

Friends say man was church usher, U.S. Air Force veteran

are investigating the death of an 87-year-old man as a homicide.

Every morning, friends of Wallace Dean Worman dutifully called the 87-year-old veteran to check up on him.

When he didn’t answer the phone Monday, they knew there was something wrong.

Worman’s friends went to his home on Norwich Circle, near Casselberry, and found him dead with “obvious signs of trauma” to his body about 9 a.m., according to Seminole County Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Kealing.

“Like good neighbors, like good friends, when you have an 87-year-old friend who lives alone, they just wanted to check on him. And we’re glad they did,” Kealing said.

Authorities wouldn’t say how Worman died, only describing it as “a violent death.”

Edward Israel Marrero, 23, is being charged with Worman’s killing, the sheriff ’s office announced on its Twitter account about 11 p.m.

Marrero was booked into the Orange County Jail on unrelated charges earlier, deputies said. He was being uncooperative regarding information about Worman’s death, deputies said.

The relationship between Marrero and Worman wasn’t disclosed.

Worman, who served as an usher at Aloma United Methodist Church, was a “caring and confident” man, said Eric Twachtman, who served on committees at the church with Worman.

“He knew everybody by name as they came in,” Twachtman said. “No one ever had a cross word to say about him.”

Worman was always ready to lend a nonjudgemental ear and a huge smile to anybody who needed someone to talk with, said Mark Jaeger, who also went to church with Worman.

“He was the kind of guy who really worked on making sure everybody got the best out of their lives. He wanted people to be OK, and he wanted them to succeed,” Jaeger said.

Friends say Worman

spoke often about his service in the U.S. Air Force, where he was in the Strategic Air Command as part of an elite group that flew B-58 Hustler bombers.

The neighborhood where the widower lived alone is south of Red Bug Lake Road between Casselberry and Oviedo. Neighbors described it as a quiet place where nothing like this had ever happened before.

“This is obviously unusual for this neighborhood. And, as you can imagine, this is pretty stunning for people who live around this cul-desac,” Kealing said.

People over the age of 80 are not often homicide victims, but such cases are not unheard of. Three people 80 or older have been killed in Central Florida this year, two in Brevard County and one in Lake.