Anonymous tip lead Lancaster police to murder victim

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LANCASTER — An anonymous tip led to the discovery of a 54-year-old homicide victim in his Lancaster home Monday night, officials say.

Police received the tip after 7 p.m. Monday that Donald E. Morris was the potential target of a crime, said Lancaster Police Department Capt. Scott Grant.

Officers went to Morris’s home at 307 S. York St. to check on him, but he was already dead.

Police were unavailable to provide details Tuesday about the nature of his death or if there are suspects.

Morris, called “Coon” by his closest friends because of the raccoon tattoo around his neck, was one of those guys who would “give you the shirt right off his back if he knew you needed it,” said Scott Case, lieutenant with the Great Falls Police Department and Morris’ longtime friend.

Before they met at a church revival, Case said Morris once led a rough life and lived “in a rough neighborhood.”

But, he began to change his life around, Case said.

Amid a messy divorce, he started attending services at Freedom Freewill Baptist Church in Lancaster and never missed a Sunday. He started his own produce stand and would sell used washers and dryers. He was also recovering from a recent stroke.

“Good things were happening to him,” Case said.

He “started doing things the right way,” he said. “I only knew him doing things the right way.”

Case, who is currently in the running for sheriff of Lancaster County, said that he received a phone call Tuesday morning about Morris’ murder. Friends told him that they saw Morris at church on Sunday, but no one could track him down Monday.

“Whoever done this, done wrong,” Case said.

Donnie Horton, Morris’ first cousin, couldn’t agree more.

“I pray to God they find out who did this,” Horton said Tuesday afternoon. “He was a great man. I loved him like one of my brothers.”

Like Case, Horton saw Morris transform his life when, a couple of years ago, “he gave his heart to the Lord.”

Horton spent all day Sunday with Morris, he said. They both attended two services at church and then Morris returned to his home after spending a week living with his daughter.

Last week, three men wearing red bandanas broke into Morris’ house, pistol whipped him, stole his television, took all his money and “tore his house to pieces,” Horton said.

“He thought they were going to kill him then,” Morris recalled. “They killed him this time.”

This is Lancaster’s 11th homicide of the year.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Lancaster Police Department at