Police: 77-year-old was beaten, strangled to death

SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Police say the 77-year-old man found dead in his South Philadelphia home was beaten and strangled to death.

Police had said he was found Tuesday afternoon during a welfare check. Officers saw the back window broken and the back door unlocked. The victim's body was on the living room floor and there was blunt trauma to his head.

They said they think the victim, Joe Daly, took his son to work at the airport on Friday night. Then, he picked his son up after work and then returned where he parked his work van in the rear yard.

Neighbors called 911 and called to the house at about 1a.m. Monday with reports of a person screaming inside and then three young people running away from the house.

Joe Daly served in the navy, and neighbors say he loved the American Legion, and his cats. But, most of all helping others, he was a neighborhood "fix it," just this week he's repaired a friends sink.

Police says whoever broke into the Daly home on Theodore Street in Southwest Philly and committed this horrible crime also stole his van

That van is a blue 2003 Ford E-150 with two rear doors painted white. It has the Pennsylvania license plate PD5 3382.

Homicide detectives questioned relatives and witnesses, looking for a reason why someone would want to harm the victim.

Neighbors say he was a hardworking home improvement contractor and handyman who went to work every day. He'd lived in that house on Theodore Street for decades.