Vehicle Missing After Plano Homicide

Police have classified a Plano man's death a homicide after his body was found inside his home Sunday evening.

Officers arrived at the home on the 3100-block of Royal Oaks Drive shortly after 8 p.m. and found 50-year-old Bill Tanner dead in his bedroom.

Police said there aren't signs of forced entry and it appears Tanner didn’t commit suicide.  Investigators and the Tarrant County medical examiner aren’t saying how he died, but did say there was blood at the scene.

On Monday afternoon police revealed a red 2006 four-door Chevrolet pickup with Texas license plate AK9-9367 was missing from Tanner's residence.

“We believe it is a suspicious death.  We believe there is foul play involved,” said David Tilley, with the Plano Police Department. “We suspect this is going to be something more focused on the residence."

Police said Tanner's stepdaughter returned home at about 8 p.m. Sunday night and said she noticed something disturbing, so she left and called police. In an interview with police, she told investigators that she never saw Tanner’s body

Neighbors tell NBC5 that Tanner’s step-daughter and her two young children moved in with him this fall and that she’d been away for the weekend.

Crime Scene technicians spent the morning gathering evidence from the home.  Police said they’ve talked with Tanner’s family and have several “persons of interest” they’re speaking with.

Tanner’s death is devastating to people who knew him, including neighbor Dave Dobbs who said he didn't know why anyone would want to hurt his neighbor.

“I was shocked, because he was a nice man,” said Dobbs.  “I hate to see this happen so close to home.” 

Cynthia Chapman also believes the boyfriend of Tanner’s step-daughter had been living with them as well.

“As far as fights or disputes, I didn’t hear anything going on,” said Chapman. “It totally floors me.  It’s not like he had a lot of money or anything.  There would be nothing to gain from hurting him. He didn’t ever have people coming over being enemies or anything like that, threatening him. Of course you want to look at the people who were in the house.  It’s just too weird."

The vice president of DSS Fire, Rob Yates, told NBC 5 that Tanner was employed by the company and was supposed to show up for work at 6 a.m. Monday.  When he didn't show up, the company tracked his work truck and discovered that it hadn’t moved from his home.  At that time, they suspected something was wrong. Tanner has been an employee at the company for 11 years.

Anyone with information about Tanner or the missing vehicle is asked to call the Plano Police Tip Line at 972-941-2148 or Crime Stoppers at 877-373-8477.