The family of Gene Siller will gather on Monday to say their final farewells to the 46-year-old golf pro who was shot and killed at Pinetree Country Club near Kennesaw.
A funeral for Siller will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, followed by a private burial, according to his obituary. His family received friends Sunday afternoon at McDonald and Son Funeral Home in Cumming.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will not be present at Monday’s service in accordance with the family’s wishes for privacy. It will not be streamed for the public, according to the funeral home.
The husband and father of two young boys was killed July 3 after a white pickup truck drove onto the golf course’s 10th hole and got stuck near the green, according to Cobb County police. Siller, who worked as Pinetree’s director of golf, was fatally shot when he went to investigate.
Cobb police said it “does not appear Siller was in any way targeted, but rather was killed because he witnessed an active crime taking place.”
The bodies of two other men were found in the back of the pickup on the golf course, police said. Concealed in the bed of a Dodge Ram, police discovered Paul Pierson, 76, of Topeka, Kansas, and Henry Valdez, 46, of Anaheim, California, bound, gagged and shot to death. Pierson was the pickup’s registered owner.
The suspect in the case, 23-year-old Bryan Anthony Rhoden, was arrested Thursday on three counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping.
The triple homicide shocked the tight-knit community, leaving Cobb residents on edge for days before Rhoden’s capture. Police have yet to offer any details on the killings or say how Rhoden, an aspiring rapper who lives in Midtown Atlanta, was connected to the crime.
In lieu of flowers, Siller’s family asks that donations be made to the Gene Siller Memorial Grant, which was set up by the Georgia PGA Foundation to honor Siller’s life and his passion for junior golf. The grant will provide financial assistance to competitive young golfers in need throughout the state.
— Staff writer Shaddi Abusaid contributed to this article.
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