A small south DeKalb County church was vandalized Thursday night, and a person working security there was missing Friday. A strange note found in the sanctuary added to the mystery.
The missing man's sister, Inell Gosire, is worried about her brother, who she said has schizophrenia. She said Randolph Morgan, 40, has never disappeared before.
The vandal trashed the sanctuary and destroyed computers and musical instruments. The pulpit and chairs were overturned, holes were punched in the walls and an electric piano and guitar were among items destroyed. The guard’s Cadillac was still parked outside Increasing Faith International Ministries on Rainbow Circle late Friday morning. Police began sealing the area with crime tape around 10 a.m.
Pastor Easton Brooks said he would file a missing person report.
"I'm very worried. One of our members was here providing security and as far as we know he's missing. We don't know if he's in danger... He's not picking up his phone, which is totally unlike him."
Brooks said later he found the guard's cell phone inside the church.
An ominous note was found on the floor in the sanctuary. It was an offering envelope with the words "Pastor's Love Offering" printed on it. The word "Love" had been circled in blue ink, and at bottom was written "all of you so much" and "thought you cared for me."
Monica Brooks, the pastor's wife, said Morgan was a church member who was staying there to guard against vandalism, which has been a problem.
“It’s a shame to see how people just have no respect at all for the house of the Lord,” Easton Brooks told Channel 2 Action News. “This is where we do the ministry, and to see what happened here is beyond belief.”
He said he wasn’t sure if anything was stolen from the church.
Gosire said that when Morgan doesn't take his daily medication, he walks around, talks to himself and preaches.
"He has never been destructive," she told the AJC. "He has never torn up anything."
The investigation is continuing.
--AJC staffer Angel K. Brooks contributed to this article.
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