A metro Atlanta woman and her lover killed her husband for a life insurance policy valued at $1 million, police said Tuesday.
Suspects Tia Trollyne Young, 42, and Harvey ‘Tim’ Lee, 38, were arrested Monday in Gwinnett County, Georgia, in connection with the Nov. 16 death of George Young in Buford, according to Gwinnett jail records.
A 43-year-old father of three, George Young was gunned down on his front porch in the 3100 block of Montauk Hill Drive as he returned from a job as a security guard, police said.
"The detective believes that the murder of Young was financially motivated," Gwinnett police Cpl. Michele Pihera said. "George had a life insurance policy for a significant amount of money. Tia has not been able to collect on the policy," Pihera said.
For months, police suspected the crime was not a random act of violence and said as much in December after Crime Stoppers increased the reward for information in the case from the traditional $2,000 to $5,000.
“The preliminary evidence at the crime scene suggests that George was shot by someone waiting for his arrival on his front porch,” police said at the time.
When a detective began to interview Tia Young and Tim Lee about the night of the homicide and their history together, he found inconsistencies in their stories, Pihera said. According to police, Young and Lee gave different accounts of how they found George Young's body, when they found it and when they called 911.
Additionally, “the detective found evidence to suggest that Tia and Tim were involved in an intimate relationship,” Pihera said. “Though Tia originally claimed that Tim was a ‘cousin’ or ‘brother’ type of family member, there is nothing to suggest that they are related.”
George and Tia Young and Tim Lee knew each other from early adulthood, police said. They are originally from South Carolina.
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"When Tim became unemployed," Pihera said, "George invited Tim to live with their family in Buford. George hired Tim to work with him at a security company."
A tearful Tia Young discussed the shooting with WSB-TV in November.
“I heard two loud gunshots,” she told the news station. “I thought it was gunshots, but I wasn’t sure what it was, whether it was firecrackers. So I ran to my brother’s room. He wasn’t in there.”
The “brother” was downstairs on his laptop, she said.
“So I asked him did he hear that noise,” Tia Young told WSB. “He said, ‘Yeah. It sounded like two gunshots.’”
Police declined to say who fired the deadly shots.
Tia Young and Tim Lee appeared in court Tuesday to formally hear the charges against them and a judge denied them bond.
They are being held in the county jail on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.
"Both have denied any involvement in the murder of George," Pihera said.
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