PIZZA MAN BEATEN TO DEATH, A DAMN SHAME HE DIDN'T HAVE A HANDGUN FOR PROTECTION...

From the Chicago Tribune: Pizza deliverer slain in Markham

An Oak Lawn man who delivered pizzas so he could be near his sons who also worked for the pizzeria died early Tuesday after he was beaten at a vacant house in Markham where he had taken food, officials and residents said.

Frank Sedevic, 60, died in the emergency room of St. James Hospital and Health Centers in Olympia Fields at 12:43 a.m., the Cook County medical examiner's office said. The death was ruled a homicide by blunt head trauma.

Sedevic was delivering for Beggars Pizza in Oak Forest, according to the medical examiner's office spokesman. He was found at 8:21 p.m. Monday in the 16500 block of Sawyer Avenue.

Markham police did not return calls for comment on the slaying.

Felicia Farr of Markham said Sedevic was delivering pizzas to a vacant house next to her's. After he was beaten, she said, he stumbled across the street and fell in the yard of a woman who called police.

"I've been living here three years and ever since I've been here there's been a mess," she said of crime in the area. "Since this happened today, I've called the Realtor. I'm going to sell my house."

Sedevic had delivered for Beggars Pizza since 1999, said Lynn Gutierrez, a manager at the restaurant. He worked five or six days a week, and his two sons also worked at Beggars as delivery men, she said.

"He was a nice, quiet man, a good guy," Gutierrez said. "It's pretty much like that [a family atmosphere] around here."

Employees learned of the attack shortly after it occurred, she said, but declined to say how or to comment on other aspects of what happened, citing the pending investigation.

Sedevic had retired from a business he started, delivering poultry to area restaurants, said Lyn Halbert, who is engaged to his son Joe. The elder Sedevic liked working for Beggars Pizza even though he didn't need the job, she said, because it ensured he would see both of his kids weekly.

"He was always guaranteed that at least one night a week, they would always see each other," Halbert said. "They all worked Wednesday. He was a real family man."

Sedevic rooted for the White Sox but took the family to Milwaukee each year for a Brewers game. He liked celebrating anniversaries at buffet restaurants and had been married to Barbara Sedevic for 37 years.

"They got married just after Barb turned 18," Halbert said quietly.