My Tapley Tree... and its Branches: Thriller Thursday

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Thriller Thursday - The McDonald's Murders

My cousin Keith and I rode down to Dublin this week to visit a couple of cemeteries. When I go on a trip like that, I print out a report from Family Tree Maker listing everyone in my family tree that is buried in the particular cemetery I plan to visit. I indicate on the report how I am related to them, who they are descended from (because Keith always asks me, and I can never remember!), their married name for women, and any other information I think I might need while I'm out there. It's not a perfect system, but it works for me. So while I was researching the family members on said report, I discovered a cousin that had died at age 34. Well, I smelled a story. So I started searching Newspapers.com, and boy, did I find a BIG story. A sad story, but one that needs telling. You'll understand why in a moment.

Fredrick Lee 'Rick' Kea Jr (1954-1989) was living in Macon, Georgia in January of 1989. He had worked as a manager at the McDonald's on the corner of Riverside and Northside Drives for about five months. He had worked at Wendy's prior to this job. McDonald's had a policy of doing night deposits. We have all heard the stories about employees being robbed late at night when they leave to make the night deposit for a restaurant.

On the night/early morning of January 14, 1989, the restaurant closed at midnight. Rick and another manager, Steve Rose, stayed until 2:30 am doing inventory. I know they understood the inherent danger of their jobs because they had actually sent out the night deposit early - before midnight. For whatever reason, inventory took about an hour longer than usual this particular morning.

They finished up and walked out the side door of the restaurant - the one by the drive thru lane. All McDonald's have that exit door. Evil was waiting for them outside. Evil had stalked and waited that extra hour for the managers to leave the restaurant. There was no hesitation on the part of the killer(s). Rick was shot in the chest immediately and was found a few minutes later by police right in the drive thru lane where he fell.

Steve Rose reacted and began to run away. He ran toward Northside Drive in front of the restaurant and was shot in the arm and leg while he ran. He made it across the road and tried to climb an embankment behind the Gulf Insurance office and Steak 'n Ale, but because of his injuries, he couldn't make it. A shooter/robber/murderer followed him, shot him in the left temple, and left Steve there where he was discovered by police about 3 hours later. Steve was 40 years old and left a wife and two children.

There was no night deposit to be stolen. The killer(s) took each man's wallet. That was it.

From the start there was little to go on to solve the crime. There were no cameras like there are today. The killer(s) never entered the restaurant so there was no fingerprints or DNA (even if there was DNA testing in 1989) or eyewitnesses. There were a few spent shells that told the police that a .22 caliber pistol was used. That was it. There was a reward put together by the city, county, McDonald's and others that grew to almost $50,000, but no leads ever came out of that. Time was wasted chasing a fake lead a woman in Atlanta called in. Turns out, she was just trying to get revenge on her boyfriend.

The police worked non-stop trying to solve this crime. The McDonald's itself was outside Macon city limits, but where Steve Rose died was inside the city limits. So the city police and the county sheriff departments came together to work this case. No one ever came forward to say they saw anything or to name someone they thought was involved. Nothing. All leads dried up.

I followed the articles all the way until 2005 when the lead detective on the case retired. It was still unsolved 16 years later. I checked again tonight and the case has never been solved. It has been 37 years. These families deserve justice.

If anyone has information regarding this cold case, they should contact the Bibb County Sheriff's Office at (478) 751-7500 or use the the tip line for Macon Regional Crimestoppers at (478) 742-2330 or toll-free at 1-877-68-CRIME (1-877-682-7463).