A murder victim's children made a desperate plea Sunday, asking for the community's help to find their father's killer.
Thomas Tefft, 67, was killed Friday morning in his home near 79th and Harcourt on the northwest side of Indianapolis.
Tom Tefft's children say their father lived for his family - his wife, his children, but especially his five grandchildren.
"To have to tell those five kids that they've lost their grandpa and their papa has...it's been the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Tefft's daughter Lynn Hoff said to reporters through tears.
Tefft and his wife were drinking their morning coffee on Friday, when a man in a ski mask broke into their northwest side home.
Mrs. Tefft ran, locked herself in a room and called 911.
That's when police say she heard gunfire - a shot that killed her husband of nearly 45 years.
"That person who shot my father, went out in the garage, took his car. He's still out there somewhere right now and I need to know that that person has been caught. We need justice for my dad," Hoff said.
"My father lived an amazing 67 years of life, giving to everyone that he knew and this is not the way that he should have been taken from us," added Tefft's son, Wade.
Tefft and his wife moved to Indianapolis from New York in 1996, after their children left home.
They chose Indy because they read in a guidebook that it was a great place to live.
Tefft spent his retirement caring for his wife, who's battled breast cancer for the past eight years.
Their children say they're grateful she wasn't injured during the home invasion, but that losing her husband has been heartbreaking.
"Words can't express what she's going through right now," Wade Tefft said. "It's really taken a toll on her, obviously."
Police don't believe Tefft was a specific target in this crime.
But his children are now pleading for answers, trying to find out who took their father's life, and why. "There's a cold-blooded murderer loose on the streets of this city tonight and he needs to be found and brought to justice," Wade Tefft said.
Police are still searching for the black 2009 Hyundai Sonata that was stolen during Friday's home invasion. There's also a reward for information that leads to a suspect in the murder.
Police ask that you call Crimestoppers at 262-TIPS.
