HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – It has been more than a week since Frank Penkava was horribly beaten outside his Hollywood home.
On Tuesday, investigators finally arrived to comb through the crime scene.
Now his family wants to know how it happened, and who did it.
“I just want him back, I want him to be OK,” said Frank Penkava’s mother, Joan Penkava.
His mother and his sister, Gina Horvath, have barely left his side since the beating happened early in the morning on June 14.
“My brother was a very kind, very respectful person,” Horvath said. “He went to work, did his job, paid his bills, didn’t bother anybody.”
Since this all started, the family learned Frank Penkava had just gotten home from work and stopped by a neighbor’s place before going to sleep.
“He happened to just go over there and say, ‘Come on, can you turn the music down?’ That irritated them and they all just jumped in,” Joan Penkava explained.
With blood coming from his eyes and ears, Frank Penkava was brought to Memorial Regional Hospital and has spent much of the last week in a medically-induced coma.
But it wasn’t until Tuesday, eight days after the beating, that Hollywood Police finally brought crime scene technicians out to check out Frank Penkava’s home, where dried blood was visible all over the door.
“I want him to be OK,” his mother said. “He’s got a 3-year-old son to raise and he’s a wonderful person.”
Frank Penkava’s family said while he does struggle with mental illness, he had been doing well lately.
The family also said they were told he was beaten with some kind of weapon, like brass knuckles.
Frank Penkava was supposed to have surgery Tuesday morning, but he has gotten an infection since being at the hospital, and his vitals are so unstable, they’ve had to cancel multiple times.
Anyone with information that can help police is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
Family have set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for medical expenses and to offer a reward for information about the case.