Willie Chappel

St. Louis Police said that homicide detectives were investigating the death of a man who said he'd been assaulted months earlier in his home. Willie Chappel, 74, of the 5300 block of Arlington Avenue, died in October at a hospital, police said. Months prior, on April 6, Chappel went to the North Patrol Division police station and told officers there he had been assaulted the evening before at his home, police said in a written statement. Chappel said he went to answer the door and was hit in the head, which caused him to fall and lose consciousness, police said. He had noticeable injuries when he arrived at the police station. Chappel later went to the hospital multiple times for treatment of seizures, a concussion, and "stroke-like activity," police said. He died Oct. 3 at a hospital. St. Louis Police declared his death a homicide in late December after the St. Louis Medical Examiner's Office notified police of the results of Chappel's autopsy. Police did not release more details. Reached by phone, spokesman Mitch McCoy said Chappel had been in and out of the hospital for months before he was admitted shortly before his death. McCoy declined to release more details, including Chappel's cause of death or information about any suspects his death.