It's disturbing and it's mystifying, these two men who came out of the darkness, killed Ray Diener and then, seemingly, melted back into the darkness.

Police are still looking for the men, who shot Diener, a 65-year-old "perfect gentleman," multiple times a week ago outside his brick ranch home set in a pleasant slice of the West Donegal Township countryside.

Murder is unusual in this part of the county. This is only the second murder that the Northwest Regional Police Department has been faced with since its formation in 2003. The other, a mentally ill man who killed his mother, was solved quickly.

"It's very upsetting to the community," said Northwest Police Chief Casey Kraus. "It has everyone on edge as it should."

Said township manager Nick Viscome, "The people I talk to want to be able to point to a reason. Because, if there is no reason, it's just a senseless act of violence. It's destabilizing. It makes people think it could happen to them."

What is known about the murder is unsettling, including a single, chilling sentence uttered by Diener's killers.

But what is not known is equally unsettling.

Diener was at a Conestoga Valley High School baseball game last Wednesday night, Kraus said. On his way home, he stopped to close up his business, a self-serve spring water store, at a small shopping plaza on South Market Street in Elizabethtown.

His wife, Barbara, was sleeping when he arrived home. She was awakened by her husband's screams, Kraus said.

Mrs. Diener ran to the front door of her house and, through windows alongside the door, saw her husband start to fall to the ground.

She pulled open the door, saw her husband's blood-stained body on the front doorstep.

Then she heard a voice.

"There's the wife," a man said.

She looked up and saw two men, standing 10 to 20 feet away. She only got a quick glimpse, because she slammed the door shut and then ran for the phone, to call 911.

Mrs. Diener did not recognize the men and could not say how old they were or give a detailed description, Kraus said, other than they were light-skinned.

She did not hear gunshots. She did not see or hear a car. Neighbors did not see or hear anything either.

Police found fingerprints on a door at the Dieners' house. They found blood on the sidewalk at the house and two odd drops of blood at Diener's business.

They don't know if the blood at the business is connected to the murder, but Kraus said, "It just seems odd that two drops of blood were found there that night."

They don't know if the blood on the sidewalk is Diener's, or someone else's.

All of that evidence is being analyzed, as are the bullets taken from Diener's body.

Police used metal detectors to sweep the Dieners' property this week. No shell casings were found, which Kraus said could point to the killers using a revolver, which does not eject casings.

The big question is the motive for the killing.

Did the two men target Diener for a reason?

Did they follow him home from his business, thinking he may have collected money there, and they could rob him of that?

Or did they simply randomly show up at his home, planning a robbery there?

"It just doesn't make sense," said a neighbor, who asked not to be named. "It's such a mystery."

Diener, a star pitcher when he was at Elizabethtown College, was involved in charitable work. He was a dad and a grandpa.

"He was just a perfect gentleman," Kraus said. "Nobody had a bone to pick with him."

If the two men picked Diener, or his home, at random, that is a scary thought, Viscome said. People want a reason, a way to understand something that might be senseless, he said.

"Everyone is wondering," Viscome said. "Part of it is the fear, on behalf of everyone. They want these people caught."

Kraus said police are working hard on the case, with assistance from county detectives and other forces. They are putting together a reward, up to $2,000 and still growing.

Police are getting calls from people in the community, who have heard things, and hoping for more tips.

Said the neighbor: "This could just be a random act, that they followed him home. That's going to be very hard to track down.

"It's going to have to be that someone brags, and somebody reports it."

Police do believe the killers are from this area, Kraus said.

"We seriously doubt someone drove here from faraway, and randomly picked the Diener house," he said.

"We certainly are not giving up hope," he said. "We're going to keep tracking it down and putting as much effort as it takes. We won't give up."

CONTACT US: cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024