Police are poring through surveillance video in the hopes of finding information that could help solve the death of Palms chiropractor Robert Rainey, who was found Thursday beaten on the floor of his office.
Police are treating the death as a homicide and said that not all surveillance cameras in the neighborhood were working at the time Rainey died.
What they do have, they said they will not yet release citing a pending investigation.
A patient found the 54-year-old doctor beaten to death in his office in the 9200 block of Venice Boulevard (map) in what police suspect was a robbery because his wallet is missing.
The beating left Rainey with missing teeth and broken jaw
Police suspect someone may have followed Rainey into his office Thursday morning. He had left an outgoing phone message Wednesday letting patients know he would be available early.
“Hello, you’ve reached Rainey Chiropractic. We’re out of the office. We’ll be back tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 7 a.m. We have appointments available at 7:30 a.m.,” Rainey said on the message.
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Gabbie Perez, who works at a check-cashing store in the same plaza as Rainey’s office, said her store’s surveillance cameras were not recording at the time of the suspected murder.
Perez said she was robbed at gunpoint a few years ago and now wants a security guard to escort her to and from work.
“Sometimes in the morning, nobody’s in the parking lot, nobody’s open, it’s just us,” she said. “Obviously, we would like more security here.”
The slain doctor was the son of late character-actor Ford Rainey and the brother of Los Angeles Times media writer James Rainey, who wrote an online tribute to his brother.
In it, the writer described his brother as “kind, gentle,” someone who would treat patients for free if they did not have enough money.
Rainey, a resident of Culver City, was an avid runner and part of a runner’s group called the Mountain Goats, which ran in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Saturday, the group is expected to take their last run of the season wearing black bandanas in memory of their friend.
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