North Highlands Veteran, 91, Dies From Injuries Suffered In Brutal Home Invasion Robbery
NORTH HIGHLANDS (CBS13) — He survived three tours of duty, but a 91-year-old veteran couldn't survive the brutal beating he suffered in a home invasion.
Akemi Girion had to make the toughest decision of her life this weekend when said goodbye to her stepfather, John Masson.
"His face was all broken -- jaw, cheek, head -- everything was broken," she said. "Even if he survives, he's not going to have a quality life."
Masson was badly beaten on October 28 when thieves broke into his North Highlands home in the middle of the night. They blindfolded and tied up Girion and a caretaker and demanded Masson's car keys.
"He didn't give up his key because he's a military man," she said.
The suspects left with cash, jewelry and prescriptions drugs instead.
Masson's injuries were too much, and he died over the weekend.
"This is not a home invasion anymore, it's a murder," she said.
For half of his life, Girion says, Masson served in the Air Force -- through World War II, the Korean War and the start of the Vietnam War.
"He told me he almost died a couple times, but he survived everything," she said.
Masson lived the other half of his life in a home off of Cortright Way, where for some of them, he took good care of his disabled stepdaughter.
"We were two peas in a pod, and they stole that from me," she said. "They stole my father."
A man who survived three wars and decades of military service is now the victim of a violent crime in his own home.
"Please help us to catch the people, people who did that to my father," she said.
There isn't a good description of the three to four suspects, because it was dark in the home at the time.
Masson's family is offering a reward for information leading to an arrest.
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