The decaying body of a 48-year-old gay man discovered in his Cobb County home is prompting police to ask for the public's help in tracking down who killed him.

The body of Joseph Walker Jones was discovered in his mobile home on Fox Road on Aug. 15, apparently left for days in a "state of decay." A manager at the Six Flags Road Mobile Home Park asked police to perform a welfare check at Jones' home, which is when they found his body. Doors to his home were locked.

Cobb police say Jones was the victim of a homicide and are awaiting a ruling from the county's medical examiner on the exact cause of death and when Jones died, according to Officer Mike Bowman, a police spokesperson. The Cobb medical examiner's office said Tuesday that it had not yet determined how Jones died.

Jones, a gay veteran, was known to frequent gay Atlanta hotspots including Midtown and Piedmont and Grant parks, Bowman says. Jones lived in the Austell mobile home park for about a year.

"We are asking for assistance from the public, his friends, acquaintances, for anybody that has known him to contact us and give information to assist the detectives," Bowman says.

Neighbors have told media outlets that they hadn't spotted Jones' maroon car in his driveway in three or four weeks.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Cobb police at 770-499-3945.

[WSB | AJC | Marietta Daily Journal]