Investigators Seek Public's Help With Info About Artist's Assault

MALIBU, CA – Sheriff's investigators are asking the public for help with information that will lead to the arrest of whoever brutally beat Malibu artist and carpenter Stafford Taylor. Taylor was found near death next to the Malibu Library after he was reported missing following a July 4th party.

Taylor was reportedly walking home from a Malibu Independence Day celebration when he was assaulted, sustaining "multiple head injuries and extensive brain damage," according to fundraising effort Stafford's Assault Recovery Fund.

It's now known Taylor left the Fourth of July party at a Malibu home at approximately 10:30 p.m., as security footage shows him walking westbound in the 26000 block of Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu Times reported. He was reported missing the next day, and friends searching for him found his car parked on Pacific Coast Highway, NBC4 reported.

"We were unable to locate him for 36 hours," the fundraiser site states. "Stafford was finally found as a John Doe at UCLA Medical Center."

He's now "medically stable enough" to be transferred to a long-term care facility, where, in about three months, his skull bone can be "put back on," Terry Taylor, Stafford's wife, wrote on GoFundMe.

"A beloved member of the Malibu community, a father, grandfather, and husband, Stafford is a beautiful soul who always helps anyone in need," his wife wrote on the GoFundMe page established to assist with expenses. "Now he needs our help to recover from this awful tragedy."

Donations can be made here.

Anyone with information about this incident should contact Detective Wheatcroft with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station at (8180 878-1808.

City News Service and Patch staffer Susan Schena contributed to this report; GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner; Image courtesy of GoFundMe