Movie special effects technician found dead in DeKalb County apartment

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A man who was in the Atlanta area to work on major motion pictures such as "Rampage" and "Godzilla II" was found dead inside his DeKalb County apartment. Police said he was shot multiple times.

The body of Joseph Livolsi was found in at the Eastwyck Apartments on Eastwyck Circle in Decatur. Police said they have no suspects or even a motive.

The murder has sent shockwaves through Atlanta’s movie industry community and has left many asking who would want to kill him.

He had just wrapped work on Dwayne Johnson movie “Rampage” and was supposed to start on the next installment of the Godzilla series on Saturday, but he never showed up. His friends knew right away something was not right.

"Real stand up guy… there's nothing bad you can say about Joe, everybody loved him," Eric Cook said.

Livolsi was a movie special effects technician often came to Atlanta to work on films. He has credits on Captain America, The Avengers, and Transformers. Saturday, when he did not show up for work, his friends became concerned.

"We started making phone calls, a lot of people got in the loop and no one could reach him. A couple of days went by and it was really at that point we had tried everything and we were running into dead ends, so it was a little alarming at that point," said Cook.

Then they got the call they dreaded: Joe was dead. His roommates and a friend of theirs discovered his body Saturday inside his Eastwyck Village apartment.

"When they got to the scene, they went upstairs, they noticed the victim was lying on his back with multiple gunshot wounds in the upstairs hallway," said Lt. Lonzy Robertson, DeKalb County Police Department.

Police said his roommates claimed they were not home at the time, but also told police they did not call 911 right away. They said they were scared, took their friend home, and then drove over to the nearest police precinct to report the crime. Both roommates were interviewed, and subsequently arrested on unrelated charges

"We don't have any motives, any leads, any type of suspects," said Lt. Robertson.

Eric said Joe did not know the roommates he was living with, he found them on Craigslist when they first arrived in Atlanta.

"Joe was of the mindset to live as cheaply as he could and send as much money home to his family as he could," said Cook.

Cook said he does not know who killed his friend he can only speculate and wait while police try to figure out this mystery.

"I hope whoever did this gets what's coming to them because this is a guy who did absolutely nothing wrong, was just here trying to provide for his family… it's not good," said Cook.

Police said according to the roommates, nothing was taken from the home. Livolsi's friends said he did not have anything of value on him.

Anyone who knows anything about his murder is asked to call the DeKalb County Police Department.