The homeless man's head rested on his backpack, his yellow prescription glasses still on his face.
To the railroad detective, who spotted the rag-tag man loitering in the tree-shaded lot by the tracks the day before, it looked like he was taking a nap.
But the man wasn't sleeping. He was dead, covered in ants. Investigators found pennies and denture adhesive in the pockets, insulin and syringes in his backpack and a MARTA card and a Six Flags Over Georgia contract employee ID in his wallet.
Fulton County Medical Examiner's case 07-0989 appeared to be open and shut: Life expectancy is not good for 63-year-old alcoholic diabetics on the street.
But the life and death of the former Atlanta city official, who worked for Mayor Andrew Young in the 1980s and was known by two other future mayors, was anything but simple.
Robert F. Sumbry apparently never recovered from a hard, notorious fall that sent him to federal prison and forever altered his life.
Sumbry's nine siblings had not heard from him in at least 15 years, a sister in Florida said. He just faded away after being released from prison.
