Friends mourn Mardela homicide victim Harcum

Nick Leto was at a pool match Monday night when he and other people found out the man who had been killed earlier in Mardela Springs was Lee Harcum.

He could tell that the news affected everyone who was there.

Harcum, 62, of Salisbury, was pronounced dead in a Mardela Springs-area watermelon field Monday, July 27, having suffered head trauma, Maryland State Police said. His nephew, William Blan "Trey" Harcum III, 31, has been charged with murder in his death.

Leto, 25, met Lee Harcum at the now-closed Break Time Sports Grill & Pub in Salisbury when Leto was 21.

"He was the type of person that would go out of his way to teach you another trick or two about pool, even if you were on the opposing team," Leto said.

In addition to shooting pool, Lee Harcum was a referee for matches up in Baltimore, Leto said.

Jenny Mlyniec also met Lee Harcum through pool, but they became good friends, and she would regularly go out to dinner with Lee and his wife. Mlyniec spent time with his family on holidays.

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Lee Harcum helped Mlyniec in various aspects of her life, whether it was with moving, working to fix her car or farm equipment, or watching her dog, she said.

Mlyniec said she was "shocked" to hear what had happened, and while she didn't know Trey Harcum well, she had met him before. She recalled a time when Lee bought Trey a gift at a Renaissance Festival, just because he thought Trey would like it.

Mlyniec said Lee Harcum was kind, giving and not a violent person.

"He was just a really nice man," she said.

Lee Harcum farmed his whole life, was a district representative of the American Poolplayers Association pool league, had held positions at golf courses and also liked being outside –– at the other type of pool, his obituary states.

"He was always smiling and quick with a joke," wrote Mike Smith of Delmar, who knew Lee Harcum through a pool league, in a Facebook message. "He just seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He loved playing pool and took his role as Division Rep very seriously. We could always depend on Lee to help referee playoff matches and be a fair person. He will be sorely missed by everyone that knows him in the APA (pool league)."

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