LEWISTON – A 44-year-old handyman found beaten to death last weekend in his Blake Street apartment had been injured in a separate attack earlier in the week.

The body of Gregory Rowe was discovered Saturday, but investigators believe he was killed Dec. 19. The death has been classified as a homicide.

Maine State Police detectives returned to Lewiston for a fourth day Wednesday. They were working with local detectives, interviewing neighbors and others.

Witnesses said two men assaulted Rowe early on the morning of Dec. 18, first inside and then outside the three-story apartment building.

“The fight started in his apartment, and then they were in the hall and moving outside,” said Steven Holland, 22, who lives in the building.

Holland said he and a friend called police after seeing Rowe being attacked outside by the two men.

“One of the guys had him in a headlock,” Holland said. The fight broke up as police responded to the scene, and no arrests were made.

Later Tuesday night, police were called to assist a man who wanted to retrieve items from Rowe’s apartment.

“After that night, we didn’t hear any more,” Holland said.

Joe Dunn, Rowe’s friend and landlord, learned about the attack when he visited his tenant Wednesday and saw that he had a black eye. Dunn said Rowe feared the assailants would return.

“I told him to call me if they came back,” Dunn said. “He never called.”

When Dunn hadn’t heard from Rowe by the weekend, he called police. An officer accompanied Dunn to the apartment, where they found Rowe’s body on the bloody, tiled floor.

Rowe, who was mentally challenged, lived alone, although it was believed that another man had been staying with him off and on.

Rowe was a Nebraska native who had been living in Lewiston for several years. He had set up a shrine in his apartment, stacking baseball cards around a photo of his mother and father.

“He’d get sad around the holidays,” Dunn said. “He was alone in the world. He had nobody.”