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Atlanta man found unconscious on train tracks fighting for life

Joshua Dowd had to have brain surgery and as he fights for his life.

ATLANTA — Five days after an Atlanta man was found unconscious on railroad tracks near Buckhead, a family wants answers. 

Joshua Dowd had to have brain surgery and as he fights for his life, his partner, Colin Kelly, said his family is holding out hope that Dowd gets a miracle. Dowd, 28, was found on train tracks July 11 near Lakeshore Drive in Atlanta. A police incident report stated Dowd was bleeding from the head and barely breathing.

He was rushed to Grady Hospital, where his family said he needed a miracle to recover.

"Hospital employees told us this was a blunt force trauma to the head," Kelly said. "Some sort of device hit him on the head, hard enough to crack his skull, requiring a portion of his skull to be removed to relieve pressure on it. That is an assault. This person is unhinged. From what we can tell, they didn’t take anything from him. They just have put him within inches of losing his life and left everything else behind.”

The incident report called Dowd's case a "miscellaneous/non-crime," however, Kelly believes there is more to the story. 

“I want to know why, I want them held accountable, and I want to make sure they don’t have the opportunity to do this again," Kelly said.

Kelly said he and Dowd had been together for over three years. Dowd worked as a physical therapist, making an impression on most everyone he met, Kelly recalled.

“He’s just a ray of sunshine and you could just never get enough Josh," Kelly said. "He is such a kind and loving soul. He loves nothing more than giving of himself for others.”

Family shared video posted on Dowd's social media account around 4 a.m. the day he was found. Frogs and crickets can be heard in the video, and an overlaying message reads "Nobody can be forgiven for what they left me with...you're dead to me."

Hours earlier, Kelly said surveillance video showed Dowd partying at Heretic, a bar in Midtown. There are railroad tracks behind the bar, and business owners said there was a homeless camp nearby. 

Despite the mysterious circumstances, support is mounting for Dowd and his family. An online fundraiser has collected more than $40,000 since Sunday, the day Dowd was found on the train tracks. Kelly said he had no doubt his partner was a fighter and that he could pull through with prayers from the community. 

“You want to be as optimistic as possible, but sometimes those thoughts creep into your head about 'what-if?' It’s absolutely unimaginable for me to think of a world without him," he said. 

Atlanta Police said the circumstances surrounding the incident were still under an investigation that was "active and ongoing."





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