Hiker found shot dead on Calif. trail with wounded dog on leash
FAIRFAX, Calif. -- Detectives are looking for three persons of interest in the killing of a man found shot to death on a Northern California hiking trail with his wounded dog attached by leash to his hand.
Marin County sheriff's investigators on Tuesday evening released surveillance video showing two of the three people they want to question in the shooting death of Steve Carter, 67.
The footage taken from a convenience store in Fairfax near the trail where the body was found shows a long-haired man wearing a black hat and a woman with dirty-blond hair, wearing dark clothing.
CBS San Francisco station KPIX-TV reports the persons of interest are two men and a woman. The station says police got numerous calls from people saying they'd spotted three people acting suspiciously on and near the trail.
Carter's body was found by a hiker Monday evening along the scenic trial about 20 miles north of San Francisco, the Marin County Sheriff's Department said. He was still holding onto the leash of a Doberman Pinscher believed to be his dog, Lt. Doug Pittman said. The dog was also shot, but it survived and was turned over to the Marin Humane Society, Pittman said.
Pittman identified the victim as Steve Carter.
Carter's brother, Michael Carter, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I've heard that he was murdered, but I haven't heard anything other than that."
Carter said that he knew of no one who disliked his brother. "I can't imagine that it's anything other than a random thing. All of it seems very random and unbelievable. Nothing makes any sense," he said.
Carter and his wife, Lokita Carter, founded the Ecstatic Living Institute, based in Middletown, California. He was a Tantra teacher and participated in numerous training sessions across the country and in Canada and Costa Rica. The couple released DVDs on Tantric massage, yoga for lovers and meditation. They also taught classes at Harbin Hot Springs, a clothing-optional retreat in the Middletown mountains that burned down last month in Lake County's devastating wildfire, the Chronicle reported.
Logan Rose, director of the Ecstatic Living Institute, said the Carters recently led retreats for couples in Costa Rica and had come to Marin County so Lokita could undergo treatment for breast cancer.
"It has been a very traumatic season for us with Lokita's cancer, then the Valley Fire that destroyed our beloved Harbin Hot Springs where we offered the majority of our workshops," Rose said. "This is the most devastating blow. We are heartbroken."
The victim is believed to have driven to the trail in his silver 2003 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon, Pittman said. The car was missing and believed to have been stolen by the killer.
Anyone who spots the car should treat the occupants as armed and dangerous, Pittman said.