CA - Malibu Creek State Park Shooting, Tristan Beaudette, 35, 22 June 2018 *Arrest* #2

[trunkizback]

Is there a chance the shooter never left at all? If he,she was registered in another site, they just slip back into their own tent.

 

[carbuff]

That makes sense. So the only reason in the case of a sniper shot to pick TB's tent then could be that it was illuminated and a good target from the location that was set up from higher grounds? Anybody know whether spot 51 and 49 can be seen from mullholland drive at all? I see the little rest areas on google maps but cant tell whether the tent area can be seen from those?

By poking around on Googlemaps I thought it looked like a good portion of the campground is visible from that rest area, from some spots along Mulholland, and from some places above Mulholland, like the parking lot at the Sepulveda museum. But I couldn't tell which sites they were.

It did look like a tent with a light on inside, even a faint light like a cell phone screen, would be very visible from that vantage.

There seems to be a trail that runs up the spine of the ridge from the park, crosses Mulholland, and continues uphill. Passes very near that large rest area on the main Malibu Canyon road.

 

[gitana1]

Thanks to Roadtripper's articulate and vivid account of the early morning on June 22 , we now have a better understanding of what took place that morning.

Some of the most important pieces of information provided by our fellow camper are:

-The shot came at 4:27 (911 call was made by someone at 4:44)
-The shots sounded fairly close to him, not far away.
-Multiple shots came very quickly in a group (bap,bap,bap.....6 in total), no time to react between shots.
-When looking out of his tent, he could not see anything. It was extremely dark. He also did not hear anything except a baby crying until a male voice called out for help.
-LE showed up soon after. Searched the area with spotlights. (Obviously they didn't find anyone walking or running away from the camp ground or hiding in the bushes.)

JMO, MOO:
-I still can't determine with 100% certainty between random vs target.
-The shooter was inside the camp ground. (shots sounded close)
-If the shooter is a random shooter who had merely walked in, just hoping to kill somebody that morning, he/she is very lucky LE didn't spot him/her running away or he/she stayed at the camp ground when LE showed up.
- Very curious to find out if LE recovered all 5 or 6 bullets. And where they were located.
- Even more curious to find out if there were several bullet holes in the tent.

If this was a planned murder, whoever killed TB had planned the murder very very well in advance as not to be suspected by LE.
Or we have a very lucky random killer not to have been caught, enjoying his/her freedom.

I smell a cold case.

Great post. I think it's too soon to detect a cold case though. I feel hopeful it will be solved!!

 

[katydid23]

Is there a chance the shooter never left at all? If he,she was registered in another site, they just slip back into their own tent.

I am wondering if everyone in the campground was interviewed before they were released. Wouldn't they take names and ID's, before letting them drive away?

 

[KaaBoom]

Great post. I think it's too soon to detect a cold case though. I feel hopeful it will be solved!!

I detected a cold case from the day after it happened. There appears to be zero leads in this case.

 

[KaaBoom]

I am wondering if everyone in the campground was interviewed before they were released. Wouldn't they take names and ID's, before letting them drive away?

I'm sure they were, unless they left before police arrived. They would have been inside the crime scene. Nobody would leave without first being questioned by police.

 

[RickshawFan]

I detected a cold case from the day after it happened. There appears to be zero leads in this case.

It’s possible there are hundreds of leads, and LE is just not communicating. We don’t know if they’ve been interviewing suspects, if they are gathering evidence on someone, or they’re waiting for a person of interest to give him/herself away.

 

[passepartout]

Looking at the Jan-May crime reports from LASD, violent crime is up 29% from 2017 in the Malibu/Lost Hills area.

Last year, there were no criminal homicides during this period in that jurisdiction. In the first five months of 2018, there were three.

In June 2018, there was the shooting death of Tristan Beaudette and possibly a second June homicide as there's a man currently in a coma who was found 'near death' as the result of a beating (this has been cited already in this thread). The total now stands at five.

I'm not sure whether the man found dead in the ditch near the Hindu temple in May is tallied as a homicide - LASD said he was dumped there but not killed there. Not sure how that impacts their stats.

In January, a partially decomposed body was found in a Malibu Bluffs park. An arrest was made in April. Victim and killer were apparently both homeless.

The Westlake homicide was the wife in a murder-suicide.

The third homicide is attributed to Malibu and is probably the body in the ditch at the temple.

 

[pocketaccent]

Great post. I think it's too soon to detect a cold case though. I feel hopeful it will be solved!!

I hope you are correct but I feel this one might be difficult to solve because:

Even if LE has a suspect(s) for TB's murder, the suspect(s) has a good defense already - Wasn't me. There were multiple unsolved shootings in the same area.

So LE has to have absolute and incontrovertible evidence against the suspect but the crime was committed in total darkness in a campground, without having to break in to victim's space. Other campers were too afraid to come out, so probably no witness.

I think the killer committed a perfect murder.

 

[flute4peace]

I hope you are correct but I feel this one might be difficult to solve because:

Even if LE has a suspect(s) for TB's murder, the suspect(s) has a good defense already - Wasn't me. There were multiple unsolved shootings in the same area.

So LE has to have absolute and incontrovertible evidence against the suspect but the crime was committed in total darkness in a campground, without having to break in to victim's space. Other campers were too afraid to come out, so probably no witness.

I think the killer committed a perfect murder.

Good point!

 

[passepartout]

The priests at the Hindu temple live onsite. They are probably the closest permanent residents to the campground.

The temple is directly across Las Virgenes Rd from where the campground is. Straight-line distance is probably 250-300 metres, although I don't know where the priests live in the complex.

Between the TB incident and the body dumped in the ditch near the temple a few weeks previously, I would assume that LASD has spoken to the priest or any other temple residents about what they might have seen or heard.

 

[katydid23]

I lived in this area, from 1999 until 2017. My gut feeling is that this was a random shooting, not a targeted victim.

I say this partly because this camp site area, and the Hindu Temple area, is an area where local teens/young adults, hang around, cruise around, drink/party/get high and create problems.

It is kind of ironic, that we moved our kids out of Venice Beach area, when they were entering middle school, to try and get away from gangs and hard core drugs etc. So we scrimped and saved and moved to a very high income area, thinking that would help.

It is ironic, because some of the most messed up, hard core trouble makers were actually the 'neglected' teens who lived in the mansions and drove Mercedes they got on their 16h birthdays.

A lot of these local kids have too much money, too much time on their hands, and no supervision. I have seen and experienced a lot of incidents which I cannot post. But my daughter got caught up for a little while with a boy that fits that mold. Thank goodness she broke up with him and found a better crew.

Oddly enough, this same group of kids used to routinely rent several camp sites there and have big parties. The rangers came around, but I think some of the local parents were influential enough to kind of stifle the rangers power. If the kids were quiet, they could stay up and hang out together all night, getting high etc.

I am NOT AT ALL saying that I think any of the kids I knew are randomly shooting anyone. I am just saying that this general area, and that road, is the main drag connecting the local kids to the beach. So they are out and about in that area all night in the summer. And there are certain homes that are party spots for all the local kids. A lot of them have family beach houses, that the parents leave to the kids to party in.

It would not surprise me one bit to find out that a small group, or even just one, local messed up bitter person, was walking around their childhood stomping grounds and randomly shooting at potential targets.

 

[clearskies1]

I am wondering if everyone in the campground was interviewed before they were released. Wouldn't they take names and ID's, before letting them drive away?

My understanding is that LE can't detain you unless they have reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime.

 

[Roadtripper]

My understanding is that LE can't detain you unless they have reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime.

We were interviewed and were asked to provide id and fill out an information form. I assume everyone was asked to do the same.

 

[janewall]

Is there a chance the shooter never left at all? If he,she was registered in another site, they just slip back into their own tent.

... and hide their gun, while GSR remains on their hands and clothing. Then LE descend on the campground within minutes, and if Roadtripper's experience is typical for the other campers that morning, they are interviewed and IDed and kept on site for the next 8 hours or so while the crime scene investigation unfolds.

If this is how it happened, that killer has stone cold nerves. *shudder*

@Roadtripper, was any inventory taken of your belongings, camping equipment etc? Not that LE would have the right to search belongings, but I imagine any questions about personal property onsite would be unnerving to a guilty party.

All MOO.

 

[carbuff]

I think it might only be unnerving to normal people.

I've read lots of cases where the killer recounts gloating about how smart he was while misleading LE. I think it was Jeffrey Dahmer who talked his way out of it while one of his victims was literally clinging to a cop and begging for protection. The Green River killer passed several lie detector tests.

 

[Harmony 2]

I think it might only be unnerving to normal people.

I've read lots of cases where the killer recounts gloating about how smart he was while misleading LE. I think it was Jeffrey Dahmer who talked his way out of it while one of his victims was literally clinging to a cop and begging for protection. The Green River killer passed several lie detector tests.

I agree, some even get pleasure from deceiving and misleading LE. The psychological term for it is 'duper's delight'.

To Tell the Truth, It's Awfully Hard to Spot a Liar

A Pre-Book and a Victim's Guide to Surviving the Narcissist/Sociopath Updated

 

[RickshawFan]

I hope you are correct but I feel this one might be difficult to solve because:

Even if LE has a suspect(s) for TB's murder, the suspect(s) has a good defense already - Wasn't me. There were multiple unsolved shootings in the same area.

So LE has to have absolute and incontrovertible evidence against the suspect but the crime was committed in total darkness in a campground, without having to break in to victim's space. Other campers were too afraid to come out, so probably no witness.

I think the killer committed a perfect murder.

PocketAccent on the trail again.... I would add that the key evidence may literally come from the mouths of babes. LE might be particularly careful because they have toddler/child witnesses who can be strongly influenced by adults (thereby compromising testimony) and who must also be VERY traumatized.

 

[ScorpioRising]

Wow, it's getting awfully quiet regarding this murder. I don't think that's a good thing. Why was there no press conference? I know that they didn't want to give any info and probably didn't have much to share in the first place but with all the other earlier shootings I feel like the press would have a lot of questions. How does this usually work? Does the press have to request a press conference or does the Sheriffs department usually voluntarily offer one to inform citizens?

I just read about the 5 shot Smith and Wesson revolver in another crime story. Just made me think about how 5 shots were reported by roadtripper. Nothing that we know of would relate this specific gun to this crime of course but I don't know much about this stuff and thought it was interesting that some have exactly 5 bullets. So one could empty those and leave instead of reloading. The fast sequence though might not work for this particular revolver? I obviously have no idea...

 

[ScorpioRising]

Widow Of Man Killed While Camping At Malibu Creek State Park Issues Statement

Officials said they are working some promising leads. They have not offered a motive for the crime .

Detectives say they have developed valuable information during the course of their investigation and are working closely with investigators from other agencies.

Hopefully they have some good leads indeed.