The campground where a young father was mysteriously shot to death in front of his two daughters has been closed as authorities investigate reports of additional shootings.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Tristan Beaudette, 35, was found shot to death on Friday morning at Malibu Creek State Park near Los Angeles. Authorities have revealed very little about the circumstances of his death, but Beaudette is believed to have been in or near his tent at the time of the fatal shooting, in front his daughters aged 2 and 4. Both of the girls were unharmed.
According to CBS News, Baudette’s family have said they believe the murder was random. Baudette was a scientist who worked for a pharmaceutical company; and his family had been planning to relocate from Irvine to the Bay Area where both he and his wife were planning to start new jobs, according to a statement on a GoFundMe campaign page.
Beaudette’s brother told CBS affiliate KCBS that he understood there were two holes found in Baudette’s tent, but there has been no confirmation they were bullet holes.
Investigators are reportedly looking into additional shootings that took place at the campground much more recently than previously thought. According to CBS News, there was a shooting incident at the campground just four days before Beaudette was killed, in addition to two shootings last summer. Authorities had previously said that there was a report of a shooting Monday morning but will no longer confirm that, CBS News reports.
The three additional shootings, which are not believed to have resulted in injuries, are being reviewed as part of the investigation into Beaudette’s apparent homicide.
“They’ll be attempting to see what type of weapon was used in the shooting and then if that weapon was somehow connected to other shootings especially ones that took place in that park,” Mary Ellen O’Toole, the director of the Forensic Science Program at George Mason University, said in an interview with CBS News.
They have an active shooter out there,” she said. “They have someone who was willing to go into a campground and kill another person.”
[Feature image: Erica Wu and Tristan Baudette/GoFundMe]
