Scout leader fatally stabbed on Ind. hiking trip

[August 22, 2011]  BUNKER HILL, Ind. (AP) -- A 76-year-old man has been stabbed to death while leading Boy Scouts on a hiking trip in northern Indiana, and a suspect who battered his mother and killed a dog near the trail is under arrest, police said.

The assistant Scout leader, Arthur L. Anderson, had stopped to identify a tree on the Nickel Plate Trail in Bunker Hill Sunday afternoon when an attacker approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck, Indiana State Police said in a statement. Witnesses told police the attack was unprovoked.

Anderson of Kokomo, Ind., died at the scene despite the efforts of medical personnel who responded to a 911 call. Police said he had been involved in Scouting for 50 years.

Officers later arrested Shane C. Golitko, 22, of Bunker Hill, after he ignored a state trooper's attempted traffic stop and led police on an eight-mile chase, the Indiana State Police said in a statement.

Police are holding Golitko without bond on a murder charge and two felony counts of battery at the Miami County Jail.

A minute before the 911 call alerting authorities that Anderson had been stabbed, Golitko's mother Valerie Henson, called 911 to report that her son had assaulted her during an altercation at their home, about 150 yards south of the trail, state police said.

Henson told police that after she fled to a neighbor's house, her son walked to the trail where Anderson was later stabbed. She said her son later returned home, smashed up their home and stabbed two dogs, killing one.

Henson was treated for a broken arm. Police did not say what sparked the altercation between Henson and Golitko.

[Associated Press]

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