Terrible News about Florida Trail

[SoFlHiker]

Article published Jan 11, 2006
Police: Suspect out to kill 'preppy kids'

A 19-year-old Largo man charged with killing two Gainesville college students came to Ocala National Forest with an assault rifle and a desire to kill at random, according to police.

Leo Lancing Boatman was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of John Parker and Amber Peck, both 26-year-old Santa Fe Community College students. Boatman was expected to be taken to the Marion County Jail early today and to be held on a suicide watch.

Detectives believe Boatman stole his uncle's AK-47 rifle, took a bus to Ocala from Clearwater, bought camping equipment at Wal-Mart and took a cab to the forest. They believe he encountered Parker and Peck the next day as they were leaving from an overnight camping trip, allegedly firing "multiple shots" to kill them.

"It was random," said Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Chris Blair. "I really believe they did not know it was coming, they had no time to defend themselves."

Boatman allegedly told a girlfriend that he didn't want to kill someone with nothing to lose and shot the first "preppy kids" he came across. Marion County Sheriff Ed Dean called Boatman "a would-be serial killer, that had he not been stopped now, would have continued killing."

Police say they broke the case with the help of a 20-year-old man who reportedly gave Boatman a ride as he left the forest after the killings. Joey Tierney, a Georgia resident visiting his mother in Lake County, said he picked up Boatman on Jan. 4 about 6 p.m.

"He just looked like a nice guy," Tierney said. "I felt sorry for him."

Boatman allegedly told him he was carrying a rifle, before he was dropped off at a Silver Springs hotel. Tierney said he "got cold chills" when he heard on the television Saturday that two students were killed on the same area he picked up the hitchhiker.

Family members of Parker and Peck expressed gratitude that Tierney came forward.

"Without him, who knows what would have happened," said David Peck, Amber's father. "We're just so glad that this could be put to rest."

With Tierney's help, detectives say they pieced together a series of events leading Boatman from Largo to Ocala and back again.

They allege Boatman stole his uncle's assault rifle on New Year's Eve, leaving Clearwater on a Greyhound bus two days later. He arrived in Ocala early Jan. 3, and video footage shows him buying $391 worth of camping equipment at a Wal-Mart there at 2 a.m. that morning. A cab company told police one of its drivers brought Boatman to Juniper Springs Recreation Area.

Later that same day, Parker and Peck left Gainesville for a planned overnight camping trip in a remote part of Juniper Springs. Witnesses heard gunshots at noon the next day, according to police.

About six hours later, Tierney said he picked up Boatman on a road near the site of the killings. Tierney said Boatman was carrying a large bag, telling him he had a rifle and knife. Boatman said he left Southwest Florida looking to escape city life and live in the woods, according to Tierney.

He dropped Boatman at a Holiday Inn in Silver Springs, but police say the rates were too expensive and Boatman instead went to the nearby Silver River Inn. Records show he stayed there and left the next morning, according to police.

Peck's roommate reported her missing when she hadn't returned three days after she was expected, leading Peck's family members to use satellite tracking to locate her car near a forest road Friday night.

The family embarked Saturday morning through rough terrain to reach their campsite, finding the bodies face down near Hidden Pond, off the Florida Trail. The bodies were airlifted that night for an autopsy, and investigators combed the scene for evidence.

Sheriff's deputies found at least five shell casings at the scene and believe each victim was shot at close range multiple times, said Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Tommy Bibb. Parker's wallet was found rifled through, he said, but all their equipment was packed and it appeared they were leaving the forest when they were killed.

After Tierney called police Saturday night, detectives were able to track Boatman's movements to the hotels. They learned his identity from a copy of his driver licence at the hotel where he stayed, then found he had taken a Greyhound back to Clearwater.

On Monday, detectives interviewed Boatman at his Largo home. When asked about the rifle, he allegedly told them it was a pellet gun and showed them one in his shed. But by this time, Bibb said police had statements from Boatman's friends and family that he had stolen the assault rifle.

According to a police report, Boatman's girlfriend told police he had said he "went to the woods and killed someone." Boatman told her, "I wouldn't kill a bum because they would have nothing to lose" and "I went out there and came across two preppy kids and killed them," according to the report.

Parker and Peck were members of Students for Environmental Harmony, a SFCC environmental group. He was a former U.S. Marine who planned on studying forestry; she had planned to study biology at a school in Australia.

Michelle Blackburn, a close friend of Parker's, was shocked by the apparent randomness of the killing.

"This is tragic. It's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard," she said. "Go figure - it's just some idiot with a gun. I hope he gets the death penalty.

"It makes me mad that it was such a senseless death, but it brings me a lot of peace and a lot of closure to know he's in custody," she said.

Peck's friend Sarah Austin said she felt better knowing Boatman was in custody, "but I don't see any reason why he would just feel like shooting somebody," she said.

"These people's lives and the lives around them will not be the same just because he thought somebody's life wasn't valuable," Austin said, her voice breaking with emotion.

At SFCC, "to just get closure on this horrible case is a good thing," said college President Jackson Sasser. "There's been a sense of loss at Santa Fe, especially for those that knew these promising students so well."

Parker's sister, Bethany, said the family is glad they can move beyond the mystery and begin grieving.

"Our family is grateful that this killer has been caught and now we can focus on remembering my brother," she said.

Sun staff writer Tiffany Pakkala contributed to this report.

[Skidsteer]

.....Damn.

[CaptChaos]

Everyone:

1st:

My heart goes out to the family of both people killed.

2nd:

Before everyone gets started: "Guns don't kill people, People kill people".

In 1974 in Darke County, Ohio I was cross a field with my best friend when someone opened up on us by a fallen tree with a .306. We jumped behind the fallen tree and the shooter keep firing rounds in front, to the side and behind our location. My best friends father was painting the house and saw what was going on and called the police and then got his service pistol.

I had enough, when he stopped to reload I opened up with my .45 Cal ACP and emptyed the clip on the hillside where I suspected the shooter to be. The shooting stopped.

The police later found the spot where the shooter had been due to the shell casings. Very close to his location were marks where my bullets had gotten very close to where he was at. The shooter was never found but the golf course across the street, this was out in the county, had seen him there most of the morning drinking like a fish.

The police suspected that he had heard us plinking cans down by the river bank and decided to have some fun at our expense. But my return fire ended his fun for the day. I hope that he is still running for what he did to us.

Case in point: He did not know us, we did nothing to him and we were lucky that he did not kill one or both of us. It can happen anywhere to anyone. I am truth to that.

John

[CaptChaos]

Just in passing for those of you who wonder how I felt about this after it was over.

1) I was glad that I had not killed him.

2) I puked

3) I have never fired a weapon since then and hope that I never have to.

[neo]

i am so sad to hear this,i am glad they caught their killer,when a hiker gets hurt or killed on the trail,i feel as though i have been atacked also,because
i feel like the hiking cummunity as a whole is like family to me neo

[Tha Wookie]

That is a shocking and saddening story. I can only pray for those victims, their families, and for the killer's sick soul, that it may be rid of those demons.

We must remember that as sad as this is, things like this happen daily in cities and towns, to city people and others in rural areas very commonly. This is not a trail-specific problem. If anything, the trails are far more safe than just driving leisurely down any given highway.

[Nean]

People go camping everyday, and sooner or later some sick **** will wonder in from the road. Same happens w/ hikers. The victims and public are fortunate that this s* was caught so easily. It's a sad thing about being human, some lose it and others suffer.

[RLC_FLA]

Latest from the St Pete Times on this tragedy.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/01/12/St..._boy_to_.shtml

[Tha Wookie]

You can get used to these kind of stories since the Republican regime has brought back the legalized assault rifle.

Sad but true. the NRA has some money to make.

[Lone Wolf]

A ***ing shotgun would have achieved the same result you gun grabber.

[Tha Wookie]

A ***ing shotgun would have achieved the same result you gun grabber.

I'm not the gun grabber, wolf. Remember, it was a 19 year-old boy who grabbed the weapon designed to kill and enlivened its role.

Thanks to your vote, it was made possible!

[lobster]

Wookie, go crawl back under your liberal rock!

[Fiddler]

You can get used to these kind of stories since the Republican regime has brought back the legalized assault rifle.

The legalized assault rifle was not brought back by the republican regime. Correct me if I am wrong. Weren't the bans only temporary? Didn't they expire a short while ago? Weren't any items covered by the bans that were owned before the bans grandfathered in so ownership was still legal? Were not sales of existing weapons still legal since the bans covered mostly the importing and manufacturing of banned items? I was a licensed firearms dealer many years (quit 3 years ago, retired and enjoying it) and I had to know the laws on firearms. I could still buy and sell all the banned items I cared to as long as they were manufactured or imported before the bans took effect. Evidently those who think the republican regime brought back the assault rifle didn't visit any gun shops during the time the bans were in effect.

[Tha Wookie]

The legalized assault rifle was not brought back by the republican regime. Correct me if I am wrong. Weren't the bans only temporary? Didn't they expire a short while ago? Weren't any items covered by the bans that were owned before the bans grandfathered in so ownership was still legal? Were not sales of existing weapons still legal since the bans covered mostly the importing and manufacturing of banned items? I was a licensed firearms dealer many years (quit 3 years ago, retired and enjoying it) and I had to know the laws on firearms. I could still buy and sell all the banned items I cared to as long as they were manufactured or imported before the bans took effect. Evidently those who think the republican regime brought back the assault rifle didn't visit any gun shops during the time the bans were in effect.

The republicans at the helm neglected to renew the ban on assault weapons.

Wouldn't you say that will make it far easier for more assault weapons like the AK-47 to be distributed in America, Fiddler?

[khaynie]

What the difference between an AK-47 and a 30.06 in the hands of a lunatic - politics aside? Nothing. No party could have prevented this crime. I say we call up the Boondock Saints.

[MarcnNJ]

How come there are no groups that represent stabbing victims trying to outlaw knives?

[Max Power]

Juniper Springs may have been the first place I ever camped. It was a favorite of my parents. Here in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Florida</st1lace></st1:State> this horrible story has been everywhere. One interesting thing I just found in the Orlando Sentinel is that this is one of many violent crimes that have happened in the <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Ocala</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">National Forest</st1:PlaceType></st1lace>.
1966 two Pinellas women (same <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">county</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Boatman</st1:PlaceName></st1lace> lives in) vanished from an outing with a youth group. They were believed to be murdered.
1990 serial killer Aileen Wournos left one of her victim’s bodies in the forest.
1994 an FSU student was killed and his sister was abducted raped twice and left tied to a tree.
1995 two hunters found a man's body that had been killed from head trauma.
1998 a hiker found the body of a headless woman. Head found 3 months later.

The seclusion and safety you feel in the forest is nearly lost. You usually go there to escape these things, but now they seem to be creeping in.

[Max Power]

Soory about those icons, not sure what happened. I still can't find that edit button.

[Animal Man]

Laws, good people don't need them, and bad people don,t obey them.

[Fiddler]

The republicans at the helm neglected to renew the ban on assault weapons.

Wouldn't you say that will make it far easier for more assault weapons like the AK-47 to be distributed in America, Fiddler?

As for the first part I remember there were quite a few Democrats that were kind of slack on pressing for a renewal. Maybe their constituents sent them some kind of message? Not all democrats are so-called gun grabbers. Not all republicans were against the renewal either. Sort of a weak showing from both sides the way I remember it.

As for the second part:
Do you know what an assault weapon is? According to the Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide published by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (the federal firearms laws) and sent to all licensed firearms dealers (which I was) this is what an assault rifle is:

a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of -
(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
(iii) a bayonet mount;
(iv) a flash supressor or threaded barrel designed to accomodate a flash supressor; and
(v) a grenade launcher.

Their words exactly.

As for easier distribution, no. There was so much left-over inventory from when the ban first took effect there never was a shortage of anything you might have wanted. And the manufacturers, foreign and domestic, simply left off the bayonet lugs and pinned the folding stocks so their former assault weapons were now ordinary rifles.