Suspects in Middletown tantra teacher's death tied to Golden Gate Park killing

SAN FRANCISCO — Police said Friday that three young and homeless wanderers used a handgun stolen from an unlocked car parked in San Francisco to rob and kill two people.

San Francisco Police Lt. Toney Chaplin said the handgun's owner reported it stolen on Oct. 1 from the Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood in San Francisco.

Two days later, a 23-year-old Canadian woman on a backpack excursion was found dead in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Police say Audrey Carey was shot once in the head.

Police say the same gun was used to shoot to death Steve Carter, 67, while he was walking his dog on a popular hiking trail Monday evening in Marin County, about 20 miles north of San Francisco. Carter's dog was also shot, but is expected to survive.

Carey was from Quebec and had planned to backpack in the United States and Europe. Carter was a popular tantra yoga instructor who was caring for his cancer-stricken wife.

The three suspects — Morrison Haze Lampley, 23; Sean Michael Angold, 24 and Lila Scott Alligood, 18 — were arrested outside a Portland, Oregon, soup kitchen Wednesday afternoon. Carter's Volkswagen Jetta was parked across the street. Detectives traced it and the suspects through the car's navigation system.

Chaplin said the stolen gun and some of Carey's camping gear was found when the three were arrested.

"We believe the same weapon was used in both crimes," Chaplin said.

The three were jailed Friday in Portland while California authorities sought to extradite them to Marin County to face murder charges for Carter's killing. Police said the suspects were homeless and wandering through the region.

Carey's body was found a few miles from where the city's annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival was being staged.

San Francisco police said in a statement that investigators saw similarities in the two shootings, including the locations in wooded areas.

Authorities have described the suspects as drifters and said none of them has a known address.

A hiker found Carter's body in the evening, and he was still holding the leash of his wounded dog. The Doberman pinscher was turned over to the Marin County Humane Society and is expected to recover.

Marin County sheriff's Lt. Doug Pittman said investigators were also aided by surveillance footage from a gas station in Point Reyes that showed the suspects with the stolen car about a half-hour after the slaying.

Authorities have said it did not appear the suspects knew Carter. Pittman has said it was unclear if Carter might have been targeted for his car or other belongings.

Followers credited Carter with improving their romantic relationships by teaching tantra, a philosophy of meditation, yoga and sexuality famously embraced by rock star Sting.