Trio arrested after therapist’s slaying

Three suspects arrested in the slaying of a prominent therapist who was hiking on a trail near Fairfax on Monday have been identified as two men in their 20s and an 18-year-old woman, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

Sean Michael Angold, 24, Morrison Haze Lampley, 23, and Lila Scott Allgood, 18, were arrested around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in Portland, Oregon, on suspicion of the fatal shooting of 67-year-old Steve Carter in the Loma Alta Open Space Preserve, sheriff’s officials said.

A hiker on the trail called 911 at 6:06 p.m. Monday after finding Carter suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Carter’s dog, a Doberman Pinscher, had also been shot and was still leashed to him, according to the sheriff’s office.

Carter’s Volkswagen Jetta was missing and investigators then found surveillance footage showing three people refueling the Jetta at a gas station in Point Reyes Station. Investigators used the car’s GPS to track it to Portland, where the trio was arrested at a dining hall, sheriff’s officials said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Doug Pittman said it does not appear that Carter knew the suspects and investigators do not know why they shot him.

Sheriff’s investigators were on their way to Portland on Wednesday to interview the suspects and begin proceedings to return them to California, Pittman said.

Carter had moved to Costa Rica from California with his wife, Lokita Carter, last December, but they returned in July when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Before moving to Costa Rica, the couple ran the Lake County-based Ecstatic Living Institute, which they founded in 1999 to teach subjects such as tantric massage and yoga.

Lokita Carter has been regularly blogging about her battle with cancer and has tried to raise funds for her treatment on a GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/7q7yfu7ws.

She wrote in an update on the page Wednesday thanking people for their support following her husband’s death:

“I am beyond words, and it is only the knowledge how much you all love Steve, and me, that keeps me going at this extremely difficult time. … May you celebrate each moment that life gives you, and may you love your beloveds as much as humanly possible every moment, because we just never know when life will come to an end, and that hug you gave each other might be the last one.”