A man suspected of killing a retired dentist, taking three men hostage and wounding two deputies was likely traveling a section of the famed Pacific Crest Trail to elude searchers during an 18-day manhunt, authorities said Monday.
Investigators believe 34-year-old Benjamin Peter Ashley was headed back to the trail when he was confronted and shot by deputies Saturday behind a mini-mart in Inyokern, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.
An autopsy performed Monday determined Ashley’s death to be a homicide because two of the wounds inflicted by officers were fatal.
Youngblood said the autopsy also found that a self-inflicted wound was fatal. The full report hasn’t been completed and more details were pending.
Asked about a motive for the crime spree, Youngblood said, ”the mindset of this man we’ll never know.”
Ashley is suspected in the spree that began on July 28 when a gunman took three men hostage in a cabin in the Twin Oaks area after they confronted him about squatting on the property.
Authorities said the gunman held the victims hostage for more than an hour and threatened to kill them before they managed to escape.
The search intensified two days later after retired dentist David Markiewitz, 64, was found dead in another cabin in Jawbone Canyon, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away from the site where the men were held hostage.
On Aug. 1, two SWAT team members were shot and wounded by a gun-wielding man as they searched a mobile home in Kelso Valley as part of the manhunt. One deputy was shot in both arms, and the other was grazed.
Authorities closed in on Ashley on Saturday when he went to purchase $100 worth of water, candy and snacks at Brady’s Mini-Mart in Inyokern, The terrified clerk recognized Ashley’s hazel eyes from media reports and texted his sister, who called authorities about the dirt-covered hiker.
Deputies responded immediately, catching Ashley after he exited the rear of the mini mart on his way back to the Pacific Crest Trail.
Ashley, who authorities described as a transient estranged from his family, was found with more than 100 rounds of ammunition, three guns from the cabin of the retired dentist and another gun from the site where he had exchanged fire with the wounded deputies, authorities said. He was also carrying a 100-pound (45-kilogram) backpack.
Efforts to reach his family were unsuccessful.
Deputies suspected from the beginning that Ashley was responsible for holding the three men hostage, wounding the deputies and killing Markiewitz, but ”he actually connected all the dots for us with his death,” Youngblood said.
The search region had grown from roughly 5 square miles (13 square kilometers) to more than 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) of mountainous high-desert terrain in Central California. The mini-mart was just outside the search area.
