Junior Boucher, Palm Beach, Florida man randomly attacks and kills Brian Hiltebeitel as he played golf at Sandhill Crane Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens. Defendant who has a long history of arrests had complained being the victim of witchcraft, and having had an ‘episode’ at his family home just hours before escaping and making his way to the golf course.
A man who hours earlier had complained about being the victim of witchcraft is alleged to have randomly set upon a golfer on a Florida golf course and violently attacked and killed him.
Junior Boucher, 36, upon his arrest was charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly killed 65-year-old Brian Hiltebeitel on the first hole at Sandhill Crane Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens on Monday afternoon.
‘He’s trying to kill me!’
Boucher is accused of ‘viciously’ attacking Hiltebeitel with his own golf clubs and then drowning him in a pond, according to WPTV.
‘Once in the water, Boucher jumped on top of Hiltebritel and appeared to be choking him,’ a witness told police, according to TMZ. ‘Boucher then got off of Hiltebritel, who was no longer moving, and retrieved a golf club and struck him repeatedly in the head.’
A witness told police that Hiltebritel yelled multiple times that Boucher was ‘trying to kill me!’
As Boucher chased Hiltebritel, responding officers arrived at the pond where Boucher had jumped on top of the victim and ‘appeared to be choking him,’ police said.
Officers said that when they arrived at the scene Boucher was naked and running away.
When the fleeing man refused demands to surrender, police said they used an ‘electronic control weapon’ to subdue him.
Hiltebritel had ‘deep lacerations to the back of his head’ and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Victim of witchcraft
The attack appears to have been random, with neither man having previously met the other.
‘At this time, it does not appear that Boucher had any legitimate purpose for being at the golf course,’ Palm Beach Gardens Police Chief Dominick Pape told reporters on Tuesday. ‘This appears to be a random act of violence where Boucher used the victim’s golf clubs as weapons and viciously attacked the victim, ultimately killing him.’
Just hours before the brutal attack, his relatives, Anna and Kevin Boucher, requested police assistance to remove him from a bedroom at their home, citing domestic violence, erratic behavior, mental health, aggressive behavior and verbal abuse.
It is unclear whether Boucher was under the influence of any substances at the time of the attack.
According to family members, the defendant fled the family residence, who then filed a missing persons report just one hour before the fatal attack on Hiltebeitel, WPBF reported.
During a Tuesday court appearance, where a judge denied the suspect bond, Boucher claimed he was the victim of witchcraft, Local 10 reported.
Prior criminal history and arrests
Boucher has a criminal history that dates back to at least 2006, when he was arrested for possession of drugs with intent to distribute near a park or school in Westport, Massachusetts, NBC Miami reported.
Boucher was then arrested again for drug possession in 2008, and was re-arrested in 2009 and 2011 for failure to appear.
In 2018, Boucher was arrested for domestic battery, and in 2022, he was arrested for fleeing and eluding, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting with violence.
Deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said he put one of the agency’s K9 units in a chokehold and attempted to ‘eye gauge’ the dog, after leading deputies on a chase across Okeechobee Park, according to WPTV.
Boucher wound up pleading guilty to the charges, and served about 230 days at Palm Beach County Jail and completed 115 hours of community service after enrolling in a program with a nonprofit.
