6:57 am SUNDAY UPDATE: The man who was shot and killed inside his tent — with his young daughters next to him at Malibu Creek State Park — has been identified as a research chemist from Irvine.
Tristan Beaudette was killed at about 4:40 a.m. Friday, and homicide detetcives Saturday said they had no leads, no motive and no suspect.
His widow, Erica, is an doctor. Beaudette had taken two young daughters, ages 2 and 4, to the park in Malibu Canyon to give her time to study for a test.
Beaudette was a scientist who worked for a pharmaceutical company, he had a PhD in chemistry from UC Berkeley.
The family has established a fund to pay for funeral expenses:
Says his family: “Tristan was out doing something he adored in life, being in the outdoors with his two young girls. His wife Erica was preparing to take an exam the next morning. This was their final step before taking well-deserved time off together as a family prior to their relocation to new jobs in the Bay Area. They were about to embark on a new chapter in their lives. And then it was all taken away, by a fatal gun shot in the middle of the night, in front of his two young daughters. Not a second goes by that we aren’t grappling with the senselessness of this crime.”