A hiker was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in Fairfax, California, on Monday evening, and police are now actively looking for the killer.
According to NBC Bay Area, Steve Carter, 67, was the co-founder of the Ecstatic Living Institute in the Napa Valley and a longtime leader at SkyDancing Tantra. He was found after another hiker called 911 to report his body, which was still holding on to the leash of his Doberman Pinscher, which was itself shot and injured.
Lt. Doug Pittman of the Marin County Sheriff's Department said Carter appears to have driven to the trailhead in his silver 2003 Volkswagen Jetta station wagon, which is now gone and believed to have been stolen by the killer,
The Associated Press reported.
"What led to the circumstances of his death, that's what we're trying to determine right now," Pittman said
Logan Rose, director of the Ecstatic Living Institute, wrote a public note of remembrance on Tuesday, acknowledging Steve and his partner Lokita.
"Steve and Lokita Carter devoted their lives to helping people connect their hearts to their sexuality. That's what their life is about, to remove the taboo around sexuality and weave it beautifully into the human experience," Rose wrote in an email. "A lot of their work was not about sex. It was about being in your heart and living life from there."
Rose said that the Carters have lead tantric workshops for 20,000 people around the world.
"I’ve heard that he was murdered, but I haven’t heard anything other than that," said Steve Carter’s brother, Michael Carter,
according to CBS News. "I can’t imagine that it’s anything other than a random thing. All of it seems very random and unbelievable. Nothing makes any sense."
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