GOLF COURSE KILLING: Man attacked with golf club, ‘forcibly’ held underwater, Palm Beach Gardens police say

By Matt Papaycik

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    PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (WPTV) — Palm Beach Gardens police said a Loxahatchee man, in a “random act of violence,” “viciously attacked” another man with golf clubs before apparently drowning him in a pond at a golf course on Monday.

Junior Boucher, 36, is being held without bond in the Palm Beach County Jail and facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of Brian Hiltebeitel, 65, at the Sandhill Crane Golf Club, located in the 11000 block of Northlake Boulevard.

According to a newly released arrest report, Palm Beach Gardens police responded to the golf course just before 1:30 p.m. Monday after getting reports of a man attacking another man with a golf club.

When officers arrived, they found Hiltebeitel’s body on the fairway of hole one and Boucher, who was naked, running away.

After Boucher refused to stop, police were forced to use an “electronic control weapon” on him and take him into custody, the arrest report said.

According to the report, a witness told police he had been playing golf on hole one when he heard a man yelling, then saw Hiltebeitel “retreating” from Boucher, who was “holding a golf club and was swinging it towards Hiltebeitel.”

“Hiltebeitel was yelling ‘he’s trying to kill me’ multiple times,” the witness said.

The men then fell to the ground and “Boucher began striking Hiltebeitel numerous times with the golf club,” the report stated.

Boucher then chased Hiltebeitel toward the pond on hole one, striking him “repeatedly” in the head with the golf club. Once the men reached the pond, Boucher jumped on top of Hiltebeitel in the water and “appeared to be choking him,” according to the report.

The witness told police that “Boucher then got off of Hiltebeitel who was no longer moving and retrieved a golf club and struck him repeatedly in the head.”

Boucher then got out of the water, took off his clothes, and began to walk away.

Palm Beach Gardens police said Hiltebeitel had “deep lacerations to the back of his head” and was pronounced dead at the scene.

“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 said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. “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.”

Pape said that just one hour before the attack, Boucher had been reported missing by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

In court Tuesday, a judge denied Boucher bond and ordered him to have no contact with any witnesses and no access to weapons. Boucher told a judge his name is actually Manuel Acosta Rodriguez.

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