The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors offered $10,000 rewards Tuesday in hopes of tracking down the killers of an Irvine father shot to death while camping with his young children in Malibu and a Hacienda Heights father killed in his home more than a decade ago, while also renewing a reward in a 2016 Long Beach shooting.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl recommended offering a reward in the killing of 35-year-old Tristan Thomas Beaudette, who was shot in the head June 22 while camping with his two 2- and 4-year-old daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. Malibu has offered an additional $5,000, for a total of $15,000 in reward money.
Beaudette, a scientist who worked in the pharmaceuticals industry, was inside a tent when the deadly shot was fired. His wife was studying for an exam and didn’t make the trip.
Homicide detectives said the motive for the shooting of Beaudette wasn’t known, but a spate of shootings occurred in the area in 2016 and 2017, including a man hit by birdshot from a shotgun while sleeping and two cars hit by gunfire.
The campground has remained closed since Beaudette’s death, and patrols have been stepped up in recent weeks.
Last Monday and Thursday, deputies received calls reporting shots fired in the area, but found no evidence of a shooting, the Los Angeles Time reported.
No witnesses to Beaudette’s shooting have come forward, though detectives believe that someone in the area may have seen or heard something that could help with the investigation. Kuehl asked anyone with information to call sheriff’s Detectives Richard Tomlin or Daniel Morris at (323) 890-5500.
Supervisor Janice Hahn recommended offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to whoever fatally shot 27-year-old Edward Berber in Hacienda Heights on Dec. 6, 2005.
Berber’s mother went to check on him because he had been out of touch with her for an entire weekend. She found his home in the 1800 block of Charlemont Avenue in disarray and her son dead on his bed.
His sister said Berber was a family man with a master’s degree whose dreams for himself and his children, 3 and 8 years old at the time, were cut short.
No eyewitnesses able to identify the suspect have come forward, according to authorities, who released a composite sketch at a news conference at sheriff’s headquarters Tuesday morning.
“Nearly 13 years after Edward Berber was murdered, we have a chance to solve this case and finally bring justice to Edward’s family,” Hahn said, urging anyone who recognized the face to “do the right thing” and call sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Martindale at (323) 890-5500.
Hahn also recommended extending a reward, set to expire July 29, in the Long Beach shooting of 46-year-old Joe Moser.
Around 11 p.m. March 30, 2016, Moser was bicycling alone near the intersection of 16th Street and Pine Avenue in Long Beach when a group of people walked up and started talking to him and one of them pulled out a weapon and shot him.
Detectives say Moser was not a gang member and did not appear to be doing anything illegal that led to his death.
Police said shortly after the shooting that two suspects ran east on 16th Street after firing on Moser and then ran up behind another man and hit him in the head with a gun, knocking him to the ground. Police said they did not believe there were any ties between the two victims.
Anyone with more information was urged to call Long Beach police Detective Donald Goodman at (562) 570-5726.