Caleb Lawrence McGillvary — better known as viral-video hero "Kai, the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker" — has been arrested for the murder of Joseph Galfy Jr., a 73-year-old attorney who was discovered beaten to death in his Clark, New Jersey home on Monday. The New Jersey police issued a warrant for Kai on Thursday afternoon, and CNN reports that the cops found him in a Philadelphia Greyhound bus terminal this evening.
The motive for the killing isn't entirely clear, but investigators think Galfy met Kai in Times Square on Saturday night after texting over the course of a few days. "It's more like 'Come pick me up' and 'I'll be there at this time,'" explained Union County prosecutor Theodore J Romankow said. "But not anything of a personal nature." However, the authorities say the two had some kind of "sexual encounter" once they got back to Galfy's place. A Tuesday post by a Facebook user who seems to be Kai suggests that he believes he was raped:
In a statement thanking law enforcement and the public for helping to find Kai, Romankow said, "I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets." The whole episode certainly does cast his original 15 minutes of fame — which he earned when he saved a woman from a crazy racist by bludgeoning her attacker in the head with a hatchet — in a different light.
The motive for the killing isn't entirely clear, but investigators think Galfy met Kai in Times Square on Saturday night after texting over the course of a few days. "It's more like 'Come pick me up' and 'I'll be there at this time,'" explained Union County prosecutor Theodore J Romankow said. "But not anything of a personal nature." However, the authorities say the two had some kind of "sexual encounter" once they got back to Galfy's place. A Tuesday post by a Facebook user who seems to be Kai suggests that he believes he was raped:
In a statement thanking law enforcement and the public for helping to find Kai, Romankow said, "I believe that everyone is a little safer with this person off the streets." The whole episode certainly does cast his original 15 minutes of fame — which he earned when he saved a woman from a crazy racist by bludgeoning her attacker in the head with a hatchet — in a different light.