Homeless veteran Forrest Clayton Salcido beaten to death

Two young adults charged in footbridge homicide
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian



Two Missoula men were charged Friday with deliberate homicide for allegedly stomping a 56-year-old Navy veteran to death on a walking path, apparently without provocation.

Anthony St. Dennis, 18, a senior at Hellgate High School, and Dustin Strahan, 20, are accused of beating Forrest Clayton Salcido to death late Wednesday night. Prosecutors say both men have admitted taking part in the brutal attack.

Passers-by discovered Salcido's body Thursday morning on a path leading to the California Street footbridge. The victim lived most of his life in Missoula with his family, but often spent the nights outdoors in transient camps. He served in the military between 1971 and 1975.


Missoula County Coroner Mike Dominick said Salcido died of blunt-force trauma to the head.

St. Dennis remains in custody at the Missoula County jail on $500,000 bail. He has a previous criminal record, both as an adult and a juvenile. Strahan is jailed on $250,000 bail.

Deputy County Attorney Matt Lowy said Strahan played a less active role in the fatal attack, and was cooperative with law enforcement after initially lying to investigators.

“In contrast to Mr. Dennis, this defendant has been cooperative with law enforcement, and the state does not see that he played the same role, or as active a role, as Mr. Dennis,” Lowy said.

According to court papers filed by County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, the men were sitting on a bench near the footbridge at around 10 p.m. on Dec. 5 when Salcido happened by.

St. Dennis started to pick a fight with the man, pushing Salcido and egging him on, according to the document. He first hit the man in the face about halfway across the bridge. Both men then continued to follow Salcido to the bridge's south side, punching him as he attempted to run away.

Salcido finally fell to the ground after a blow to his face, and the men continued beating him on the ground.

Strahan told detectives that he tried to stop St. Dennis, who stomped on the man's head “as hard as he could” between 20 and 30 times.

After the attack, the men walked to St. Dennis' house, where St. Dennis washed the blood off his tennis shoes in the bathroom and talked on the phone with some girls, according to records. Strahan told police his friend was “talking like nothing happened.”

Both defendants had been drinking vodka.

Strahan said he was disturbed by the experience and told his mother what happened later on in the evening, then went to police after seeing news reports about the man's death the following day.

Strahan initially told investigators he and St. Dennis attacked Salcido because they caught him raping a woman, but later admitted the attack was random and unprovoked. Strahan said he joined in the attack after Salcido landed a punch on St. Dennis. He acknowledged Salcido was scared and had asked the men to leave him alone.

Police officers found St. Dennis Thursday night hiding in a closet at his grandmother's house in Missoula. They recovered a pair of tennis shoes covered with splotches of dried blood.

Once at the jail, St. Dennis called a woman on the phone and “made several admissions that he had killed the man on the California Street Bridge,” records state. The conversation was recorded.

Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/12/08/news/local/news02.txt