WPGU alumnus Arthur Anderson was killed Sunday afternoon after an attack authorities call “a senseless act.”

The 76-year-old scoutmaster was leading two young charges with another man on a nature hike on the Nickel Plate Trail in Bunker Hill, 60 miles north of Indianapolis. A man emerged from a nearby home with a 12-inch knife and stabbed the group’s leader.

“He was doing probably the most innocent thing he could do, leading a group of Boy Scouts, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Indiana State Police Sgt. Tony Slocum.

The other man in the group, Chee Lee, shielded the boys from the attack, then called police, the affidavit said. Another witness, a neighbor living near the trail, brought out a shirt and applied pressure to Anderson’s neck wound, Slocum said, but the scoutmaster died at the scene.

Authorities say that after approaching Anderson from behind and stabbing him without provocation, 22-year-old Shane Golitko returned to the home where he had earlier assaulted his mother, breaking her arm, and stabbed his two dogs, killing one of them. He fled in his mother’s Jeep, leading police on an eight-mile chase before he was arrested.

Authorities said it wasn’t clear what set Golitko off, and neither drugs nor alcohol were involved.

“It was a senseless act,” said Indiana State Police Detective Tony Frawley, who had stated in a court affidavit that Golitko told him “that the reason he got the knife from his bedroom was to ‘stab the guy with the gray hair.’”

Golitko has been charged him with murder and two felony counts of battery.

He is being held without bond in the Miami County Jail in Peru, Ind. pending a Thursday court appearance in Miami Circuit Court.

Paco Solis succeeded Anderson as scoutmaster of their troop. He described his friend Monday as “a great man” who was a mentor in the community.

Anderson was also a noted Illini Media alumnus.

Anderson played a vital role in forming WPGU, and was present when the station first broadcast in 1953.

He contributed to the planning for the studio that was constructed in Weston Hall, and served as WPGU’s first chief engineer.

Anderson also had a fundamental role in bringing the burgeoning station over to its current parent company, Illini Media (then known as Illini Media Publishing).

Anderson was considered an active alumnus by all accounts, and was present at the dedication of the new Illini Media Building at 512 E. Green Street in 2006.

_The Associated Press contributed to this report._