An 18 year old teenager from the North Highlands has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the alleged fatal beating of an 86-year-old woman on a high school track near Sacramento, local authorities said.
The two elder women were apparently attacked as they were walking around the Highlands High School track shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Department said. The high school is located in an unincorporated part of Sacramento County.
The victim, 86-year-old Fusako Petrus, was discovered unresponsive by the time the responding deputies arrived the scene after following an assault call report. The deputies immediately began performing life-saving measures on the victim, but she was pronounced dead at the scene after a responding personnel from the Sacramento Metro Fire Department arrived. The second victim, a 61-year-old unidentified woman, was treated at the scene for her injuries.
According to the reports, the younger woman who survived the assault was initially attacked by the 18-year-old. When Petrus heard the commotion, she intervened and tried to help her friend. At that point, before fleeing the scene, Butler had allegedly sexually assaulted both women before causing the injuries that the deputies say resulted in the Petrus’ death.
According to records, the teen suspect, 18-year-old Neven Glen Butler, had already been in custody on a different assault and elder abuse charges when he was arrested in the case, according to a news release from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
Butler was arrested later that afternoon after an unprovoked assault left a 92-year-old woman injured in the 2200 block of Northrop Avenue in Sacramento, the Sheriff’s Department said.
He is initially booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of felony assault and elder abuse charges. After he was connected to the earlier incident, he was add-booked on suspicion of murder, the report stated. Butler is ineligible for bail.
Fusako Petrus is being hailed as hero for saving her friend during the attack, “I think she’s a hero. She gave her life to save her friend,” said Dolores Hines, who lives down the block from Petrus and her walking companion, whom authorities have not identified.
“It sounds like something she’d probably do. She’d help anybody,” said Don Brown, who lives across the street.