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George W. Parks, who turned the southern Fauquier County landmark Hugo's Skateway into a flea market, was fatally beaten Friday night in his business's parking lot.
Witnesses called the county Sheriff's Office at 8:19 p.m. to say the 87-year-old Bealeton man had been assaulted with a baseball bat and had suffered head injuries, Lt. James Hartman said yesterday.
Members of the Lois Volunteer Fire Department, which is next door to the flea market on U.S. 17, had already responded when police arrived.
Parks was flown by helicopter to Mary Washington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Hartman said.
Investigators identified a suspect in the slaying as Julian Burke, a frequent customer who goes by "Buzz" or "Buzzard." His last known address was on River Ridge Lane in Stafford County, Hartman said.
The Fauquier deputies, with the help of the Stafford County Sheriff's Office, tracked down Burke at a motel on U.S. 17 in Falmouth, where he was arrested.
Hartman said Burke has been charged with one count of murder, and is being held in the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond. He has a Dec. 3 court date.
The case is still under investigation, but it appears that it involved a dispute over money, Hartman said. He added that investigators heard that the baseball bat had been purchased at the flea market, but have not been able to prove it.
Parks bought Hugo's Skateway and several adjacent commercial buildings on 33 acres south of the Bealeton Flying Circus from Hugo Stribling's heirs two years ago.
Stribling's roller-skating rink and dance hall, with its 10-foot-tall white skate out front, had become a local landmark over the years. Parks opened a weekly auction and flea market on the property, and earlier this year Raymond and Crystal Carroll of Bealeton opened Carroll's Skating there as well.
Anyone who saw Burke at the flea market and hasn't talked to the Fauquier Sheriff's Office is asked to call its criminal investigation office at 540/347-6870.
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
