Award-Winning Photographer Found Fatally Stabbed on California Hiking Trail, Teen Son Arrested

A father-son duo's hike turned deadly when police descended to find one of the amblers, a well-respected photojournalist, with a stab wound to the neck, according to a report.

Police were called to a hiking trail in the San Gabriel Mountains on Oct. 12 and arrived to find Paul Lowe, 61, a British photographer, war photojournalist, and professor at the University of the Arts London, suffering from "trauma to his upper torso," according to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. He was declared dead at the scene with a stab wound to the neck listed as his official cause of death.

Around the same time law enforcement retrieved Lowe's body, his 19-year-old son Emir was seen fleeing in a car he later crashed, KTLA reported. He was arrested and booked for murder at the San Dimas Sheriff's Station. His motive for the alleged murder remains unclear.

Emir is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.

Tributes to the respected photojournalist, known for his coverage of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and documentation of the siege of Sarajevo, poured in after news of his murder came to light.

Ika Ferrer Gotić, a senior international news producer and anchor at CNN and editor-in-chief at Forbes, said in a tweet she met Lowe in 2019 when they spent time "unpacking forgotten war crime in Sarajevo and Bijeljina." She added "the world lost more than a photographer" with Lowe's untimely death.

"We lost a witness to our history, a storyteller who showed the world the truths that many wished to ignore."

Writer Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura shared in her response to Gotić that she was "heartbroken about [Paul's] death in so many ways."

"He was truly a wonderful friend to so many of us," she added.

Lara Jo Regan told KTLA she first met Lowe 24 years ago at the World Press Photo of the Year exhibition, and he recently told her he was in California to manage family matters.

"We had some great, interesting, stimulating and inspiring conversations about photography," she told KTLA. "I just think it's the effect he had on many people, both students and colleagues. He had a real generosity of spirit."

Regan learned of her colleague's death on social media when she learned of his death.

"I went on Facebook, and I was going to DM him to see what was up," she said. "Then, the first thing that came up was news of his passing posted on his agency's website in New York. I was beyond shocked. I'm still kind of shocked."