The Canadian father of the man who gained Internet fame as "Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker" says he hasn't had much contact with his son over the years.
But Gil McGillivary of Hawkesbury, Ontario, says he isn't giving up on his son, Caleb, as the 24-year-old faces a murder charge in New Jersey.
Caleb, also known as Kai, is accused of fatally beating a lawyer found dead May 13 in his northern New Jersey home. Prosecutors say the lawyer had met Caleb in New York.
Gil McGillivary says he lost custody of his son when the boy was 8.
He last saw his son in 2010. He says Caleb rebuffed an email he sent after his hitchhiking son became famous in February after using a hatchet from his backpack to intervene in an attack on a California utility worker.
Officials believe McGillvary, 24, killed Joseph Galfy, who was found in his Clark, N.J. home on Monday, dead of blunt force trauma. Prosecutors say Galfy met McGillvary in Times Square Saturday night, and brought him back to his house to spend the night.
They say they believe the two men had a sexual encounter.
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Authorities said McGillvary, who has appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," pondered on his Facebook page Tuesday the idea of waking up in a stranger's house with a groggy head and injuries, and the realization of being drugged and raped. "What would you do?" he wrote, according to officials.
McGillvary gained notoriety earlier this year when he was hitchhiking with a man who allegedly attempted to run over a utility worker.
According to the Fresno Bee, McGillvary pulled a hatchet out of his backpack and struck the driver in the head after the dispute, and others held the man until police arrived.
McGillvary describes himself as "homefree," rather than "homeless," and said on Kimmel that he steals from Wal-Mart, Target and Safeway and gives away the loot.
