According to Alaska State Troopers, Gordon Samel was fatally shot Sunday by authorities after he backed his pickup toward a Wasilla police officer north of Ancorage. Samel, a moose hunter, found the body of a young wanderer and his story was featured in the movie “Into the Wild.” Samel was one of four hunters who found Christopher McCandless’ body in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail near Healy in 1992. McCandless was made famous by the book by Jon Krakauer and film director Sean Penn.
