Two drifters arrested in fatal beating

Homicide detectives have arrested a pair of drifters in the fatal beating of a 27-year-old man after a night of partying on the roof of an abandoned West Philadelphia building, police said yesterday.

Capt. Michael Costello said investigators armed only with the names of Connor and Echo traced the pair first to Modesto, Calif., and then to Franklin, Pa., where they were taken into custody when they appeared for a court hearing.

Echo Ward and Connor McCarthy, both 24 and described by one investigator as 21st-century hobos who hop freight trains to make their cross-country trips arrived in Philadelphia yesterday to face murder and assault charges.

They are accused of fiercely beating and killing Timothy Bradly in the early morning hours of June 18 on the roof of the Croydon Apartments, a six-story building on 49th Street near Locust Street.

Another man who had been beaten into unconsciousness in the attack recovered to find Bradly dead and alerted police.

Costello said the four had been partying on the roof.

Police have said the building had been a hangout for transients from as far away as the West Coast and that they found evidence there pointing to Ward.

Bradly also was a drifter whose last address was on the first block of North Columbus Boulevard.