BETHEL — The manager of the Bethel Hostel said  a guest, who has since been evicted, admitted he punched a Raymond man last week, not long before the man’s car was hit nearby by a freight train.

Scott Libby, 25, was found dead inside his car after the car was struck by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad. The car was 200 feet west of the railroad’s crossing with Barker Road.

A railroad executive said last week the car was not running and had no lights on. Train crews saw the vehicle and attempted an emergency stop but still struck the car moving it another 850 feet along the railroad.

The investigation is ongoing and autopsy results from the state’s medical examiner’s office have not been released.

The hostel manager’s, Wyling Cambrium, said a former guest was of particular interest to state investigators.

Cambrium did not identify the guest.

“It was two days of cops here trying to get a search warrant and guarding [the guest],” Cambrium said.

The police interrogated the guest in question, Cambrium said, but left Sunday afternoon without any charges being filed.

The guest, a male in his mid-20s, told Cambrium that Libby, a landscaper for whom the guest worked during the summer, visited him at the hostel to collect a loan and return the guest’s collateral.

That transaction was apparently friendly.

“He gave him the money and got back his collateral, which was a watch and a bracelet,” Cambrium said, but then there was a disagreement.

Cambrium described the guest’s version of subsequent events as follows:

“So he said he hit [Libby] a couple of times in the head. At that point things get vague. According to [the guest] the guy left; he was only here a short time. He doesn’t know whether there was somebody else out in the car or not, but then the guy gets hit by a train.”

 Libby’s  Chevrolet Cobalt  was hit by the train shortly before 3 a.m. last Friday.

Damage to the car, however, was minimal.

“You wouldn’t suspect it had been hit by a train,” said Bethel Fire Chief Mike Jodrey. “It looked like someone had rear-ended it at a stop sign.”

Libby’s body, found lying across the front seat, was covered in blood.

Bethel Police Chief Alan Carr said the apparent level of injury to the body was well beyond what would be expected from such a collision.